GH5 expectations

When looking at the row of Lumix GH series cameras below, it is natural to ask: What will the next in line, the Lumix GH5, be like? And when will it be available? So that is what I will speculate about here.

From left to right: Lumix GH1, Lumix GH2, Lumix GH3, Lumix GH4

In terms of form factor, we have had two styles so far: The first two cameras were quite small, but still had reasonable ergonomics. However, only one control wheel left quite a bit to be desired.

The Lumix GH3 introduced the larger camera body, and also deviated from the previously used oversized multi aspect ratio sensor. The larger body size allowed for a much better control layout, with three configurable control wheels. However, the eye level viewfinder (EVF) was not perfect.

The Lumix GH4 looks like it reuses the GH3 camera body, but there are in fact a lot of smaller changes which greatly improve the handling. Read about the changes here.

Timing of the next generation

To speculate about the launch of the next generation camera, the Lumix GH5, it is good to look back at the historic announcement times:

There was a two year delay from the GH2 until the GH3. The GH4 was announced somewhat faster, probably because Panasonic needed to prove that they were still the top mirrorless system for video use.

With the recent downturn in digital camera sales, I would expect that the GH5 is announced at least two years after the GH4. That is, February 2016 or later.

The next big tradeshow is Photokina on September 20-25th, and this is a probable venue for the announcement of the GH5.

On the other hand, one could ask: Why announce a new GH model now? The Lumix GH4 is a perfectly fine camera.

And it recently god a shot in the arm: In September last year, the V-Log L profile became available, making the camera much more usable for professionals. To learn more about what this is and how to get started using it, you can read this article.

However, as time goes, there are more and more features lacking from the GH4, which people would otherwise expect nowadays.

GH5 features

One major disadvantage of the Lumix GH4 is that is can only record 4K video with a crop factor: It does not use the whole sensor width. See this illustration:

This means that if you use the 4K video recording, you get an additional 1.3x crop factor: The Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8, it becomes like a 16-46mm lens, or 32-92mm in 135 film equivalent terms. So you will often need wider lenses when using the 4K video mode.

The GH4 applied this crop to avoid scaling down the whole sensor output to 4K format. That would have required too much computing power. The Lumix GH5 will surely record 4K video from the whole sensor width, though, avoiding this additional crop factor.

On the other hand, both more recent 4k capable Lumix cameras (Lumix G7 and Lumix GX8) share the 4k crop strategy to avoid downscaling, so perhaps Panasonic don't have a solution to this problem yet.

Some have speculated that the GH5 will record even higher resolution video, e.g., 5K or even 8K. I don't think so. 4K is still a quite new standard, and many have still not upgraded their TV sets to 4K. So I think 4K will be the preferred format still some more years. There is still improvement potential inside the 4K video format, and that is what the GH5 will aim for.

What might happen, though, is that the GH5 could record 4K video at a higher framerate. Currently, the maximum framerate is 30FPS with the GH4. Today, that is only topped by some very expensive and bulky cameras, like the Sony FDRAX1 or Sony PMW-F55.

If Panasonic can release a GH5 with 4K 60FPS video recording, that would be a game changer on the same level as the GH4 was two years ago. However, this would require faster sensor readout, and it is not obvious that it is possible with the current technology level at this price point.

In addition to high quality video output, the GH5 will also get the latest in terms of features, that includes:

• 4K Photo. This mode was first introduced on the Lumix GH4, with the 2.0 firmware six months into the product life of the camera. Read about it here.
  
  However, the 4K Photo implementation in the GH4 was quite basic, and is already surpassed by more recent cameras like the Lumix G7 and Lumix GX8.
• Post focus. A feature so far seen on the Lumix G7 and Lumix GX8. This allows the camera to scan through the focus range, and take one picture every time something in the frame is in focus. You can later select which photos you'd like to keep.
  
  Unfortunately, this feature is limited to 8MP resolution only, only to JPEG, and the pictures are taken over some time period, not instantaneously, of course.
• The Lumix GH4 has the DFD, "Depth from defocus", meaning that it analyses the nature of the bokeh to guess how far off the focus is. This is based on a database of Lumix lenses. This technology can always be better, and I think the Lumix GH5 will still improve upon it.
  
  The GH4 does autofocus during 4K video recording, however, the AF speed is very slow. This will certainly be improved with the GH5. Here you can see a comparison between the AF speed of the GH3 and GH4 in 1080p, and also the GH4 in 4K resolution.
  
