Panasonic Lumix GH6 firmware v.2.0 updates video

Panasonic has announced that it will release firmware (Ver.2.0) for its Lumix GH6 camera to ‘further enhance performance and usability’ for filmmakers on 5 July 2022.

Panasonic has collaborated with Atomos – a global company known for its video hardware, technologies and cloud services for filmmakers – to develop the upcoming firmware.

The firmware will offer the following additional features to the 25.2MP Lumix GH6 Micro Four Thirds camera:

1 – RAW video data output over HDMI function

Firstly, the firmware Ver.2.0 will enable the output of up to 5.8K/29.97p and C4K/119.88p RAW video data over HDMI to be recorded as Apple ProRes RAW on the Atomos Ninja V and Ninja V+ devices.

Data will be encoded as 12-bit ProRes RAW files and the following resolution and frame rate combinations are supported, depending on the sensor area:

Sensor area: Micro Four Thirds (17:9 aspect)

5.7K (5728×3204) at 23.98p, 25p, 29.97p, 50p, 59.94p
C4K (4096×2160) at 23.98p, 25p, 29.97p, 50p, 59.94p, 100p, 119.88p – with pixel-to-pixel sampling

Sensor area: Micro Four Thirds Anamorphic (4:3 aspect)

5.8K (5760×4320) at 23.98p, 25p, 29.97p
4.4K (4352 x 3264) at 50p, 59.94p

The Ninja V+ will support all of the above combinations, but some limitations will occur on the Ninja V.

With the Ninja V 4.4K anamorphic is not supported, while 5.8K anamorphic, 5.7K 17:9, and C4K 17:9 are limited to 25p, 29.97p, and 59.94p respectively.

A Lookup table (LUT) has been exclusively designed for RAW video recorded on the Atomos Ninja V/V+ to make the same colour grading as V-Log/V-Gamut.

It is easy to match colours between the footages recorded with Panasonic Varicam, EVA1 cameras to combine them.

The GH6 LUT will be available to be downloaded from the following link – LUT for V-Log/V-Gamut conversion of RAW output data.

The Lumix GH6 with an Atomos Ninja V+ 8K RAW HDR monitor recorder

2 – Internal recording C4K 60p/FHD 60p in ProRes 422 HQ/ProRes 422 is available

With this update it is possible to load low compression and high-quality data directly to the PC without transcoding for smooth non-linear editing (NLE).

The Lumix GH6 can already record 5.7K ProRes internally, but firmware Ver.2.0 extends support for this codec to the DCI 4K (4096×2160) and Full HD (1920×1080) formats.

For both resolutions, users can choose between two ProRes choices (422 or 422 HQ) and can pick any of the following frame rates: 23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 50p or 59.94p.

The maximum bitrates are 1.9Gbps for C4K at 59.94p and 454Mbps for Full HD at 59.94p.