GH5s? New low light monster?

Bassman2003 said:
I am always happy to support companies who have the courage to improve their products and charge more for them. These camera features are really meant for professional work so paying an extra $500-$1000 to have a more complete camera that is not prosumer is worth it to me.
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I agree. A beefed upped low light GH5 with some kind of internal Panasonic raw recording using CFexpress cards. Yeah, I'd willingly pay more
 
mico said:
I agree. A beefed upped low light GH5 with some kind of internal Panasonic raw recording using CFexpress cards. Yeah, I'd willingly pay more
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Be cool if they did go that route, but I doubt it. I think the best we'd see is 10bit 60p with better low light and 1 stop more dynamic range. I'd like to see them add the top LCD they added to the G9, because I miss that from my Canon DLSR days. But that would require a body redesign and I'm not sure they'd go that far. Maybe.
A compressed raw option would be great though.
 
The problem is (and this pretty much applies to everyone on this kind of price level) is that Panasonic doesn't have any kind of RAW to use besides CinemaDNG.

And if a $7300 EVA1 will require an external recorder to capture CDNGs, I doubt Panasonic would offer it internally in a prosumer hybrid.

Even though RED and Blackmagic have been providing internal RAW recording for years, everyone else* stills requires additional hardware, an external recorder, or only offers an oddball format like the C200's CRL.

(*DJI's X5R gimbal camera shoots CDNGs internally if that counts. And I'm not including hacked Canon DSLRs.)

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EDIT: I will add though that Panasonic would be the perfect company to provide internal CDNG recording in one of their MFT packages as a lot of BM users who are waiting for a 4K Pocket II would probably be very interested. (I would be.)
 
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Low light performance and faster frame rates may be all the difference. The GH5 is already at the limit for SD card performance so if there is any difference it may well be for the external signals at HDMI for external recorders like Atomos Inferno models. Maybe a 12G SDI interface ?
 
I can’t see them altering the other casing or button layout. The tooling for that would be too much for a Mk II revision. This if true, must be a purely sensor / software based upgrade.

I’m really not sure why Panasonic would rush this out, the older GH cameras had long shelf lifes and yet the GH5 must be selling well also, so why cause a dip in sales with news of of better model and cause a lot of inventory of GH5 to depreciate.

If they lower the pixel count to get bigger photosites and make it much better at low light, then I presume it would loose the ability to capture 6K Photo and all other ‘better than 4K’ features, open gate etc? Also if it had less resolution then, there would be less downsampling to 4K (and less perceived image quality?)

I’m looking forward to seeing whats around the corner. But it makes no sense to me less than a year of the GH5 launch.
 
TheTrickster said:
I can’t see them altering the other casing or button layout. The tooling for that would be too much for a Mk II revision. This if true, must be a purely sensor / software based upgrade.

I’m really not sure why Panasonic would rush this out, the older GH cameras had long shelf lifes and yet the GH5 must be selling well also, so why cause a dip in sales with news of of better model and cause a lot of inventory of GH5 to depreciate.

If they lower the pixel count to get bigger photosites and make it much better at low light, then I presume it would loose the ability to capture 6K Photo and all other ‘better than 4K’ features, open gate etc? Also if it had less resolution then, there would be less downsampling to 4K (and less perceived image quality?)

I’m looking forward to seeing whats around the corner. But it makes no sense to me less than a year of the GH5 launch.
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Is the A7sii/A7rii approach a mistake in your opinion? Is it bad for users? Bad for business?

GH5 is a great video hybrid with solid stills capability. Adding a G9 (leaning toward stills) and a GH5s that is focused even more in the dedicated direction of video use with some compromises on the photo side seems like a great idea to me. After all, a LOT of us would happily give up some photo specs to get better low light, better dynamic range, better XYZ. Why not have more choices. I would buy the new cam and keep my GH5 to have a good two cam setup with one being better for the occasional stills and the other better for lowlight situations.

Anyway, lots of speculation.
 
