**The Lumix G7: A Fantastic Vlogging Kit**

I'm excited to share my experience with the Lumix G7, a camera that has been a game-changer for me when it comes to creating high-quality videos. The G7 is a fantastic vlogging kit that I've had the pleasure of testing out with a 5D system and a Pro level audio setup.

One of the things that impressed me most about the G7 is its soft, natural lighting. If you place the camera next to a window and bounce some light off it, you'll get an amazing amount of soft, gentle light that's perfect for creating a warm and inviting atmosphere in your videos. This is especially useful when working with the camera's built-in flip screen, which allows you to easily monitor your footage while shooting.

But what really sets the G7 apart from other cameras is its ability to produce stunning images. The 4K resolution is super sharp, and even the micro 4/3 lenses are great. I was particularly impressed by the 14-42mm lens's ability to output a fantastic image, which was a pleasant surprise.

The audio on the G7 is also impressive, especially when paired with the Mixpre III recorder. This allows you to record high-quality audio without having to worry about the camera's limitations. And if you want to get really professional-sounding audio, you can even manually control the gain settings using the Mixpre III.

When it comes to ease of use, I'm happy to report that the G7 checks most boxes. The camera has a flip screen that allows for easy monitoring, and the menu interface is both intuitive and touch-enabled. However, one area where the G7 falls short is in its autofocus system. While this isn't a deal-breaker for me, as there are plenty of workarounds, I can see how it might be frustrating for some users.

Despite this limitation, the G7 remains an excellent choice for anyone looking to create high-quality videos. The camera's ecosystem and upgrade path are also extremely strong. Micro 4/3 has some of the most exciting cameras on the market, with features like 4K resolution and great lens compatibility. And if you're serious about creating professional-level content, there are plenty of options available in this system that can take your videos to the next level.

One of my personal favorite aspects of the G7 is its ability to be used as a stepping stone into more advanced cameras. With lenses purchased for the G7, you can seamlessly transition to other Micro 4/3 cameras like the G85 or G95. And if you're looking to make the leap to cinema-level cameras, there are plenty of options available that use the Micro 4/3 mount, such as the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.

So, is the Lumix G7 still worth buying in 2020? Absolutely. If you're just starting out with YouTube and want a camera that can handle 4K resolution, the G7 is an excellent choice. And even if you do upgrade to a more advanced camera in the future, the G7 will remain a great option due to its compatibility with Micro 4/3 lenses.

I should mention that our experience with this camera has been so good that we wouldn't be making videos without it. We're excited to continue using it and sharing our experiences with you, and we think that you'll love this camera just as much as we do. If you liked this video, be sure to check out our other content where we call the GH5 one of the best upgrade paths for this camera.

**Upgrading to a Pro Camera**

One of my favorite things about the G7 is its ability to adapt seamlessly to more advanced cameras in the Micro 4/3 system. This ecosystem has some of the most exciting cameras on the market, with features like 4K resolution and great lens compatibility.

If you're looking for a camera that can take your videos to the next level, I highly recommend checking out the options available in this system. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is one of my personal favorites, offering incredible image quality and a range of advanced features. And with its Micro 4/3 mount, you can use lenses purchased for other cameras like the G7.

**The Camera That Started It All**

Of course, no discussion of the Lumix G7 would be complete without mentioning its roots as one of the first cameras in this system. The G7 is often credited with helping to popularize Micro 4/3, and it's amazing to see how far the technology has come since then.

As a camera that started it all for me, I can attest to the G7's value and reliability. It may not have all the bells and whistles of more advanced cameras, but it produces some of the best images available on any system. And with its 4K resolution and Micro 4/3 lens compatibility, it's an excellent choice for anyone looking to create high-quality videos.

