"How Good Is The GH5?"

[Steve Burkett]

Well it seems the Review has generated some controversy (there's a shocker). In response, there's to be a statement by Panasonic later this week according to the below article.

http://www.43rumors.com/cinema5d-gh5...ter-this-week/

[Ronald Jackson]

Any of you actually handled and used a GH5?

Ron

[Noa Put]

Why? Is there anything specific you want to know?

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Ronald Jackson

Any of you actually handled and used a GH5?

Ron

Got mine on pre-order. I'm not one for hand holding a camera from some showroom. The only way to assess a camera is on a job. When I've shot a couple of Weddings, then I can tell you more. Another month and I hope to have more to say.

[Steve Burkett]

Well now it seems the original Cinema 5d review that was linked here at the start of this thread has been taken down by the author. It's certainly generated a fair bit of controversy. With many arguing the test was flawed.

I've heard back from Jessops who can't confirm my delivery except to say end of March. Looking forward to testing this camera myself when I do finally get my hands on it. It's rare these days with so many camera models out there from different manufacturers, for a camera to generate so much hysteria.

[Bo Skelmose]

Compres all levels to grey and think you can get it back again - That really needs some bits. I still have not figured out the reason for V-log....

[Noa Put]

Good (but a bit long) podcast with cameralabs about the GH5, something interesting he mentions is that you can preset 3 focus points and let the camera toggle between one of these 3 which allow very precise and repeatable rack focusing without any hunting..

YouTube (Short URL)

[Steven Schuldt]

Got my GH5 last Monday. I shot a lot with it this week, stills and video, and for the most part I love it. I shot my video exclusively 8bit 60 150mb. Why?

Well, I tried the 10bit 150 at 24p right out of the box in low light (bedroom/living room with compact fluorescent lamps). The artifacting was insane, so bad I thought the camera might be broken. I never even got to color grading, these were big square compression blocks appearing and disappearing all across the image straight after download off the memory card. I have fast U3 Kensington cards, and the camera never complained about write performance, so my assumption is one of two things:

- 10bit internal recording is sort of a joke. It's simply too much data for too little storage bandwidth, at least in this first firmware release.
- In low light, the 10bit compression utterly falls apart. Mind you, 8bit looked fine in the same low light, even at 60p.

So to actually shoot at 10bit with a GH5, I expect to do so over HDMI to something like an Atomos Ninja Inferno.

Otherwise, the camera is stellar and a big improvement over the GH4.

[Ron Evans]

Originally Posted by Steven Schuldt

Got my GH5 last Monday. I shot a lot with it this week, stills and video, and for the most part I love it. I shot my video exclusively 8bit 60 150mb. Why?

Well, I tried the 10bit 150 at 24p right out of the box in low light (bedroom/living room with compact fluorescent lamps). The artifacting was insane, so bad I thought the camera might be broken. I never even got to color grading, these were big square compression blocks appearing and disappearing all across the image straight after download off the memory card. I have fast U3 Kensington cards, and the camera never complained about write performance, so my assumption is one of two things:

- 10bit internal recording is sort of a joke. It's simply too much data for too little storage bandwidth, at least in this first firmware release.
- In low light, the 10bit compression utterly falls apart. Mind you, 8bit looked fine in the same low light, even at 60p.

So to actually shoot at 10bit with a GH5, I expect to do so over HDMI to something like an Atomos Ninja Inferno.

Otherwise, the camera is stellar and a big improvement over the GH4.

What computer did you do this on, software, CPU and speed of drives. Looks like a computer issue rather than the GH5. Only got mine Friday afternoon so not lots of testing yet but UHD 60P at 150Mbps works fine in both EDIUS 8.3 and Vegas 14. I do not use 24P but will try to see if I get the same problem.

EDIT: Just checked and 23.98P UHD 10bit 4:2:2 plays fine in EDIUS WG 8.3 no blocking etc, does not play in VEGAS 14 just get a green screen and audio. Not sure if this is because of 10 bit or a 4:2:2 source or whatever will investigate.

[Steven Schuldt]

Computer is a 2016 MacBook Pro 15" running the latest macOS Sierra 10.12.4 and Final Cut Pro 10.3.2. I'll do a quick outdoor natural light test in UHD 60P 150Mbps 10bit and let you know what I see.

[Noa Put]

Can you show the problem by placing a video on vimeo or youtube?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Steven Schuldt

Well, I tried the 10bit 150 at 24p right out of the box in low light (bedroom/living room with compact fluorescent lamps). The artifacting was insane, so bad I thought the camera might be broken. I never even got to color grading, these were big square compression blocks appearing and disappearing all across the image straight after download off the memory card. I have fast U3 Kensington cards, and the camera never complained about write performance, so my assumption is one of two things:

- 10bit internal recording is sort of a joke. It's simply too much data for too little storage bandwidth, at least in this first firmware release.
- In low light, the 10bit compression utterly falls apart. Mind you, 8bit looked fine in the same low light, even at 60p.

So to actually shoot at 10bit with a GH5, I expect to do so over HDMI to something like an Atomos Ninja Inferno.

Otherwise, the camera is stellar and a big improvement over the GH4.

When they first released the specs I was sure that 10bit at that bitrate was false advertising. That's what I call selling cameras on specs.

So you say its a big improvement over the GH4. How so? Low light performance? Image quality?

[Steven Schuldt]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Can you show the problem by placing a video on vimeo or youtube?

No, but I'm attaching grab of playback in FCP two frames showing the problem. Alas, the problem persists in well-lit daylight.

The first shows the issue (check the upper right of the image and note the block compression artifacts). The second shows the very next frame with no artifacts.

This is UHD 23.98 150Mbps 10bit. It may be that Apple does not yet understand what Panasonic is doing with its GH5 compression. The .MOV files are unplayable in Quicktime player, though they do import and play back in FCP.

[Steven Schuldt]

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

When they first released the specs I was sure that 10bit at that bitrate was false advertising. That's what I call selling cameras on specs.

So you say its a big improvement over the GH4. How so? Low light performance? Image quality?

Yes, low light is far better, though it was terrible/unusable with the GH4 and now borderline passable in a crunch. Not having a crop makes it feel less constricted and more cinematic with my lenses. The screen is great, the build and feel are top-shelf, I like having two cards, battery life still above average, stills just seem to have more life and pop and vividness than the drab stills from the GH4.

[Mark Williams]

Originally Posted by Steven Schuldt

No, but I'm attaching grab of playback in FCP two frames showing the problem. Alas, the problem persists in well-lit daylight.

The first shows the issue (check the upper right of the image and note the block compression artifacts). The second shows the very next frame with no artifacts.

.

That is nasty looking.