• Electronic shutter. This is a very useful feature which allows you to take pictures silently, without the mechanical shutter. The downside is that the picture is scanned vertically fairly slowly. Anything moving during this time will cause "rolling shutter" effects, read about it here. The GH5 needs to further improve upon this sensor readout speed, for more reliable electronic shutter mode.
  
• Rolling shutter. In 1080p mode, the images are scanned in around 1/100s, which is fast enough that rolling shutter is not a big problem. In 4K mode, though, the frame is scanned much more slowly, around 1/30s, which means that rolling shutter can be a big problem if you are handholding the camera. If the GH5 ups the framerate to 60FPS in 4K mode, then rolling shutter will probably not be a problem anymore, as the image must be scanned twice as fast.
• Image stabilization. Some recent Panasonic cameras (Lumix GX7 and Lumix GX8) include In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS), which is a new direction for Panasonic. Seeing that recent Olympus cameras are capable of using this feature to stabilize also non OIS prime lenses, will Panasonic add this feature to the Lumix GH5? I think not. I think the GH5 sensor will need more cooling, which makes the IBIS setup harder to implement.Here is what the IBIS of the Olympus E-M5 Mark II looks like:
  
  
  

As for the form factor, I think the Lumix GH5 will be mostly like the Lumix GH4. The GH4 has a very good, ergonomic design, which is stable to hold and easy to use. I don't see the need for any major redesign of the camera body now.

Finally, the GH5 will get a higher resolution. Nikon recently moved from 16MP to 20MP for their top cameras, the Nikon D5 and Nikon D500. Also, Fujifilm went above 16MP for the first time with the Fujifilm X-Pro2.

With this development, Panasonic also need to move up from 16MP, and the GH5 will most likely get a 20MP sensor, just like the Lumix GX8.

Alternative cameras

If you are into a video oriented mirrorless camera, one obvious, and high end, choice, is the Sony a7S Mark II. This camera has everything you could wish for in terms of professional colour profiles, for the best post processing (colour grading). As it is a full frame camera, though, the lenses will be much larger, and also quite expensive. On the positive side, the camera does not have any horizontal crop factor when recording 4k video, unlike the Lumix GH4.

Another high performance choice is the Samsung NX1, which gives you a lot of features for the money. On the other hand, there are uncertainties to the future of the Samsung NX format, so this is a choice with some risk.

For somewhat less cash, you can get the Sony a6300. It is an APS-C sensor sized camera, so the lenses will be somewhat smaller. Avoid the 16-50mm power zoom kit lens, though, as it is rather poor. This camera appears to have the best continuous autofocus performance while recording video in 4k in this class. Certainly much better than the GH4, which is quite poor in this respect.

Product news

These are exciting times, with a lot of product announcements in relation to the Fotokina trade show. Here is a short summary:

Lumix G 35-100mm f/4-5.6

This lens is designed to match the Lumix GM1 and GM5 camera, both in terms of styling and size.

It is expected to cost US$400. But it will probably be primarily sold in twin lens kits with the new GM5 camera.

Lumix GH4 Review

The big news from Panasonic this year is the Lumix GH4. There is a tradition that the version number four is dropped when incrementing a camera model name. For example, there was never a Lumix G4 or GF4. The reason for this is that the word for "four" rhymes with the word for "death" or "disease" in some Asian languages.

However, there are two reasons why Panasonic still used the model name "GH4": One is that professional cameras often still carry the number four. We have the professional Nikon D4, for example. The manufacturer probably reasons that the users of a professional camera is less likely to be superstitious.

The other reason is that the main new feature of the GH4 is 4K video. So it makes good sense to use the model name GH4.

From the outside, the GH4 looks very much like the predecessor GH3:

The body is molded slightly differently over the flash, but other than that, the shape of the camera bodies is pretty much identical. The button layout is also the same. However, there are some small, but important differences.

GH4: The game changer

The big news this week is of course the announcement of the Lumix GH4, the new Micro Four Thirds flagship camera from Panasonic.

While the Lumix GH3 was more about competing with pro DSLR cameras, the upcoming GH4 has the most breaking news in the video area. More about that further down.

Put APS-C sensors in Micro Four Thirds cameras

By far the most common sensor size for system cameras is APS-C. As the name suggests, the size is derived from the Advanced Photo Systems, a still image film format introduced in 1996. Almost all mirrorless camera systems use APS-C, with the exception of Nikon 1, Pentax Q, and Micro Four Thirds. There is also the Sony A7 with a full frame sensor, but it still has a very small volume.

