Time moves quickly in the world of digital photography and it may surprise you to hear that the Panasonic GH5 was launched way back in January 2017. The combination of hybrid stills video features made the GH5 an instant success and spawned a dedicated video variant called the GH5S a year later. Needless to say then, that a successor is well overdue.
Well, Panasonic looks to have good news for fans of the Micro Four-Thirds system as rumours suggest the GH6 is on its way. In fact, websites claim that the new model was actually due to be announced this month at the Photokina Show in Germany, which was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 emergency.
So, what exactly are the rumours suggesting about the new GH6? Well, although details are thin on the ground, there are a few rumoured specifications that are sure to get photographers and videographers excited. Top of the list of headline grabbers is the suggestion that the GH6 could pack a Sony IMX594CQR sensor, which would deliver a whopping 41-megapixels of resolution.
If this information about the sensor is true, this would make the GH6 the highest-ever resolution Micro Four-Thirds camera, racing ahead of Olympus’ flagship E-M1 Mark III, which offers 20.4-MP (although it can also capture a 80-MP file by combining multiple images).
Further rumours suggest that the GH6 may actually come in three different versions – reputed to be named GH6, GH6X and GH6V which, much like the GH5/S, may suggest one of the variants may be fine-tuned for video captured and another could be action photography based.
One thing Micro Four-Thirds fans can bank on is that the GH6 cameras will certainly provide some exciting movie-making specifications with rumours suggesting the camera will include RAW video capture and 6K or even 8K video capture. As always, we’ll have to wait until any official announcement to see exactly what Panasonic are to offer, but photographers shouldn’t have to wait too much longer, with a reputed launch dates set to be around August or September.