Barbets of Keoladeo NP

Barbets are a species of tropical birds in the family Capitonidae (order Piciformes). Barbets are named for the bristles at the bases of their bills that they use to dig holes in rotting trees where there will nest. They have large heads and short tails and are not agile fliers. They eat insects, lizards, birds' eggs, fruit, and berries.The Keoladeo NP has three species of Barbet.  I was able to photograph only the Brown-headed Barbet     Psilopogon zeylanicus and the Coppersmith Barbet Psilopogon haemacephalus,  The third, White-cheeked Barbet was not found.As these birds sit in very dense leaf trees the light is hard to work with and high ISOs become mandatory. 

Kingfishers of Keoladeo National Park

On this very short visit to India, my wife and I spent three days in Bharatpur, Rajasthan at the Keoladeo National Park to photograph wildlife.  These three images are of the three species of Kingfisher that can be found in the region this time of year.  The Stork-billed and Black-capped are known to be around but I have not been lucky to ever see or photograph them.  Of the three, the Common Kingfisher is the most elusive and least common.  The White-throated is easy to find and easy to photograph.  The Pied kingfisher can be seen at many locations but is very elusive for photography.  It hovers with a very rapid wing beat so requires high very shutter speed.For these three days, I used the Panasonic Lumix G9 with the Leica 100 - 400mm lens and the Leica 200 mm f/2.8 and the 1.4X tele-extender.  I can not say enough about how much I enjoyed this kit and its performance truly excels. 

LRTimelapse Version 5 Released

LRTimelapse 5 is major upgrade and brings many improvements! Check out what’s new!Click here or on the logo to upgrade or buy a new license  

Comprehensive list of what's new in LRT5

Workflow

Workflow Status Indicators

• Workflow status indicators in the file tree. Automatic detection of the workflow status when first loading a previously edited sequence with LRT5.
• Ability to mark a sequence as “Finished” by clicking on the new Checkmark in the main toolbar. This is a manual toggle. It will be reflected in the workflow status indicators as well and the folder in the tree will be shown in green.
• The Status “Video rendered” – will show up if a video has been rendered for the corresponding sequence. Rendered Videos will now be assigned to the original sequences. Once a video has been rendered, you’ll find a “Play” button at the right below the workflow buttons. You’ll get a dialog where you can choose the assigned video and play it back in the default media player. For folders processed with LRTimelapse 4 where intermediary sequences have already been exported from Lightroom, you can manually assign the default render folder via right click on a folder and then “Assign default render folder”. This will assign the videos rendered to that folder too, so that they are available via the new Play video feature.

Direct Render

• Added a “Render Directly“-Tab to quickly allow to render a JPG or TIFF sequence. No need to load the sequence first – you can choose it from inside the render dialog. If you already loaded a JPG or TIFF sequence, the direct rendering will refer to the currently loaded sequence.

Holy Grail Wizard

• New, improved HG Wizard. Works even better now and supports subsequent adjustments. Adds a bit of deflickering in the first instance already.

Deflicker

•  Automatic multipass option for Visual Deflicker. This will deflicker in multiple passes leading to very smooth results. You can set the number of passes and the desired accuracy. Normally 2 passes with normal accuracy should already deliver perfect results. While the refining is running, you can set a selection, this will then limit the refining to that selection while it’s running.
• The smoothed curve will not change anymore after a deflicker step, this makes refining parts of sequences much exacter and easier too.
• Multi pass deflicker can be continued in a background pass, similar to the normal visual deflicker. (Pro)

Remove images without deleting

• New menu entry “Remove Images” to move images to a folder with suffix “_REMOVED” (similar to the filter in the long term workflow). Forum-User Request.

 Improved Batch Processing (Pro)

• When switching folders while visual previews are being generated now additionally to finishing the preview generation in batch, you can now as well trigger an automatic multipass deflicker.
• You can as well start a batch multipass deflicker on a folder that is not loaded and possibly doesn’t even have visual previews. In that case you’ll have to blindly set the deflicker settings (unless the deflicker settings were set before on that sequence).
• Rendering Visual previews as a batch process is now heavily multithreaded, just like the regular visual previews generation.

Lightoom Plugin / Addons

• Multiple folder export. You can now select various folders in Lightroom’s Library. Make sure that the filter is set to “LRT Full Sequence”, then select all images and export. LRTExport will create all the required export folders and trigger the rendering for each one in LRTimelapse automatically.

