Panasonic's GX85 looks functional, but the new flash has character (pictures)

The FX85 is about the same size, but a little heavier than, the Sony A6000.

The flash can be triggered wirelessly -- or trigger other flashes -- and uses old-fashioned dials to control light intensity.

Along with the GX85, Panasonic announced the FL200L flash. The head tilts to bounce the light, and there's a small LED bank for use with video.

The 16-megapixel sensor does away with the optical low-pass filter (aka an anti-aliasing filter), which slightly blurs edges to compensate for color artifacts native to an image sensor. While other manufacturers have been using AA-free sensors for a while, this is a first for the Four-Thirds size sensor used predominantly by Olympus and Panasonic.

The grip is a lot smaller than that of the GX8, and a little too shallow for my taste, at least for using larger, heavier lenses than the tiny kit lens.

The top layout should be more familiar to less experienced photographers with its single mode dial, and unlike the GX8 it has a popup flash in addition to a hot shoe.

The GX85 keeps it simple with just HDMI and USB connectors.

The GX85 has a typical control layout, plus dedicated buttons for Panasonic's unique Post-Focus and 4K Burst modes.

Like most of Panasonic's cameras, the GX85 incorporates a touchscreen.

While the display can tilt down 45 degrees for overhead shots and up 80 degrees for waist-level ones, it doesn't flip up for selfies, probably because the viewfinder's in the way.

The popup flash tilts back to bounce the light.

It's not small, but you can stick the GX85 into a jacket pocket when it's equipped with the 12-32mm power-zoom kit lens.