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The Panasonic GH5S has started to ship and one of the most frequent questions we are being asked is: how good is the autofocus? In order to find out, I’ve composed this simple video sample for you guys to judge it for yourself.
Of course, it would have been easy to place my “good face for radio” in front of the camera and jump in and out of the frame to determine the functionality of the autofocus, but why make life easy when if I can complicate things?
Why use autofocus?
In case you are asking yourself why would one choose to shoot in autofocus mode, then the answer is clear. This is a real word shooting scenario, meaning, a low-budget production handled by a single operator using a modestly-priced camera mounted on an affordable handheld gimbal. In such a case, a follow focus puller and his rig are not an option.
The storyline:
In order to execute this autofocus test I’ve teamed up with the dear people at Bösendorfer, a world leading class Austrian piano manufacturer and Jan Jiracek von Armin who is an extremely busy talented leading pianist and a piano professor. We gathered at the Bösendorfer showroom in order to film a short introduction to their selection of pianos.
Setting up the Panasonic GH5S:
While exploring the camera, I was not so happy with its autofocus performance, but in order to be double cautious, I decided to look online and choose 2 popular videos which successfully demonstrate how to set up the original GH5 for better autofocus performance. The videos I looked at were from Scott McKenna and Nick Stubbs. While Scott and Nick showed completely different methods on how to set up the camera for better autofocus performance, their results were the same: success! It is also worth mentioning that I chose the settings in their videos because I was looking for a way to nail accurate focus at the center of my frame (my protagonist’s face), and those two methods dealt with it in a successful way.
Here are Scott’s and Nick’s settings:
Scott’s Panasonic GH5 setting
Scott’s autofocus settings: AF mode: 1-Area. AF Custom Settings: ON, AF speed +5, AF sensitivity, +1
Nick’s Panasonic GH5 setting
Nick’s autofocus settings: AF mode: Custom Multi, AF Custom Settings: OFF,
My results with the Panasonic GH5S:
Thinking those settings would work well on the GH5S, I experimented and decided to shoot the video above multiple times in both settings. Unlike them, however, my final result was less satisfying. At times, the camera changed its autofocus point with no real evident reason UNLESS some contrasty images in my frame really distracted it from nailing it 100%. Most disturbing is the scene where Jan’s face was fully on-camera, yet the GH5S still chose to focus elsewhere. Can it be that the green emergency sign on the left side of Jan’s face confused the AF system?
Jan’s face in focus
Jan’s face out of focus
Conclusion:
This is by no means meant to be a scientific experiment. It is a simple “true to working life” field test that was executed with camera settings which I hoped would give me good results. While it is fine about 90% of the time, there is absolutely room for improvement. Hopefully it can be done via a firmware update.
About the above video:
Shot with Panasonic GH5S. Lens: Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4. Edited on Adobe Premiere CC latest edition. Color corrected with FilmConvert. Sound recorded on a Tascam DR60d. Microphones used: AZDEN SGM250CX and
Special thanks to Jan Jiracek von Armin and Sabine Grubmueller from Bösendorfer.
If you have been using the Panasonic GH5S in autofocus mode and found useful settings for it, please share it with us in the comment section below.
in Gh5 with shutter 179 degrees AF works much, much better, can you try this trick in S?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GcP0K26jEw
autofocus is for photographers and amateurs….
Nope. It’s for low budget films.
you don’t know what a film is.
Stupid, empirical and phallic reaction. And why not say that it’s for girls too ? Apparently, you have never filmed in an emergency situation where an urgent focus is needed. I am happy to have a GH4 or GH5 in this situation. Sorry, but that’s impossible with a Canon or Nikon…
Why would you choose “those guy’s settings”, first off they were the same bad setting everyone else were trying and 2nd those are old videos that obviously didn’t make a difference. YodaYeo made a great video earlier this month explaining why a 179° shutter at 30fps works best for GH5’s video AFC and Gerald undone did another afterwards fleshing out the custom settings. I did the same tests and got OK results, still not great but at least works like I’d expect contrast detect AF to work now. https://youtu.be/_GcP0K26jEw
Good video though, just outdated settings.
Hi Peter. I’ve explained in the article why I chose those guys settings. There are millions of videos out there with different setting ideas so for the sake of testing I took 2 popular once which are demonstrating SUCCESSFUL results (For the guys who tried it). When I conducted my test the video you are referring too was NOT online (It is dated Feb 15th). I will gladly try the settings in the video you’ve sent me when I’m back from Japan around the middle of the month and see if it working its magic on the GH5S. If it… Read more »
No need to explain. I did not get distracted by the autofocus misses but I appreciate your unbiased critical perspective. Great job Johnnie, always enjoy your work!