Video Rendering

Render Dialog

• The render dialog now shows a preview for any loaded intermediary sequence. You can even scrub through the preview.
• When choosing “Force 16:9” in render dialog now you can define a top offset for the cropped region via a slider (Forum-Request). The preview will show where the crop gets applied.
• Support for more flexible naming for intermediary sequences (not forced to LRT_00001 anymore, but alphabetical sorting with leading zeros is required!
• Post processing options are now saved for any intermediary sequence. Those options will therefore be used by default for rerendering that sequence.
• Remember last render folder in render dialog after exporting/rendering from Lightroom. Forum-User request.
• Added mjpeg codec rendering. Forum-Request. (Pro)
• Prores will now enable low and medium quality rendering too as well as more flexibility for choosing 422 or 444 color encoding. (Pro)
• Added Capture time overlay option to render dialog. (Pro)

Preview Rendering

• Added Preview rendering for creating quick preview videos (Icon below preview). If the sequence has visual previews, those will be used, otherwise the camera-previews. The icon will indicate which ones will be used.
• When rendering a preview video for a JPG sequence, the original sequence will be used instead of the small previews and you will get a full render dialog where you can freely choose your settings. Basically this allows for a fast JPG rendering without any edits.

User Interface

• New Icons, all completely scalable now.
• Improved UI Scalability for large screens/high scaling factors, new scalable Checkboxes, Radiobuttons, Comboboxes, Sliders, tree icons and handles.
• Added Buttons below the preview for Render Video, Render Previews and Render Composite.
• New Main Toolbar with frequently needed tools like Import / Initialize.
• Consolidated Workflow Buttons, added Auto Save when enabling visual previews.
• Time estimation indicator for Visual preview generation and other tasks.
• Mac: Delete via backspace key instead of Delete.

Usability

• Implemented support for Rotation and Mirroring of images. LRTimelapse will now show rotated and mirrored images in its previews including reference area support. This fixes the problem with mirrored GoPro Raw files also.
• Alt-Cursor Up/Down now jumps to the next interval change (Similar to Ctrl/Cmd Up/Down does for keyframes). This makes it much easier to select a sequence in a folder just imported, in order to move it to a new folder with “New folder from selection”. Shift-Alt Up/Down does the same but selects too.
• While the visual previews were being generated, you could not play back. Now, if you select a subsequence, where the visual previews already have been finished rendering, you can playback that region. Forum-User request.
• Improved reliability of preview loading when quickly switching between folders.
• You can now redefine the reference area on sequences with visual previews without having to rebuild the visual previews.
• Ctrl or Shift Click into the Preview panel on a Reference anchor will now delete that anchor.

Long term workflow

• Added Filter for time span that lets you select a start and end time for the files. This will only work, if the images have Exif-Date/Time information.
• Long Term Workflow / Cameras without Exif-Support: If your camera does not provide Exif-Data for Date-Time, you can now try to fill the date/time information from the file information. Whether this works, heavily depends on the OS you are working on and if the original date/time information is still in the files. No guarantee! That’s why LRTimelapse offers the 3 different date/time information possibly stored in the files: creation date, last modified date and last access date. Mostly they are not handled correctly by the OS but you might be lucky to be able to exctract the information and write it to the Date/Time column in LRTimelapse. This will help with the sorting and enable the new Filter by Date/Time in the long term workflow also.
• Long Term Workflow: Smoothing sliders by default are now on the left position, this means no filtering is active. This makes it easier to approach the right filter values.

Performance

• Improved multithreading for visual preview generation. Increased possible number of supported threads to 32.

Misc

• Improved Refresh feature on the dirchoosers. If nothing selected, the refresh button will not select a default folder anymore.
• When changing a folder while it was loading the process was not interrupted in some cases. Fixed.
• Turned off “Set default 16:9 crop on initializing” for new installations in the settings, it’s recommended to work with the full images and do the 16:9 cropping when rendering.
• If LRTimelapse is currently saving, you won’t get the “unsaved metadata” dialog anymore when quickly changing to visual previews. Saving will just be finished in background.
• Windows: Fixed initial scaling factor when first starting LRT on a new machine.
• When deleting Raw-Files where a JPG with same name existed, the JPG was not deleted. Fixed.
• Reveal in Explorer did not work for files in the Root of a drive. Fixed.
• Shift-Reload will now respect a selection: if more than one image is selected, only the previews for the selection will be redone.
• Removed Multiselection from the main directory chooser (didn’t make sense) and some other choosers.
• After a dialog with “You have changed data, do you want to save?” the save operation would not show a progressbar. Fixed.
• Removed support for Lightroom 3.

