Beritar

Yes, mostly because the AF is much better than the GH6, much faster and accurate, no more out of focus bug, nor pulsing in Open Gate mode. The GH6 was so bad when using low frame rate or when using Open Gate that I used much more my old GH5. Also the G9II is significantly lighter than the GH6. Like you, I would like a GX9II (without 4K crop), I bet it could sell very well. However, I still don't like the fine detail rendering in video compared to the previous Panasonic cameras like the S5/S1/S1H and GH5/G9. Since the GH6, the "improved" Intelligent Detail Filter makes the fine details very plastic in low light IMHO.

I just got my G9II today. So far, the AF is very good, I only tested the camera with two lenses, but the issues I had on the GH6 (pulsing, and out of focus bug) seem solved. The camera shows 1.0 firwmare, so maybe Panasonic has improved the focus since the beta firmware.

I quote myself because I just watched a G9II video of a real user. And like I've noticed in some early reviews, the author of the video confirms that the G9II focus has some accuracy issues. Exactly like on my GH6, the camera went out of focus when the recording button is pressed in 4K-C4K,5,7K at 24/25/30fps. On the G9II, even 60fps seems to have the issue. The author of the video says : "One more thing, on two shots like on the first one, the camera went out of focus when I pressed the recording button and stayed there, although I was using continuous auto focus. It seems to be a bug as well but this was the first time I experienced it". Also, like on the GH6, the IBIS is still worse in 5,7K : Some videos about the GH6 AF accuracy issue :

I did the same. I'm pretty sure the camera will be available very soon and I prefer to wait for more users reviews. The price is relatively high for a M43 camera so I want more information on the DR, RS, and if they removed or not their digital low pass filter (intelligent detail filtering) like on the GH6.

I have both the 10-25mm and the 25-50mm, these lenses are the pinnacle of M43. Sure, they are very sharp, not extraordinary sharp as my 35mm GM, my 50mm S Pro or even my 24-70mm S Pro, but they are among the best you can find in M43. No, what make them special, apart from their focal range is their rendering. Their local contrast (and colors in my opinion) is crazy good, especially the 25-50mm, one of my favorite lens ever. I also have some of the fast little primes like the 20mm f1.7 II, the 15mm f1.7 and the 25mm f1.4 II. They are not as sharp as the PanaLeica f1.7 zooms, but, the 20mm f1.7 is tiny, produce nice colors with good global contrast, and the image has a very good sense of volume, it is why so many people love it. The focus is slow and noisy (really noisy), but accurate, and from what I've seen the G9II makes the AF almost usable (certainly usable for me). The 15mm and the 25mm are more expensive, slightly bigger, slightly less sharp wide open (especially the 25mm f1.4 which can be nice for video), but their AF is faster. They have not the same sense of volume as the 20mm in my opinion but they have solid local contrast, thought not as good as the Oly 25mm f1.2 Pro by exemple.

No, the GH6 is able to do 4K 120fps as well. The issue is with 5,7K, only available in 17:9.

I have the GH6, S5 and S5II. I don't see more moiré on the S5II compared to the S5. What I see on the S5II is more edge sharpening and worse fine details. Again, if you don't crop I don't think you can see a big difference. The GH6 on the other hand is less prone to moiré, but since the S5, Panasonic uses some processing to minimize moiré : "Intelligent detail processing eliminates the need for a low-pass filter and smooths fine details like hair and wires to minimize moiré patterns". On the GH6 the result is pretty good but maybe a bit too strong compared to their other cameras, the moiré is most of the time eliminated, but this is the same for some fine details. When I compare my video from my G9, GH5 and GH6, depending of the scene, the GH6 has often less fine details when looking them at 100%, especially in low light. At first I thought it was noise reduction, but the noise structure is very nice and seems unaltered. This is a sort of digital OLPF. There is no miracle, in order to have the best picture (similar to a picture raw file), the less processing is always better, but moiré is certainly an issue for most people. It is why the Panasonic S1H has probably the nicest video quality from a camera below 4000$, details are less processed than the GH6 or the S5II, and the OLPF eleminates the moiré without looking unnatural.