I'm excited to continue sharing my experiences with the Lumix G7, and I hope that you'll find this camera as useful and enjoyable to work with as I do. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out with YouTube, the G7 is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe Panasonic Lumix G 7 is the camera that started it all for me way back in the ancient long long ago of 2017 can it be the one that starts it all for you in the future Wonderland of 2020 and can we build this into a fantastic starter YouTuber kit let's find out what's up everyone I'm the everyday dad and if I can figure it out you can figure it out let's get to that literal figuring it out right now with this powerful little tyke like actually physically small camera that has some specs that punch pretty high up when you compare it to what else is on the market the Panasonic Lumix G seven runs brand-new at $500 itself however as this is a well I don't want to call it old but this experienced and wise camera can be found used for a steel and even now on B&H photo you can find it for about $300 which brings up a very good point to thank the folks over be a niche photo for loaning me this g7 to make this series of videos on now if you'd like to get one you know just like the one that I used to use way back in the day there will be links in the description below now let's blow your mind with some crazy specs and remember this thing is old and it's cheap the Lumix g7 is a 16 megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor it has the ability to record up to 4k 30 frames per second and can do 1080p and up to 60 frames per second it does have the ability to record in both mp4 and AVC HD codecs and in a rarity for Panasonic cameras it does have a recording limit of 29 at 59 if you're still shooter it has a 1-over for thousands of a second to 60 second shutter speed of mechanical mode and it can do 1 over 16 thousands of a second to one second an electronic shutter movie mode for autofocus it as a 49 point contrast detection system which is the predecessor to the depth from the focus system that Panasonic is currently infamous for oh you know we'll be complaining about that later it does have an electronic viewfinder on the back and a fully articulating touchscreen to round it out physically as you've seen this is a really small camera on the top you do get a mode dial a photo style dial a programmable function button and even to settings dials on the back you get another set of customizable buttons the AF AE lock and the focus switch something that is missing which is where the budget price starts to show is there is no joystick on the back you do have to move through the menus in the focus with either the touchscreen or the dial pad on the back on the side you do get a 3.5 millimeter audio import so don't worry vloggers here you can get some suite microphones on top of that and on the side here you get the the micro HDMI port if you want to actually save the videos you record the bottom does have a battery compartment with the SD card slot tucked right underneath here I do prefer side mounted SD cards but mo budget means less options but the g7 isn't the only star of this show let's get to the rest of the $500 ensemble for arty recording I recommend the rode videomicro which will set you back 60 bucks but needs no batteries charging or babysitting because if somebody called the everyday dad let me tell you babysitting is expensive dad jokes this microphone comes with a little dead cat wind protector I don't know why it's called that US camera people are just weird I guess and combined together as a bare-bones solution this is really all you need but again I guess you will kind of need something if you want to upload it or record that video anywhere and for recording media I'm adding an eleven dollar SanDisk 32 gigabyte card to this pile for a little bit more of standoff distance we don't only see your content at face pour depth let's add this $18 main photo pixie tripod that will both let you get the camera a little farther weight but also let you set it down and angle it however you like you can do that angling by pressing this little button in and it's solid enough that I bet you can use it as a self-defense tool if needed that's my impersonation of a self-defense person I did debate putting in a light kit here too but to stay under the 500 bucks I'm going to recommend you use the best source of light around and it's also free this should be on reviewing the cheapest it's the Sun spoiler alert is the Sun so now we've assembled our kit there's only one thing to do well there's two and I know that because I wrote the script ahead of time and I know what's coming in the rest of the video and that's to try it out and show you how it actually looks the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna put it to use in the way that its intended with a vlogging test okay and we are now on the Panasonic Lumix G 7 we're using this as the vlogging setup with the tripod with the microphone with everything that we just saw and yeah we are just kind of walking around now the Lumix g7 does not have any built in in body image stabilization like the gh 5 the G 85 the G 95 all of the newer Panasonic's do have it but I think it's light enough and the kit lens does have oh is built into it the stabilization should not be terrible but the dynamic range is not I mean it's a $300 camera the dynamic range is probably a little off the audio quality though for a Panasonic camera is pretty good and again this is what I used for what like a year I used a Loomis g7 as my original camera I always have a soft spot for it the only thing I would say if you're gonna get this camera