Panasonic just announced the followup to its popular Lumix GH6 vlogging camera, the GH7. This Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera comes just two years after the release of the GH6, which is pretty quick in the videography world. The GH5 was released five full years before the GH6.
The 25.2-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor is likely the same as the one on the photo-centric Lumix LG9 II announced earlier this year. It also offers improved autofocus performance, which has been a much-requested feature, thanks to phase detection auto-focus (PDAF). There’s also a newly added real-time auto-focus recognition algorithm for use on airplanes and trains.
The GH7 is designed for video, and it looks like it delivers in that regard. It now supports internal ProRes RAW recording at up to 5.7K 30p along with ProRes as before, and can shoot 5.8K 60p 10-bit H.265 video. It can handle 4K at up to 120fps or Full HD at 240fps. It's equipped with both SD UHS II and CFexpress card slots, with the latter required for ProRes and ProRes RAW recording.
On top of ProRes RAW for video, it supports 32-bit float audio recording. Panasonic says the float recording “eliminates the need to adjust sound recording levels during shooting,” though it does require a separate XLR adapter. The image stabilization technology has also gotten a boost, which includes perspective distortion correction for videos.
We don’t know how heavy it’ll be and the GH6 was certainly on the heftier side. The battery life of the previous model was also fairly short, maxing out at 400 still images and around an hour of continuous 4K shooting. This camera should be able to shoot for long periods of time, however, as Panasonic has added a cooling fan for heat dissipation. It’s also splash resistant, dust resistant and freeze resistant down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
The GH7 supports native Camera to Cloud integration via Adobe’s Frame.io, which automatically uploads images and videos to the cloud. Otherwise, many features from the GH6 have been retained, like the flip-out display, dedicated audio setting button, real-time LUTs, time code in/out, 3.68-million-dot OLED viewfinder (120Hz), external USB-C SSD support and more.
All in all, this looks like a worthy update to the line. Panasonic’s latest and greatest vlogging camera will be available in July for $2,200. Incidentally, this is the same price that the GH6 released at back in 2022.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/panasonic-has-revealed-the-followup-to-the-popular-lumix-gh6-vlogging-camera-210033083.html?src=rss
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