On top of this, all consumer DSLR cameras use the APS-C format. Again, there are some exceptions: Some full frame cameras that sell in smaller volumes.

While never officially confirmed, there is a strong belief that all recent Olympus M4/3 cameras use sensors from Sony. They are: E-M5, E-PM2, E-PL5,E-P5, and E-M1. In addition, the Panasonic GH3 is said to use the same sensor.

The imaging sensor is one of the most expensive items in a digital camera. And the cost is strongly correlated with the sensor size. Hence, some have speculated that the choice to use a sub-APS-C sensor size in Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras is more related to economy than an evaluation of what the optimal size is: With a sensor that is approx 40% smaller, Micro Four Thirds cameras can be sold at a larger margin, compared with APS-C cameras.

However, there is more to the cost of production: There is also economics of scale. As Sony is producing a massive number of APS-C sensors, I suggest to use this sensor size also in Micro Four Thirds. That would probably cost pretty much the same as a 4/3 size sensor, given that they don't need to support one more sensor size.

What framerate to use in videos?

Excellent video is one of the reasons to use Micro Four Thirds cameras, especially the ones from Panasonic. Some come with different framerate choices, so which to use?

First, here's an overview of the existing alternative framerates. I have outlined the choices for full HD 1920x1080 resolution only. For lower resolutions, there may be more framerate selections available:

Framerate	Panasonic	Olympus
24 fps	GH3, GM1, GX7, G6	None
25 fps	All PAL area cameras	None
30 fps	All NTSC area cameras	All
50 fps	PAL area cameras: GX7, GM1 (only interlaced), GF6 (only interlaced), G6	None
60 fps	NTSC area cameras: GX7, GM1 (only interlaced), GF6 (only interlaced), G6	None

As you can see from the table above, Panasonic gives you much more choice in terms of which framerate to use. All current Olympus cameras only have one single choice: 30 fps.

Overview of Panasonic cameras

It was Panasonic who released the very first Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, back in 2008. While it was a very ergonomic camera with photography oriented functions and one of the best kit zoom lenses in its class, it never made much impact. It was not until Olympus released the retro looking E-P1 that the format took off.

Since this time, they have released a number of cameras. Here is an overview of the current models.

Camera	Lumix GH3	Lumix G6	Lumix GX7	Lumix GM1	Lumix GF6
Price	$1000	$600	$900	$750	$500
Announced	Sep 17th, 2012	April 24th, 2013	Aug 1st, 2013	Oct 17th, 2013	April 9th, 2013
Dimensions	133 × 93 × 82mm	122 × 85 × 71mm	123 × 71 v 55mm	99 × 55 × 30mm	111 × 65 × 38mm
Weight	550g	390g	402g	204g	323g
Style	SLR	Compact SLR	Rangefinder	Compact	Compact
EVF	Yes	Yes	Yes, tilting	No	No
Tilt LCD	Articulated	Articulated	Tilting	No	Tilting
Flash hotshoe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Focus peaking	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IBIS	No	No	Yes	No	No
In a nutshell	Weatherproof, pro ergonomics, the best video	Compact, value for money, good on features	Retro rangefinder style	Very compact, retry style	Compact, enthusiast friendly
Body

Micro Four Thirds sensors

The imaging sensor is the heart of the digital camera, and, hence, it is not hard to understand that there is a lot of interest and mystique surrounding the issue of sensors. In this article, I am trying to make a bit of sense of the various generations of sensors used in the Micro Four Thirds cameras so far.

Some of the information here is based on a bit of guesswork. If you think some of this is wrong, then please feel free to comment it.

Using Micro Four Thirds lenses on Sony NEX cameras

When the first Micro Four Thirds cameras were launched, they became instantly popular for using old, legacy lenses with adapters. Since the register distance is smaller than most other mounts, it is possible to create adapters for mounting lenses from many other systems to Micro Four Thirds cameras. This makes the most sense with lenses that feature a manual, mechanical focus ring and aperture. Even if there exist adapters for mounting Canon EF lenses on Micro Four Thirds, they do not allow for changing the aperture, hence, they are not very useful. This is because the Canon EF mount is an electro-optical system (EOS), which means that there are no manual rings to control the aperture setting.

As the Sony E mount has an even shorter register distance, though, this is one of the few formats that can not be adapted to the Micro Four Thirds system. Sony NEX lenses have a register distance of 18mm, hence, even if a thin adapter was made for using them on M4/3 cameras, you would not be able to focus to infinity with them. This is because the Micro Four Thirds cameras have a register distance of 20mm, too long for the optical formula of the Sony NEX lenses.

