nikon d5500 vs gh5

[gethin]

well ok thats  bit of a clickbait title, but I've had the gh5 for a month or so, and used it on a few jobs alongside the d5500.  the thing that i've noticed is is that it's made me appreciate the d5500 more. thats not really what I wanted to happen: i even put the d5500 up for sale before I used the gh5 a bit, now I'm not sure which to sell. Here's some things I've noticed, and I'd love to hear from anyone that has also shot nikon and the gh5 to see if its all done to the learning curve:

1. D5500 dynamic range seems better than the gh5.  Flat profile. Did the same shot with gh5 HLG and i could recover highlights and shadows better on the d5500 at similar isos. 

2. Less noise in the shadows on the d5500.  I seem to be able to grade the nikon more than the gh5. What the?  10 bit HLG and the shadows are noisy, d5500 8 bit compressed to hell and i can shoot at iso 1000 and still lift the shadows with minimal noise.  

3. d5500 is a dog to use but it tells me what shutter speed I'm at when shooting in aperture priority.  Also no zebras - but can get away with abotu a stop either side of correct exposure. not sure I could get away with that on the gh5. 

4. Consistent colour.  Ok so my workflow on the d55/5300 is several years old now, but I have a couple of lumetri presets that I chuck on my footage and it looks great with minimal farting around.  gh5 - feels like its a bit all over the place. Some shots just look wrong. The greens are too cyan, the skin tones are... wrong.  Using Paul leemings luts on the CineD and HLG and I I find myself tweak tweak tweaking just to try to get something that doesn't look nasty

5. It shoots glorious mushy 1080, which warp stabiliser chews through and sharpens up quite well.

I just feel that the d5500's image has a certain something naturally, and that you have to fight for that with the gh5: for what I do I dont have time for that. I just need it to good quickly, not great slowly.

The gh5 has made me curious about the video on the d850, and hoping very much that nikon's mirrorless offering is not too far away.   If I'm wrong, I'm all ears...

 

 

 

 

 

[Inazuma]

I had the same experience when I got the Canon C100 II and used it alongside my D5500. The d5500 just looked better. Unfortunately just quite soft. 

[mercer]

@Inazuma it’s no secret how much I loved the D5500. It was, without a doubt, the best 1080p video I have ever used... not including a camera that shoots ProRes or Raw... and I actually found it rather sharp. It’s not Panasonic, Sony or Samsung 4K resolution “sharp” but I wouldn’t call it soft. Of course, I tend to like softer video, so that could be subjective.

@gethin before I bought the D5500 I was shooting with the G7 and I thought the Nikon beat the G7 hands down with DR and IQ. It was an instance where color science and dynamic range beat resolution. So although I have warmed up to the GH5 and its capabilities, I am not at all surprised that you like the D5500 image better on some level.

Also I have heard and seen nothing but great things with the D850. Obviously, I can’t speak for Andrew Reid, but he seemed pretty excited by it, maybe even more so than he was by the GH5... that could be based on him being more surprised by the D850.

Plus the higher end Nikon cameras offer zebras so that’s a benefit and the D850 has focus peaking in 1080p. And although I don’t know if this is easy, but it may be possible to quickly switch to 1080p, or hit record from a 16:9 Photo mode, for the focus peaking. Obviously, you’d lose it once you’re recording 4K, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

I have been on a 6 month search for a second camera and now that I’ve learned the D3400 has the Flat Profile and is so damn cheap, it’s definitely in the running... there’s just something about that Nikon image.

[Vesku]

6 hours ago, gethin said:

d5500 is a dog to use but it tells me what shutter speed I'm at when shooting in aperture priority. 

Yes Panasonic blocks and hides all automatic exposure information. I wonder why.

[IronFilm]

14 hours ago, gethin said:

The gh5 has made me curious about the video on the d850

Or the D500/D7500? (or surely the next update of the D5x00 series will get 4K?)

9 hours ago, mercer said:

It’s not Panasonic, Sony or Samsung 4K resolution “sharp” but I wouldn’t call it soft. Of course, I tend to like softer video, so that could be subjective.

Do you find it still tends to be sharper than a Canon Rebel though?

[mercer]

1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

Do you find it still tends to be sharper than a Canon Rebel though?

Yeah, I think it’s sharper than a Rebel... without a doubt. I actually think the D5500 is plenty sharp enough. But I also think a Rebel can be sharp enough for most jobs as well. If not a Rebel, definitely an 80D and the 7D2... especially for close ups.