When Panasonic first unveiled its 4K powerhouse GH5 camera, it seemed to promise 6K, 30fps video. That only turned out to be a burst mode for stills, but now, Panasonic has actually made good by unveiling a 6K anamorphic, 4,992 x 3,744, 10-bit resolution video mode. On top of that, it made 4K more useful by unveiling an “intra-frame,” full 4K, 10-bit option that compresses each frame individually at a robust 400 Mbps data rate.
What Panasonic calls 6K (4,992 x 3,774 pixels) might seem like 5K, but that’s not quite how it works. For 6K anamorphic, the GH5 actually reads out nearly its entire 20.3-megapixel sensor. The resulting 3:2, 18.9-megapixel images have the same number of pixels as 2:1 6K anamorphic (6,144 x 3,072). To shoot that way, you need an anamorphic lens, which squishes the widescreen image to 2:1, and during post-production, it’s stretched back to the correct ratio. (Those lenses produce a unique look, most notoriously the “JJ Abrams lens flares.”)
With the release of this option, the GH5 becomes one of the highest-resolution 6K anamorphic cameras, despite costing tens of thousands less than models from RED and Alexa, EOS HD points out. While the images are 10-bit, the data rate is low for this mode (200 Mbps) compared to rival cameras, however. If you want more data, you can shoot 4K anamorphic (3,328 x 2,496 resolution) at 400 Mbps. Hopefully, Panasonic will bump the 6K anamorphic data rate at some point.
Source: via Engadget