But, the other way around is possible: There are adapters for mounting Micro Four Thirds lenses on Sony NEX cameras. As the difference in the register distance is only 2mm, these adapters are very thin. Note that most Micro Four Thirds lenses are electro-optical, just like the Canon EF lenses, so you will not be able to control the focus or aperture from the camera, rendering most M4/3 lenses useless for this purpose.

The most useful M4/3 lenses for adapting on Sony NEX are those that are fully manual, e.g., the Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye, the Olympus 15mm f/8 body cap lens, the Cosina Noktor 17.5mm f/0.95, and so on.

Here is what my adapter looks like:



It does not appear to be the best quality, but works ok. You use it as you would expect: The adapter goes on the Sony NEX camera, and then you can mount a Micro Four Thirds lens to it. Note that the adapter has no electrical contacts: Electronic focus operation and aperture operation is impossible, as is the use of the optical image stabilization (OIS), if the lens has this feature.

Using the Wanderlust Pinwide

Here's the Sony NEX-3N with the Micro Four Thirds to Sony NEX adapter, and the Wanderlust Pinwide:



The Wanderlust Pinwide is not a lens, but a pinhole camera body cap. It is recessed into the camera, for a better wide effect. It corresponds to 11mm focal length, hence, behaves like a 22mm lens on a traditional film camera. Which is very wide indeed.

But when used on the 1.5x crop sensor in the Sony NEX-3N, it becomes like a 17mm lens, i.e., extremely wide. See the difference below:

Used on the GH3	Used on the Sony NEX-3N

The problem is the light falloff outside the centre of the image frame. The extra wideness does not help much, as there is a very significant vignetting. The vignetting is caused mostly by the sensor's sensitivity to the angle of the light hitting it: Light coming from a steep angle does not work well, ideally the light should come perpendicular to the sensor. This appears to affect the green channel the most, giving a purple tint outside the image centre.

Using the Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye

The Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye is a manual focus lens with a manual aperture ring, hence, very well suited for adapting on a non-Micro Four Thirds camera. See the lens mounted below:



One problem with this setup, though, is that the adapter appears to be too thick, placing the lens too far from the sensor surface. This gives problems focusing to infinity. This is still not a fatal problem: You can still stop down the lens to achieve infinity in focus. I had to set around f/8 to get infinity reasonably in focus.

Here are some example images taken on both a Micro Four Thirds camera, and the Sony NEX-3N:

Used on the GH3	Used on the Sony NEX-3N

In the right image, above, you can see that the left and right sides are black. This is due to the built in lens hood: It keeps out light which would fall outside of the Four Thirds sensor surface, hence, giving black sides. Notice also that the black areas are a bit skewed, because the lens adapter mounts the lenses slightly rotated.

In the corners, you can see parts of the image circle ending. The image circle spans 180° field of view, and where this ends, you can see the black bits in the corners. So one advantage of using the fisheye lens on the Sony NEX camera, is that you can crop the image to several different aspect ratios, and still achieve a 180° diagonal field of view. Using a native Four Thirds sensor, you can only achieve this in the 4:3 aspect ratio. Due to the multi aspect sensor, the Panasonic GH1 and GH2 cameras could achieve this also in 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios.

Another comparison example:

Used on the GH3	Used on the Sony NEX-3N

Using the Lumix G 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens at 14mm

So, the kit zoom lens is of course an electro-optical lens, and you can only adjust the focus and aperture while having the lens mounted to a native Micro Four Thirds camera. However, there is a small trick. You can mount the lens to a Micro Four Thirds camera, turn on the camera, set the focus and aperture you want, take a long exposure, and then remove the lens during the exposure. The lens then has your desired focus and aperture set.

Using this trick, I used the kit zoom lens at 14mm, infinity focus, f/8 aperture:

Used on the GH3	Used on the Sony NEX-3N

Again, we see the vignetting due to the lens hood. This time, though, I could have removed the hood, but I left it on to illustrate that the lens is mounted slightly rotated when using this adapter. We can also see that the image has a bit of barrel-distortion. This is because the lens needs in camera geometric distortion correction to give rectilinear images. And when using the lens this way, there is no such distortion correction done.

Finally, even when pre-focusing at infinity and setting the aperture to f/8, infinity is not really in focus here. Again, this is due to the adapter being slightly too thick, making it impossible to focus on infinity with most lenses.

