Hello and Welcome to Up to Speed.
Our way of keeping you up to date with the latest announcements in the Video Equipment
industry.
So today, Panasonic have released the GH5s, a lower megapixel version of the GH5 which
is vastly better in low light.
Its worth pointing out that this doesn’t replace the GH5, but sits alongside it.
Just like Sony have done with their a7r and a7s if you are familiar with those cameras.
But the big difference between the two cameras is the sensor, so lets take a closer look.
It’s a 10.2 Megapixel Micro Four Thirds sized sensor, compared to the 20.3 Megapixel
sensor on the GH5.
This means each individual pixel is larger, allowing for better low light performance
and colour rendition which is always nice to have.
It’s a completely new sensor, and to be honest its very impressive indeed.
We were lucky enough to be able to spend a while shooting with it, so if you want to
see footage and low light comparisons, links to those videos are in the description.
The other big thing that’s new with the sensor is a Dual native ISO.
This is a fantastic technology that Panasonic have bought down from their Varicam line and
the EVA 1.
It means the sensor has two different circuits inside which are set to different sensitivity’s.
The camera then choses which one to use before applying the gain to raise or lower the ISO.
This means noise levels and dynamic range really improve at higher ISO’s and will
be one of the main reasons for the better low light performance in the GH5s.
So the sensor is very different, but the recording options are much the same.
You can still do 4K 10 bit in a 400Mbps intra frame codec.
Or 4k 50p in 8bit 150Mbps LongGOP recording, same as the GH5.
But now you can get up to 240 frames a second in 1080p which is always welcome.
This is possible because of a much faster processor inside, which also means rolling
shutter is suppressed and less noticeable.
Panasonic are saying its 1.3 times better than the GH5 was.
The main omission with the GH5s is the stabilised sensor.
There is no in camera stabilisation on the GH5s which is a shame as the image stabilisation
on the GH5 was really fantastic.
Panasonic told me there just isn’t space inside the camera anymore or the stabilisation
mechanism, but I wonder if its also because of the lower pixel count of the sensor.
As a stabilised sensor moves around the part of it being used to record 4K obviously moves,
so you need extra resolution around the edge of your image, and its possible that a 10.2
MP sensor just doesn’t give enough extra resolution.
Image stabilisation in body though is very rare for dedicated video cameras, and although
this is still a hybrid camera which takes stills as well, there are more and more nods
that it is primarily aimed at the video market.
For a start, Vlog comes included with every camera rather than being a paid extra like
with the GH5, but the big new video oriented addition is the ability to get timecode in
and out through the flash sync port on the front of the camera.
You get a BNC to 3.5mm cable included with the camera which is purely to get timecode
in and out of the camera, I think that’s a really clever way of getting timecode on
such a small camera.
Another small video addition is the ability to get a audio Line level input in the 3.5mm
mic port.
So you can take a sound feed from a large sound desk without having to use an XLR cable
if you want to.
All in all I have been really impressed with the GH5s.
Make sure you take a look at the other videos I’ve made with it on this channel to see
what the footage looks like and how it stands up against its competition, and if youd like
to preorder the GH5s follow the link to ProAV In the description.
So what do you think of the GH5s?
Is it what you were hoping for?
Let me know in the comments section below, thanks for watching and I’ll see you in
the next one.