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Call me impressed, the little thing works. Could not reproduce exactly the same conditions - the sun moved and I had to transfer the camera to the window around the 20 mins mark, hence it had a little bit of more air. But was under the sun, became very hot as before. The Ulanzi fan was used on full speed. If the footage is long, good idea to use it plugged on a power bank / USB charger, with 25 mins the internal battery was around 50% (then I plugged it in). The yellow warning appeared on the 25 min mark, and the red around 33. And the camera never shutdown until the 128gb card is full, on the 46 minute mark. The integrated temperature meter was kinda useless - yellow on the 39oc, red on the 42oC. Another bad thing - even with the back film applied, the suction cups do not work very well; pressed the fan a bit to stick from time to time. Needs some "baby caring" in a tripod, and for run and gun it will fall for sure. In the Fujifilms, I would mod it to use the srews that the camera have. To summarize, it works for tripod use, even a bit better than I expected. But have some caveats.

I'd say it was a ploy to get people to buy a VideoAssist if they have a requirement to record ProRes if it wasn't for the fact that the HDMI output is capped at 1080p. Even so, if you have to to the external route to even get 1080p ProRes on the BM then the S5iix with the Ninja V gives you 6K ProRes RAW and 5.8K ProRes to SSD if you don't want to use the monitor. You are then also getting the two bonuses of the PDAF and IBIS. And considering the form factor of the 6K series is nothing to write home about, the S5iiX doesn't come off worse in that department either plus you don't have to pay extra for the EVF 🙂 There are a ton of people who couldn't care less about ProRes, AF, IBIS etc though and don't care that it wasn't the massive leap forward that was anticipated who will be absolutely thrilled by this camera. And rightly so. Objectively versus an S5iix though, I'm not sure I would personally bite.

IIRC, around the time of the GH6 release (18 months ago), there was live stream/press discussion with some senior Panasonic people, where one of them basically said that including PDAF hardware on the sensor would have delayed the sensor development too much (for the GH6 timescale). So my take on it is the sensor in the G9ii is effectively the 'fully developed' version of it, and the GH6 has an intermediate version without the PDAF hardware capability. I think it would have been commercially crazy to not launch the GH6 with PDAF if they could have - they'd have sold more in the intervening months at higher street prices. We'll have to wait and see, but I think there just has to be a GH6ii or GH7 soon.

Just tested it on my X-S20.

That is precisely the point I'm making though. If the GH6 is the same as the G9mkii then it too will also have them but they are not being used by the AF system at this time but it doesn't preclude them being used in the future. As unlikely as it may seem for them to release a camera (GH6) that has the capability that everyone wanted but not enable it immediately and then release a new camera with the same sensor but enable it in that one is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Adding it as a €200 upgrade to the GH6 further down the line (and when they'e had more time to perfect it than when the GH6 was launched), why not ? Its completely possible and would make sense for them and the customer. If it is the same sensor, meaning that it was in the GH6 first. Which, as I said, from what I've read it isn't.

Have one here, still did not tested it - I think that today I will.

PDAF and CDAF are not mutually exclusive and Panasonic's Hybrid AF in the G9Mkii and the S5ii does use both, as do other manufacturer's systems, depending on circumstances. If the camera can choose from either internally then it also means that what is offered to the user can also be offered or not depending on Panasonic's choice. They have a well established background in offering paid upgrades (usually v-log but latterly ProResRaw/BRAW on the S5ii) that are activated in camera so if the GH6 is indeed the exact same sensor as the G9Mkii then it would give Panasonic the option to do the same using one of their upgrade licenses to activate Hybrid AF. However, it does hinge on it being exactly the same sensor and not a variant of it like I have seen reported. If it isn't exactly the same then its over to our correspondent Harry Callaghan.

Panasonic announcing PDAF in a firmware update for the GH6 next month like this.

https://www.newsshooter.com/2023/09/15/sennheiser-previews-mkh-8030-figure-of-eight-rf-condenser-microphone/

Is that the Admiral Graf Spee in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

My thoughts on it. I am pretty sure this is the end of Micro Four Thirds. https://www.eoshd.com/news/hannibal-lumix-why-panasonic-have-lost-the-plot-over-micro-four-thirds/