GH5 Autofocus Settings

and I should add, it seems to work totally fine for video, but always messes up when shooting stills

Unfortunately the GH5 is notoriously bad at auto focusing. Your best bet is the set to manual and do not by hand. Not really a good zoom camera. Throw a fisheye and call it good!

jake_sUnfortunately the GH5 is notoriously bad at auto focusing. Your best bet is the set to manual and do not by hand. Not really a good zoom camera. Throw a fisheye and call it good!

Gotcha. That’s what I’ve been reading recently and largely what I’ve experienced, it’s weird tho it feels like my zoom lens can focus better for stills but not videos, and my wide angle is great for video but never focused correctly for stills.

kind of wild that a camera of this quality would miss such an important feature.


I feel like it’s so highly recommended for action sports videography, how do people manage the autofocus challenges?

With every camera, if the goal is to shoot stills of either skiers or wildlife(theres not much difference) then the camera should be set for a rapid shooting mode or constant so as the skier moves buy, holding the shutter will produce multiple photos instead of just shooting one. Keep an eye on the shutter speed as it should be pretty high around 1/1000 or higher. Then you should keep the mode that will constantly change focus as you move the camera on the skier. For me personally, id only use a telephoto for stills because of compression and I dont want the skier todamage my camera haha. A wide angle is usually pre easy because of the depth of field. Each lens will work differently from one another(not exact same, but different focal lengths will be different).

mikemackind of wild that a camera of this quality would miss such an important feature.


I feel like it’s so highly recommended for action sports videography, how do people manage the autofocus challenges?

Action sports filmers use manual focus, auto focus is not needed with a wide lens, set your focus to just under infinity and don't get closer than like 3ft to your subject and your image will stay sharp.

the only video cameras with halfway reliable autofocus would like an ac130/160 or hmc150/hvx200 as they have fixed lenses and small sensors.

Autofocus on dslrs/mirrorless cameras is catered towards photography, not video. I have seen people use sony's autofocus system for video and its decent, but I would not recommend it for action sports.

mikemacand I should add, it seems to work totally fine for video, but always messes up when shooting stills

also side note for the gh5, this camera is certainly leaning towards the video side of things, as jake said its autofocus system isn't great in the first place.

Other cameras like nikon, canon and sony will have much better autofocus for stills, but I would still not recommend using autofocus for video.

eheathalso side note for the gh5, this camera is certainly leaning towards the video side of things, as jake said its autofocus system isn't great in the first place.

Other cameras like nikon, canon and sony will have much better autofocus for stills, but I would still not recommend using autofocus for video.

Yeah the GH5 had pretty bad AF. Although, im now shooting on a Canon R6 with an RF to EF adapter, the Autofocus is pretty damn good for video, and thats even with EF lenses. I shoot a mostly in the bike industry, and I feel pretty comfortable and trustworthy in the AF on that camera.

This was the first video I shot when i got my R6, and used the AF most of the time for this video.


https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1009327/All-day-Escapade-with-Branham-Snyder