PANASONIC LUMIX GH6

Its video specifications are staggering, but how does it perform?

- Rod Lawton

www.panasonic.com f1,999/$2,198 (body only)

The Panasonic Lumix GH6 shows that Panasonic still has faith in its Lumix G Micro Four Thirds lineup. The new GH6 sits right at the top of the Lumix G range, offering powerful 4K and 5.7K video capabilities, but in a smaller, lighter and cheaper setup than a full-frame system.

It's a serious step up from the Lumix GH5 II, which is essentially an update to Panasonic's long-running and popular GH5 model, and brings higher resolution, unlimited recording times, a huge leap in frame rates and a wider choice of recording formats, bit depths, bitrates and codecs.

While video features are at the heart of the GH6, it's laid out like a mirrorless camera, and is a highly capable stills camera, matching the resolution of many full-frame models, but with a smaller sensor.

The GH6 is likely to attract serious filmmakers and videographers, but it could be an effective all-rounder for those who shoot stills, too.

Key features

One key feature is its new 25MP stacked sensor. This doesn't just facilitate an increase in resolution, but also in readout speeds and choice of codecs, compression levels and frame rates. It's not processing power alone that has made this possible. The camera also has active cooling, for longer recording times and to accommodate the higher processing demands. It also swaps one of its predecessor's twin SD card slots for a CFexpress Type B slot.

The GH6 offers hybrid in-body and lens-based stabilisation, which will be a relief to many prospective buyers - Panasonic didn't include IBIS on the video-centric Lumix GH5S, for example.

There are two things the Lumix GH6 doesn't have, however: in-camera raw video capture and phase-detect AF.