cameralight
Forum Enthusiast
There's nothing wrong with focusing on video, which appears to be a rare growth market within the photography world. But Panasonic needs to sort out its strategy as a whole. Currently, they're very hit and miss.
For example, they helped make cheap 4K video a big thing (in marketing terms, at least - regardless of how much it's actually needed) with the GX80/85 and G80/85. Then, having made it a big thing, the follow-up cameras - the GX9 and G90 - introduced a large 1.26x crop, making them actually worse than the previous generation for 4K video, which Panasonic had now helped make a popular feature.
OK, never mind, that particular aspect can be mitigated with a fast, wide-angle prime. Except Panasonic didn't make any - at least not within the same price category as the GX9 and G90. With the 4K crop, the 14mm f/2.5 is only equivalent to a 35mm (in FF terms), so not very wide. And it only gathers as much light as an f/1.8 1-inch compact - so you lose any light-gathering advantage. The PL 15mm is f/1.7, but is pricier and something like a 38mm FF-equivalent. The PL 12mm f/1.4 is so expensive it's really out of the price category of this kind of camera - especially if you're just trying to mitigate the 4K video crop.
Panasonic did use to make a wide-angle adapter, though, for the 14mm f/2.5 - but then they stopped selling it.
The PL 9mm f/1.7 should have come out when the GX9 and G90 did. Either that, or those cameras should have come out without such a severe crop.
Then of course, there's the autofocus. While AF-S is great, if you're promoting yourself as specialists in video, it really doesn't help having the worst video autofocus of all the major manufacturers (apologies to Pentax and Leica owners - these are more niche players these days). Now to Panasonic's credit they have improved DFD, to the extent that video autofocus is a much smaller problem than previously, but they're still a bit behind the others.
DFD was bad enough for long enough to have built up a bit of a stigma about Panasonic autofocus - particularly with the GH5. Early firmware had a ridiculous autofocus bug whereby if you chose the recommended rule-of-thumb shutter speed to give a 180 shutter angle (e.g. 1/60th at 30fps) then it could only manage one autofocus pass per frame, when it should have managed two. See YodaYeo's video with the details, and demonstrations of the impact:
Panasonic later fixed this, but the damage to the GH5's focus reputation was already done. It should never have been released with this bug.
The G100 appears to have been designed for photography rather than video, choosing to give it a big viewfinder and removing the IBIS. Yet it was marketed as a video camera instead. I can only imagine it was originally designed for photography, then half-way through development senior management insisted it be made into a video-focused camera, to compete with the Sony equivalent - and the final result didn't really work for what it was marketed as. Plus, if it was intended for vlogging, the above comments about the lack of cheap, fast, wide-angle primes become even more significant.
The new GH6 has seemingly removed a number of photographic features - despite being the M43 camera with the highest-resolution sensor. Why remove those features? Is this a sign that a more stills-oriented camera (including those features) is going to be released in the future? And yet, while removing photographic features, they also added a hand-held high-res mode for photography. It's very inconsistent.
Now, with the recent press reports about Panasonic stopping making small-sensored cameras, Panasonic should really have released a statement to clarify what cameras are affected. Is it just 1-inch compacts? Or does it include (low-end) M43 cameras? What about the LX100, which sits somewhere in-between?
For example, they helped make cheap 4K video a big thing (in marketing terms, at least - regardless of how much it's actually needed) with the GX80/85 and G80/85. Then, having made it a big thing, the follow-up cameras - the GX9 and G90 - introduced a large 1.26x crop, making them actually worse than the previous generation for 4K video, which Panasonic had now helped make a popular feature.
OK, never mind, that particular aspect can be mitigated with a fast, wide-angle prime. Except Panasonic didn't make any - at least not within the same price category as the GX9 and G90. With the 4K crop, the 14mm f/2.5 is only equivalent to a 35mm (in FF terms), so not very wide. And it only gathers as much light as an f/1.8 1-inch compact - so you lose any light-gathering advantage. The PL 15mm is f/1.7, but is pricier and something like a 38mm FF-equivalent. The PL 12mm f/1.4 is so expensive it's really out of the price category of this kind of camera - especially if you're just trying to mitigate the 4K video crop.
Panasonic did use to make a wide-angle adapter, though, for the 14mm f/2.5 - but then they stopped selling it.
The PL 9mm f/1.7 should have come out when the GX9 and G90 did. Either that, or those cameras should have come out without such a severe crop.
Then of course, there's the autofocus. While AF-S is great, if you're promoting yourself as specialists in video, it really doesn't help having the worst video autofocus of all the major manufacturers (apologies to Pentax and Leica owners - these are more niche players these days). Now to Panasonic's credit they have improved DFD, to the extent that video autofocus is a much smaller problem than previously, but they're still a bit behind the others.
DFD was bad enough for long enough to have built up a bit of a stigma about Panasonic autofocus - particularly with the GH5. Early firmware had a ridiculous autofocus bug whereby if you chose the recommended rule-of-thumb shutter speed to give a 180 shutter angle (e.g. 1/60th at 30fps) then it could only manage one autofocus pass per frame, when it should have managed two. See YodaYeo's video with the details, and demonstrations of the impact:
Panasonic later fixed this, but the damage to the GH5's focus reputation was already done. It should never have been released with this bug.
The G100 appears to have been designed for photography rather than video, choosing to give it a big viewfinder and removing the IBIS. Yet it was marketed as a video camera instead. I can only imagine it was originally designed for photography, then half-way through development senior management insisted it be made into a video-focused camera, to compete with the Sony equivalent - and the final result didn't really work for what it was marketed as. Plus, if it was intended for vlogging, the above comments about the lack of cheap, fast, wide-angle primes become even more significant.
The new GH6 has seemingly removed a number of photographic features - despite being the M43 camera with the highest-resolution sensor. Why remove those features? Is this a sign that a more stills-oriented camera (including those features) is going to be released in the future? And yet, while removing photographic features, they also added a hand-held high-res mode for photography. It's very inconsistent.
Now, with the recent press reports about Panasonic stopping making small-sensored cameras, Panasonic should really have released a statement to clarify what cameras are affected. Is it just 1-inch compacts? Or does it include (low-end) M43 cameras? What about the LX100, which sits somewhere in-between?