Conclusion

Using an adapter, it is possible to mount Micro Four Thirds lenses on Sony NEX cameras. However, my adapter was a bit thick, making infinity focus impossible. Also, most electronic lenses cannot be used at all, since there is no way to operate the focus or change the aperture.

This could be a way to reuse your manual focus Micro Four Thirds lenses on Sony NEX, though, like the Cosina Noktor 17.5mm f/0.95, especially if you don't care about infinity focus. That way, you can use the Sony NEX focus peaking as a manual focus assistance.

Multi aspect sensor

An important feature of the Panasonic GH1 and GH2 was the multi aspect, oversized sensor. They had sensors larger than that of the other Four Thirds sensor cameras. This allowed taking pictures in the aspect ratios 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 with the same diagonal sensor length, and, hence, using the full image circle. This is in contrast with other Micro Four Thirds cameras, which apply sensor cropping at 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios.

When the Panasonic GH3 was launched late 2012, it was a big disappointment that it did not offer the multi aspect sensor feature of the two predecessors. But what does it mean?

The illustration below shows the two sensor sizes. The green rectangle is the standard Four Thirds sensor size, while the black corners outline the GH1 and GH2 sensor size. Since the GH3 has the standard sensor size, it crops to achieve 16:9 video recording (orange box). The GH1 and GH2, on the other hand could use the red rectangle for video recording, using the image circle more efficiently and also achieving a wider field of view given the same lens.

In video

In the illustration above, the GH3 video crop of the sensor (orange box) is 7.4% smaller than that of the GH1 and GH2 (red box), when measured by the diagonal. This means that when using one of the kit zoom lenses at the widest setting, 14mm, the diagonal field of view of the GH3 corresponds to 15mm in video mode. This was calculated as 14×(1+7.4%). So, as compared with the predecessor, the kit lenses will give you less wide angle when video recording.

What you can do, then, is to use a different lens. The Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8 lens starts at 12mm, and hence, gives you a better wide angle during video. On the other hand, it has a more limited zoom range, stopping at 35mm, well before the typical portrait lens focal length of 42mm. It is an excellent lens, though, probably the best I have ever used.

Another option is the Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 power zoom lens. While this lens generally gets mixed reviews, probably because of the limited maximum aperture, I think it is a very interesting lens. It is the only zoom lens to cover both the very wide and portrait lens focal length. On top of this, it also adds a macro mode and power zooming, as well as coming in a weather sealed constant length package. On the downside, though, it does not feature optical image stabilization, so using it for video recording on a Panasonic lens is going to be tough. Without a tripod or a good support, your videos risk being shaky.

It's good to keep in mind that the lack of a multi aspect sensor in the GH3 is nothing extraordinary. In fact, out of all video enabled consumer system cameras, the GH1 and GH2 were the only to feature the oversized multi aspect sensors. All other do not have this feature. On the other hand, most other video enabled system cameras have an APS-C sized 3:2 aspect sensor. When cropping such a sensor to 16:9 for video, this wastes a relatively smaller part of the sensor than when cropping a 4:3 sensor. Hence, the oversized sensor doesn't make that much sense with APS-C sensor. The illustration below shows this:



The Four Thirds sensor wastes 25% of the sensor area when cropping to video mode, and 7.4% of the image circle (diagonally). The APS-C, on the other hand, wastes only 16% of the sensor size, and 4.5% of the image circle. So the oversized sensor feature does not make as much sense with the more common APS-C sensor format.

Here is a side by side video showing the GH2 and GH3 in photo and video mode, both using the Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 pancake lens. It shows that when changing to video mode, the GH3 loses some field of view due to cropping the from the Four Thirds sized sensor:

In photography

If you like to take photos in the 4:3 aspect ratio, then there is no difference whatsoever between the GH2 and the GH3. The resolution is exactly the same.

However, the GH1 and GH2 had the option of using the 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios for photos as well, while still retaining the same diagonal field of view. If you intend to use the images in this format, then you would use the lens image circle more efficiently with these cameras, and the GH2 will give you better resolution to boot. Here is a comparison table:

Photo resolution	GH2	GH3
4:3	4608x3456 (16MP)	4608x3456 (16MP)
3:2	4752x3168 (15MP)	4608x3072 (14MP)
16:9	4976x2800 (14MP)	4608x2592 (11MP)

These differences are not that important, surely, but there is in fact a significant difference.

On the other hand, with a camera like the GH3, it is best to stick with the 4:3 format when photographing, and crop the image later, if needed. And that saves time and hassle while photographing, which is not the worst thing you could do. With the GH2, I would often change the aspect ratio when photographing something wide, giving me slightly better resolution. With the GH3, I just skip this part, which is easier anyway.

