Five years after the launch of the GH5, the Panasonic GH6 arrived in a hail of video features. But, while the Micro Four Thirds camera has a long list of options for videographers, Panasonic dubs the GH6 as a hybrid for shooting multiple media types. Besides the 5.7K video, the sensor was upgraded to the highest resolution of any Micro Four Thirds camera yet (25.2MP). Meanwhile, to reduce noise, Panasonic introduced something called Dynamic Range Boost.
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But, while the video sees significant upgrades, some of the GH6 technology feels a bit old, like the contrast-based autofocus system and the battery life of just 350 shots. Others features were left out entirely. Modes like Live Composite and in-camera focus stacking are missing. I spent a few weeks with the camera, and while there are a few stand-out features the Panasonic GH6 is heavily skewed towards video.
An overwhelming amount of the Panasonic GH6’s best features are video-centric. Yes, the Panasonic GH6 is a hybrid. But, the video features are what might make the $2,265 price (body-only) worth the expense. While it retains some love for still photographers, there are better options for the price point; even Panasonic’s full-frame S5 is cheaper. I see the GH6 being a favorite among videographers who also shoot stills, rather than photographers who also shoot a little bit of video.
The Panasonic GH6 has a great design. It’s durable and former DSLR shooters will love the large, comfortable grip. There are a lot of comfortable controls. Photos are solid, with great color. Noise reduction is a bit better than we’ve seen from Olympus. And, of course, there’s the slew of video features: 5.7K at 60 fps in 10-bit, and 4K at 120 fps.
But, the GH6 feels like two steps forward, one step backward. The battery life is worse than the GH5. The body is larger than even the full-frame S5. It’s missing features like Live Composite and Focus Stacking that the older GH5 had, as well as features like Animal Eye AF that competing cameras offer. And there are faster autofocus systems at this price point.
The Panasonic GH6 is a great video camera. It’s a good stills camera too, but why get a good camera when you can get a great one for the same price? The GH6 is worth considering for those invested in Micro Four Thirds lenses who want a bit better noise reduction. For others, there are competing Micro Four Thirds cameras with better autofocus systems, more extras, and lower price points. And for users who don’t shoot much video and aren’t already invested in Micro Four Thirds glass, why not get even better noise reduction with the cheaper S5?
I’m giving the Panasonic GH6 three out of five stars. But, if you shoot primarily video, consider it a four out of five-star camera.
I used the Panasonic GH6 with the:
The Panasonic GH6 has the highest resolution yet to come to the Micro Four Thirds system. But, Panasonic works to keep the high ISO noise low by processing both a low ISO and a high ISO signal at the same time. This uses two different circuits, so there’s no risk of ghosting as when merging multiple separate images. It’s some nice technology to see, but other aspects of the camera, like the contrast-based autofocus system, feel a bit more old school.
One of the first things I noticed pulling the Panasonic GH6 out of the box is how comfortable it is. After shooting with DSLRs for a decade, I still like big grips that my whole hand can fit around. The GH6 has one of those grips. It’s quite comfortable even for hours at a time. Among mirrorless bodies, the GH6 is one of the more comfortable grips.
But, it’s big. The GH6 weighs 1.8 pounds and is nearly four inches deep. In fact, the Micro Four Thirds camera is bigger than Panasonic’s full-frame S5. The larger size has to do with heat dissipation, which is what allows the camera to record high-resolution video without a time limit. The LCD screen juts out from the back of the camera rather than sitting flush. Behind the screen, there are two vents that let heat out to the sides.
I don’t hate the larger size as it allows for that big grip, as well as lots of physical controls and a pretty great viewfinder. But, it’s certainly worth noting since a smaller size is typically one of the draws of the Micro Four Thirds system. With the GH6, photographers still get smaller telephoto lenses.
With the bigger size, the GH6 has plenty of room for physical controls. Flanking the grip on the top are two control dials: one by the thumb and one just behind the shutter release. Also at the top of the grip are shortcuts for white balance, ISO, exposure compensation, an audio display, and a video record button. Sandwiched between those controls and the viewfinder is the mode dial. There’s a button to lock and unlock the dial on top and the on-off toggle is located here as well. Jumping over the viewfinder, there’s a slightly smaller dial that sets the burst speed, self-timer, or high res mode.
