I was able to have a 1 hour hands on session with Lumix yesterday and try some of the GH6 features.
Key points
- Beautifully engineered machine
- 1 stop dynamic range increase appears to be true
- LCD design with tilt will make easier to see underwater
- Records ProRes 422 HQ to CFExpress Card
- Support HDMI 2.1 (playback only)
- Battery same as the S5 and newer GH5M2
- Battery consumption 25 to 35% higher in MP4
- Significant HDMI lag if you use a recorder (1/4 of a second)
- Will record to USB with a future firmware update
- Will record prores raw externally with a future firmware update
- No battery grip
I am going to do a longer write up once I have tested the camera for land wildife use however I have the following concerns
- What is the real battery life when you record ProRes to card instead of the low quality MP4, will it last at least one dive?
HDMI lag is horrible just received confirmation that HDMI recording is capped at 4K resolutionThis proved to be a red herring as the lag is decreased from the GH5 series see here https://interceptor121.com/2022/03/10/panasonic-gh5m2-and-gh6-hdmi-lag-optimisation/- The lag of the HDMI can be reduced if you use only a monitor with a few tricks and it only needs HDMI 1.4
- The USB recording will be powered by the camera and the battery is already small
My recommendations for a professional grade housing would be:
- Recording to card either 4K@60 or 5.7@30 depending on your use case
- Optional monitor to run in 1080p to reduce lag HDMI 1.4 is sufficient
- PD Power bank inside the housing so you are sure you will not run out for an entire day of shooting
For photography a classic housing would work but then who is going to get this just for photos?
Stay tuned for more information. If there is something you want to know about the camera use the comment feature here.
Interceptor121 Photography & Video Workshops 
Great review! I also noticed your comment was featured on the DP Review video! https://youtu.be/J7ISw3YsVg4
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022, 10:04 AM Interceptor121 Photography & Video Workshops wrote:
> interceptor121 posted: ” I was able to have a 1 hour hands on session with > Lumix yesterday and try some of the GH6 features. Key points Beautifully > engineered machine1 stop dynamic range increase appears to be trueLCD > design with tilt will make easier to see underwaterRec” >
well I replied to that ISO 2000 with ND64 may be hard to obtain any focus however when I will take the camera outdoors in few weeks I will test it myself
I’d be interested to understand low-light performance (noise & focus reliability). I’m on the fence until I see hard evidence of this camera being equal or exceeding the GH5s for low-light, which would make the investment worthwhile. Else I’ve got to face selling most of my glass 😦 and moving to FF.
I ran the GH5S and the GH5M2 side by side there are few articles and videos. My conclusion is that if you are adamant on vlog the GH5S may make sense otherwise most of the low light performance is due to in camera noise reduction which you can do yourself with Neat video. In terms of focus the GH6 has some new logic and so did the GH5M2 however there isn’t a massive difference
thanks, useful to know. I’ve currently got a GH5 and trying to determine which is the best option for an underwater video upgrade, whether the GH6 with all of it’s additional codecs and framerate performance is the better choice over the GH5S with it’s low-light performance. If there is little difference, but both are a decent step up from the GH5 then I’ll go with the GH6, but if the GH6 isn’t a lot better than the GH5, and the GH5S only marginally so, then it may be a case of jumping ship from MFT format. Do you have a view?
The most efficient upgrade is the GH5M2 there is a benefit over the GH5 of around 2/3 stops and the housing is the same. Underwater you need lights because without you loose also color. Ambient shots at depth are monochrome without so I don’t really think extreme high ISO performance is a driver of any considerations. If you don’t have lights spend the money as they will go further than the camera.