Click here or on the logo to upgrade or buy a new license

Tanzania - The Great Migration - Photo Safari

August 21 – August 30, 2018This is a trip of a lifetime for 10 of you to observe and photograph The Great Migration in Tanzania this coming August. More than 1 million wildebeest and over 200,000 zebra migrate from The Serengeti in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara in Kenya – crossing the Mara River at the risk of meeting their demise in the jaws of a Nile crocodile. This is the GREATEST wildlife spectacle on earth and we put you in the middle of it and we put you there in comfort!Not only will you observe the migration but you have excellent prospects at photographing every other awesome animal there is to photograph in Tanzania – giraffe, cape buffalo, leopard, cheetah, rhino, lion, elephant, birds galore, monkeys, hippo, waterbuck, mongoose, baboon, crocs, serval cat(maybe), gazelle, topi, wildebeest zebra, and many, many more.This safari has an unbeatable price for photographers of all skill levels.  Accompanying spouses/partners are most welcome to participate.  Call 617.759.0010 or use the contact page if you need more information Check out the details and confirmed camps 

Space Coast Wildlife & Birding Festival 2018 - last post

This Roseate was in good light and I liked it as a square crop.  The image of the Pin-tail pair was another digiscope image that has been cropped for composition.  The Luna Moth - albeit not in a natural environment the moth stayed on the gymnasium wall at Eastern Florida State College for hours.  Used the 30mm macro on the G9 handheld and I continue to be impressed with the IBIS.  The 30mm macro is currently discounted and available for under $300.

Rain is Good

It rained all morning and then we had a little break and the light got better, albeit not like the golden hour, the clouds helped diffuse it enough.The next image of the Black-crowned Night Heron was a daily image.  Always in the same mangrove by the road. In all the days there was no action from this bird.  The Glossy Ibis is another digiscoped capture - wish the light had been better for this one.  It would have definitely brought out the iridescence. 

Digiscoping with the Lumix GH5

When your subjects are at a distance, long lenses are good but a spotting scope and camera will get you the better shot.  These were all captured using a Lumix GH5 adapted to a Swarovski 85mm optic module with the STX eyepiece and the 30mm TLS APO.  The camera was attached via a MFT adapter.  

G9 - A fairly severe crop

The warbler was at a distance so the subject was very small in the frame.  Normally I would discard most of these images but decided to see what I could recover despite a severe crop.  This image is a 17.5% crop from the original RAW file.  I have not applied any noise reduction to prevent any softening of the image.

Roseate Spoonbills in Flight

 Both these images were captured to see how the Lumix G9 paired with the Leica 200 mm f/2.8 performs for birds in flight.  The lens was coupled with the 2X teleconverter giving it an effective focal length of 800mm.  The image above was of the Roseate flying nearly directly toward the camera while the image below had the bird flying right to left.  In the second image I was panning with the bird.  For both cases, the camera was hand-held, set to continuous autofocus (AFC) and the focus area set to custom with a 5 vertical and 5 horizontal diamond pattern. 

Black Vulture

This portrait is an example as to how well the image stabilization performs using the Panasonic G9 body with the new Leica 200 mm f/2.8 lens (I have a preproduction version).  The lens aattched to the 2X teleconverter on the micro 4/3 body gives an effective focal length of 800mm.  The image was captured hand-held at 1/125 sec, f/8 and ISO 640.  Typically, at this focal length I would use a minimum of 1/1000 sec but the 6.5 stops of stabilization is remarkable.

Digiscoping with the GH5 and a Swarovski Scope

The Osprey above was photographed using the Panasonic Lumix GH5 attached to a Swarovski Spotting Scope.  The optic was the 85mm optic module with the STX eyepiece and the 30mm TLS APO.  The camera was attached via a MFT adapter.  The image above has not been cropped.  ISO 800 1/320sec. 

Panasonic Lumix G9 with the 200mm Leica f/2.8 and 2X teleconverter

Last week at the Florida Space Coast Wildlife and Birding Festival this image was shot hand-held using the new Lumix G9 and the Leica 200mm lens with the 2X Teleconverter. What I really love is the ability to handhold this combination, yes 800mm equivalant, for the entire morning.  The image stabilization is exceptional and the lens performs great.  Mind you the lens I was using is a pre production sample and I am sure when I have the production version, it will be even better.  In addition, what is truly great about the G9 is the way it renders color - it's just fantastic!