The back of the camera has a whole bank of controls within reach of my thumb. There’s a focus mode toggle, which surrounds a button for the focus area mode. There’s a joystick, of course, and an AF On button, as well as a quick menu, a full menu, and a back and display button. The menu arrows double as a third control wheel. Squeezed into the opposite corner, there’s a playback button and a lock that prevents settings from being bumped out of place.
On the grip side of the camera, there are dual card slots: one for SDs, the other for CF Express Type B. On the opposite side, there’s that vented opening behind the screen as well as ports for mic, headphones, USB-C, and HDMI.
At the front of the camera on the corner, there’s a second record button. I accidentally bumped this a few times and inadvertently started recording. Above that is the lens release, and farther up is a flash port. Between the grip and the lens, there are two custom buttons.
That’s a lot of controls, which means relatively little menu digging. With some time to get acquainted with everything, there are a lot of settings that can be changed without pulling my face from the camera.
The viewfinder sits out and away from the back of the camera just a bit. I was comfortable shooting with the viewfinder even wearing glasses. It’s a large 3.6 million dot type, with an eye sensor switching between that and the three-inch tilting LCD screen. The screen flips out to the side, which allows the screen to basically have a 360-degree range of motion, including facing forward for selfies and vlogging.
Overall, while the GH6 is large, the controls are plentiful and the grip comfortable.
The GH6 is made with a magnesium alloy frame, and I could feel the durable build while shooting with this camera. It’s a bit hefty, but the trade-off is that it feels quite sturdy. The controls and buttons also turn and push with a great sturdy feel.
The GH6 is weather-resistant. I shot through a rainy soccer game and the camera held up just fine. The vents on the side look a bit worrisome, but Panasonic says that the GH6 is fully weather-sealed and I certainly didn’t find anything to the contrary.
The Panasonic GH6 uses a contrast-detection system that’s rated down to -4 EV for low light. The Depth from Defocus system uses just 315 points.
In low light, the GH6 is rated to -4 EV (The similarly priced S5 is rated to -6 EV). I didn’t have any issues focusing the camera indoors. The GH6 even focused on the corner of a dark closet, using the built-in AF assist light to lock on.
But, the sports performance is lacking. With continuous autofocus, the top burst speed is only 7 fps. While I captured plenty of sharp images during a U10 soccer game, I still had quite a few soft images. I turned the burst speed all the way down to the lowest setting, and 13 percent of my shots were still wildly out of focus. I had enough usable photos, but I’ve gotten better hit rates from other cameras, particularly at the $2,300 price point.
The Panasonic GH6 has eye and face AF, as well as animal AF. The eye AF operates a bit differently than other systems. Instead of a box around the eye in focus, the focus box appears around the face and there are two lines that intersect on whichever eye is in focus. To lock on the eyes though, the camera has to be set to eye and face — it didn’t detect eyes when set to the Human + Animals option. The GH6 will detect the body of animals, but it won’t find the eyes. That’s disappointing because the Micro Four Thirds family’s smaller telephoto lenses make this type of camera typically alluring for wildlife.
I found the overall autofocus performance on the GH6 a bit disappointing. It’s not awful, but there are other cameras at this price point that do a bit better with action. And I would have really liked to see more smart AF modes, like Canon’s animal eye AF or Olympus’ motorsports AF.
One of the things that Micro Four Thirds has done well for years is image stabilization. Panasonic continues the trend here. It’s equipped with 7.5 stops of stabilization. I was able to blur the motion of waterfalls at 1/10 handheld, even using the kit lens’ longer focal lengths.
