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GH4 4K Panasonic video camera, official topic
  • 3230 Replies sorted by
  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    @Tone13 The rails on the brick are a good idea, but they will not work with lenses that don't stick out over it as it bulges. If they made the front flush with the camera body, then I would say they have good designers but this is not the case. To address your question, the camera will sit higher on the mount with existing rail systems, but as I pointed out, it will not allow all lenses to work.

  • Tone13Tone13

    @LPowell,

    While the grip does have 2 rail mounts at the front, what happens if you want to shoulder mount the camera? Those two holes become useless because they do not go through to the back so no scope to add a shoulder pad.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Thanks Paul--that is indeed tiny. I guess that's why it is advertised as percentage instead of stops. @Lpowell these cams normally have an outside connector that looks real and inside is a ribbon type connector printed onto a film. So there is sort of an illusion of a connector--plus the Phantom power is upconverted from 12v to 48v. But hey, better than what is on my GH2. And maybe this one is hardwired--I'm sure someone will open it up.

  • paulhoustonpaulhouston

    @DrDave An increase of one full stop is 2, or an increase of 100%. A half-stop increase is 1.414 or 41.4% increase. Likewise a 0.415-stop increase is 1.33 or 33% increase.

  • LPowellLPowell

    @JohnTollwannabe

    One of the problems, and yes it's a problem, with their add-on audio/video "brick" is the ergonomics. It really looks hideous and makes the camera chunky and unwieldy, even on a rig. If they had smoothed out its lines, stream-lined it to match the GH4's body, and also made it weather resistant and more like a battery grip then it might have been something. As is, it smacks of "kludged together after-thought."

    The GH4's A/V brick is obviously not intended for handheld shots like a battery grip. It's an externally powered base unit designed for mounting on a tripod. Look closely and you'll see it has a pair of holes for 15mm rails built-in. That alone solves half your DSLR rigging issues in one versatile box. Mount the brick with rails on a fluid tripod head and you have a dedicated quick-release system for using the GH4 either on tripod or handheld at a moment's notice, with no cables or add-ons plugged into the camera itself. The A/V brick turns the GH4 into a modular upgrade to the AF100, lacking only ND filters and a waveform monitor. Synched audio was the number one reason I got an AF100 and it's been well worth the investment.

    As for the GH4's 16-bit audio quality, I've recorded with both dual and in-camera audio, and I will take secure cabling and connectors over 24-bit resolution any day. Yes, 24 bits is a measurable benefit, but I only really need it for live, amplified music. Even in that situation, a line-level feed can usually be tapped directly from the mixing board. The brick will make this simple to rig and easy to monitor.

    Last but not least is how the GH4 will simplify on-location backup issues. With a dual-camera AF100/GH2 shoot, I couldn't bring a second AF100 for backup, the best I could do was another GH2. With three GH4's, I'll have a plug-compatible backup for both tripod-mounted and handheld cams, all using the same settings and internal battery type. That will make a huge difference in logistics for me.

  • jonpaisjonpais

    @Vitaliy +100 "Skin tones always come into play. It is something like transparent highs and involving middle in the audio :-) To be serious, talking about skin tones has almost no point except flame, as you do not know original color, you do not know lighting, you do not know any processing or white balance. So it becomes blah, blah, blah."

    see http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/159208#Comment_159208

  • gabiloursongabilourson

    @IVIaverick52

    +1

  • TrackZillasTrackZillas

    @IVIaverick52 Finally someone talking the truth, been on that mindset since the announcement.. To me this is the all in one camera Panasonic truly delivered, and they bring the goods everytime... I'm in. 96fps improved DR from what the GH3 can do 10bit 422 even if it's through an external recorder, better low light what more can we ask for.

  • thornthorn

    @gk5

    I can't tell if you're joking, or an uninformed 13 yr old.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I took the trouble to read the links about dynamic range, but I did not see anywhere how the figure of 33 percent equates to 1/3 F stop on the GH4. But I happy to wait until I see the cam. If anyone knows the formula send me a pm. Perhaps they are including the switch from 8 bit to 10 bit in their figure of 33 percent, as a jump from 8 to 10 bits, mathematically would translate to 2 full stops as far as the AD converter is concerned. Of course no cam has actual DR of the theoretical range of the converter.