The difference of the details rendering is really apparent only when cropping. And yes the rolling shutter on the GH6 is good, I'm curious to see if the G9II is worse. I can't find any number/measure on the net.

I've found this interesting video comparing the G9II to some Nikon, Fuji and Sony cameras. IBIS looks fantastic on the G9II, colors look as great as the GH6 and focus is very fast with the 12-60mm PL. However, exactly like my GH6 in low light (and my S5II with most PP), I really don't like the details rendering of the G9II. On the video, the woman has freckles and it's perfect to see the rendering of fine details. What I see is a a mix of smoothing and sharpening resulting in a very bad image (especially when cropping) in my opinion. The Nikon cameras are even worse. Fine details are totally destroyed, exactly like on my good old Samsung NX1. I'm glad I never bought Nikon cameras for video. Sony is Sony, as always, the rolling shutter is bad, the IBIS is average, but the details rendering is much closer than what we had on the first gen S1 and S5, much closer to a raw picture without artifice. It's always nice to see the IBIS, rolling shutter AF etc compared, but for me one of the most important thing is the pure image quality, including colors and details. I understand some people like very soft image in video, but to my eyes the G9II (and the Z9/Z8) just doesn't look good, of course YMMV.

The little 20mm performs pretty well on this video. Much better than on the previous Panasonic cameras. However I'm concerned about the G9II focus accuracy in video, I watched and downloaded some clips and a lot of times the focus is not 100% accurate when viewing at 1:1, exactly like on my GH6 with most of my lenses when using slow frame rate in 4K/C4K/5,7K (below 48fps). It seems to affect only some lenses on the G9II, mostly the zooms. Nevertheless, I decided to preorder the camera because I'm not a fan of the GH6 ( (outside of the very nice colors). I have some great M43 lenses, so some features like the improved IBIS, DRBOOST at base ISO or even the come back of the I-Dynamic are very welcome. I just hope they will fix the AF, I also hope the IBIS in 5,7K and Open Gate are improved as well, because on the GH6, they are weakier than on 4K.

I have the same issue with my S1 but never with my S5II since I bought it (at launch). And yet, I rarely use it, so I would have noticed. I simply don't like the image quality compared to the previous S cameras.

I just watched this video comparing the G9 to G9II autofocus. Reading so much people in the comments saying the new AF is fantastic make me wonder they should just use 1080P cameras at best. I downloaded the video to zoom inside a bit, and while the G9II focus faster than the G9, accuracy is much worse. During the comparison with the 35-100mm, most of the time, the focus is not on his face but on his sweater (like at 2:26 or 3:36), making his face with even less details than a 1080P camera. I saw the same issue with another G9II video when using the 12-35mm, 35-100mm and 10-25mm. What the point to have a 4K camera with faster AF if the accuracy is not good ? I wanted to pre-order the camera but I will wait to see if Panasonic can solve the issue. I had too much issue with my GH6 using Open Gate (much more pulsing than my GH5) or when using frame rates <48fps with most of my lenses (defocusing issue). Panasonic never corrected them.

About the GH5 being too sharp, have you tried the Open Gate mode of the GH5 ? I don't speak about the 6K photo but the 6K anamorphic. I've found the amount of details very good without too much sharpening with this mode. This is just my opinion but I don't like the internal details rendering of the new Panasonic cameras like the S5II, I find the details "rough", like if a mix of noise reduction and sharpening is used.

I agree and I think this idea is nonsense. I use m43, Panasonic/Sony FF, and yet I preorderer the G9II. So why the hell I bought this "big" and "expensive" m43 camera ? There are a few reasons : - Neither my A7IV or S5II can give me the fantastic stabilization of the G9II with "relatively small" telephoto and super telephoto lenses. - Neither of these FF cameras have an acceptable rolling shutter or 60fps Open Gate/120fps 4K. Yes, the A7SIII has good rolling shutter and it has 4K 120fps, but there are always trade-off (much more expensive, low MP, no crop mode,worse details in 4K 120fps). - While they are a lot of really excellent lenses of the FE mount and a few on the L mount, m43 has a lot of jewels as well. I can't see me stopping using some of my Panasonic Leica or my Oly Pro lenses. Some are irremplacable like the 100-400mm PL, some are outstanding to the point that even comparable FF lenses are no match, like the two f1.7 Panasonic zooms (contrast and colors are wonderful). I also tried to replace my 12-32mm, 12-35mm and 35-100mm with some FF lenses on my S5II and my A7IV, I can't. There are some options for Sony to replace the 12-35mm but they are not compelling for me (weight, price or features associated with the camera). - This is subjective but I love the colors from the GH6 and I expect the colors from the G9II to be almost the same. I don't like the colors of the S5II as much, even less the colors of the A7IV. So at the end of the day, there is no perfect camera and system, but they have strengths and weaknesses. No, we can't get the low light performance of the S5II on the G9II. No, we can't get the FF look at some focal lenghts (like the 50mm GM f1.2) with our m43 cameras and lenses. But as pointed out above, m43 gives a lot of advantage as well. And if we should use m43 only with small cameras, we could not get everything this system can offer with the G9II.

