Panasonic G6 Performance

Generally good performance for a Compact System Camera.

Startup time was a little faster than average for a Compact System Camera, but shutdown was a bit sluggish. Buffer clearing times were fast with a fast UHS-1 95MB/s card.

Mode switching was quite fast.

The Panasonic G6's contrast-detect autofocus is quick, faster than most consumer SLRs and CSCs. The G6's full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) was only 0.216 second using single-area (center) AF with the 14-42mm II kit lens in our test. 23-area AF was slightly slower at 0.236 second. Enabling the flash increased lag quite a bit to 0.392 second, but that's still pretty good. When manually focused, the G6's lag time dropped to 0.082 second, which is quite good. The G6's prefocused shutter lag time of 0.071 second was good.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Single-shot cycle times are quite good. We measured 0.49 second for Large/Fine JPEGs, 0.65 second for RAW and 0.69 second for RAW+L/F JPEGs, though if you only shoot two or three shots, RAW and RAW+JPEG cycle times are closer to JPEG.

Continuous H (High Speed) mode is pretty fast at 6.2 frames per second when shooting full-resolution JPEGs, though this is a bit short of Panasonic's 7 fps claim. This drops to about 5.3 frames per second with RAW files, though. Note that Live View is not available during bursts in Continuous H mode. Continuous Medium and Low speed modes offer up to 4 and 2 frames per second respectively, while supporting Live View.

Full resolution buffer depth was excellent for Large/Fine JPEGs, at over 20 frames (we suspect there is no limit with typical scenes and a fast card -- our test scene is designed to be difficult to compress). However, when shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG files, buffer depth dropped to 7 frames. Buffer clearing times were quick, though, ranging from 3 to 5 seconds with our fast card.

The flash recycled after a full discharge in an average of 4.1 seconds, a little slower than average.

Download speeds were quite fast, quick enough that you probably won't feel the need for a separate card reader, even with large memory cards. (Note that this test was performed with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-1 SD card: Slower cards would likely show slower transfer times.)

Bottom line, the Panasonic G6's performance is generally good for a CSC. Startup time is good, autofocus is fast, cycle times and burst speeds are good, and buffer clearing was quick with a fast 95MB/s UHS-1 card. Our only real complaints are buffer depths are a little shallow for its class when shooting RAW files, and Live View is not available in Continuous H mode.

Average battery life for a Compact System Camera.

The Panasonic G6 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and a dedicated charger. The CIPA rated 330-350 shots per charge depending on whether the LCD Monitor or EVF is used is about average for a Compact System Camera, but much lower than a typical digital SLR when using the SLR's optical viewfinder. We strongly recommend getting a second battery for your G6 if you plan any extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))