this 14 to 42 is a little tight if you want to use it for vlogging like this is let's get out of that this is like all up on my face like you want to see a little more of like your environment if you're going to be using this as a vlogging camera but I think this kit is like an all-in-one package really works out really well so let you left let me know in the comments below do you like this is like a vlogging like how does this look does it look good if the shutter speed seems kind of off that's because I don't have a 46 millimeter filter thread for this one lens like it's pretty crazy so we do have we're exposing with shutter speed because there we just we've made it even worse because sometimes you just have to expose with that so okay let's actually so we said we weren't gonna spend any more money so let's show you what you could do with this indoors with free natural lighting see you in there I can't I can't snap with my left hand is good okay and we are now on the Lumix g7 indoor so this is the exact same setup that we just saw with the vlogging test it's the same tripod it's the same microphone the same kit lens all the same stuff but what I've done is I've gone to a spot in my house which I don't actually have like a table set up by a window but here's one of my window so if you do if you want to set up your studio to get a lot of free like free functionality out of it set it up next to a window and you can get all of this great soft natural lighting because oh this is a lot of bounce light which makes it very soft and very nice so yeah but what could we get if we get a nicer lens if we set it up to a pro level audio system like let's also push this to the max and I'll see you downstairs because I'm kind of like kneeling down in front of the camera here's how the g7 looks kitted out in my with a little bit better lens in my normal studio setup I think it looks pretty darn good right we are now using the Sigma 16 millimeter 1.4 at 1.4 again we are using the app to focus because I don't trust Panasonic autofocus but I do this with the gh 5 - and it's it's just to show that the body itself is the least important part of any videos because any camera body can be made to look fantastic even these budget ones like even the audio we're currently recording the audio on the mix pre three so you can you could turn the Lumix g7 into a fantastic like a fantastic everything camera like these things they're faint I love I love the g7 it's it's always gonna have a place in my heart image quality on this camera check like the Lumix g7 continues to impress me with how good the image quality looks year after year the 4k is super sharp the micro 4/3 lenses are great even this 14 to 42 outputs a fantastic image audio wise which we all know I think is way more important than video it's also really good here and you do have the ability to manually control the gain if you decide to splurge on a nicer microphone that has power to gain options keynote here you want any consumer level camera to do as little of the audio lifting as possible trust the microphone and keep your Peaks to around negative 12 decibels and you will be awesome so the vlogging kit looks great but how easy is it to use well like we already mentioned the system we built and the g7 in particular does check in a lot of the easiness boxes that I look for it's got that flip screen audio in and the menu interface is both intuitive but also touch enabled the only thing it's lacking is in the auto focus Department but as a longtime jh5 user while that sucks it's not deal-breakers as there are plenty of ways to work around it plus all of the customization of the body itself lets you determine how to run the camera and not let the camera run you I'm pretty sure a wise man once said that his name was probably Gary so the g7 continues to get the thumbs up for ease of use and not just a little thumbs up but like super full-on we're all excited to be here thumbs up I can hopefully you can imagine me doing giving you a big thumbs up right now through the microphone one camera body especially an old one doesn't exactly make a whole system or a good purchase decision so what does the ecosystem slash upgrade path look like if you buy into the Micro Four Thirds system well hell I'm so glad you asked because there are a lot of places to go from here Micro Four Thirds has some of the most exciting cameras on the market with some of the best absolute features and includes one of my favorite cameras ever made you can take lenses purchased here and use them on a G 85 g 95 an Olympus camera a gh 5 my personal pick or there is a whole industry of pro level cinema cameras coming out that use the micro 4/3 mount you get the Blackmagic pocket Cinema Camera 4k or the new Z cam offerings like micro 4/3 is just about the most reliable and best option when it comes to future-proof nests and if you stick around with it you can adapt basically everything here everything but at the end of the day so what right is this camera the camera that started it all for the everyday dad still worth buying in 2020 especially with this five hundred dollar fully functioning vlogging kit that we've been trying out so far today yes I absolutely think so if you are looking to get into YouTube and you want 4k and you want the best place to start so you can upgrade over time the g7 is absolutely one of the best options you're gonna find it's legitimately amazing and I highly recommended it you know we wouldn't have been here we wouldn't be a making this video right now if we hadn't had this to make videos on beforehand and if you liked this video I bet you'd like the one where I call the gh five which is one of the upgrade paths you could take