Panasonic confirms Lumix GH5 mirrorless camera development

Panasonic has officially confirmed the development of the Lumix GH5 mirrorless camera, which is coming in 2017 with a 6K Photo mode.

Many people had had hoped that Panasonic would have a full-blown announcement of its much-rumored Lumix GX5 camera at the Photokina 2016 event. However, the company had other plans and it only announced the development of the camera.

As the most trusted sources revealed in recent times, the upcoming Micro Four Thirds camera will still offer video recording at a maximum of 4K resolution, but will support a 6K photo mode. Here are the official details straight out of the Photokina show!

Panasonic announces Lumix GH5 Micro Four Thirds camera development

Panasonic Lumix GH5 is officially a thing. It is under development and will continue to be a mirrorless camera with a Micro Four Thirds sensor, just like its predecessor, the Lumix GH4.

Panasonic Lumix GH5 will be released in 2017 with a 6K Photo mode.

The improvements will consist of a new sensor of unknown resolution. This sensor will offer 4K video recording at a maximum of 60fps with 10-bit 4:2:2 support. The Japan-based manufacturer claims that this is a first for the mirrorless camera industry.

This new device will be capable of extracting 8-megapixel stills from 4K video, just like the GH4. Nevertheless, the novelty consists of the 6K Photo mode. This feature will allow users to extract 18-megapixel photos from “ultra-high-quality video”.

It could be a confusing term, but Panasonic explains it by stating that this “ultra-high-quality video” is actually the high-speed burst shooting mode, therefore we believe that the company should work on its claims.

The film production will love this camera, Panasonic says

As stated above, there is no indication regarding the resolution of the Panasonic Lumix GH5’s sensor. Other features are also unknown, albeit the company says that the camera will also be targeted at enthusiast and professional videographers.

It seems like digital signal processing has been improved along with heat dissipation. As a result, the upcoming shooter should be welcomed within the film production community.

There is no exact release date for the device, but the manufacturer says that it is slated to become available towards the beginning of 2017.

As far as speculation goes, we can say that we expect the Lumix GH5 to be properly introduced at CES 2017 in early January and to be released by the end of Q1 2017. On the other hand, the price remains a mystery, too, but we will let you know as soon as we get our hands on more details.