I just saw this thread and gotta weigh in because I spent weeks testing bitrates for a coastal project last year! Honestly, that GH6 is a total beast but it eats through storage like crazy when you unlock those high-end codecs. I tried using a Lexar Professional 1667x 128GB SDXC UHS-II V60 at first because I wanted to save some cash, but the second I switched to 5.7K ProRes 422 HQ, the camera just stopped dead. Super frustrating in the field! I ended up biting the bullet on a ProGrade Digital 512GB CFexpress Type B Gold and the difference is amazing. You get that 1700MB/s read speed which makes offloading footage to your laptop so much faster after a long day... definitely worth the $200. Regarding the cage, I totally get the weight concern for hiking. I did a long trek with the SmallRig GH6 Full Cage 3784 and yeah, it adds some heft, but it actually saved my HDMI port when I tripped near a creek! If you really want to stay light, maybe look at a SmallRig GH6 Half Cage 3785 instead. It gives you the mounting points for a top handle without all the extra metal on the right side. Also, for batteries, dont even bother with just the internal ones for a doc. I used the SmallRig VB99 mini V Mount Battery with a D-Tap to dummy battery cable and it ran the camera all day long. It is a bit of a setup but way better than swapping small batteries every 45 minutes in the Seattle rain!

> I read online that CFexpress Type B cards are a total requirement for the high bitrates Honestly, most cards just dont cut it for 5.7K ProRes. My V60 SDs were not as good as expected and I had issues with constant frame drops. Unfortunately, you really need the ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type B Cobalt 165GB for its 1400MB/s sustained write speed. Since youre hiking, skip the bulky cages and just buy extra Panasonic DMW-BLK22 Lithium-Ion Battery packs. Third-party power is disappointing and usually throws sensor errors on this body anyway.

Honestly its ridiculous how much extra cash we have to dump into these setups just to get the advertised features actually working. You buy a premium body like the GH6 and then realize the hidden costs are basically a second mortgage. Its such a scam that manufacturers push these high bitrates but then the media required to actually record them costs a fortune. I have had so many issues with cards failing or just not being up to spec even when the box says they are... it is beyond frustrating and honestly just feels like a cash grab. The whole accessory market is just as bad lately. Everything is so overpriced for what it is and the build quality feels like its going downhill every single year. Companies really dont seem to care about the indie filmmakers anymore. It drives me crazy that you spend all this money and still feel like you are walking on eggshells with your gear. Just looking at the prices for those specialized cards and batteries makes me want to give up. Its all so needlessly expensive and complicated for no reason.

> I read online that CFexpress Type B cards are a total requirement for the high bitrates tbh if youre worried about which cards are gonna actually hold up for a doc, you should probably just check the official Panasonic support site for their approved media list. they have a super detailed compatibility chart that shows exactly which cards work with which bitrates so you dont end up wasting money on something that fails mid-shoot. also there is this guy on youtube who did a massive deep dive on gh6 storage... i think if you just search gh6 best memory cards for video it is like the first or second result that pops up. he tests all the v60 vs cfexpress stuff in real-world scenarios. worth a look before you drop the cash just to be safe.