How interested are you in a GH6 anymore?

[filmguy123]

Used to be for any piece of gear, but I think tax code now is only over a $3000 purchase can be put onto Schedule C depreciation schedule and line itemed with what the piece of kit is. This is where you can spread the write off out over a few years. Under this $$ amount it's basically grouped into "supplies". Well this is my recollection from my CPA anyway. On my depreciation schedule my S1H and EVA1 are listed, however a GH6 @ $2500 won't be (nor are my $2k each Zeiss Milvus lenses). They are all grouped under "other expenses" as "production equipment" for the specified year with no further detail. (Of course I keep a spreadsheet on my end with all the details if asked to show the breakdown of what these expenses are).

Point being, no, I believe for a "cheap" purchase like GH6 it has to be in the same calendar year?

[ahalpert]

I was thinking about this. Although i never tried to switch the year of deduction because i always use things the same year i buy them. My accountant is as clueless as me because he is me

Section 179 allows eligible businesses to deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment in the year it was put into service.

[filmguy123]

Yeah, never asked the question myself either as I always use stuff right away. Guess the nuance would be in "qualifying equipment".

[ahalpert]

I'd have to double check but I think this section 179 is what lets us deduct the full cost up front. So anything you do that for is qualifying equipment? I sorta thought the nuance was year put into service

[filmguy123]

I think the problem is if you take the De Minimis Safe Harbor Election for anything under $2500 you have to take it for everything under $2500. Or whatever the amount is on given tax year. So let’s say the GH6 is $2499 and you opt to take depreciation of the GH6 instead of the full amount, you have to list every single smaller purchase under $2500 and do the same.

Put another way it’s all or nothing if you opt for De Minimis Safe Harbor Election, which I suspect most of us will. Only way around this might be a GH6 bundle or kit that pushes the price over the threshold. Or if you don’t have a bunch of smaller expenses (but you do, if you’re doing your taxes correctly!)

[Zim]

Lumix kicks off 20th Anniversary by announcing that the GH6 is still under development


According to the Panasonic.JPN, Panasonic Lumix DC-GH6 is now still in development.

GH6, which is currently under development, aims to achieve both the mobility unique to Micro Four Thirds systems and a variety of video expressiveness. Both the sensor and engine have been newly developed to support 4: 2: 2 10bit Cinema 4K60p video recording, and we plan to achieve unlimited video recording time within the recommended operating temperature. I’m really sorry that I can’t tell you in detail, but please look forward to what kind of camera the GH6, which is still under development by engineers, will be finished.

Not this year?

[NorBro]

To me, it sounds like they still aren't sure where they are going with it.

I love Panasonic and I think the S5 is one of their best, but a 4K/60p MFT GH6 seems like an unbelievable waste of time and resources.

[hojomo]

To me, it sounds like they still aren't sure where they are going with it.

I love Panasonic and I think the S5 is one of their best, but a 4K/60p MFT GH6 seems like an unbelievable waste of time and resources.

their plan was probably to have the GH6 available this year and then focus on new L-mount bodies for spring 2022, but covid & the supply shortages have them revising that in a flat-footed & embarrassing way

Kinda seems like their MFT customers will just be happy to get another video-centric body at all. I get the appeal of the format, but if I was making cameras I would abandon it. Sony making FF standard is also about pushing MF as the new high end. If you want ultra light; you will have all kinds of ever-more sophisticated smartphone cameras to choose from...which are now beginning to kinda-sorta hit 1" sensor anyways

[DLD]

If they can do a Quad Bayer design - 12-15 MPX for video and quadruple of that for stills - it may get them some attention. Olympus/OMD is hinting on something state of the art and they're probably coordinating it with other MFT members. But, really, at this point, a $2,500 camera has to beat the A7IV specs and that seems to fit the Quad Bayer capability only.

Or they have to include 8K but they already said they won't. And, sort of like with Nikon Z9, it may be a great camera but a lot of MFT glass owners have moved on by now and the new shooters would prefer full frame.

[filmguy123]

I love Panasonic and I think the S5 is one of their best, but a 4K/60p MFT GH6 seems like an unbelievable waste of time and resources.

If that was literally all there was, yeah. But that's what the GH5 II is. For the 6 I am assuming there will be an updated sensor & image processing pipeline, which alone would be a worthwhile update for a less digitized/sharpened look, better image mojo, better DR and lowlight than a GH5s.

Roll that together with IBIS and 10-bit 4k60p, and that would be plenty enough - at least for me.

[NorBro]

Updated sensors and image processing pipelines can help with that, but it's still Panasonic's corporate decision if they will allow it.

It's one of the reasons cinema cameras (or higher priced cameras, in general) have the higher price tags, basically to look different than their mirrorless counterparts.

After the initial LOG offerings, DR has barely improved in these kind of cameras so I wouldn't expect much, unless you're saying you'd like to see maybe half a stop more from the 12 or so stops it has, which is always good - but the larger sensors out there are moving onto a pretty solid 13-14 stops and beyond (future).

I actually just said yesterday that I would only pay more than $1K for a camera if it had 8K/6K and RAW - along with FF and AF - but I'd probably personally consider a small chip 4K/60p camera at this point for even less.

[DLD]

Dual gain-dual readout can help with the DR.

But, with GH-6, Panasonic is running into the same problem Nikon was facing with Z9 - if you want to make inroads against the industry leaders, you got to beat them on specs/performance. Being "as good" ain't good enough. So, let's take a look at an alleged $2,500 price point. Sony has a full frame camera with an oversampled 4K, 33 MPX stills and a top notch auto focus. Panasonic was supposed to bring out Micro Four Thirds, 6K, 20-22 MPX and shabby auto focus. That is unlikely to fly out of the box.

Furthermore, there have been plenty of rumors about an 8K APS-C model from Fuji for around $2,000. And an 8K video means stills at around 42-45 MPX. (AF is uncertain, as past Fuji efforts in the area left an underwhelming impression).

The above models - one already announced, the other quite possibly coming out early 2022 - leave Panasonic in a precarious position. It either has to drastically lower its projected pricing or drastically up the specs.

Meanwhile Sony has a $700, 24 MPX APS-C (Z10) camera already. It may have a slow rolling shutter but it's a more than a decent hybrid cam. With a flippy screen. An MFT model should be able to underbid it. Except Panasonic doesn't seem to be interested.

[Ron Evans]

For me the competition at $2500 is the BMPocket 6K Pro. I do not need IBIS or autofocus for what I do. So the GH6 has to be better than the BM. So at least 6K, RAW ( maybe ProRes RAW and BRAW like the GH5S) nice to have internal recording at the same time as external RAW too. I hardly think it would have less than the GH5S. By the time GH6 comes out maybe BM will have an 8K version of the Pocket .

[DLD]

FWIW, camera sales are still tanking. The overall projection now - my informal number crunching off the most recent CIPA data - is somewhere around 5,000,000 units for 2021. Could this have played a role in the GH-6 release delay? Possibly. The total interchangeable lens camera sales were about 20,000,000 units a decade ago and have been sliding down ever since. 5 million would represent a 75% slide. Fewer models sold means fewer models released. GH-4 was once selling about 60,000 units annually. These numbers seem like a dreamland these days.

[Bassman2003]

This thread is kind of a depressing look at the demise of a market leader. Every day Panasonic waits the harder it will be to sell the GH6. I think they did not have the sensor a year or two ago that would impress, so they were forced to wait. The only shot they have is to make the GH6 heavy video centric with internal RAW recording and phase detect AF. If they show up with another DFD camera in 2022 there will be chuckles from the community no matter how nice the image is. Now that the A7IV has been shown, the baseline is established.