Panasonic LUMIX GH5 for underwater video

There's a guy who posted a little clip filmed wth a GH5 in a Leo III housing in Italy (I believe)

Looks pretty nice. Doesn't say in the clip description what settings / resolution he used.

I dont know what setting he used but the colors look really good.

I asked about the settings.

This is the reply i got:

"Hi, the setting are very easy, color profile natural and white balance automatic...the color of the gh5 are very good and natural, the footage was captured at 8 bit 4:2:0 50p"

ok, I guessed it was 8 bit color as it looks similar to what I get on my AX100 in terms of color.

We're not much further in assessing GH5 4k 10 bit underwater Still nice that AWB seems to work quite well.

Agree the conditions are too difficult to make any meaningful comparison. Any camera would strangle in these conditions IMHO.

This is a typical situation in my area. At 20m, it is dark.

This summer, I'm going to the mediterranean, if you still feel you want some footage, let me know.

A nice video properly shot and edited

yep, thats nice. Also the latest dlip from Backscatter shows what this little cam is capable of doing.

My own GH5-Rig is slowly taking shape. Today the brand-spanking-new DNC-5A Monitor from DiveandSee has arrived. It is so new, its not even on their webpage yet I am certainly gratefull to Alex for shipping me a unit for my upcoming trip before official release date.

5.5'' full HD resolution. Looks splendid on land, so it should underwater. Quite a bit heavier at 1.3kg (appr. 250g negative in water) than the earlier DNC-5 but I guess the larger and brighter screen just needs a significantly bigger battery and more electronics.

Size relation to the GH5 housing looks just right. I'll happily report more once I got it sufficiently wet.

A nice video properly shot and edited

 

 

 

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Color looks great. But a lot of the shots are quite shallow or use lights, so I'm not sure we can reach a conclusion about the white balance one way or the other.

As for the stabilization -- does it seem a bit disappointing to anyone else? I think most of the video is shot using a fisheye lens, which may be contributing to the unusual look. Something about the motion definitely looks off to me though. I can't quite put my finger on it.

Color looks great. But a lot of the shots are quite shallow or use lights, so I'm not sure we can reach a conclusion about the white balance one way or the other.

 

As for the stabilization -- does it seem a bit disappointing to anyone else? I think most of the video is shot using a fisheye lens, which may be contributing to the unusual look. Something about the motion definitely looks off to me though. I can't quite put my finger on it.

I agree, the Manual White Balance stuff I've seen from the early videos (from ReefPhoto I believe) really (to me) didn't seem any better than the GH4, I did ask if they would get both cameras in the water at the same time to do a side by side, but nothing yet.

That Dive and See Monitor looks ACE. Much smaller than my 7" NA-Flame - and appears to be in a better viewing position too.

tbh, I think those Komodo shots are, well, average. Poor white balance, and yes its mostly fisheye. The Backscatter clips are so much better. Almost looks like footage from a RED.

The DNC-5A turned out heavier than I thought, but the size is perfect for the GH5.

The GH5 do look slightly better than GH4, in the sense that it has a bit of Sony look. I believe GH5 is using Sony sensor? The big advantage with the GH5 is the high bitrate and 60fps, which open a lot of opportunity for color grading and slow down (the IBIS could help too).

I don't know how it performs in term of noise. I read some where that Panasonic tend to introduce lots of noise once custom white balance underwater, especially below 60ft.

This is the only GH5 video from Reef & Photo that I can find. The macro scene was shot with Keldan light, I was diving with that guy (Lee Burghard) at Blue Heron Bridge:

From the video, you can tell it's better than GH4.

I'd bet any money that the GH5 for sure does NOT use Sony sensors. It uses a Panasonic sensor. Optical sensors are a key differenciator in this industry and they wont plug a competitors sensors in their cams even with a gun pointed against their head.

Hummm...

Nikon sensors come from Sony and even Olympus sensors. Not sure about Fuji

I thought Panasonic design their own sensors. They may be manufactured wherever... If not I lost some money 😃

BTW guys I thought to post a video that looked good to me but you blasted me hahaha.

It seems to be at Sundance Film Festival.

Davide, Some of the macro stuff in that clip is very nice, I love the jellyfish at the end. But look at the bended back of the turtle around 1:25. you cant do that with a fisheye - well ok for a holiday video but not some promotional stuff they put on the Nauticam webpage....

I'll promise to be nice again now.

Panasonic uses own sensor regardless of continuous cyclic speculation on using Sony sensors for some of their camera.

I'm sure about Nikon for all its flagship camera. Olympus for m43 cameras and even Fuji.

Sensors are designed by customer and produced by Sony to their specs. Moreover sensor it's only part of the story. All other components are designed by Nikon and co. Same for color science. Sometimes they are able to extract more juice from sensors than Sony itself.

Haha haha don't worry I'm jocking

pew, you saved my money in the end. Haha

On Tuning: Sure, look at Apple. Their phones work much better with Samsung chips than the Samsung phones do

getting really off topic now...

I don't know how it performs in term of noise. I read some where that Panasonic tend to introduce lots of noise once custom white balance underwater, especially below 60ft.

Whether there is more noise introduced on a Panasonic compared to lets say Sony I dont know. But I can tell you from my time with the Sony AX100 camcorder it was introducing plenty of noise if you where below 15 meters on ambient light only. I guess thats just a critical depth fo most cameras where they start to struggle.