Panasonic Lumix GH6 Problems

7 min readDec 21, 2023

The Panasonic Lumix GH6 camera has some shortcoming and there are various workarounds and fixes which can overcome these issues to a large extent or reduce their impact as partial solutions.

Battery Life

The GH6 uses the DMW-BLK22 rechargeable battery. When this battery is used on the GH6 it has a short life of around 1 hour however when the same battery is used on the GH5 II, it last a long time (over 2 hours). To overcome this problem there are a number of different approaches and workarounds.

Disabled power consuming features which you are not using such as WiFi, Bluetooth, stabilisation, continuous auto-focus, high refresh rate of the LCD, use lower frame rates, don’t use multiple external microphones with the audio adapter (DMW-XLR1), don’t use HDMI output, don’t use SSD recording, and write to a single memory card. Obviously it is not practical to disable all of these settings when recording video so this is just a partial solution that will extend the lifetime of the battery only slightly.

Battery grip

Unlike its predecessor the GH5m2 which had a battery grip (DMW-BGGH5), the GH6 does not have a battery grip to be used as an option for extending its battery life.

USB Power

The GH6 camera can be powered via USB-C both while running the camera as well as for charging the battery in the camera. However when powering the camera or charging the battery in it via USB the start up time of the camera is delayed significantly and it takes a longer time for the camera to be ready to record video. The camera also requires input from the camera operator as to what action to take when the camera detects that a USB cable is plugged into it.

So using USB to power the camera partially resolved the problem of short battery life however it introduces its own set of problems.

In theory Panasonic could provide a firmware update which allows a default selection of the what the camera should check for first when it detects a USB-C cable. This is something which exists on Olympus cameras and it reduces the friction by eliminating the need for input from the camera operator.

Dummy Battery

Another solution for the short battery life of this camera is to use an external battery with a dummy battery to mimic the benefits of an in-camera battery while prolonging its life time with an external battery. There are two problems with this approach however:

The battery door on the GH6 has a flap which requires a very specific narrow two part cable to pass through it. As opposed to side opening which is available on the GH5 mark II and the majority of other cameras. A two part cable is more likely to be disconnected by accident which can impact the video recording but it might be considered an advantage if it stops the camera from getting pulled down and falling over.
Also, connecting an external V-mount battery to a camera typically requires additional equipment such as a camera cage and necessary means for attachment.

The lightest type of setup for external batteries are those that directly connect to the base of the camera such as:

CoreSWX PowerBase EDGE LINK, base plate battery form V-Mount Battery Pack 70wh, 14.8v

Another option is to use a base plate for NPF or V-mount batteries which allows using any Sony NPF batteries or V-mount batteries. This is a slightly heavier and bigger option than the battery only option mentioned above however it provides more flexibility.

Tilta V-Mount Battery Baseplate TA-BSP2-V

There are also other options for connecting Sony NPF batteries or V-mount batteries but they are typically connected via a cage or on top of the camera which is typically a larger setup and usually used with a cage (some can be attached to the hot shoe of a camera but that usually gets in the way of other peripherals).

Light Streaking

In extreme high contrast scenes there is a light streaking issue on the GH6 whereby light from the extremely bright parts of the image may seep into the neighbouring horizontal parts of the image akin to to flares on anamorphic lenses but less intense. This issue seems to affect some GH6 cameras more than others due to manufacturing differences but so far I have not experienced any problems although I don’t typically shoot the type of scene which would be impacted.

There are three considerations for partially resolving this issue if you are affected which will at least reduce the intensity of the problem.

Using lower ISOs will decrease the impact of streaking
Switching DR boost On will also reduce the impact
Firmware updates in version 2.2 have made changes which substantially reduces this problem so updating the GH6 to the latest firmware update will also lessen the effect of any visible streaking.

SD card bitrate

Video encoding bitrates for writing to the SD card have been capped at 600Mbps instead of 720Mbps which is the standard for V90 SD cards. So Panasonic is accommodating sub-standard SD card producers instead of GH6 customers. This reduces the opportunities for redundant recording as well as reducing the flexibility of memory card types that can be used when recording higher bitrates.

This is something that Panasonic can fix with a firmware update however so far they have indicated that they don’t intend to fix this problem.

Memory card types

The GH6 has a CF Express card slot and an SD card slot. Having different types of memory cards is inconvenient and makes the user workflow more difficult. As the camera operator needs to be carry two different types of cards, use two different card readers, be aware of which card to use for which encodings, and it limits redundant to recording to both cards for higher bitrates’ encodings, as well as an increase cost of purchasing different types of cards for those who are upgrading from the GH5, GH5 II, GH5S, or Olympus micro four thirds cameras.

SSD Recording

Instead of dealing with memory cards, it is possible to record to external SSD via the USB-C port. This approach is cheaper in terms of storage, however it introduces its own problems.

It is not possible to record to memory cards and USB-C devices at the same time in order to have redundancy. Recording via an additional device externally through HDMI may address this issue partially but there are some limitations associated with that approach in terms of frame rates and bit-rate (see below).
Requires additional gear to secure and attach the SSD, as USB-C cable is not firm and secure connection.
Makes the camera less practical for handheld shooting.
For frame rate above 60, it requires a dummy battery with external power as the camera cannot be used for this purpose with a regular battery.

HDMI

It is possible to record to an external device via HDMI as a means for redundancy however video cannot be recorded to cards while RAW video data or 4K 100/120fps is being output via HDMI.
When HDMI is connected to an external display, and info display is turned on, the info won’t be shown on the camera’s LCD screen.
While the GH6 is recording internally, the frame-rate on the external monitor may drop making it difficult to monitor while shooting. When recording stops, the frame rate on the external monitor reverts to normal. Turning off and on the camera may temporarily solve the issue.

Ergonomics

The ergonomics of the GH6 are not ideal as buttons and dials are easily accidentally pressed, they can be locked using a shortcut button but this introduces its own inconvenience as it needs to be unlocked before usage again.

Eyelets of the camera protrude and use metal D-rings which make noise that can be captured in video. The triangular d-rings can be removed altogether and a camera cage can allow direct attachment of a neck band or wrist band. However nothing can be done about the protruding eyelets which take up space.

The screen cannot tilt up to 90 degrees unless it is flipped out to the left side.

Audio

The video recording will have four audio channels even if multiple microphones are not connected and being used with the external audio attachment (DMW-XLR1). This means during the video editing process the unused streams need to be removed or hidden which is a small inconvenience.

This is something that Panasonic could fix as part of a firmware update however as of the time of writing this, the problem still exists.

Panasonic Lumix DMW-XLR1 XLR Microphone Adapter

Frame rates NTSC/PAL

Unlike cameras such as Olympus OM-D E-M1X and E-M1 III, it is not possible to change frame rates encoding options through the video settings on the camera if it means frame rates are incompatible with the current system frequency of the camera (NTSC vs. PAL). So if you wish to switch between 24fps, 25fps, and 30fps, the camera’s frequency needs to be modified first, followed by restarting the camera prior to being able to select a different frame rate.

Responsiveness

Sometimes the GH6 appears to be unresponsive. This happens very infrequently and is resolved on its own without any intervention however it might be slightly inconvenient to have to wait for the camera when you want to start recording video footage or pressing the record button multiple times in an assumption that the first press didn’t work which result in unnecessary start/stop of the recording.