The fastest burst mode — 75 fps — is fast enough that, pushing the next arrow in the Lightroom library creates a slow-mo video. Seriously, cinematic video is typically only 24 fps. The fastest burst speed, however, shoots for about 2.6 seconds and then has a wait time while the images record before another shot can be taken. There’s a wait time even when using a CF Express card instead of the SD slot. That, mixed with the lack of continuous autofocus, is not going to work in a lot scenarios. But, it’s going to be nice for a few rare types of shots, like photographing a water balloon popping.
There’s a 15 fps mechanical shutter with no wait. But, for continuous autofocus, that speed drops dramatically down to just 7 fps. That, mixed with the autofocus system, means the camera isn’t the best choice for sports and wildlife photography.
One of my biggest disappointments in the GH6 is the battery life. It’s rated at just 350 shots, though it can stretch to 750 with a live viewfinder power save mode. Even the GH5 has a better battery life at 500 shots. Why does the newer model drain the battery life so much faster?
One of the biggest features of the GH6 is the unlimited video recording. If you dig in the spec list far enough, you’ll see that the maximum record time is 90 minutes due to the battery life, not overheating. While the S5 can’t record continuous 10-bit, it can record longer 8-bit videos simply because it has longer battery life. That may dampen the excitement of this camera, even for videographers. I was able to shoot a one-hour, twenty-minute video in 5.7K MOV, then the battery alert came on as I was reviewing the video on the back of the camera. Extra batteries or a constant power source is going to be a must for video as well as longer stills shooting.
I do have to hand it to Panasonic though for managing heat. That one-hour, twenty-minute video was taken in 95-degree weather in a heat advisory. There was a quiet hum as the camera pushed the hot air out the side vents, but I stopped the recording because the battery was almost gone, not because the camera was overheating.
The GH6 lacks Live Composite, which the S5 and several other Panasonic models offer. This mode blends multiple images together while only recording the changes in the bright areas. It’s a great tool for photographing star trails, lightning bugs, and light painting, but it’s absent here.
That’s not all that’s missing. The GH6 doesn’t do in-camera focus stacking either, another handy mode that the GH5 had. I can forgive the missing 6K Photo modes though — with a 75 fps electronic shutter burst, they aren’t really necessary. One of the reasons to choose Micro Four Thirds was some of those innovative shooting modes. But, those modes are gone.
The metering system was right on point. Using the Sunny 16 rule, the meter inside the viewfinder showed that the exposure was dead on — and it was.
The Panasonic GH6 is the first Micro Four Thirds sensor to offer more than 25 megapixels. But, more megapixels aren’t always better — especially when working with a smaller sensor. To compensate for that, Panasonic introduced Dynamic Range Boost. Basically, in images over ISO 800, the camera uses two analog circuits, one to process a low ISO signal with lots of color, and the other grabs a high ISO signal to better preserve the detail in the shadows.
The result? The GH6 still has the grain of a Micro Four Thirds sensor, but it doesn’t seem like more grain. In short, it gained detail through a higher resolution without a noticeable reduction in low light quality. That’s great, particularly since the Dynamic Range Boost is one of the camera’s more innovative features. It’s not going to compare to a full-frame camera, but, for the category, the GH6 is right on track.
While Panasonic did away with the Live Composite and focus stacking, thankfully, its color profiles are still intact, including two Cinelike options. The base color is fairly neutral without being overly saturated. I left the camera in auto white balance and yet it still didn’t have a tendency to skew skin tones to be too green, too purple, or too orange.
The Panasonic GH6 still delivers very clean images at ISO 1600. Bumping up to ISO 3200, images still look pretty great, with only a minor loss of detail if you are pixel peeping. If you are doing a lot of editing, however, ISO 3200 may have some more banding and color noise if making extreme changes to the exposure or shadows.
I printed out an image shot at ISO 10,000 at about 13 by 19 inches. There was still a good amount of detail on this print and, for a normal viewing distance I wouldn’t be bothered by the grain at all. Looking closely, however, there’s some noticeable grain in the shadows and the gradation from light to dark is less smooth.
Overall, for a Micro Four Thirds camera, the GH6 does pretty well at high ISOs — just keep images above ISO 3200 to minimal editing.
