Panasonic Lumix GH6

On paper, this is the ultimate affordable hybrid camera. Its video specifications are staggering, but how does it perform for stills?

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Price: £1,999/$2,199

The Panasonic Lumix GH6 shows that the company still has faith in its Lumix G Micro Four Thirds line-up. Indeed, it’s Panasonic’s full-frame Lumix S line-up that appears to have slowed down, with nothing new since the Lumix S5.

The new GH6 sits right at the top of the Lumix G lineup, 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 the Panasonic’s long-running and popular GH5 model, but brings higher resolution, unlimited recording times, a huge leap in frame rates and a wider choice of recording formats, bit depths, bitrates and codecs.

However, this isn’t just a camera for video recording. While the video features are at the heart of the GH6, it is laid out like a conventional mirrorless camera and is, in fact, a highly capable stills camera, matching the resolution of many full-frame models, albeit with a smaller sensor.

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

Key features

The Lumix GH6 features a new 25MP stacked sensor. This doesn’t just give a modest increase in resolution, but a big increase in readout speeds and hence the choice of codecs, compression levels and frame rates.

It isn’t just processing power alone that has made this possible. The GH6 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 to accommodate the highest recording settings.