For me the main improvements needed would be
a substantial improvement in DR, Low Light performance, and a much improved AF system.

I also hope that the MP count is not too low and will produce decent stills and sharp 4K video.

With the a7sIII just around the corner any GH5s or whatever it's called will need to
match or come close to the a7sII's low ligt performance and offer a substantial improvement in DR and AF.
Fingers Crossed !
 
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All speculation at this point, but many are claiming the camera uses the new Sony STARVIS sensor (or maybe a Panasonic tweaked hybrid design). The IMX294CJK is a 10.7MP Multi-aspect ratio micro four thirds sensor. It can shoot 17:9 4K at 60 FPS (12 bit) and 16:9 4K 24 FPS (14 bit).
"The "IMX294CJK" is the first in-house image sensor for security cameras to adopt the Type 4/3 format, and realizes output of the number of pixels needed for 4K at 120 frame/s (in ADC 10-bit output mode). In addition, use of a large-size pixel achieves SNR1s of 0.14 lx*1, and use of a Quad Bayer pixel structure (see Figure 1) realizes an HDR (High Dynamic Range) function with no time difference, enabling video imaging with a wide dynamic range."

https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products_en/new_pro/may_2017/imx294cjk_e.html#Table3
http://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products_en/IS/sensor0/technology/starvis.html
 
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Now that sounds exciting. Maybe my hope of 240fps in 1080 will come along for the ride! That sensor sounds like a great option for the P2 version of the DVX200... (while we are speculating).
 
I wonder if the new Red Dial shown on 4/3 rumors is an ND filter?
or if it will have an ND filter?
Maybe not if it has to accomadate 5axis IBIS
time will tell !
 
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tillhavis said:
I also hope that the MP count is not too low and will produce decent stills and sharp 4K video.
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I would think it would. I don't think anyone is doing fine art photography on a GH camera to begin with. I'm probably wrong. But if large fine art prints are your thing there are better camera choices.
But if you're mostly going to web or smaller prints, you can get away with 8-10MP just fine. Heck I've upscaled a horizontal 8MP image to three large vertical trade show banners before and the client loved them. No one else at my company thought it was possible and kept saying "the resolution is too low" but I was like 'hold my beer" and did a fractal upscale. Again, no fine art piece but it worked and paid the bills.
Granted the original 8MP image came from a downsampled image from a digital Hasselblad, so it was already imbued with all that goodness, but that's our little secret.
 
I like the big red button. I also like Roxic's "hold my beer" comment. Awesome.

Gosh, if these rumors are true they can't get this camera out fast enough! Sounds like an wicked nice small form factor monster. Lets hope it comes to be.
 
Bassman2003 said:
I like the big red button. I also like Roxic's "hold my beer" comment. Awesome.

Gosh, if these rumors are true they can't get this camera out fast enough! Sounds like an wicked nice small form factor monster. Lets hope it comes to be.
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He missed the deeper grip and the new oblong shutter release - def. not a perspective thing looking at my GH5 in same orientation.
 
Pixel size is rarely a 1:1 answer to what to expect in terms of sensitivity and DR but just to put things into perspective with the rumored Sony 4/3 sensor having a pixel pitch of 4.63 um. The GH5 has a pixel pitch of 3.33 um and the Sony A6500 has a pixel pitch of 3.89um. The Nikon D500 has a pixel pitch of 4.2 um.

So you can see the potential here. 4.63um is some pretty darn large pixels to suck in light. The other advantage here should be dynamic range which tends to be better on a higher pixel pitch.

The Sony A7S has a pixel pitch of 8.32 um so I wouldn't expect anywhere near A7S levels.
 
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The GH5 was already good enough in low light. I never need to shoot anything over iso 1600. Im hoping on a better organic sensor, too bad it will be m43. If it has better AF, I dont care either. Only good thing that I can want is a lot better dynamic range, and better highlight rolloff. Offcourse they have already the EVA1, so the specs wont trump the EVA1. But it might be a good backup body for quick shots next to my ursa mini pro.
 
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