Panasonic Lumix GH7

[DreiFish]

1 hour ago, Eric Hanauer said:

I’ve been shooting a GH5 underwater for several years. Manual white balance works fine down to about 100 feet. You don’t need a white card. Sand or gray rock will work. It still will need color grading in post. Final Cut Pro does a good job of this. 

 

Probably there's some individual variance on what you consider "fine," but I've shot the GH5 on hundreds of dives, and my experience aligns with Dadide's. Yes, you can white balance to 100feet depths, but the results are anything but 'accurate". The internal white balance limitations don't allow you to get a neutral result right out of camera. You might be able to achieve something more aesthetically pleasing by color grading in post, but that's a significant time investment with its own limitations compared to what Canon cameras have been achieving for decades and Sony's more recent models since the A7S III can also now do.

[Eric Hanauer]

Editing video is a time investment we owe to our viewers. Color grading is an integral part of that.

[DreiFish]

10 hours ago, Eric Hanauer said:

Editing video is a time investment we owe to our viewers. Color grading is an integral part of that.

Sure... but less time is required if starting from an already decent starting point. And given how thin the codecs are on these cameras, a bad initial white balance is going to make it exceedingly hard to produce pleasing results even with color grading.

[Eric Hanauer]

Starting point is better than just decent on my GH5II. One click in color balance on FCP usually does it. 
 

Colors underwater are subjective. It’s not like studio skin tones. Or like rocket science.

[Matan]

anyone has updated release dates for housings on this camera?

[bghazzal]

9 hours ago, Matan said:

anyone has updated release dates for housings on this camera?

 

IIRC the Nauticam GH6 housing works for the GH7.

[Davide DB]

Yes, Nauticam confirmed me the GH6 housing is OK. Camera bodies are identical.

[matdiver]

On 6/17/2024 at 5:25 PM, Eric Hanauer said:

I’ve been shooting a GH5 underwater for several years. Manual white balance works fine down to about 100 feet. You don’t need a white card. Sand or gray rock will work. It still will need color grading in post. Final Cut Pro does a good job of this. 

Yep, that's my experience too with the GH5, at least in good viz in tropics. The Med is different, obviously. I use the sun/surface to WB, and grade in VegasPro.

[SwiftFF5]

I was just wondering if anyone has had a GH7 in the water yet?

[Davide DB]

Three weeks ago I lost an incredible deal on a like new GH6 housing.

The time I got a confirmation from Nauticam that iy would fit in the gh6 housing and it was gone...

[SwiftFF5]

7 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Three weeks ago I lost an incredible deal on a like new GH6 housing.

The time I got a confirmation from Nauticam that iy would fit in the gh6 housing and it was gone...

 

That's too bad.  I almost bought a used GH6 housing as well, but decided to wait until someone else gets one in the water and tests things like WB, etc.

[Davide DB]

2 hours ago, SwiftFF5 said:

 

That's too bad.  I almost bought a used GH6 housing as well, but decided to wait until someone else gets one in the water and tests things like WB, etc.

 

The price was so good that I had gone on faith.

Now, knowing the Nauticam prices for a new housing and knowing that I may not even be able to sell my GH5 Kit... I think I'll stay that way and maybe invest in a new monitor or new lights.

We'll see.

 

[SwiftFF5]

21 hours ago, Davide DB said:

 

The price was so good that I had gone on faith.

Now, knowing the Nauticam prices for a new housing and knowing that I may not even be able to sell my GH5 Kit... I think I'll stay that way and maybe invest in a new monitor or new lights.

We'll see.

 

 

Yeah, I hope that when the time comes to purchase a GH7 and housing, that my current GH5 and housing might have some residual value to offset the upgrade cost.  We will see, I guess.

Edited July 29 by SwiftFF5

[TimG]

16 minutes ago, SwiftFF5 said:

 

Yeah, I hope that when the time comes to purchase a GH7 and housing, that my current GH5 and housing might have some residual value to offset the upgrade cost.  We will see, I guess.

It’s the hope that kills you. Just don’t hold your breath…..

[Davide DB]

In my home I have the most expensive doorsteps and paperweights...

[SwiftFF5]

Yeah, I have an old pelican case with an old Light and Motion housing for a Sony HDR-HC9...

[Davide DB]

In the meantime, let us console ourselves with this:

 

 

[SwiftFF5]

I just checked with Backscatter and they still haven't had one in the water yet.  I am a little surprised at that, so the wait continues.  They said they would probably know more in about a month, though.

[humu9679]

I figured it would be a Waterpixels shooter who would be first in the water with this. That advert @Davide DB makes me cry.

