How interested are you in a GH6 anymore?

[Tom Roper]

If they make an 8K M43 people will be screaming about the fantastic resolution while others see no difference whatsoever. And why should there be a difference? It will take 166 lp/mm @ MTF50 to resolve it. Good luck finding the lens that does that.

I dusted off the GH5 to use as a b-cam for a wedding shoot today. I tested it out yesterday with the Olympus 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro and was reminded what a great image it still has, overlooked but still versatile. I put it on a jib crane for a camera angle to shoot over people's heads. Wind was blowing like crazy, shaking the rails. I thought the footage would be unusable but to my amazement, it was rock steady. M43 IBIS is still probably the best. I also have a GH5S for some gimbal shots. The 'S' got an update for AI face detect. Not hardly in same class as phase detect or DPAF on Canon or Sony but it works decently well on a gimbal.

Full frame is the headliner but M43 didn't stop making nice 4K.

[Samuel Dilworth]

If they make an 8K M43 people will be screaming about the fantastic resolution while others see no difference whatsoever. And why should there be a difference? It will take 166 lp/mm @ MTF50 to resolve it. Good luck finding the lens that does that.

There are Micro Four Thirds lenses that do that. However, they don’t need to in order for 8K to show more detail than 4K. They only need to transfer non-zero contrast at spatial frequencies above 4K pixel pitch. And all lenses do that, as proven most emphatically by the various sensor-shift high-resolution modes, e.g. the G9’s 80-megapixel output, that always show more detail than with the feature turned off.

There are many reasons I’m not currently interested in capturing video at 8K, but it might become practically feasible within the product lifespan of the GH6, and people like big numbers regardless. So it could be a feature with strong marketing value. However, more useful would be 4K at 120p with full-pixel (i.e. full-quality) readout, and it’s difficult to envisage how 8K’s worth of pixels could be read out at 120 frames per second with current technology. Even the Sony α1 at triple the expected price of any GH6 does not achieve that.

This incompatibility between 120p all-pixel readout and 8K resolution may explain the rumours of more than one GH6 model being developed. Perhaps one does 8K 30p and the other 4K 120p. Or perhaps the 8K one really does achieve 120p readout, but with an eye-wateringly expensive stacked sensor that doubles the camera price.

The more time passes, the more I think the GH6 will come with at least one impressive headline feature. Maybe phase-detect autofocus at last. Otherwise what is Panasonic waiting for? If the GH6 was merely a GH5S with stabilisation or 4K 120p or both, it should have been out long ago.

[BobKo]

If you are interested in reading the latest rumors about a possible GH6 camera, TechRadar came out with a column about it earlier today. It's all conjecture and rumor, so take that with a grain of your favorite spice: https://www.techradar.com/news/panas...s-and-features

[DLD]

With its predecessor, the Panasonic GH5S, now two years old and the Panasonic GH5 arriving a year before that, the series is certainly due a refresh. We expect it to arrive in 2021 and recent rumors appear to back that up.

It looks like an updated article that first appeared about a year ago. GH-5 came out in 2017 and is already four years old.

But, as someone had said long ago, when there's smoke, there's smoke on the water.

[DLD]

Reading a Canon R3 announcement, I'd surmise that a jump in the performance of the full frame cameras - including R5 and A1 - creates more room for a decent MFT model to slide in at a $2,000 price point.

[Bassman2003]

Only if they can bring the performance. An S5 or upcoming A7 whatever will be competition at $2,000. Given that it has taken this long, I have kind of let go of the dream so to speak. Imho, they needed to have this camera out when the R6/A7sIII were released but they were probably not "allowed".

[DLD]

A7IV is supposed to be at around $2,500 but that's an older rumor and who knows what will happen in between now and the actual shipping date. To me, it sounded fairly reasonable - ~ 32 MPX sensor, with the supersampled 4K. But the pixel race is now back on, so specs are going to depend on the state of the market.

Once I began to understand more about the general photo/video market, I realized that the technology is compressing everything down. And that was way before a $6,000 medium format 102 MPX Fuji GFX100s (with a quality auto focus to boot) in the market where a 100 MPX unit ran close to $50,000. Or the $10,000 BMD Ursa Mini Pro 12K at the time when there was only one 8K for the pro use and that was a $60,000 Red Monstro.

And then you realize that there are smartphones with periscopic zooms and 100 MPX sensors and liquid lens and all sorts of stuff. And you wonder why it hadn't come to the stand alone cameras.

[DLD]

This may be something. Or nothing.

A 33 MPX MFT 8K camera from China.

https://www.43rumors.com/this-is-a-n...#disqus_thread

[NorBro]

https://www.newsshooter.com/2021/04/...k-m4-3-camera/

[filmguy123]

Saw on 43 rumors to expect a GH6 announcement in September for the lumix anniversary. Take it with a grain of salt but sounds about right to me for timing.

[DLD]

https://www.newsshooter.com/2021/04/...k-m4-3-camera/

Ya, 8K streaming. Because a Zoom conference needs to be in 8K.

But it might push the competition forward in the MFT sector. No exact data on the sensor though. My bet is on Sony's 41 MPX version, once the dust settles.

[NorBro]

My bet is on Sony's 41 MPX version, once the dust settles.

No comment about the Sharp note?

Author think it's the same 8K sensor Sharp made for their 8K prototype (both supposedly worked on other cameras together).

No Sony, no cartel? Because there is no way they would allow this.

[DLD]

No comment about the Sharp note?

Author think it's the same 8K sensor Sharp made for their 8K prototype (both supposedly worked on other cameras together).

No Sony, no cartel? Because there is no way they would allow this.

You'd think that, if the 33 MPX sensor had performed as expected, that Sharp 8K camera would have been out by now. The other negative indicator here is other independents like BMD and Z Cam. They must have tried it and passed, making the normally spec lagging Canon and Sony leaders in the "consumer tier" 8K. And now, the consumer divisions of Canon and Sony - which, as Willie Sutton noted, is where the money is - are beating their pro divisions in (some) new technologies. Naturally, this chasm can't remain wide for long and a slew of new product is soon to follow.

As to the Chinese manufacturers - there are some very inexpensive cameras out there. They're so inexpensive - $30 DSLR! - people only make fun of them. Then there are companies like OmniVision that make sensors for the major smartphone brands and, technically, could make a photo-video hybrid too. It looks like this 8K is from the former class.

[NorBro]

Z Cam has an 8K camera but IDK which sensor.

[DLD]

Z Cam has an 8K camera but IDK which sensor.

I can't find any info on any ZCam sensors - which makes one wonder about their vendor or vendors - but their 8K is full frame (actually, slightly larger) and it's been out for about a year and a half. Images look OK and the resolution is ... well, 8K.

But it's $6,000, so Canon underbid them by $2,100 with R5. Which sounds absurd on paper.