The Panasonic Lumix GH6 passes through our lab and faces the GH5

With the Lumix GH series, Panasonic has been waiting to unveil the successor to the Lumix GH5 five years after its release in 2017. By presenting the Lumix GH6, the Panasonic teams are showing a certain confidence in the advanced technical characteristics of the new hybrid.

A new sensor for a new hybrid

As a highlight, the processor and sensor changes are a small event in the world of the Micro 4/3 mount. Moreover, a certain OM System has also changed the sensor of its flagship hybrid, but that is another subject.

With 25.2 megapixels, the new sensor allows you to take slightly more defined photos and take high-resolution shots that reach 100 Mpx. In video, it is possible to go up to 5.7K definition if we exclude the anamorphic mode. Panasonic has chosen to ignore 8K, arguing that such a mode is not necessarily useful. However, the GH6 has many arguments to make.

Question sensitivity, little evolution with a double nominal sensitivity which remains the prerogative of the Lumix GH5s. The GH5 allows an extended range of ISO 200 to ISO 25,600 in photos with an extended mode at ISO 100. The video part is limited to 12,800 ISO. With the GH6, the ISO range expands from ISO 100 to ISO 25,600. The extended mode allows to reach 50 ISO. Again, the video part remains limited to 12,800 ISO.

photo sensitivity

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More details for the GH6

At first glance, image quality might be seen to favor the Lumix GH5, but that’s not really the case. As we saw with the Lumix GH5 II, the new anti-reflective filter which prevents flare or ghosting also has the counterpart of a drop in sharpness.

The greater definition of the GH6 partly compensates for this last point, while the new algorithms carried by the new Venus Engine processor still make it possible to improve the general rendering of the new box. The lion’s mane is more defined and benefits from a flattering restitution with finesse.

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High sensitivities better managed in the GH6

In a slightly more subtle way, we realize a slightly faster appearance of noise in the GH5, but this remains tenuous. It is above all the processing in high sensitivities from ISO 3200 that allows the GH6 to take the lead. The processing of the GH6 offers a slightly smoother rendering, unlike a form of granularity with the GH5.

This operation generally loses detail, but this is not the case here with the Lumix GH6 which retains the advantage. Better still, chromatic noise is better managed with the most extreme settings in Panasonic’s latest product.

Video Sensitivity

Few differences under optimal conditions

On the video side, the anti-reflective filter of the GH6 that we mentioned seems to leave an advantage to its predecessor. Apart from a laboratory analysis, the difference is negligible as the general rendering offered by the Lumix GH6 in video is excellent.

Like what we see in the photo, the increase in sensitivity does not offer a noticeable difference with reasonable settings. The new processor finally reveals itself as soon as the ISO is increased, or more precisely from 3200 ISO.

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Advantage for the GH6, still for high ISO

Above all, it is at the two extreme values ​​that the GH6 takes off. The famous very unsightly chromatic noise is reduced and the GH5’s billowing is also much better managed on the GH6 side. This allows the latest Lumix to retain detail otherwise lost with the GH5!

The GH6 versus the A7S III

For the exercise, we can’t resist the idea of ​​putting the Lumix GH6 in front of the Alpha 7S III (A7S III), Sony’s hybrid video specialist. Here too, the Alpha 7S III (A7S III) seems to have a very slight lead in terms of detail reproduction, but it doesn’t matter much. Unlike the comparison between the GH5 and GH6, we had to use a different lens with Sony’s device, which makes analyzing sharpness trickier.

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By focusing on the highest ISO values ​​of the Lumix GH6 (the Alpha 7S III, A7S III goes up to ISO 102,400 and up to 409,600 in extended mode), noise is better managed at Sony, as much on its presence than his treatment. The image is less degraded with more visible details and less distorted colors.

Photosensitive surface vs. number of pixels

The photosites of the Alpha 7S III (A7S III) measure approximately 8.18 µm unlike those of the Lumix GH6 which are limited to 2.99 µm. The lower definition of 12.9 Mpx associated with a sensor with a surface four times larger fulfills its function here admirably by allowing better capture of light.

In conclusion

If the Lumix GH6 does not allow to supplant the best references benefiting from a 24×36 sensor, it effectively replaces its predecessor, the Lumix GH5. Apart from a definition that increases and improves the level of detail of the image, the main axis of improvement is in the highest sensitivities and therefore also those that we seek to avoid. The progress is there and the Lumix GH6 takes up the challenge, but the real progress may be to be found in the rest of the GH6’s performance, to be discovered in our complete test.