Panasonic Lumix - The Creators

Here is a really well produced video that you will enjoy:https://youtu.be/JiQWAoYt50EI will post additional deatils when I get them.

A trip to the Kennedy Space Center

Yesterday January 27, 2018 I had the opportunity to go with a group of 18 participants to the Kennedy Space Center to find and photograph the Florida Scrub Jays.The Florida scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is one of the species of scrub jay native to North America. It is the only species of bird endemic to the U.S. state of Florida and one of only 15 species endemic to the continental United States. The Florida scrub-jay is the rarest of five species belonging to the genus Aphelocoma, which means ‘smooth-hair’ and refers to the absence of the head crest possessed by some of the more ubiquitous North American jays. The Florida scrub-jay has a co-operative lifestyle. Each Florida scrub-jay pair mates for life and builds a new nest each year between February and March.As there was a fair amount of hiking through the scrub I carried no tripod and hand-held the Panasonic Lumix G9 with the new Leica 200mm f/2.8 lens and the 2X teleconverter.  This is an amazing combination with 6.5 stops of image stabilization the configuration was perfect for this excursion.For this last image I used the pre burst feature to capture RAW files with the camera set to auto focus continuous.  I selected this image for the truly awesome wing position as the jay too flight.

Space Coast Wildlife & Birding Festival - Day 1

It was a gorgeous 84 degree day yesterday when I arrived in Titusville for the Space Coast Festival but this morning it was a cold 51 degrees.  This rapid change is no good for bird photography as most of the birds were hunkered down in the mangroves.  The few that braved the cold were mostly way out of reach even with an 800 mm equivalent lens.These are a few decent images albeit severely cropped.  Now for the good news - the new Leica 200 mm f/2.8 arrived and I have just unpacked it.  Will give this lens a shot tomorrow morning.  

21st Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival has Appeal for Everyone

I am so looking forward to be at this festval.  As a Panasonic Lumix Ambassador, I am presenting, doing photo walks and will have all the latest Lumix Cameras and Lenses for you to try out.Florida’s Space Coast is geographically located right between the northern temperate and the southern tropical climatic zones? That is why they are blessed with such an amazing variety of birds and animals and the places where they live. Celebrating its 21^st year, the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival is the perfect place to immerse yourself in all things natural in Central Florida. Headquartered at the Titusville Campus at Eastern Florida State College January 24 through 29, the festival features some of the world’s most renowned birding and wildlife experts and wildlife photographers.Field trips take place at the region’s best birding and wildlife sites by bus, van, car, hay wagon, pontoon boat and on foot. Some are morning trips and some last all day. Many occur on Brevard County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands properties. Pontoon boat trips provide the chance to see wildlife on the water; if you are interested in Indian River Lagoon restoration, one excursion will focus on oyster reef and living shoreline projects taking place in Mosquito Lagoon. Some of America’s leading wildlife photographers will offer classes and field workshops to help you hone your photography skills.  The Exhibit Center features 82 booths filled with worldwide birding, nature and cultural tour operators; environmental organizations; booksellers; photographers; crafters and an outstanding representation of camera, video and optics equipment. Deals will abound on travel to many foreign lands with adventures available in Antarctica, Africa, Asia, South and Central America and more.If you’re thinking about buying a new camera or a pair of binoculars, you don’t want to miss this event! Panasonic, Canon, Tamron and Sigma dealers will be present with camera equipment you can borrow to try out in the field. Once you make a choice, Hunt’s Photo and Video will be there with the best prices. Representatives from Swarovski, Zeiss, Opticron, Leica, Kowa and Leica will be happy to show you the latest in binoculars and spotting scopes. Make a choice and you can buy optics equipment on the spot from Time and Optics.  Field trips and photography activities require registration; classroom talks are included in the registration fee. Entrance to the Exhibit Center is free. To register and to find the 36-page attendee guide, daily schedules and more visit www.scbwf.org.  

