Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

Panasonic are boasting “No crop factor” on the new GH5 but this is leading to major confusion. With the new GH5, it seems that we have the ability to now use the full width of the sensor as seen above while this was not possible on the GH4 giving a slight crop which is more noticeable using wide angle lenses also causing noticeable sensor noise.  Because you are not cutting into the GH5 sensor it is less noisy compared to the GH4 by almost a stop, so like most of us I would refrain going above 800 ISO on the GH4 you can push the boat out to at least 1600 ISO on the GH5.

IMPORTANT…The micro 4/3 crop remains the same on the GH5 which is two times if comparing it to a 35mm full frame sensor.

During summer of 2017 we are getting a new firmware, upgrading the camera from 4K 150Mbps to 400Mbps (Switchable via the cameras menu) using the new V60 SD card association protocol (60Mbps). 4K up till now required a card to have a U3 rating with a 64G card costing about £23 but until Panasonic can give end users clarity on exactly what cards will cover the new speed of 400Mbps we are in the dark.

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Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

5 thoughts on “Panasonic GH5…”Two of the most confusing parts of the new GH5″ No crop factor and new SDXC cards at 400Mbps

  1. I think I saw mentioned somewhere V60 and V90 would work and from the specs this would be correct. V60 is 480 Mbps and V90 is 720Mbps. I think I would be happier not getting as close as a V60 and opt for the V90 !!!

  2. Interesting insights, hopefully by using the full sensor moire and aliasing are not introduced to the footage…

    As for current cards to achieve 400mbps, remember that there are 8 bits to every byte, so you should factor the 400mbps to be 50MB/s. Some current UHS-II cards on the market write at well over 200MB/s. The UHS-II bus itself is limited at over 300MB/s, plenty of capacity left for further compression reduction!

    Thanks again for the insight on the sensor!

  3. ‘using the new V60 SD card association protocol (60Mbps)’

    That should be 60 Megabytes per second – 60MBps.

    400 Megabits is 50 Megabytes so in theory a 400Mbps stream can easily record to a 60MB/Sec card. Thanks!

  4. What is the minimum bitrate for 4K on the GH5?
    Sometimes I film some long form casual stuff and 100Mbps is fine, I don’t need higher bitrate for that as it wastes spaces and take longer to edit and export.
    Thanks

  5. So here is the thing – I just bought 64GB 2000x Lexar SHXC (300Mbs) for £117. The 300Mbs is the READ speed the Write speed is around 110-150Mbs
    Also just bought 256GB SDXC 1000x (150Mbs) for £110 and the write speed of that is just 76Mbs.

    However the real problem is my Video Assist 4k at DNxHR220x gets about 9 minutes on the 64GB 2000x 64GB card – occasionally having dropped frames.
    SDHC/SDXC is just not a viable medium for 4K yet

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