Review and conclusions based on utilize with Firmware v1.0. A list of the changes added in firmware v2.0 is included and we hope to test these features presently.

The Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 is the fifth in the company's industry-changing video and stills 'hybrid' lineup. With its 20MP Four Thirds sensor and deep video-centric feature ready, it looks likely to pick up where the GH4 left off as a favorite of indie filmmakers and photographers whose interests venture into the realm of movement flick work.

The GH5's characteristic set moves on suitably far from its predecessor that the company says the GH4 will remain in its lineup equally a lower-cost option for users who don't demand the additional capability that the GH5 brings.

For many users, the addition of in-body stabilization and 4K video without cropping might be enough to make the camera a worthwhile upgrade, only Panasonic has revised and improved almost every attribute of the camera's behavior and performance.

Fundamental Features

  • 20MP Four Thirds sensor (no OLPF)
  • 5-centrality in-body epitome stabilization system with 'Dual IS 2' support
  • All 4K footage taken using full width of sensor (oversampled from 5.1K footage)
  • Internal 4K/30p 10-bit 4:ii:2 video capture
  • 4K/59.94p and 50p shooting with 10-bit four:two:2 output or 8-bit, iv:two:0 internal recording
  • 1080 video at upwards to 180p, enabling 7.5x slow-motion
  • nine fps shooting with continuous autofocus
  • Advanced DFD autofocus
  • Dual UHS II card slots (V60 ready)
  • Autofocus betoken joystick
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth
  • Pre-configurable rack focus mode
  • Waveform and vectorscope monitors
  • Paid upgrade to enable 5-LogL video capture with LUT-based preview display

Two pre-appear firmware updates

It's worth noting that Panasonic already has ii firmware updates planned for the photographic camera, 1 expected around Apr, which volition bring 10-scrap four:2:2 1080p capture, and a second at some point during the summer.

The summer firmware update promises some very big improvements, including DCI/UHD 4K 4:2:2 x-fleck recording at 400Mbps, and 1080/60p 4:2:2 ten-flake recording at 200Mbps, both using All-Intra compression. Support for anamorphic 4K capture volition likewise exist added at that point.

With attachments such equally the DMW-XLR1 accompaniment microphone unit of measurement, the GH5 promises to be a peachy tool for video enthusiasts and pros.

4K 60p video

The eye-catching feature on the GH5 is its power to shoot 4K footage at upwardly to 59.94p and 48p (or 50p if you're shooting for PAL). Footage is oversampled from 5.1K, thanks to full sensor readout, pregnant precipitous footage that takes reward of the full size of the sensor. Internal recording will be express to 8-chip 4:2:0 IPB encoding at up to 150Mbps but with higher quality available if an external recorder is used. 4K video is shot using the full width of the sensor and has no time restrictions.

At lower frame rates, the camera tin can capture 10-fleck, 4:2:two footage internally: the kind of quality you needed an external recorder to capture from the GH4.

To understand the stardom (and much of what is significant about the GH5), read our basic explanation of video capture terminology.

Advanced DFD

The GH5 features the latest iteration of Panasonic'due south Depth From Defocus autofocus system, which uses pairs of images and an understanding of a lens's out-of-focus rendering to create a depth map of the scene, to speed up focusing. The latest version samples the scene more than often and builds upwardly a higher-resolution depth map, for faster, more than decisive focus.

The GH5 likewise gains a more advanced algorithm for interpreting movement within the scene, to reduce the adventure of the camera getting dislocated by movement as it builds its depth map. This, combined with faster sensor readout, should mean faster and more than accurate autofocus. Further to this, Panasonic has added more AF configuration options to help the camera sympathize field of study movement and the correct response to it.

Yet image processing

Panasonic is not bad to stress the GH5 is intended for stills as well as video. The greater processing ability of the GH5 allows the photographic camera to consider a wider surface area of the image when calculating the color values from each pixel. Panasonic says this makes it possible to extract greater JPEG resolution from the captured image.

The GH5's greater processing ability too allows more sophisticated sharpening, promising reduced over-shoot that tin can cause unnatural-looking 'halos' on loftier-dissimilarity edges.

Updated noise reduction is also supposed to be improve at distinguishing betwixt noise and detail, meaning that detail is meliorate preserved during the noise reduction process.

'6K' Photo and advanced video-derived shooting modes

Also on the stills side of things, the GH5 offers higher resolution versions of its video-derived stills features such as 4K Photo, Post Focus and Focus Stacking. The GH5 uses its higher pixel count sensor and more than powerful processor to add '6K Photo' modes at upward to 30 fps, in add-on to 4K Photograph at up to 60 fps. As before, there are various ways of triggering the style to ensure y'all have a short video prune from which you can extract exactly the moment you wanted to capture.

However, don't get bold that '6K Photo' manner is taking images from an area of the sensor 6000 pixels across: it isn't. Instead it'southward capturing images with the roughly the aforementioned number of pixels as a very widescreen 6000 x 3000 video prune would accept. It's non the most misleading marketing statement we've ever seen, simply be aware that 6K may not hateful quite what y'all might expect.

Availability

The Panasonic GH5 will be bachelor in late March for $1999 (body merely).