New Lumix Flagship Delivers ‘6K Photo’… And Much More
Unveiled at last year’s Photokina and launched at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, Panasonic’s new Lumix G flagship raises the bar again in terms of mirrorless camera capabilities both for still photography and video-making.
Featuring a more streamlined bodyshell than its predecessor, the Lumix GH5 is still a comparatively compact camera which again will be the attraction when competing against the likes of Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.
The magnesium alloy body is fully weather-sealed and has a new OLED-type EVF with an increased resolution of 3.68 megadots and a magnification of 0.76x. The monitor screen is an 8.1 cm LCD panel with a resolution of 1.62 megadots, touch controls and a full range of tilt/swing adjustments. As before, there are two SD memory card slots, but both are compatible with UHS-II speed SDXC types.
Panasonic’s already impressive DFD (Depth From Defocus) contrast-detection autofocusing has been upgraded to operate at 480 fps with 225 focusing points and sensitivity down to EV -4.0 at ISO 100. Continuous shooting is possible at up to 9.0 fps with full AF adjustment, and up to 12 fps with the AF locked to the first frame. As the GH5 now records 4K video at either 60 fps (NTSC) or 50 fps (PAL), its ‘4K Photo’ modes have been upgraded to operate at 60 fps as well. Furthermore, ‘6K Photo’ functions are provided – running at 30 fps – which delivers still frames with a resolution of around 18 megapixels (up from 8.3 MP with 4K, taking these high-speed photography modes to a new level of usability.
In addition to recording 4K video at 50/60p, the GH5 is also the world’s first mirrorless camera to record 4K video internally in 10-bit depth with 4:2:2 colour (either UHD resolution at 25/30p or Cinema 4K resolution) at 24p. This gives over a billion colours and four times the tonality of 8-bit. Equally importantly, it provides significantly more editing flexibility in postproduction. Available down the track – via a firmware upgrade – will be 10-bit 4:2:2 colour for 1080p Full HD recording at 50/60p. The GH5 can also record a 10-bit 4:2:2 colour to an external recorder via its HDMI connector or, 8-bit 4:2:2 colour while simultaneously recording 8-bit 4:2:0 colour internally for backup. A second firmware upgrade scheduled for later in 2017 will give 4K recording at a bit rate of 400 Mbps and 200 Mbps for Full HD via ALL-Intra compression (and with 10-bit 4:2:2 colour). The GH5 can record 1080p footage at faster frame rates up to 180 fps for enhanced slow motion effects. Notably too, there is now no time limit on clip durations with any recording setting so the only factor here is the capacity of the loaded memory cards or the external recorder.
Not surprisingly, the GH5 is packed with pro-level video functions, including luminance level adjustment (in both 8-bit and 10-bit), synchro scan (SS) mode, SMPTE-compliant time coding, waveform and vectorscope monitoring, colour bars, Cinelike profiles (plus Like709 for HDTV and, optionally, V-LogL) and a master pedestal control. The GH5’s new Micro Four Thirds size ‘Live MOS’ sensor has a total pixel count of 21.77 million and lacks an optical low-pass filter to help optimise resolution. The read-out speed has been increased by 1.7x compared to the GH4’s sensor and there’s a new ‘Venus Engine 10’ processor which is 1.3x faster to enable the 50/60p 4K recording. It also delivers a number of new image data processing capabilities, including ‘Multi-Pixel Luminance Generation’, ‘Intelligent Detail Processing’ and ‘Three Dimensional Colour Control’ which collectively enhance sharpness, detailing and colour reproduction. Noise reduction is also upgraded and Panasonic claims noise-free images across the camera’s sensitivity range of ISO 200 to 25,600. Five-axis sensor-shift image stabilisation gives up to five stops of correction for camera shake. Built-in WiFi is integrated with Bluetooth 4.2 for more convenient connectivity options. The Lumix GH5 is expected to be available in Australia by the end of March and is priced at $2999 for the camera body, but is also available packaged with either the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 ASPH Power OIS zoom (equivalent to 24-120mm) or the Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f2.8 II ASPH Power OIS zoom (equivalent to 24-70mm). Both these kits are priced at $3999.
For more information visit www.panasonic.com.au