The Adorama Panasonic Lumix G9 Launch Event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toRCYwCvelw&t=1867s

The Lumix G9 and Post Focus

I have been asked this many times and no matter how much I explain it there is still some confusion.  Basically, the Post Focus function in the supporting Lumix cameras rely on the high-resolution video capability in conjunction with focus racking to capture a sequence of images that can be selected by defining the plane of focus.  So as an example, if you were to set up a yardstick and let the camera take a post-focus image - the camera would focus on the nearest point to the lens take an image and then gradually refocus a bit further out and take another image till it reached the end of the frame at the farthest point.  There would be a series of images each one at a different point of focus.  Note however that this sequence is captured using the video mode of the camera. Once the images are captured, the camera does internal processing that then allows you to tap on the screen to select the image that has the best focus at that selected point.  You can then opt to save this selected image.  Supporting this function is post-capture peaking to confirm focus and in addition, you can magnify the image for a selective selection.This feature is further augmented with a merge function.  You can merge all the images captured into a single image that is tack sharp from the closest focus point to the farthest.  However what is even more useful, particularly if you use large apertures for a shallow depth of field and you want to keep your background out of focus.  You can select the range you want to merge and thereby leave the remainder of the scene out of focus.The following image that I used as the lead image was captured in post focus and merged in its entirety.For this next Post-focus demonstration I placed a postcard on the background and merged the entire set of images.  As you can see the postcard is in focus as are the flowers. Next, I used the same Post-Focus set but this time iI selected just the range I wanted, just the flowers and executed the merge.  The following is the resulting image with the postcard nicely blurred:I hope this gives you a better understanding of the power of this feature and the many ways you can use it.  Please note that when these images are captured using 6K Photo Mode, the resulting images are 18 MP and suitable for very large enlargements when processed with the appropriate software. 

Introducing the LUMIX GH5S: Exceptional Mirrorless for Videography, Photography and Low Light Image Capture

From Panasonic's Press Release - January 8, 2018

 

• Introducing a newly developed 10.2MP High Sensitivity MOS sensor for enhanced image quality in low light: Allowing up to 51,200 ISO recording without extended ISO.
• Time Code IN/OUT for easy synchronization of multiple cameras and Dual Native ISO, providing low range (400) and high range (2,500) ISO environments.
• True “Multi-Aspect Ratio” Function in Both Photo and Video

