Panasonic GH5 Review and exclusive first look at Version 2.0 firmware

[Andrew Reid]

41 minutes ago, bunk said:

You shouldn't be to hard on yourself.

Go and take your stupid posts to another forum, then.

[AaronChicago]

If you zoom in 500% you’ll see its not a real horse, but tiny dots.

[rotgg]

They should take some peoples internet pass away!!!

 

[levisdavis]

Seems to hold up quite well. This is a VLOG L sample grade. Admittedly, my first attempt at grading VLOG L resulted in blocked shadows. It became quite apparent when attempting to add noise reduction as noise reduction doesn't look at macro blocking as a reduction parameter. VLOG L aside, and like Andrew mentioned, the Standard Picture Profile is seriously quite a Standard! There's a lot of dynamic range and a wonderful noise floor to go along with. ** Seems like a professional industry standard. **

[Rand Thompson]

 

[hmcindie]

12 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I can break the Alexa's files!

No you can't, Alexa is perfect!

[Cinegain]

Amazon's subliminal messaging is working...

[Souto]

Great first hand report, Andrew. And many thanks for sharing the video samples. This was also very helpful!

[sgreszcz]

On 31/08/2017 at 0:41 PM, Cinegain said:

And... I just ordered the GH5! It sounds amazeballs.

Tip for our European mainlanders: for the next 3 days still there's a special promotion surrounding GH5 purchases (ends Sep 3th). It's open to customers from the EEA (European Economic Area), provided the order has been placed with a participating UK retailer. You get: 5 year warranty claim at Panasonic UK & up to 200 GBP bonus (£100 when ordering body only, £150 Lumix kit, £200 Leica kit) in addition to the quote for any trade-in compact system camera or DSLR you might have (request a quote to find out what your old camera is still worth).

Thanks for this info.  I was quoted £260 trade-in value for one of my GX80 from Wex (about the same as selling it on Ebay after commission/paypal).  With the trade-in bonus of £200 that makes my GX80 worth £460 which gets me the GH5+Leica 12-60 for £1739 with 5 year warranty.  I can likely get about £800-£900 for my P12-35/2.8 and P35-100/2.8 lenses which I will then sell, and keep my other GX80 for b-cam, gimbal and travel duty.

Finishing up a long-term event-based documentary and realising how much of a pain sync sound is and how weak the GX80 mics are so looking forward to the GH5.  Also having one main camera will be easier than juggling the two GX80s.

[Tzedekh]

I'm still a little confused by hybrid log gamma. Does shooting in HLG mode increase the dynamic range over that possible with V-LOG? If so, what is the GH5's DR with HLG?

[Brian Caldwell]

On 9/1/2017 at 11:41 PM, NewFilmMaker said:

The anamorphic mode is in 4:3, with a 1.5x lenses, it will come out as 2:1 , and if I am trying to de-squeeze it in to 2.39:1 or 2.66:1 , it means I need to crop the footage and it is going to lose resolution, am I right or wrong?

You're exactly right.  Shooting with 2x lenses on 4:3 will give 2.66:1, which also requires cropping to get to the DCI standard 2.39:1 for normal theater projection.  Which is why I'm interested in 1.79x lenses to yield 2.39:1 directly from 4:3 without any need for cropping.

[Brian Caldwell]

On 9/2/2017 at 0:21 AM, jonpais said:

I know next to nothing about anamorphic, but am excited to try it. Are we to understand that you are designing a full frame lens that will require two adapters to mount it to the GH5? Also, will we be able to adjust focus with just one ring?

The base design is for Arri Alexa open gate, with a PL mount.  I've intentionally made the BFL very long so that all lenses will be compatible with PL-EF adapters ( https://c7adapters.com/en/product/pl_lens_-_ef_mount/35 ).  Due to the positive lock feature these adapters are completely rock steady and don't introduce any play that would be noticeable during focus pulls.  So you basically have a choice of PL or EF by use of the adapter.  With EF you can use COTS Speed Boosters to go down to M43 at very high speed.  Alternatively, I may offer "native" M43 mount if the demand warrants it.  Similarly I'll be able to produce "FF" and 65/70mm versions using the same base optics plus different rear optical groups.  Either way, focus will be one-ring.

[silvertonesx24]

On 8/30/2017 at 10:52 AM, Andrew Reid said:

Answer from Panasonic about the anamorphic desqueeze...