Hi, I think I have an issue with my GH6. I have not used this camera a lot because I mostly use my S1 and my S5II but there is something weird about the AF-C in video. Something I never seen on any cameras I've owned and one of the reason I always found the camera to be very soft in video. Here is my issue : When I use AF-C in video ("Continuous AF"), the AF is fast but it is not accurate. Whatever the AF (speed/sentitivity) settings or the AF mode I use ("1-zone" on the video I've posted). I can clearly see the difference when cropping inside the videos in 4K/C4K and 5,7K below 48fps (24/25/30fps). Everything above 30fps works well (48/50/60/100/120fps), 5,8K Open Gate 30fps works well too but with a lot of pulsing (the Open Gate on my GH5 is faster and has less pulsing). The most surprising is before recording (with "Continuous AF" "Mode 2" activated), the focus is perfect, but right away when I press the rec button the focus become innacurate. The AF-C is still working but it is innacurate. Easy to see with the "Enlarged Live display(Video)" function. I can still get accurate focus while recording but I need to use AF-ON or to push the shutter button to force the camera to get the good focus while recording, but of course it's not a solution. I own some M43 lenses (Pana 10-25mm, 25-50mm, 15mm, 25mm II, 12-32mm, 100-400mm, Oly 25mm Pro, Oly 45mm Pro) and all my lenses are impacted but not the 25mm f1.4 II. This is the only lens to have accurate AF-C in video when using frame rate below 48fps, no need to press the AF-ON button, so it's really weird. All the lenses and the GH6 have their last firmware. I have of course tried to reset the camera. "Focus limiter" is off. 5,8K Open Gate and Burst photo AF-C have accurate focus (as well as every video modes above 30fps). A exemple of the issue with the 10-25mm in 4K 30fps and 5,9K 30fps. In 4K 30fps the continuous AF is not accurate unless I push the AF-On button. In 5,9K, there is a lot more pulsing but the focus is accurate. So, either my sample is defective (but why only with C4K, 4K, 5,7K below 48fps ?) either the GH6 has a big issue with the AF. Maybe someone using the GH6 could test ? Thank you.

I agree, 6K/5,9K on the S1 is just fantastic. Yes Cine-V is great for skin tones, I use this profile when I want nice skin tones or when I shoot in low light since the GH4, usually I bring the contrast down a bit and the image looks great.

Do you use the last firmware on your S1 ? I never use the "Highlight" setting because it can quickly make the skin looking plastic. Have you tried Cine-V ? This is the profile I use the most in low light and there is absolutely no difference in detail rendering between Cine-V and V-Log on my S1 with the last firmware.

Yes S1 709 is cleaner than S1 V-log but I don't understand how the S1 can keep every details without altered them if there is noise reduction. I only see noise, no sign of noise reduction. In any case, the S5II uses a different sort of noise reduction, much more aggresive with fine details. Vignetting is corrected on the S5II but not chromatic abberations. On my 85mm Lumix S, I have a lot of them in V-log. In 709, they are corrected automatically.

