Panasonic GH6

[PannySVHS]

6 minutes ago, hyalinejim said:

I seem to remember that the CineD tests showed cleaner shadow noise in Boost.

Cine D said that underexposure latitude is not far away from FF offerings such as A7iv. But A7iv also displays lotta NR. Hopefully some valid tests will show up. Most the stuff on youtube is not very revealing.

[PannySVHS]

@webrunner5 Thanks for pointing out. I liked the young gentlemans approach. Footage not so much. Hard to believe that most of the GH6 footage looks worse than GH5 amateur clips.

Andyax did the best so far for me. But that kid also made a Canon Ti shine like it was the hottest stuff in the universe, which it was back then to non GH2 users. 🙂  Edit: After glimpsing into the footage again, I must say i remembered it to be better. Right now I feel underwhelmed even by the colours from Andyax tests.

 

 

 

[Django]

55 minutes ago, hyalinejim said:

I seem to remember that the CineD tests showed cleaner shadow noise in Boost.

They screwed-up their test with DR boost off set to ISO800 instead of 250 native value.

[hyalinejim]

1 hour ago, Django said:

They screwed-up their test with DR boost off set to ISO800 instead of 250 native value.

Yes, but they've updated it since then, apparently

ISO 250 VLog:

 

ISO 2000 DR Boost VLog

[Django]

@hyalinejim  if you check the captions that ISO250 DR Boost Off chart is using ProRes, while the ISO2000 DR Boost On is using h265. and as they noted themselves:

ProRes HQ preserves the “raw” sensor image in a better way leaving all options for postprocessing but is a tad noisier, whereas H265 is very efficient in storage space and gives good DR values out of the box without the need for much postprocessing. But looking at the noise floor in the waveform plot it seems that it also has a lot more noise processing going on internally which cannot be turned “OFF”.

so the noise reduction you're seeing there has lot more to do with codec image processing not DGO DR boost. I saw another test that clearly corroborated that, can't remember where though.

[hyalinejim]

18 minutes ago, Django said:

if you check the captions

They're both ProRes.

[Django]

woops was comparing to another chart they posted in the test. the jpg file name on the iso250 one still says 800 though.

[hyalinejim]

Ha ha! I guess it's possible they just changed the caption lol, although hopefully not and the image does actually show noise at 250 😂

[kye]

9 hours ago, Django said:

Really? I aways thought GH series had that sharpened / NR look. 

BMD cams in contrast have very little image processing especially if you shoot RAW.

As for GH6's "DGO" sensor, it does seem a little underwhelming when compared to the P4K.

Also pretty annoying DR boost mode turns base ISO to 2000. I'd rather it be at a low value like 400.

At 2000 you're going to need ND's or close the iris during daylight which is when you want that DR boost.. odd choice.

I agree about the GH5 having a sharpened / NR look.  That's one of the reasons I'm keen to see how the GH6 renders its downsampled Prores.  I'd probably shoot 1080p Prores HQ, or perhaps a slightly higher resolution if they have one, like a 3K one.

In terms of the GH6 vs the P4K, the GH6 is far more neutral than the P4K in latitude tests.  (Unfortunately there's only a few P4K images that I can find.  If you have any others then please share - the GH6 test from CineD has more of the GH6.)

GH6 - 4 stops under NR:

P4K has colour shift issues at 4 stops under.......

 

8 hours ago, Robb said:

I still wonder (and wouldn't be surprised) if we get BRAW to the Black magic recorder as the GH5s has it. I really hope so. Since I use a PC and Davinci this would be amazing

That's true - a few cameras support both BM and Atomos recorders.

I was talking about getting internal RAW though, which I still don't think they'd do as it would essentially skewer the relationship with Atomos.

7 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

I have not seen convincing footage yet. Well, I have. Though convincing me rather of some dull image quality.

I realize how great of an image taker the pocket 4k is regarding the cinematic quality of resolution, smoothness, texture and all these attributes of a great image.

GH5 always has to be massaged in post. Good thing it is possible with digital diffusion.

GH6 still intriguing to me due to form factor, battery life, features, ease of use, screen and so on. Image wise I don´t see it above a BMPCC4K. But having a BMPCC4k in the form factor of a GH6 is perfect. 2200 is still good money but worth it if the image is up to BMPCC4K quality. Integrity of colours is one thing the Pocket 6K was superiour to the 4K when underexposed strongly.