Panasonic is proud to introduce the new hybrid Digital Single Lens Mirrorless Camera LUMIX GH5S with expanded video recording capability and enhanced image quality. Designed and developed for professional filmmakers, the LUMIX GH5S achieves highest-ever image sensitivity and video image quality in the history of LUMIX cameras, especially in low-light situations.Packed with big features to satisfy demanding photographers and videographers alikeThe new 10.2-megapixel Digital MOS Sensor with Dual Native ISO Technology and Venus Engine 10 faithfully reproduce even dark parts of the image, allowing high ISO capture when the use of supplemental lighting may not be possible. This sensor is a multi-aspect type with a sufficient margin for realizing the same angle of view in 4:3,17:9,16:9 and 3:2 aspect ratios. The sensor also enables photo shooting in 14-bit RAW format, providing higher flexibility for professional RAW stills development workflows. When shooting in dark environments, videographers can now focus on filming that perfect shot as they no longer need to worry about noise which often results from having to use higher ISOs. The Dual Native ISO Technology suppresses noise to produce cleaner footage when taken in all light. Both videographers and photographers can now enjoy the same diagonal field of view across all aspect ratios with the True “Multi-Aspect Ratio” Function. This feature means you can easily swap between difference aspect ratios giving you the accuracy you want from your lenses, and making the process easier while producing and editing in post-production. The LUMIX GH5S is compatible with Time Code IN and OUT, like the professional camcorders, which is easy to set using the flash sync terminal and bundled conversion cable for a standard BNC terminal. This is especially important for “lip synchronization” when using multiple cameras.The LUMIX GH5S can be used as Time Code generator for other GH5S cameras and professional camcorders. The Time Code IN/OUT functionality makes a production teams job pain-free as it provides synchronization for both video and audio devices used on multi-cam productions.The LUMIX GH5 achieved 4KUHD 60p video recording for the first time as a digital mirrorless camera in 2017. The new LUMIX GH5S establishes a new milestone by realizing the world’s first 4K 60p video recording in Cinema 4K (4096x2160), 3 capable of internal 4:2:210-bit video recording up to Cinema 4K30p and internal 4:2:0 8-bit Cinema 4K60p. This is a color subsampling commonly used for film production, for even more faithful color reproduction.4The LUMIX GH5S also records 4:2:2 10-bit 400-Mbps All-Intra in 4K 30p/25p/24p and 200- Mbps All-Intra in Full-HD.Continuing the LUMIX GH tradition, there is no time limit for both Full-HD and 4K video recording. The LUMIX GH5S complies with 4K HDR video with Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) mode in Photo Style. A low-bit-rate recording mode, 4K HEVC for HLG, is available. This enables playback on AV equipment compatible with the HLG Display format, such as Panasonic 4K HDR TVs.The VFR (Variable Frame Rate) function lets users record overcranked (time-lapse) and undercranked (slo-mo) video in C4K/4K (60 fps, maximum 2.5x slower) and FHD (240 fps, maximum 10x slower). A V-LogL and Rec.709 LUT (Look Up Table) are pre-installed in the camera, so users can play videos recorded in V-LogL without having to separately purchase a Software Upgrade Key. Four additional LUTs can be installed using the Panasonic Varicam (.VLT) file format.DFD (Depth From Defocus) technology and ultra-high-speed digital signal processing achieve fast auto focusing of approximately 0.07 sec 6 with 12 fps (AFS) / 8 fps (AFC) in 12- bit RAW and 10 (AFS) / 7 (AFC) fps in 14-bit RAW high-speed burst shooting. In addition to a total of 225 focus areas, The options for Face/Eye Recognition, Tracking AF, 1-area AF and Pinpoint AF are available for precise focusing. The 4K PHOTO enables 60 fps high-speed capture in approximately 8-megapixel equivalent resolution.Achieve outstanding footage in any environment, especially in low lightAs a camera that excels in shooting in low light, the LUMIX GH5S boasts -5EV luminance detection performance with Low Light AF thanks to the higher sensitivity and optimized tuning of the sensor. Live Boost is another practical feature that makes it possible to check the composition even in total darkness, by boosting the sensitivity just for Live View. The magnification ratio in MF assist is increased from conventional 10x to 20x, which is convenient especially for astronomical photography. An AF Point Scope function, first introduced in the Lumix G9 and Night mode are also integrated.In order to make the GH5S tough enough to withstand even heavy field use, it is composed of a magnesium alloy full die-cast front, rear and top frame that is not only splashproof7 and dustproof but also freezeproof down to -10 degrees Celsius. The GH5S is equipped with a double SD Memory Card slot, compatible with the high-speed, high-capacity UHS-II and Video Speed Class 90. Users can flexibly choose the recording method from Relay Recording, Backup Recording or Allocation Recording. The HDMI Type A terminal is provided, along with the USB-C Gen1 interface.Exceptional image capture without concernThe GH5S has a large LVF (Live View Finder) with a stunningly high magnification ratio of approximately 1.52x/0.76x (35mm camera equivalent) providing smooth display at 120 fps. A high-precision, high-speed OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display features 3,680K-dot resolution and 100% field of view. In addition to dual dials, an omni-directional joystick enables more intuitive and flexible operation.The GH5S includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi® connectivity to offer a more flexible shooting experience and instant image sharing with easy operation. Compatibility with Bluetooth 4.2 (called BLE: Bluetooth Low Energy) enables constant connection with a smartphone/tablet with minimum power consumption. For Wi-Fi, 5 GHz (IEEE802.11ac)8 can be selected in addition to the conventional 2.4 GHz (IEEE 802.11b/g/n) for an even more secure and stable connection.For extended battery life and a more stable hold, the new Battery Grip DMW-BGGH5 (sold separately) is available. The XLR Microphone Adaptor DMW-XLR1 (sold separately) allows high-res sound recording with an external XLR microphone.9The Panasonic LUMIX GH5s will be available from end of February 2018 and will retail for $2499 (body only).

Lumix G9 - High Resolution Mode

Many new cameras have repurposed their in body image stabilization to create high resolution images employing sensor shift capture.  The Lumix G9 uses the same concept but shifts the sensor by 1/2 pixel rather than a full pixel.  It captures 8 images in raw and combines them in-camera to generate a single 80 MP Raw file.  Whats more is that you can capture a single standard resolution RAW file of the same image in addition to the high resolution image.  This is a great feature for studio based product photography, still life and architectural photography.  As there is (releatively) significant capture time, any scene with moving subject matter is not suitable for High Resolution capture.  I set up a simple shot of a Gerbera Daisy with an artificial background to test the resolution and imprtance of this feature. the image above is what I was photographing.  The shutter delay was set for 15 seconds to give me enough time to exit the room and to stabilize any vibration or tripod and camera body. The exposure triad:f/8, 1/200 sec at ISO 200.The red stroked are is enlarged below for comparison. Of significance, is the minimal pixilation of theis crop in the hi-res image compared to the standard 20.3 MP file.   The  base file at 300 DPI is approx. 34.5 inches by 26 inches. I have sussessfully enlarged this image to 30 feet by 22.5 feet and the image maintains exceptional quality.