A lot of folks have been waiting anxiously for more details on the upcoming Panasonic GH5 which can shoot in 4K at 30p using a 10bit 4:2:2 chroma subsampling internally, and also for the first time in a 4K mirrorless camera 4K/60p! Yes, this is a major first for an interchangeable lens hybrid stills/video camera be it Micro Four Thirds or any other system. Not much else was revealed by Panasonic during Photokina back in September including price and release date, regarding both of which Panasonic were very quiet about, however it looks like the camera may end up costing a bit more than expected.
According to 43rumors and his source the Panasonic GH5 will be priced around €1,800 – €2,000. My bet is that the GH5 will end up selling for $2,000 US dollars upon release (given today’s atrocious exchange rates) – precisely the same as the new Olympus E-M1 Mark II, which features an unbelievable in-camera stabilization we covered here and here.
From 43rumors:
Body only: Price will be between 1 800 € and 2 000 € in Europe for the DMC-GH5.
Price will be ± 2 900 € for the DMC-GH5 + the new Panasonic Leica 12-60 Lens (not the older 12-60mm lens!)
If this rumor ends up being true, and 43rumors does rate it at FT5 (their highest, meaning it’s probably true), the $2K price tag for the body alone might just be a bit too much for Micro Four Thirds shooters. For comparison purposes – the Panasonic GH4 (body only) originally sold for $1,700 in the US, and £1,300 in the UK.
The $300 increase may not seem like much considering the new features the camera will give us, however as most of us considering a MFT camera are pretty cash strapped, $300 can go a long way – you get an awesome lens like the Lumix 25mm f1.7 and still have $50 left for an extra battery.
With the current world economy and exchange rates in shambles, I expect to see the Panasonic GH5 sell for about £1,800-£1,900 inc VAT in the UK, which isn’t too far off what the Olympus E-M1 Mark II goes for in the UK (£1,849 inc VAT at Wex). This will be a whopping £500 markup compared to the old GH4 and what it sold for when it was released (and that was £1299 inc. VAT), not so great for those of us in the UK (again…)
Here is what we know so far about the upcoming Panasonic GH5:
- New 18MP CMOS (4/3 type) sensor – MFT mount (duh!)
- New Body Design
- 6K Photo at 30p for 18 Megapixel photos (Stills only NOT video)
- 4K/60p (8bit or 10bit 4:2:0)
- 4K at 24, 25 and 30p at 10bit 4:2:2 internal
- 8MP / 60fps Burst Photo – possibly from the 4K/60p stream
- No info on IBIS (in-body image stabilisation) may have it
- When? – Early Spring 2017 (March possibly)
- Price: €1,800 to €2,000 / $1,999
Hands up – how many of you guys think the price of the Panasonic GH5 is too much if it ends up selling for €2000 EU/$2000 US/£1850 UK? Personally, I’d be willing to consider it if the IBIS is as good as the one on the E-M1 Mark II and if they improved the low light performance by at least one stop. Not to mention that it would be worth it if the improved the colour science too.
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Not so expensive, it’s good 🙂 Do you have some infos about slow-motion capabilities of the GH5 ? 96fps ? Thanks !
I do agree. If the features they promised are here, it will be the cheapest in this range. But I’m waiting for the slowmo too. I’d like a 120 fps HD less compressed than on the GH4
$2700 for Canon shooters when you factor in the top of the line metabones.
Hey guys, what would be a top of the line ‘general use’ lens for the gh5? Not interested in adapters….any suggestions?
For stills the Panny 12-35 2.8 would get my vote. If you’re into video, you definitely SHOULD be interested in a speedbooster and a Sigma 18-35 1.8.
Yes, the Lumix 12-35 2.8 is such a great all purpose lens. Even for video if you are doing on the go stuff.
While we’re on about upgrades here, would be great of Panasonic brought out a cine lens with hard stops to go with this. To rival the Olympus 12-40. The issue that I have with my 12-35 is that it is ‘sticky’ with a follow focus. I’m talking about the fraction of a second it takes to get it actually moving it sticks and then over shoots slightly. It works perfectly in the hand as it should. Also fly-by-wire should have a choke system for this reason.