right here where I call that a perfect camera click here to watch click click click click click click click click click thanks for watchingthe Panasonic Lumix G 7 is the camera that started it all for me way back in the ancient long long ago of 2017 can it be the one that starts it all for you in the future Wonderland of 2020 and can we build this into a fantastic starter YouTuber kit let's find out what's up everyone I'm the everyday dad and if I can figure it out you can figure it out let's get to that literal figuring it out right now with this powerful little tyke like actually physically small camera that has some specs that punch pretty high up when you compare it to what else is on the market the Panasonic Lumix G seven runs brand-new at $500 itself however as this is a well I don't want to call it old but this experienced and wise camera can be found used for a steel and even now on B&H photo you can find it for about $300 which brings up a very good point to thank the folks over be a niche photo for loaning me this g7 to make this series of videos on now if you'd like to get one you know just like the one that I used to use way back in the day there will be links in the description below now let's blow your mind with some crazy specs and remember this thing is old and it's cheap the Lumix g7 is a 16 megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor it has the ability to record up to 4k 30 frames per second and can do 1080p and up to 60 frames per second it does have the ability to record in both mp4 and AVC HD codecs and in a rarity for Panasonic cameras it does have a recording limit of 29 at 59 if you're still shooter it has a 1-over for thousands of a second to 60 second shutter speed of mechanical mode and it can do 1 over 16 thousands of a second to one second an electronic shutter movie mode for autofocus it as a 49 point contrast detection system which is the predecessor to the depth from the focus system that Panasonic is currently infamous for oh you know we'll be complaining about that later it does have an electronic viewfinder on the back and a fully articulating touchscreen to round it out physically as you've seen this is a really small camera on the top you do get a mode dial a photo style dial a programmable function button and even to settings dials on the back you get another set of customizable buttons the AF AE lock and the focus switch something that is missing which is where the budget price starts to show is there is no joystick on the back you do have to move through the menus in the focus with either the touchscreen or the dial pad on the back on the side you do get a 3.5 millimeter audio import so don't worry vloggers here you can get some suite microphones on top of that and on the side here you get the the micro HDMI port if you want to actually save the videos you record the bottom does have a battery compartment with the SD card slot tucked right underneath here I do prefer side mounted SD cards but mo budget means less options but the g7 isn't the only star of this show let's get to the rest of the $500 ensemble for arty recording I recommend the rode videomicro which will set you back 60 bucks but needs no batteries charging or babysitting because if somebody called the everyday dad let me tell you babysitting is expensive dad jokes this microphone comes with a little dead cat wind protector I don't know why it's called that US camera people are just weird I guess and combined together as a bare-bones solution this is really all you need but again I guess you will kind of need something if you want to upload it or record that video anywhere and for recording media I'm adding an eleven dollar SanDisk 32 gigabyte card to this pile for a little bit more of standoff distance we don't only see your content at face pour depth let's add this $18 main photo pixie tripod that will both let you get the camera a little farther weight but also let you set it down and angle it however you like you can do that angling by pressing this little button in and it's solid enough that I bet you can use it as a self-defense tool if needed that's my impersonation of a self-defense person I did debate putting in a light kit here too but to stay under the 500 bucks I'm going to recommend you use the best source of light around and it's also free this should be on reviewing the cheapest it's the Sun spoiler alert is the Sun so now we've assembled our kit there's only one thing to do well there's two and I know that because I wrote the script ahead of time and I know what's coming in the rest of the video and that's to try it out and show you how it actually looks the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna put it to use in the way that its intended with a vlogging test okay and we are now on the Panasonic Lumix G 7 we're using this as the vlogging setup with the tripod with the microphone with everything that we just saw and yeah we are just kind of walking around now the Lumix g7 does not have any built in in body image stabilization like the gh 5 the G 85 the G 95 all of the newer Panasonic's do have it but I think it's light enough and the kit lens does have oh is built into it the stabilization should not be terrible but the dynamic range is not I mean it's a $300 camera the dynamic range is probably a little off the audio quality though for a Panasonic camera is pretty good and again this is what I used for what like a year I used a Loomis g7 as my original camera I always have a soft spot for it the only thing I would say if you're gonna get this camera this 14 to 42 is a little tight if you want to use it for vlogging like this is let's get out of that this is like all up on my face like you want