It's for 1.33x lenses when used in the normal 16:9 video mode.

Why would they do that. 1.5x and 2x is where it is at for anamorphic. 1.33x lenses are almost all crap.

[Cinegain]

3 hours ago, sgreszcz said:

Thanks for this info.  I was quoted £260 trade-in value for one of my GX80 from Wex (about the same as selling it on Ebay after commission/paypal).  With the trade-in bonus of £200 that makes my GX80 worth £460 which gets me the GH5+Leica 12-60 for £1739 with 5 year warranty.  I can likely get about £800-£900 for my P12-35/2.8 and P35-100/2.8 lenses which I will then sell, and keep my other GX80 for b-cam, gimbal and travel duty.

Finishing up a long-term event-based documentary and realising how much of a pain sync sound is and how weak the GX80 mics are so looking forward to the GH5.  Also having one main camera will be easier than juggling the two GX80s.

Nice. :D I figured it was a pretty good deal, plus I'd gotten an E-M5 for 134,- EUR more with purchase of a 2nd hand Voigtländer 17.5mm f/0.95 (guy selling switched to Leica Q; wanted to get rid of the Olympus too), so I went ahead and send 'em that Olympus (100 GBP + 200 GBP bonus). Also heard of one fella that said a store even told him not having to bother sending anything in return. Not sure about the Leica zoom, but in worse case... standalone it's availlable for 999, so, it's not exactly worthless. Selling it off would effectively turn the GH5 into a ~1300 EUR body or something. I mean, not too shabby for one that still sells for 1999 at some places.

[MoonCannon]

I think the v-log footage you shared grades quite nicely...

[Brian Caldwell]

2 hours ago, silvertonesx24 said:

Why would they do that. 1.5x and 2x is where it is at for anamorphic. 1.33x lenses are almost all crap.

The "why" seems pretty obvious.  16x9 is enormously important, and to get there from 4:3 without wasting sensor space you need (16/9)x(3/4)=1.33x.  Whether or not 1.33x is "crap" or not depends entirely on the lens design.

[cantsin]

5 hours ago, Brian Caldwell said:

Which is why I'm interested in 1.79x lenses to yield 2.39:1 directly from 4:3 without any need for cropping.

Since I'm talking to the man... Would it be an option to design an anamorphic Speed Booster? If it's technically feasible, I'm sure people would go nuts over it...

[Brian Caldwell]

2 minutes ago, cantsin said:

Since I'm talking to the man... Would it be an option to design an anamorphic Speed Booster? If it's technically feasible, I'm sure people would go nuts over it...

The problem is that focal reducers naturally want to shrink the optical path, which is why a boosted lens is shorter than the same lens with a plain adapter.  To do an anamorphic focal reducer you need to overcome this tendency, which is much easier said than done.  Even if you succeeded and were able to produce an anamorphic focal reducer I don't think that people would go nuts over it.  The reason is that it would be a rear anamorphic adapter, and therefore would not produce the horizontal flares, oval bokeh, and differential depth of field that are the main reasons why anamorphic is used nowadays.  No doubt there would be a flurry of interest in the market, but then people would be spitting mad when they discovered that their newly created rear anamorphic lenses just do not look anamorphic.  And then the mob with pitchforks and torches shows up at my house.  No thanks!

[Andrew Reid]

Thanks for clearing that up Brian

I was secretly holding out some hope for an anamorphic Speed Booster but if it's not possible, some new anamorphic lenses are always welcome.

A few years ago I thought there were some soviet zooms on eBay with the anamorphic elements at the rear of the lens, like the Foton 37mm-140mm Anamorphic F3.5 but it turns out not to be the case (blame bad eBay descriptions)! The anamorphic went on the front and was enormous.

I wish someone would do a modern version of the Iscorama... Small, focussing adapter, fits on almost any prime.

[silvertonesx24]

6 hours ago, Brian Caldwell said:

The "why" seems pretty obvious.  16x9 is enormously important, and to get there from 4:3 without wasting sensor space you need (16/9)x(3/4)=1.33x.  Whether or not 1.33x is "crap" or not depends entirely on the lens design.

I was referring to the anamorphic desqueeze monitoring option. I don't see a logical reason to only include one ratio, especially when all of the good lenses are different ratios.