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Panasonic GH5 or Sony A7sii?


Austin Pink

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Hey guys,

I know this is the Panasonic subgroup so I might be guilty of sampling bias, BUT I'm looking for a new camera body in the price point of around $2000. This is for a wide variety of applications including short narrative, documentary, music video, stills etc. Just an all around camera to play around with that is of semi-professional quality. After some research and discussion, I think I'm between the GH5 and A7sii. Does anyone have any opinions or recommendations of which they think is better? Thanks a lot!

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Doesn't the GH5 have 10bit and the a7s only 8bit? Also GH5 has that nice thicker ergonomic body and smaller sensor so not as many lenses will vignette on it. If they are the same price, to me it isn't even a contest.

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Yeah that sensor on the a7sii is definitely attractive. But I can't say I have a particular need for that degree of low-light capability. The GH5 is also cheaper, which is a consideration. Is there any potential drawback with a micro four thirds sensor, specifically in terms of buying lenses?

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Not sure what "less bokeh" means. With a smaller sensor, you get more depth of field on average because you are using shorter focal lengths to get the same field of view as when using a larger sensor. However, if you can find fast-enough lenses, you can open up the iris more to get a shallow-focus look (and larger bokeh patterns of circles.) And faster lenses will help compensate for the less sensitive sensor.

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With a smaller sensor, you get more depth of field on average because you are using shorter focal lengths to get the same field of view as when using a larger sensor.

It means just that.

 

For instance I just tried a new digiprime I bought which mark T1.6 at the aperture's widest point, but on a 2/3 sensor 1.6 looks like 4 in terms of DoF. I'm a junkie for extreme bokeh. I personally can't find too many lenses faster than 1.6, but then again I'm currently on a camera sensor old enough to drive...

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I think one of Steve Yedlin's video demos puts to rest the notion that larger formats somehow have a different dimensionality -- once you match field of view, distance, and depth of field between formats, it's hard to tell them apart. The extra "depth" of large formats is mainly a combination of a typically shallower depth of field combined with increased detail in the subject (but even that has limits depending on how the image is displayed). So once you match depth of field by stopping down on the larger formats or opening up on the smaller ones, you get a similar look assuming that other factors are similar.

 

Of course you have the practical limits of how fast the lenses you can find are, so if you like the look of f/1.4 Master Primes on a Super-35 camera, it's hard to find even faster lenses for smaller formats to match that look.

 

(I typed this before I saw your reply.)

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Which at the end of the day, the format grabbing different statistics out of the lenses is a plus in itself on top of the additional detail you mentioned. You can absolutely achieve the stats of a standard speed lens on S35, but then we get into price. A single Cp2 super speed prime is $3000 used, or $100 a day, and if our guy here only has 2 grand to blow on the camera things start getting tricky.

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  • 8 months later...

I can't speak for the GH5 but I did use a Panasonic G6 in a dimly lit wedding reception venue last year with 1600 iso and the footage looked pretty clean. I was using fast lenses too - mostly old primes - Canon FD 24mm f2.8, Canon FD 50mm f1.8 and one modern lens (a Samyang 12mm f2.)

Edited by Patrick Cooper
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