to see a little more of like your environment if you're going to be using this as a vlogging camera but I think this kit is like an all-in-one package really works out really well so let you left let me know in the comments below do you like this is like a vlogging like how does this look does it look good if the shutter speed seems kind of off that's because I don't have a 46 millimeter filter thread for this one lens like it's pretty crazy so we do have we're exposing with shutter speed because there we just we've made it even worse because sometimes you just have to expose with that so okay let's actually so we said we weren't gonna spend any more money so let's show you what you could do with this indoors with free natural lighting see you in there I can't I can't snap with my left hand is good okay and we are now on the Lumix g7 indoor so this is the exact same setup that we just saw with the vlogging test it's the same tripod it's the same microphone the same kit lens all the same stuff but what I've done is I've gone to a spot in my house which I don't actually have like a table set up by a window but here's one of my window so if you do if you want to set up your studio to get a lot of free like free functionality out of it set it up next to a window and you can get all of this great soft natural lighting because oh this is a lot of bounce light which makes it very soft and very nice so yeah but what could we get if we get a nicer lens if we set it up to a pro level audio system like let's also push this to the max and I'll see you downstairs because I'm kind of like kneeling down in front of the camera here's how the g7 looks kitted out in my with a little bit better lens in my normal studio setup I think it looks pretty darn good right we are now using the Sigma 16 millimeter 1.4 at 1.4 again we are using the app to focus because I don't trust Panasonic autofocus but I do this with the gh 5 - and it's it's just to show that the body itself is the least important part of any videos because any camera body can be made to look fantastic even these budget ones like even the audio we're currently recording the audio on the mix pre three so you can you could turn the Lumix g7 into a fantastic like a fantastic everything camera like these things they're faint I love I love the g7 it's it's always gonna have a place in my heart image quality on this camera check like the Lumix g7 continues to impress me with how good the image quality looks year after year the 4k is super sharp the micro 4/3 lenses are great even this 14 to 42 outputs a fantastic image audio wise which we all know I think is way more important than video it's also really good here and you do have the ability to manually control the gain if you decide to splurge on a nicer microphone that has power to gain options keynote here you want any consumer level camera to do as little of the audio lifting as possible trust the microphone and keep your Peaks to around negative 12 decibels and you will be awesome so the vlogging kit looks great but how easy is it to use well like we already mentioned the system we built and the g7 in particular does check in a lot of the easiness boxes that I look for it's got that flip screen audio in and the menu interface is both intuitive but also touch enabled the only thing it's lacking is in the auto focus Department but as a longtime jh5 user while that sucks it's not deal-breakers as there are plenty of ways to work around it plus all of the customization of the body itself lets you determine how to run the camera and not let the camera run you I'm pretty sure a wise man once said that his name was probably Gary so the g7 continues to get the thumbs up for ease of use and not just a little thumbs up but like super full-on we're all excited to be here thumbs up I can hopefully you can imagine me doing giving you a big thumbs up right now through the microphone one camera body especially an old one doesn't exactly make a whole system or a good purchase decision so what does the ecosystem slash upgrade path look like if you buy into the Micro Four Thirds system well hell I'm so glad you asked because there are a lot of places to go from here Micro Four Thirds has some of the most exciting cameras on the market with some of the best absolute features and includes one of my favorite cameras ever made you can take lenses purchased here and use them on a G 85 g 95 an Olympus camera a gh 5 my personal pick or there is a whole industry of pro level cinema cameras coming out that use the micro 4/3 mount you get the Blackmagic pocket Cinema Camera 4k or the new Z cam offerings like micro 4/3 is just about the most reliable and best option when it comes to future-proof nests and if you stick around with it you can adapt basically everything here everything but at the end of the day so what right is this camera the camera that started it all for the everyday dad still worth buying in 2020 especially with this five hundred dollar fully functioning vlogging kit that we've been trying out so far today yes I absolutely think so if you are looking to get into YouTube and you want 4k and you want the best place to start so you can upgrade over time the g7 is absolutely one of the best options you're gonna find it's legitimately amazing and I highly recommended it you know we wouldn't have been here we wouldn't be a making this video right now if we hadn't had this to make videos on beforehand and if you liked this video I bet you'd like the one where I call the gh five which is one of the upgrade paths you could take right here where I call that a perfect camera click here to watch click click click click click click click click click thanks for watching\n"