I think the footage released so far has been pretty random and mostly not that helpful.  What we really need is someone to hire a model and a nice cine prime for a day and just go out and shoot in the sun, in the shade, and do some sitting tests in with a colour checker in controlled conditions and just cycle through the codecs, perhaps going under and over a few stops to see the latitude of each codec.

7 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

Cine D said that underexposure latitude is not far away from FF offerings such as A7iv. But A7iv also displays lotta NR. Hopefully some valid tests will show up. Most the stuff on youtube is not very revealing.

GH6:

GH6 is unusable at -5 stops.

P6K starts to have noise and colour shifts at -5 stops:

A74:

-4 stops looks clean and -5 with NR is still clean but shifts in colour:

GH5ii:

-4 is fine and -5 is ok but has colour shifts

FP tests - CineD compared exposures to "ETTR" so no idea WTH that means:

CineD certainly have no standard test approach for latitude tests - almost no cameras have over-exposures pulled back and the under testing seems erratic.

Komodo:

BGH1:

-5 is noisy but colour is relatively good

A7S3:

-5 is good with NR, but a bit messy without it

S5:

starts having issues at -3 stops:

R5:

Things start to go bad at -5

Zcam e2-f6:

colour shifts starting pretty early in the Prores:

but creep into the RAW too:

Not too sure what to make of all of that, considering we don't really have over-exposure tests for most?

but, it seems that most cameras require NR at -4 and fall apart at around -5, with some sliding into terrible colour shifts and others being relatively neutral, with the GH6 on the neutral side.

[Django]

7 hours ago, kye said:

I think the footage released so far has been pretty random and mostly not that helpful.  What we really need is someone to hire a model and a nice cine prime for a day and just go out and shoot in the sun, in the shade, and do some sitting tests in with a colour checker in controlled conditions and just cycle through the codecs, perhaps going under and over a few stops to see the latitude of each codec.

 

[kye]

1 hour ago, Django said:

 

That's probably the best one that's been out so far.  Especially considering they do the same test with same model at same location for multiple cameras.  Unfortunately the weather is different all the time so it's not controlled the way that a studio test would be.

What were your thoughts about the image?

[kye]

1 hour ago, Django said:

 

Some grabs (all from YT 4K mode using screen capture tool)...  all from: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeYoFHiCGpoJYofP26ZpSaQ

GH6

R5C

R3

Komodo

S1H

FX3

C70

UMP12K

I tried to grab the highest resolution / best codec images.

I'm not really sure how much we're looking at the cameras and how much we're looking at the LUTs, presumably that the manufacturer supplied (hopefully!).

It would be fascinating to put each of these through a CST to LogC and then put them all through the LogC-709 LUT from ARRI to get the same colour science.

[webrunner5]

The two Canon cameras look the best to me. No surprise.

[Django]

4 hours ago, kye said:

What were your thoughts about the image?

It's hard to find fault on any of these latest-gen cams when properly exposed in daylight conditions.

Komodo keeps being the one that impresses me the most: thick, rich & detailed without looking overtly sharp/digital.

I'm shooting with one soon, can't wait to check it out for myself..

.

[Mark Romero 2]

4 hours ago, kye said:

What were your thoughts about the image?

I really like the shots in that video from the GH6.

I could see myself slapping on the Lo Contrast Neutral LUT (there is an example at the end of the video) for real-quick turnaround stuff.

[TomTheDP]

22 hours ago, Django said:

All DGO sensors don't work alike: from the test I've seen the DGO on GH6 increases the highlight range but doesn't do much to shadows. It's the opposite of the C70/C300III that emphasises clean shadows but doesn't really boost highlights. 

It seems to retain color much better underexposed than the GH5, GH5S or Pocket 4k. I don't mind noise that much, ARRI gets noisy underexposed but the color doesn't look wack.

[TomTheDP]

@kye

They all look nice, taken at different dates though. The GH6 looks quite natural.

@Django
Yeah I think the Komodo is the most compelling option right now. I'd be all over it if it wasn't made by RED.

[Jimmy G]

User manuals (English full, English Quick Start Guide and French full) now up in UK...

DC-GH6

https://support-uk.panasonic.eu/app/products/detail/p/28412

[Jimmy G]

DC-GH6 User Manuals for various languages and countries around the world here...

DC-GH6 Operating Instructions

https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/dsc/oi/GH6/index.html

[Jimmy G]

Oh my, busy morning for GH6 news...U.S. shipping dates for body and kits announced for March 15...

Hrmm, grab a used Ninja V to start farting around with ProRes Raw for my S1's or just shoot my camera budget for the year and start farting around with ProRes HQ with this... 😕