You should try to see the difference at 1:1 between your S1 with the last firwmare and your S5II with the 709 profiles and V-Log (like you did with Natural and V-Log on the S5II). I can assure you there is no difference with fine details on the S1 between V-Log and the 709 profiles, so if the S1 uses a sort of noise reduction, it's a very good one ! I used a lot of cameras and It's pretty easy to see when a camera uses temporal noise reduction, the details are inevitably altered, the same way as if you use noise reduction for stills, fine details become more "plastic". While I liked these cameras, BMPCC 4K prores, NX1, NX500, G85, A7III, A7IV, A7SIII, and now the S5II in rec 709, they all used noise reduction and there was no way to disable it in video. NR destroys fine details to some extent (NX cameras were the most aggresive). On the other hand, BMPCC 4K raw (of course) GH5, GX9 (very noisy), GH6 (only in Prores with both NR and sharpening at -5), S1 and S5, all these cameras don't show (or very few) altered details, just noise. About the "look", since the first time I used V-Log in 2017 with the GH5, I tried to remove noise while conserving very fine details, I never succeded. It always end up like the cameras I listed earlier, noise is somewhat removed but the details too. And I don't speak about the time consumed to denoise the footage, Neat Video needs a very good computer to work in 6k, the loss of lens correction in V-log is also a problem, it is why most of the time I was shooting in rec 709 in low light with the S1.

Yes like I said (a lot of times 😅) the S5II uses nasty temporal noise and chroma noise reduction in low light with the 709 profiles even at -5, the difference with the S1 and S5 is stricking, especially on skin. There is also too much sharpening in 6K with these profiles, even at -5, it's night and day with the S1. This is the first thing I noticed when I bought the S5II some months ago. Maybe (I'm not sure) the S1 and S5 use slight temporal noise reduction with the 709 profiles but it doesn't impact the details at all unlike the S5II. Now I only use V-Log on the S5II because of the smearing and the over-sharpening of the 709 profiles, and I always overexpose by two stops like you did, it can change the colors and the highlights rendering a bit but this way it definitely gives lower noise, and like you said V-Log is free of smearing as long as you use 0 NR and 0 sharpness. Thank you for the Lut, I will try it. Yes I hope Panasonic will fix the 709 profiles, for now I still use the S1 for low light but I miss the S5II AF.

I must doing something wrong because VLog is definitely more noisy, did you crop at 1:1 to compare ? I use LutCalc and I use a Lut with -2.6 stop correction in Real Time Lut, of course my ISO value is higher in V-Log. To match ISO 100 in Natural I must use ISO 640/800 in V-log, but with this value there are more noise than Natural at ISO 100, and yet I use a curve which crush the shadows a lot. Easy to see the difference when cropping at 1:1. Both my S5 and S1 with Natural look cleaner, and this is not due to noise reduction because the footage is full of details, zero smearing, the same level of details as V-Log with these cameras. I also get banding using V-Log on the S5II, and of course the lenses correction are not applied (unlike with the 709 profiles).

It's not so simple. If you create a LUT that push V-Log down by 2 stops, you need much more light compared to the 709 profiles.

I'm interested as well, I own the S5II and I can't use the 709 profiles on this camera, I don't like the fine details when cropping in low light even at low ISO, the S1 has just way better detail rendering in 6K with these profiles, the S5II just looks oversharpened even with sharpness at -5. I'm almost sure the S5IIX has the same issue with ALL-I, maybe not in Prores but I don't want to use SSD for run and gun. Note than neither the S5 and the S1 have skin smoothing/chroma NR with the 709 profiles.

For me, the S5 (and the S1) is still a great camera, the AF is good for photos. For video it's OK if you have enough DOF or if you use 4K 60fps. I have both the S5 and the S5II and I much prefer the video quality of the S5 with most profiles. The S5II has too much details processing for my taste, except in V-Log.

Why ? To see that both the A7III and S5II can't be sharpened (in camera or in post) because of the huge amount of noise reduction and detals filtering. The bad light is used to see how the cameras perform in difficult situations and how they use their noise reduction algorithm. Seriously I can see the difference even when viewing in 1080P, both the A7III and the S5II smooth details a lot compared to the S5, to the point that adding sharpness in post just look like upscaled from a lower resolution. If you can't see the difference and use the Panasonic standard profiles, you can buy the camera with confidence, but personally I see a big difference with the previous Panasonic S cameras. It is the most aggressive NR, and over sharpening (especially in 6K) i've ever seen on any Panasonic camera to date.