[Davide DB]

Actually the first in the water with a GH7 was our ex member Interceptor. You can find his review on his website and in the latest UWP magazine issue.

 

IIRC he states that you can achieve 1/400 strobe sync with Nauticam trigger. No feedback yet on video features.

I found another FB user who is using it for photos:

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/FtvvKX7ncyfEEjDD/

 

Nauticam didn't release a new GH7 housing because their GH6 housing is fully compatible. Problem is NA-GH6 is one of the most expensive mirrorless Nauticam housing. The exaggerated price (probably due to the number of pieces produced) is a strong disincentive to its underwater use.
Under these conditions, it is unlikely that the success of the GH5 will be repeated, despite the fact that the camera has a very good performance for video and even stills.

[Architeuthis]

It is, maybe, a little bit off-topic, as it regards the photographic abilities of GH7, not the videographic ones. I find this, technically, very interesting and think it is worth to mention:

 

GH7 produces 16-bit raw files (FF and APS-C so far 14-bit and previous MFT cameras 12-bit). This is justified by a novel type of A/D conversion, low gain and high gain A/D converters are working in parallel (citation from DPReview: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-gh7-initial-review#WN):

 

"...The other benefit of the new sensor is the improved version of the camera's dual output gain system. In a nutshell, the sensor employs two parallel readout paths with different gain levels: a low-gain path to capture highlights and a high-gain path to capture cleaner shadows. The data from both paths is combined as a 16-bit Raw file, allowing enough room to encode the wider dynamic range..."

 

Massimo (his GH7 UW-photo review is linked in a previous post) says he can increase exposure in LR by 3 EV without problems with noise in the dark areas. This sounds to me pretty comparable to FF raw files...

 

When I look, however, at the data from photons to photons, DR is essentially the same as GH9II, what has the same sensor. This DR is far smaller than FF. Shadow improvement is, at certain ISO values, slightly better compared to FF, but this is by far overcompensated by the higher DR that FF has:

https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm#Panasonic Lumix DC-G9M2,Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5M2,Panasonic Lumix DC-GH6,Panasonic Lumix DC-GH7,Sony ILCE-7RM5

 

https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR_Shadow.htm#Panasonic Lumix DC-G9M2,Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5M2,Panasonic Lumix DC-GH6,Panasonic Lumix DC-GH7,Sony ILCE-7RM5

 

It will be interesting to read what more reviews, about both over the water and UW use of GH7, will reveal...

=> In case the parallel dual gain A/D conversion is a really useful innovation, this technique will certainly trickle down to FF, sooner or later (together with 16-bit raw files)...

 

 

Wolfgang

 

 

Edited September 16 by Architeuthis

[Davide DB]

14 minutes ago, Architeuthis said:

It will be interesting to read what more reviews, about both over the water and UW use of GH7, will reveal...

=> In case the parallel dual gain A/D conversion is a really useful innovation, this technique will certainly trickle down to FF, sooner or later (together with 16-bit raw files)...

 

The only guy I found using Gh7 posts every week several BWand macro photo but, as usual, I couldn't get useful feeback from him via FB.

 

The dual gain tech was already implemented in the GH5S and IIRC comes from Panasonic Varicam cine line and again from Arri.

[Architeuthis]

9 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

 

The only guy I found using Gh7 posts every week several BWand macro photo but, as usual, I couldn't get useful feeback from him via FB.

 

The dual gain tech was already implemented in the GH5S and IIRC comes from Panasonic Varicam cine line and again from Arri.

 

As I see it, dual gain is implemented in several sensors, as you mention. In these previous models, however, the low gain A/D conversion is working at low ISO and at some, higher, ISO value, the high gain A/D converter replaces the low gain one (resulting in 12- or 14-bit raw files)...

 

The novelty with GH7 is that both low and high gain amplifiers work in parallel and from both signals a 16-bit raw file is generated (16-bit to allow encoding both the more coarse steps derived from low gain (what provides high DR) and the smaller ones derived from the high gain A/D (this one provides the smaller, lower noise, steps derived fro the shadows)...

Edited September 16 by Architeuthis

[Davide DB]

We should find someone who use it and give us a proper feedback,

Like finding a unicorn i guess 🙂

 

[SwiftFF5]

Here's review from Interceptor121 with the camera in the water for anyone who hasn't already seen it:

 

https://interceptor121.com/2024/08/16/panasonic-gh7-review-for-underwater-photography-autofocus/

 

and his second review:

 

https://interceptor121.com/2024/08/21/panasonic-gh7-review-for-underwater-photography-image-quality-and-housing-ergonomics/

 

They are a bit short on details, but are generally complimentary.

Edited September 26 by SwiftFF5