As a photographer and videographer, the best feeling is getting your hands on a new body, and that's exactly how I felt picking up the Panasonic GH5 II for the first time.
Being a video junkie, the specs sucked me in; 10-bit 4:2:2 4K all the way to 60p for slo-mo shots with bitrates up to 400Mbps, extremely sharp footage straight from the camera. Not only that, this little powerhouse of a camera has the V-Log flat colour profile pre-installed, pushing the dynamic range of the sensor to its limits when it comes to colour grading in post. The IBIS in camera is also amazing, with up to 6.5 stops when using both body and lens image stabilization, making handheld and static shots a no-brainer without even requiring a tripod. Using the GH5 II for independent projects has been a wonder, with the mix of specs making it easy to shoot no matter the environment.
When it comes to stills performance, the GH5 excels as well with the 20.3 megapixel sensor making photos tack sharp. For sports photographers, the GH5 chucks out an impressive 12fps. When in burst mode with manual focus, AFC slightly reduces the speed down to 9fps, which is still impressive for a MFT camera. Speaking of autofocus, for stills it's accurate almost always, reducing the chances of blurry frames. Unfortunately I can't say the same about its autofocus performance when used for video; the camera knows when a face or object is there, but it still fails to properly land focus on the subject and does this weird pulsing effect. You can fine tune the autofocus speed and other bits in the settings but compared to the AF systems in Nikon and Canon bodies, the GH5 II is still miles behind.
Of course with all Micro Four Thirds cameras, low light is an issue because of the small sensor size but with focal reducers like the Viltrox EF-M2 II and the Metabones Speedbooster you can adapt fast-aperture autofocus Canon EF lenses onto the GH5 II with relative ease. Panasonic does have you covered with fast-aperture lenses like the Leica 10-25mm and 25-50mm f/1.7 which work amazing for both photo and video work. Fast native telephoto lenses are also available with the Panasonic Leica 50-200mm f/2.8-4 and the Olympus 40-15omm f/2.8 Pro; perfect for a lightweight sports setup.
The Panasonic GH5 II is an incredible hybrid camera, and with the GH6 now released it's now an even bigger steal as a B-camera to the GH6 or S1H, or even as your primary camera. The video codecs and bitrate options are still unmatched by other pricier full-frame cameras and I would still recommend this to anyone starting their journey in video production and photography.
