GH5 II Review by Photographyblog: “well-thought-out, comprehensive hybrid video/still camera”

Preorders:
GH5II at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon. Calumet DE, Park Uk.
GH6 at BHphoto.
25-50mm f/1.7 MFT lens at BHphoto.

–

Photographyblog published the full review and concludes:

The new Lumix GH5 II is a rather modest refresh of the original GH5 that’s designed to keep the series relevant in 2021 and pique the interest of new users, rather than convince current GH5 owners to upgrade.

With the upcoming GH6 already pre-announced and on the near horizon, you may be wondering why Panasonic have even bothered with the GH5 II. After all, the original GH5 was one of their best-selling cameras of all time and even to this day remains a model that has lots of appeal for hybrid stills and videographers.

Clearly ahead of its time in a lot of ways, the GH5 remains a great buy even a full four years after its release back in 2017, so much so that if you’ll never use the Mark II’s main new feature, Live Streaming, the original camera is still more than worth tracking down on sale.

Having said that, live streaming alone will be enough to turn the heads of some users, as the GH5 II is currently one of the only cameras that supports it without having to use a computer to do so. Being able to wirelessly stream direct from the GH5 II to YouTube or an RTMP compatible platform via a mobile or a Wifi hotspot certainly frees you up.

The other new features are more nice-to-haves rather than must-haves – the smaller but higher resolution LCD screen and the larger battery have presumably been introduced because of parts availability in the supply chain, while the new processor allows for Lumix S5-series levels of auto-focusing and video options that are great to see.

With support for USB-C charging, improved image stabilisation and a now free V-Log L profile, these relatively small changes do add up to undoubtedly make the GH5 II a “better” camera than its predecessor, helped in no small part by a lower price tag on launch than the GH5 enjoyed.

Overall, whilst it may not offer any earth-shattering new features or innovations (they’re presumably reserved for the GH6), the GH5 Mark II remains a well-thought-out, comprehensive hybrid video/still camera, just like its predecessor, which given that we liked it so much first time around is a high accolade indeed.