OUR VERDICT
While the last couple of GH-series cameras have felt a little like video cameras masquerading as stills camera, the Panasonic Lumix GH5 is a much more rounded piece of kit. It's certainly one of the best 4K camera solutions out there, if not the best, before you start considering dedicated professional video cameras, and that video capability is backed up by a great set of features for the stills photographer.
FOR
- Brilliant video specification
- Large and bright EVF
- Touchscreen interface
- Durable build
- Snappy performance
The Lumix GH5 is the latest in the line of Panasonic's top-of-the-range GH series of mirrorless cameras, which over the years have carved out a niche for themselves among videographers thanks to their breadth of movie-making features.
The current GH4 was launched back at the start of 2014, and has been starting to look a little dated when lined up against some strong competition.
Panasonic is hoping its latest model will not only re-establish the brand as the number choice for the professional videographer, but will also appeal to a wider market of enthusiast photographers looking for a highly capable camera that can shoot great stills and movie footage. Let's take a closer look…
Features
- Micro Four Thirds Live MOS sensor, 20.3MP
- 3.2-inch vari-angle touchscreen, 1,620,000 dots
- 6K Photo still image extraction
As we've seen on some other recent Micro Four Third cameras, the Panasonic Lumix GH5 features a 20.3MP sensor that forgoes a low pass filter, which should see even more detail squeezed out from the chip.
While the resolution matches that of the Lumix GX8, Panasonic says it’s a different sensor and claims it'll yield the best image quality yet from a Lumix camera.
There's also a new Venus Engine, with 1.66x faster processing power thanks to an additional processing core, with Panasonic promising more natural, true-to-life images with better noise control. This should enable the GH5 to effectively correct for artefacts such as unnatural white edges, as well as reducing fringing and over-sharpening.
The GH5’s sensitivity range improves on the GH4’s by a stop at the bottom end of the range, running from ISO100-25,600 compared to 200-25,600 on the GH4. The increase in base sensitivity is welcome, especially if you want to take advantage of some of those fast Micro Four Thirds prime lenses in bright conditions, where an extra stop can be a help.
However, it would have been nice to have seen this extended even further, especially at the higher end of the range, where the GH5 loses out to rivals like the Nikon D500 and Sony Alpha A7S II.
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