Panasonic GH5S

Panasonic’s new camera is designed for video first and stills second, so what does this mean for photographers?

Designed for video first and stills second!

The GH5S is an unusual and highly specialised camera. Panasonic’s latest is an important crossover product that highlights the different demands of professional video, but also acts as a bridge to the world of stills photography.

For stills photographers, the biggest turn-off will be the 10.2-megapixel resolution, although this corresponds well with the pixel dimensions of 8K video and should mean less noise. The GH5S has a ‘multi-aspect’ sensor which can also shoot in the slightly wider professional Cinema 4K format, and can also capture stills in the 3:2 or 4:3 format while still using the maximum sensor area.

The GH5’s all-new sensor does bring a clever technological twist – Dual Native ISO. The sensor has dual circuits that can switch to a higher native sensitivity before the ‘gain’ (light amplifying) processing occurs. The technology is complex but the outcome is simple – Panasonic claims it delivers less noise at high sensitivities, allowing an unprecedented maximum sensitivity (for Micro Four Thirds sensors) of ISO 51,200. Apart from its modest resolution, the other disappointment is the lack of in-body stabilisation, though many of Panasonic’s lenses have optical stabilisers built in.

Build and handling

The GH5S feels pretty substantial. It’s built around die-cast magnesium alloy front and rear frames and comes with weather-sealing to make it dust-, splash- and freeze-resistant.

Ergonomically, it comes with a couple of little foibles that probably won’t bother Panasonic fans, but are worth mentioning nonetheless. The position of the Record button feels awkward: reaching it means either crooking your index finger at an awkward angle or moving your right thumb forward.

The electronic viewfinder’s eye sensor is extremely sensitive, too, so the rear screen will black out if your hand, face or any other object passes within a few centimetres of the eyepiece. You can adjust the eye sensor sensitivity, but that didn’t seem to help.

However, the electronic viewfinder itself is bright, clear and crisp, with very little lag or streaking, even in low light. The focus peaking mode is especially good, both in the electronic viewfinder and on the rear LCD. This is especially important in

Panasonic’s latest highlights the different demands of pro video, but also acts as a bridge to the world of stills photography

videography, where many shooters will prefer to focus manually.

Performance

The GH5S and its DFD (Depth From Defocus) autofocus system feels very fast and responsive. Resolution aside, it’s a great camera for stills, delivering crisp, saturated images with great tonal range.

Our lab tests are based around still images rather than video, but still yield interesting information about the sensor’s performance. Testing was carried out with Panasonic’s own raw conversion software, a branded version of the SilkyPix application.

In the lab, the ISO results were some of the best we’ve seen, which seems to bear out the improved low-light performance claimed by Panasonic for its Dual Native ISO system. However, high ISO image quality is about detail retention and not just noise control, and while the quality in our real-world tests the quality remained surprisingly high up to ISO 3,200, fine and detailed texture rendition showed a marked drop from then on.

We also tried the GH5S in low light alongside the new Sony Alpha 7 III (reviewed on page 98). By ISO 12,800, the GH5S video was looking grainy, but the A7 III’s was smoother. Rod Lawton

1 21 The GH5S has a Micro Four Thirds sensor with Dual Native ISO technology, but a resolution of just 10.2 million pixels. 2 The electronic viewfinder has a resolution of 3,680,000 dots, while the rear touchscreen can flip out sideways for a vari-angle view. 3 The memory card door is on the right side, seen from the rear, and houses two UHS-II SD card slots for high-quality 4K video recording. 4 The GH5S’s video-first design and features are not obvious from the top of the camera, except for the big red Record button.

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1 Noise control The Pansonic’s Dual Native ISO system improves quality at high ISOs, but has its limits. 2 Detail rendition Detail is crisp, clear and sharp, but ultimately limited by the resolution of the 10MP sensor. 3 Dynamic range With unusually consistent figures across the ISO range, the GH5S does well here.

The vari-angle display makes it easier to experiment with angles and helped with composing the reflections in this shot.

The touchscreen display gives you quick control of the AF point placement for carefully focused close-ups like this.