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Panasonic GH5 Review and exclusive first look at Version 2.0 firmware


Andrew Reid
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EOSHD Pro Color 5 for Sony cameras EOSHD Z LOG for Nikon CamerasEOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs

I love this camera. I've pretty much forgotten about my FS7. The GH5 is much lower profile, more stealthy, it is weather sealed, the user menu is great, the crop factor is great for shooting wildlife, the Custom settings make switching between UHD 60p and HD 180p instantaneous, something thats a pain on the  FS7, even with the S&Q button.  And with a Ninja you get 4:2:2 10 bit at 60p. Nice.

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I shot a short this weekend with it in 8bit HD, knowing with its pixel perfect HD and 100Mbit it will a massive bump in gradeability compared to the already awesome HD image and codec in the G6, G7 and G85, which was running somewhat around 28Mbitpersecond. 8bit Rec709 in Natural contrast at 0, noise+sharpness at -5, looks fantastic on the GH5, if graded with care. A 200mbit 10bit Intra HD Codec with Vlog and perfect HD is already heaven to me. I think I will indeed buy this true cinema camera. GH5 is massive!

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This is just Panasonic proving to me, yet again, that I made the RIGHT decision when purchasing the GH5 over the A7S II.  I will probably never use most of the new features (I am going to have to get an HDR TV now, thanks Panasonic), but it's amazing to know that they're there if I need them.  This is a camera that I think I'll grow into, instead of growing out of.  I love that Panasonic is listening to its customers and giving them features that the camera didn't ship with.  

I do wonder WHY the ALL-I codecs look more filmic.  There was always something so beautiful about the videos from my GH2.  So beautiful, in fact, that I didn't even bother upgrading to the GH3 or GH4.  I can't say what it is that makes the images from the GH2 look the way they do, but I haven't seen it in any other camera.  Maybe it was the noise, always bouncing around on the screen, like the Digital Bolex.  The GH2 was a fantastic camera and I'm really looking forward to seeing what ALL-I looks like on the GH5 at 4K.  

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Great article, Andrew! Thank you so so much for shooting so many different tests and uploading the footage! So amazing.

I'm doing some tests with Avid to test whether the new 8.9.1 version of Avid can read the files natively - Andrew do you mind if I post the results on Vimeo/YouTube? I'll of course link to your website and credit you for all the footage! But I didn't want to do so without checking with you.

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FYI for AVID users: Andrew's test GH5 files with firmware 2 seem to link correctly into Avid 8.9.1 with no addition plugin required, FYI. This is because Avid now includes 'native' reading of some h264 in this new version (ie. it doesn't use Quicktime).

(There is apparently a problem with 'frame count' with GH5 files inside Avid 8.9.1, according to this post on the official forums, but I haven't noticed this.)

gh5 firmware 2 linked into avid891.jpg

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Andrew, thanks for including the info on cards and write speeds. Very helpful to know what to buy.

I just used the GH5 for it's first commercial project last week where I didn't use my Canon bodies at all. The look of the footage is really very pleasing.

My only beef in the 2 day shoot was trying to hold focus when it's on a gimbal/stabilizer. I'm looking forward to testing the tweaked AF. 

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