  • itimjimitimjim

    @karl sorry pal, I was being sarcastic. Regarding Yucatan, we both know what YouTube does to quality footage. Only time will tell if it's any good, but my instinct says it will be excellent and the uncompressed stuff will be up to pro standards.

  • tetakpataktetakpatak

    There is no 30 minute limit if you buy a USA cam, just bring your surfboard and jammies to California, catch some rays, and take the cam home.

    @DrDave thanks, mate....I will seriously consider this :-D

  • karlkarl

    @itimjim: "raw" as in "recorded on the SDXC card by the camera itself, not post-processed in any way".

    The "Light of the Yucatan"-4k-promo-video, for example, is so full of compression artefacts that complex scenes (e.g. the waves on the water in the pond) look like shit. I am hopeful that such "compression to death" will not be seen in original files as recorded by the camera, but I want to know for sure before being sorry...

  • itimjimitimjim

    @karl what raw files? ;)

  • caveportcaveport

    @ IVlaverick Totally agree. End of discussion for me.

  • karlkarl

    Excuse my mundane question: Does the GH4 have any builtin microphones? I didn't find that mentioned in the specs posted so far. I just found builtin stereo mics mentioned in here.

    @IVIaverick52: I agree, but will "throw money" on the seller not before I had a chance to review raw files taken from the camera, directly.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    @IVIaverick52

    You get a gold star my friend.

  • IVIaverick52IVIaverick52

    Of course Panasonic puts out THE camera that checks pretty much every box we have ever requested. 4k, uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 output, up to 96 fps in full 1080p, improved dynamic range, extremely high bitrate internal codecs, better noise performance, an accessory with 100% professional HD-SDI and XLR connections, all in a camera with the ability to use almost any lens ever produced. All this for a speculated $2K price point and people are still whining about the "Sony look" of the GH3 sensor. Panny is basically bowing to our requests for the perfect affordable camera and all you can do is spit on them over trivial crap. If this camera is any less than $2.5k I will literally throw my credit cards at my computer screen.

  • gk5gk5

    Lol... did I say, I red it, didn't I? :)

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @gk5

    I suggest to read something before posting, using correct terms and thinking first, ok? :-) And not post stuff like "4K is just a marketing, it can be done easily in post production, same as going from 480p to 720p". Really.

  • gk5gk5

    I red this camera can play slow motion videos upto ...fps??? Can somebody confirm frame rate? Also, as you know, 4K is just a marketing, it can be done easily in post production, same as going from 480p to 720p/1080i few years back(I still have up-converting Panasonic DVD player!!!). The history repeat itself! I guess, the biggest issue with new videos formats is the bitrate higher then 20-28mbps filling up SF memory cards... hardware limitation, not the sensor... the CPU! I heard GH4K has 4 cores CPU processing unit. Is that true? Which one? ARM? x86? ARM processors is a way to go with Linux OSs(not saying Android)... Is USB 3.0 here yet? If it's not supported then I have no idea what Panasonic engineers are doing! And, I hope, they calibrated colour filter properly this time in low light like Sony does it!

  • duckparkduckpark

    Skin tones are maybe the most useful place to judge color. Meaning that if human skin looks ok, probably rest of the picture does too. And if it doesn't, well, the rest of the frame shows it too more or less. I definitely want to see GH4 sample videos with some skin!

  • svartsvart

    I see that the same pointless complaining is happening again, like it happened with the GH3 announcement, like it happened with the GH2 announcement, etc.

    Buy it or don't buy it. I just want HDMI liveview on my G6 and I'd be perfectly happy.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Thanks Vitaliy--I just didn't see how it equals 1/3 of one stop if the sensor has a range of 10-12 stops.

    http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/camera-usage/general-camera-usage-faq#what-is-dynamic-range-is-6-sto

    http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dynamic-range.htm

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Thanks Vitaliy--I just didn't see how it equals 1/3 of one stop if the sensor has a range of 10-12 stops.

    Looking forward to comparisons with BM4K, the new Sony and of course the Samsung Note 3.

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