Today will hopefully be the last time that we cover
this topic, but because Panasonic just released
new firmware and because a slew of misleading posts
have already crept up about that firmware,
we're once again gonna be discussing
the autofocus on the GH5.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What is happenin', everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and today we're gonna talk about the new firmware
for the latest generation of Lumix cameras,
like the GH5, the GH5S, and the G9.
The versions in question are 1.2 for the GH5S and G9,
and 2.4 for the GH5.
And these are the October 2018 updates.
Now, as I was saying in the intro,
I've covered this topic pretty thoroughly over
the last year, which of course started with the 179d
shutter angle fix back in February. And at that point,
I declared the GH5 to be very usable in terms
of autofocus. And I talked about this attitude
a little bit in my more recent video on the evolution
of autofocus. Now, this stuff is obviously based on
usage scenarios and will vary from case to case.
But I personally have never found the GH5
to be problematic in terms of autofocus,
and it's only gotten better. And I did make
a follow-up video when version 2.3 came out in May,
and I suggested then that the 179d synchro scan trick
wasn't really required anymore, and the out of the box
AF-C performance on the GH5 was quite good,
even when compared to other modern cameras.
And that's where I thought this topic would be finished,
but Panasonic just released version 2.4,
which of course brought with it a slew of new posts
and videos of people walking back and forth toward
their camera, trying to see if the autofocus
is any better. Now, I have prepared a couple examples
to show you, but before we get into them,
I want to say two things about autofocus tests
in general, and the latest firmware.
First, although I think autofocus tests are necessary
for gear guides, I also think that they're often
inconclusive and extremely vulnerable
to basic variants. Even if you change nothing
on a camera but you walk toward it three times,
each time might give you slightly different results.
So, then to put on a different lens
or update the firmware and claim that something
has been changed or fixed can be quite misleading
because it could just be simple variance.
To give any kind of assertation with a degree
of certainty, you would need to conduct
hundreds of tests and then average them out.
And I don't think many people are doing that,
including myself, so it's mostly just anecdotal.
Secondly, these tests become even more inaccurate
when you're testing for the wrong thing.
That's my biggest grievance with this recent slew
of tests, it's that they're not even addressing
what's in the firmware update.
The October 2018 firmware update is meant
to address a tracking issue where the focus jumps
to the background. And so, a lot of the regular tests
that these channels are performing don't really apply,
and it's making them draw conclusions
about improvements that weren't made
because they can't recognize variance in their testing.
It'd be like me saying, "Mm, the G9 feels lighter
since the latest update. Now, I didn't measure it
on a scale but it feels lighter. That's a real nice feature,
I'm glad they added that." Now, regarding the actual
issue that was addressed by this firmware update,
I have seen it happen a few times in my cameras,
but I've never personally found it to be a highly
recurring problem. In fact, it took me about 30
or 40 tries of doing a very specific action
just to get it to happen so I could show you guys
in this video. So, here's some footage of my trusty
Rubik's Cube demonstrating the problem.
Now, for these shots, I was using tracking
with the default AF-C settings, and I was using
a native mount Sigma lens, the 16mm f/1.4.
But I found these results to be similar
with other lenses, including Panasonic ones.
So, what you'll see here is the focus
is tracking along fine, and then it just kind of freaks out
and jumps to the background.
Like I said, it doesn't happen very often,
but it is annoying when it does.
I then updated to version 2.4 and did similar tests
for about 15 minutes, and despite my efforts,
I couldn't get the same problem to occur.
It didn't snap to the background once,
even after around 90 or so tries.
So, it would seem that there's definitely been
an improvement there. I also tried some other stuff
like tracking the object in an H pattern,
and then also doing that centre spot creep-in.
But I didn't really find any noticeable differences
between the firmware versions.
I want to say that the new firmware seemed
like it transitioned a bit smoother, but again,
that could easily be variance or some kind
of placebo effect. And I didn't find a consistently
repeatable difference between the two versions
when it comes to the other aspects of autofocus.
I also conducted these same tests on the G9
before and after updating to version 1.2
and found similar results. Now, to talk a bit more
about some of the strange information
I've been seeing since this firmware release,
I've seen some comments and videos
that suggest that there's some new features
that have been added to the face detection,
and also that Panasonic has been attempting
to remove the "jittery pulsing" effect that happens
in the background during focus. And that's just not a thing.
First, there's no new features added
to the face detection as far as I can tell,
and there's no mention of it at all in the release notes.
And that "jittery pulsing" thing is never going
to go away because it's an integral part
of how contrast detection systems work,
which again I mentioned in my evolution
of autofocus video. But because this video
is about autofocus, I did record this entire talking head
section using face detection AF-C, so you can use
that as more data for your decision-making.
But, I want to be clear: I'm not suggesting
that there were any changes to face detection,
I just used it for the sake of it. And I did the same thing
when I released my video on version 2.3,
and I thought then that I was impressed
with how the face detection works,
and so nothing's really changed for me.
So, my conclusion is this: get the firmware.
I can't really see any reason not to.
And there's a few other minor bug fixes included as well.
It's not a huge update, but it's great that Panasonic
is keeping them coming. And for the autofocus performance,
I thought it was pretty good after the last update,
and it's still good now, but with a minor tweak
to stop it from freaking out every now and then.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video helpful or at least entertaining, and if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs-up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the dislike button twice.
Alright...I'm done.