Conclusion

Losing the multi aspect sensor feature with the GH3 was a setback. However, the consequences are not that severe. You lose the very widest field of view in video mode. If you prefer using longer focal lengths, this might actually be an advantage.

Producing two sensor sizes was probably too costly for Panasonic. So I can understand their desire to standardize the sensor size from an economic point of view. The Panasonic G5 and Panasonic G6 cameras are said to have sensors based on that from the Panasonic GH2. However, they still do not have the multi aspect sensor feature.

In fact, Panasonic has done the same also in the compact camera market. Their LX3 and LX5 premium compact cameras featured a 1/1.63'' (8.07 x 5.56 mm) multi aspect sensor, larger than the typical 1/1.7'' sensor mostly found in these cameras. The newest Panasonic LX7 has a standard 1/1.7'' (7.44 x 5.58 mm) sensor, from Sony, incidentally. It still achieves the multi aspect feature by having a slightly smaller image circle. This also allows for the very impressive aperture rating of this camera, f/1.4-2.3.

I think losing the multi aspect rate sensor opens up the need for more wide zoom lenses. Only two lenses start at 12mm so far, the Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8 and the Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3. The first of these is very good, but also very expensive, and a bit short. The second does not have OIS, and is hence not so useful for video on Panasonic cameras. With this in mind, I think that Panasonic should make a lens specified at something like 12-50mm f/2.8-4.5 with power zoom and OIS. That would be great for video use with the GH3.

Product news

Recently, we have seen some interesting product launches. Here are my opinions on some recent camera news:

Panasonic GF6

The GF1 was the fist "rangefinder style" Panasonic camera. It had enthusiast friendly features, like a PASM mode dial, thumb control dial, plenty of buttons, and the possibility to attach an external viewfinder. Later, though, Panasonic seem to have had a hard time deciding what to do with the GF series. The GF2 and GF3 were all about making the camera as small as possible, sacrificing the enthusiast features like wheels, buttons and the flash hotshoe. The GF5 is quite similar to the GF3, but adds, e.g., a more ergonomic grip.



In April 2013, Panasonic are making a bit of a U-turn with the GF6, bringing it closer to the enthusiast camera territory where the series where born. It is no longer about being as small as possible, but grows a little bit while adding a useful tiltable touch LCD screen, and sees the return of the top mode dial. It also has a metal surface top plate, which I think looks a bit cheesy, but I think many will love it.

It has sensibly shaped grip surfaces for the thumb (rear) and middle finger (front), making it much easier to hold than the smooth GF3.

The GF6 has a sensor inherited from the Panasonic GX1, which should give you a good image and video quality.

It comes with the new Lumix G 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II kit zoom lens, which is getting good reviews so far, being smaller and lighter than the predecessor.

Panasonic G6

The Panasonic G6 was announced in April 2013, almost half a year after the Panasonic GH3. Still, the GH3 is the better camera in virtually every way.



Not to say that the G6 is useless. Far from it. You may still be interested in the G6 for two reasons, mainly: It is smaller and lighter, and less expensive, while still packing most of the features of the Panasonic GH series.

It has a sensor from the GH2, however, with improved image processing. Sadly, it does not have the multi aspect sensor feature of the GH2. Even if the GH2 sensor on which the G6 is based is old, the updated processing adds a lot to the image quality. So you should still expect a good quality increase from the GH2.

In terms of video, it improves upon the GH2 features by adding 1080p resolution at 50/60fps (depending on PAL/NTSC), and also supports the extended tele conversion (ETC) mode.

When it comes to the design, it follows the GH3 trend by replacing chrome details with matte black. The overall shape bears a clear resemblance to the Leica R8 and R9, with elevated shoulders. While the camera is small, it has a generous grip, for better ergonomics.

This table sums up the size in comparison with the GH3:

Camera	GH3	G6
Width	133mm	122mm
Height	93mm	85mm
Depth	82mm	71mm
Weight	550g	390g

Another good news is that the G6 is the first Micro Four Thirds camera to feature "focus peaking". This feature highlights strong edges in the display, making it easier to focus manually, e.g., during video recording.

Panasonic Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/3.5-5.8

The superzoom lens Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8 was the third zoom lens from Panasonic within this system. It was used as a kit lens for the Panasonic GH1, and then, later available on a stand alone basis. I was never entirely happy with this lens, as I think it is not very sharp in the wide and long end, and it's focus performance, despite the HD designation, is nothing special compared with cheaper lenses.