Still waiting to hear what the bitrate is. 10 bit doesn’t mean much if they are compressing the footage to the max, kind of like what Sony does in the FS5. The FS5 compresses its HD 10 bit image at 50 mbps. That is the same bitrate as the 8 bit image in the original C300. Hopefully we don’t see a similar trick in the GH5, but I am going to wager that we do. It’s a small camera and it can’t generate too much heat.
Isn’t it the extra compression that taxes the cpu and generates heat, not the data rate?
Actually, you are correct. Strike my last sentence from my comment! Thanks for catching that.
But the fact that the GH5 is small doesn’t mean the image won’t be heavily compressed. The A7s compresses its image pretty heavily and it is a super tiny camera. When the GH5 releases its specs the key thing to look at will be the bitrate. That’s going to tell us if it is really 10 bit, or a kind of a fake 10 bit, in that it’s compressed so much that the footage shows banding and artifacts when it is pushed in post.
I really hope it’s robust! I’m really also hoping for an a7rIII with a larger body and dual qdx cards to allow for 10bit internal! Then it’s just about convincing my larger clients that these little guys are just as good as the fs700’s and c300’s they’re used to.
Yes, that’s exactly right. But the compression and the data-rate or bit-rate are inversely related in their levels.The higher the bit-rate, the lower the compression and the less work the processor has to do with the codec and the less heat would be generated. I once used a high bit-rate of 250 Mbps in editing and my usage meters on my quadcore CPU were showing less than they were when encoding the same footage at 28 Mbps. I’m pretty sure the GH5 will offer a bit-rate of at least 100 Mbps for 4K and probably an even higher option.
Makes sense. The GH5 got 150Mbps at 4k and a 400Mbps option coming via firmware. Think i’ll be sticking with the 150Mbps flavor. At any rate, we’re getting even better quality with 10bit 422 with a minimal bump in file size. So happy to not be chomping though 300-800Mbps for ProRes or DnxHR files. Still blows my mind that there is virtually no file size difference between Canon 5DMKIII HD footage (looks more like 720P) and the gh4’s 4K footage (as sharp as RED minus the DR). It’s a great time to be a photographer and Videographer.
People in the UK voted to leave the European Union so the price increase will be applied to all cameras from now on, not only the GH5. 🙂
If GH5 “delivers”, even at 2000$ it will be the cheapest pro video shooting camera, by far!
It’s not that I don’t want it to be cheaper, but realistically the vast majority who bought the GH4 ware interested in it’s video capabilities and 300$ over that, for even better image and other pro video goodies I think is reasonable.
It was the E.U that applied all those taxes for products outside the E.U. The U.K can now drop all that. Remember Japan is not in the E.U neither is China.
£2K seems fair enough to me for 4K 10-bit 422 and V-LOG – but I guess it depends on individual needs. For use as a drama b-roll camera in confined spaces, these features are invaluable.
If it has IBIS nearly as good as the Olympus, then you also saved the cost of a gimbal for most purposes. As a video shooter, if the Blackmagic Pocket would add IBIS and 4K, I’d still get that over the GH5. Even if the price point was closer.
IBIS is NOT a replacement for gimbal work. IBIS does not mitigate steps when walking only stationary handheld shots.
I think IBIS and better low light is the key here, I agree! 4K 60p is great and 422 internal is stella but to be honest not enough to get me to upgrade from my trusty GH4 that to be fair is doing me just fine as it is. I now have a workflow that suits me and produces good results. Would love better ISO performance. clean 3200 would be excellent. Clean 6400 would be even better. Bring the mega pixel count down and backlight the sensor i say. Most people buy the GH4 for video anyway. My two peneth.
i don’t think it would be worth it, too close of a price to a7sii, and best case scenario it’d be half as good in low light
Looks like one has to wait for the GH6 to get 10 bit 4:2:2 10 bit 4K @ 60 fps.