The Panasonic GH6 has a pretty good dynamic range for a Micro Four Thirds camera. The image above has both a bright interior and a sun-lit exterior in the same image. I brought the shadows up by roughly 2.5 stops to prevent losing all the details inside the house. The shot still looks quite good, even though the shadows were brought up quite a bit and it was shot at ISO 3200.
Like with any camera, there are limits to just how much you can edit. In the image below, I brought the shadows all the way up in Lightroom and the highlights and whites almost all the way down in order to get the interior and exterior of this house to feel like equal lighting. This did create some banding. The banding was noticeable once bringing exposure up by a little over one stop on the ISO 3200 shot. Photographers should keep in mind that, while the high ISO images look pretty good straight out of the camera, they have less versatility in post.
Thankfully, Panasonic’s handheld high-resolution mode didn’t disappear with the Live Composite mode. The handheld high-resolution mode creates a 100-megapixel shot. These images are quite detailed and can take a lot more cropping in post.
I also love that the camera saves a 25-megapixel version of the same shot. Because the camera is stitching together multiple images, the high res mode doesn’t work on any moving subjects, If something does move during the frame, however, you still have that regular resolution photo m— so all is not lost.
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I’m a photographer, not a videographer. And, at The Phoblographer, we don’t review video cameras. But, I felt that a Panasonic GH6 review that didn’t talk about video would be doing this camera a disservice. It can record some of the highest resolution fast frame rate RAW video available from mirrorless cameras — 5.7K 30p in Apple ProRes internally. It also has 300 fps in full HD for impressive slow motion.
The video from the GH6 looks quite excellent. There’s plenty of detail, great sharpness, and not too much noise. The built-in stabilization allows for handheld video that doesn’t make the viewer seasick.
Even the audio sounded pretty clear for an internal microphone. Recording for longer stretches on a day in the 90s, there is a quiet hum as the GH6 dissipates heat. That’s going to need some editing in scenarios where the fan isn’t drowned out by other noise. But recording a high-resolution video without overheating on a 95-degree day is pretty impressive.
Autofocus adjustments are smooth as butter. As a contrast-detection system, there is a slight in and out focus. This was most noticeable when the focus adjusted a few times to stay on a person’s face. But, focus adjustments were not jarring at all.
The GH6 has a longer list of video features than photo features. Sure, you could call it a hybrid. But, if I had to call it a video camera or a stills camera, I would call it a video camera. Not because the stills are bad, but because the video features are more worthy of the $2,300 price tag.
From day one, the Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, lots of folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. You’re not showing what the lens can do. So we have a whole section in our Extra Image Samples area to show off edited and unedited photos. From this, you can make a decision for yourself.
The Panasonic GH6 is a great mirrorless camera for video. The 5.7K resolution is quite impressive. And while many mirrorless cameras still struggle with overheating, the GH6 recorded that high-resolution video for more than an hour on a 95-degree day. Even the autofocus performance was quite smooth and audio sounded pretty good — though the most serious videographers will likely use neither. The battery life, however, may give videographers some pause.
As a stills camera, the GH6 isn’t bad. Buy it if you shoot both photo and video, or want some really nice noise reduction from a Micro Four Thirds camera.
But, the biggest issue that I have with the GH6 is the price. The video features may be worth that much. But, for photographers that will never even use Apple ProRes, there are a lot of $2,300 cameras with more features, better autofocus systems, and even bigger sensors. If you love Panasonic’s colors and features, the cheaper S5 is the better choice here. The price is also roughly around where the Canon EOS R, Nikon Z6 II, and Sony a7 III sit, and the Fujifilm X-T4 sits quite a bit lower. Or, if you want the portability of the Micro Four Thirds system, the E-M1 Mark III focuses better with longer battery life, though doesn’t do quite as well at high ISOs. That’s about $500 less too.
LensRentals lists the following specifications for the Panasonic GH6:
Hillary K. Grigonis is a photographer and tech writer based in Michigan. She shoots weddings and portraits at Hillary K Photography. A mother of three, she enjoys hiking, camping, crafting, and reading.