With this in mind, it makes me happy that Panasonic is now updating this lens. The new lens has better aperture specifications, about a third stop better in the wide end, and a sixth stop better in the long end.



The new lens is also smaller, and has a front lens thread of 58mm, rather than 67mm for the old lens. With the experience Panasonic has acquired since making the original lens, e.g., from making the excellent Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8, I'm sure they can do a much better job this time. If you have the choice, I suggest getting the newer lens.

Some might miss a motorized zoom. After all, if this is really a video optimized lens, why is the zooming done with a manual, mechanical ring? Zooming smoothly during video is almost impossible with a manual zoom ring. Most likely, a motorized zoom would be too complicated for such a lens. The motor would need to be very powerful, to be able to extend the duo cam front part of the lens.

Also, I expect this lens to have a pretty well dampened zoom ring. The Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8 sure does, making it possible to zoom quite smoothly even during video. Unlike the basic kit zooms, which have a quite sticky zoom ring.

Olympus E-P5

The camera was announced on May 10th, together with a new external electronic viewfinder, the VF-4.



Olympus E-P5, shown with the optional VF-4 viewfinder, and the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens

The camera inherits a lot of interesting and attractive features from the Olympus OM-D E-M5: It gets a tiltable LCD display, the new five axis image stabilization, now with automatic panning detection. Also, it gets dual control wheels near the shutter button. Using Panasonic lenses with OIS becomes easier, since the camera allows you to choose more easily if you want to use the in camera image stabilization (IBIS) or OIS.

As for the sensor, it is also the same as in the OM-D E-M5, which is good, since it has been hailed for the good image quality. You can take up to 9 frames per second in continuous shooting mode, although only 5 fps with autofocus enabled. For more easy manual focus with legacy lenses or during video capture, there is a "focus peaking" feature to assist you by highlighting sharp edges.

I think it is good that the flagship PEN style camera now comes with a tilting LCD screen. That is very useful. On the other hand, I think the lack of a built in viewfinder makes it less attractive. On the other hand, quite some people like using cameras without eye level viewfinders, so I guess it still makes sense from a market perspective. All in all, this is a modern camera with virtually all the features you could think of, in a somewhat classic retro design.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

There is little doubt that, at the moment, the best Micro Four Thirds camera is the Panasonic GH3. However, the most interesting might very well be the odd Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera:



Not to say that everybody should rush out to buy this camera: Far from it. This is a very specialized camera. It does not take pictures, only video. And the video resolution is 1920x1080, nothing special at all.

However, since it is made for video, it has an imaging sensor optimized for video recording only, not photos. Hence, it is able to achieve much better video quality, especially in terms of dynamic range, handling of moire, and colours. It also supports higher bitrates, giving you less compressed video files.

Unlike the predecessor, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, which also came with a Micro Four Thirds mount, the pocket version has an active mount. This is a very crucial difference. With a passive mount, i.e., no electronic communication, most Micro Four Thirds lenses are useless on the camera, as you are not able to change the focus or the aperture.

The active mount of the pocket version makes all Micro Four Thirds lenses usable, though. You can operate the aperture and the focus, and OIS even works on the lenses that have OIS built in.

The Panasonic GH3 handles autofocus during video capture surprisingly well, as I have demonstrated here. Even if the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features autofocus, you should not expect such a performance. Rather, you must probably rely on focusing manually during video capture, and there is a focus peaking mode to assist you.

On the negative side, the camera has a significantly smaller sensor that Four Thirds size. There is a crop factor of 2.88. This means that the Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 becomes a 40mm equivalent lens, i.e., a short normal lens. Finding a good wide angle lens might be difficult.

Also worth noting that the camera does not correct for geometric distortion, for the lenses that feature this. Quite many M4/3 lenses require software geometric distortion correction, and they will give you distortion issues on the Blackmagic camera.

This is a camera for video enthusiast, who want the best video quality in a compact and relatively ergonomic package.

After the release of the two Blackmagic Cinema cameras, Magic Lantern have announced that they will make available firmware upgrades for the Canon EOS 5D MkIII. The upgrades enables RAW video recording at 24fps, at 14 bits depth, suitable for movie makers. The firmware also adds other features like larger resolution videos, 2.5K, 3K, 3.6K and other sizes.

What's even more impressive, is that the features are expected to be ported to the Canon EOS 6D, Canon EOS 5D MkII and Canon EOS 600D cameras! This firmware development may well remove a significant part of the market for the Blackmagic Cinema cameras.

28mm APS-C compact cameras

Within the last months, we have seen two new cameras in the somewhat thinly populated class of large sensor compact cameras. This market segment has previously been pioneered by Sigma with their strange and quirky DP series. Fujifilm were the first to get a good impact here, with the retro design 35mm (equivalent) Fujifilm X100.

Nikon and Ricoh now want a place in this segment as well, with the Nikon Coolpix A and Ricoh GR:

Nikon Coolpix A	Ricoh GR

Both feature retractable lenses with a 28mm equivalent field of view, and an aperture of f/2.8. What's more, it is reasonable to believe that both feature the same APS-C sensor from Sony. The APS-C sized sensors are commonly used in consumer DSLR cameras.

The Ricoh camera is slightly wider, but slimmer and lower, and also lighter. They have similar features, and the choice largely comes down to what type of ergonomics you like. Beyond that, the Ricoh GR also packs built in ND-filter, which is useful for large aperture shooting outdoor in sunlight. It also comes with a significantly lower price tag. It appears that Nikon want to capitalize on their strong brand name by charging a premium price for their camera.

Given that one would often want a camera like this to be slim and fit in a pocket, I think the Ricoh version looks the most useful. The Ricoh also appears to have the upper hand in terms of optical performance, based on the tests I have seen so far.

Neither of the cameras have a tiltable LCD or the possibility to attach an external EVF, which is too bad, but hardly unexpected since they are intended to be compact and rigid.

Autofocus during video comparison, GH2 vs GH3

When the Panasonic GH1 was announced in April 2009, it had a unique selling point: It was the first and only consumer system camera which could autofocus continuously while recording videos. Since this time, the competition has improved a lot, of course, and all mirrorless system cameras can autofocus while recording videos. But they use different technologies, and the performance varies.

The Panasonic GH3 was released with a claim to have the best AF performance of mirrorless cameras ever, as usual for a new premium mirrorless camera. And the AF performance for single still images is very impressive indeed. However, this doesn't really matter. All current Micro Four Thirds camera focus more than fast enough for static still images. Except possibly with the Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens, due to its combination of a fast aperture and an old school focus construction.

What's still a challenge, though, is continuous autofocus during video recording, and focus tracking of moving subjects, in AF-C mode.

The Sony SLT cameras solve this by using a fixed translucent mirror, which means being able to use phase difference autofocus (PDAF) also during video recording. This system is able to track moving subjects very well during video, due to the genuine SLR PDAF technology. However, the cameras are not mirrorless, being DSLR systems with fixed mirrors, which means having larger camera bodies, and, usually, larger lenses as well.

The Nikon 1 system and Canon EOS M system solve this by having on-chip PDAF sensors, directly on the imaging sensor. With this technology, they can combine PDAF and CDAF, however, the real world benefits of this system are still undecided.

Panasonic and Olympus have so far used pure CDAF, with no specialized hardware to aid the focusing. They rather rely on image processing to speed up the autofocus. With the Panasonic GH3 being the most recent premium model, let's see if it actually does improve upon the predecessor GH2. To test the cameras head to head, I mounted both on a plank using Manfrotto Superclamps:



On both cameras, I used the Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 pancake lens. The lens focuses very quickly. Even with the same lenses, the GH2 has a slightly wider field of view in video mode, due to the multi aspect sensor feature, which the GH3 misses.

Here are the results in terms of autofocus performance during video recording:



As we see, the Panasonic GH3 performs much better than the GH2 in term of autofocus. Even with the same basic technology, the GH3 has a better image processing capability, which enables it to focus better while recording videos.

Notice that the GH2 needs to jog the focus back and forth to confirm the focus and settle. This is a typical sign of CDAF focus technology. The GH3, on the other hand, appears to nail the focus straight away, as if it was using PDAF. Which it doesn't.

I think it looks like the GH3 is a revolution when it comes to continuous AF during video for Micro Four Thirds. It may be the first camera to make AF during video truly possible.

And this does work well in real life situations. Here, I have recorded a concert using the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 at f/2, ISO 3200. The light was very dim, around EV2. The autofocus was left on during the video, and it generally keeps the image well in focus. In my experience, the GH2 would not have handled such a situation well:



Keep in mind that AF-C while photographing moving subjects is a totally different subject. I would expect the Panasonic GH3 to perform better here as well, as it is capable of AF sampling at up to 240fps with the most recent lenses, the Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8 and Lumix X 35-100mm f/2.8. However, I have not tested this feature yet.