Personal View site logo
GH4 4K Panasonic video camera, official topic
  • 3230 Replies sorted by
  • TomasoTomaso

    @aldolega could not aggree more., relly exellent 1080p 4:2:0 with all the rest of the goodies coming with it. Have had it on prel order for some weeks now. It will be the prime CAM in september when I will be going to Finland to film and take photos of bears, wolfs, seaegles and "järv". Of course The GH2 will be there too. http://focusonwildlife.se/25-29-september-2014-varg-bjorn-och-jarv/

  • MistasMistas

    Some questions remain unanswered, well at least I haven't found good answers...

    1. If downsampling from 4k to 2k, will software stabilization like Mercalli be more effective before or after?
    2. Same for denoise, better before or after and why?
    3. The downsampling itself, does it vary from program to program or is it just simple math averaging 4 pixels to 1?
    4. On the GH3 fast lenses wide open are plenty sharp for video since pixels are binned anyway, but 4k video which simply crops the sensor a little bit, may the video not appear as sharp wide open?
  • aldolegaaldolega

    That's good news about the rolling shutter, definitely one of the improvements I'm looking forward to most. I feel like with all the talk about 4K, 4:2:2, the YAGH, what we can get out of the HDMI port, recorders, etc, people have overlooked that this will be, if nothing else, a really excellent 1080p 4:2:0 cam. I'm excited/curious about all that other stuff too of course, but really really good "regular DSLR" footage is good enough for me right now.

  • driftwooddriftwood

    It certainly feels like rolling shutter is much improved in the GH4 on my limited testing of it. The review will be coming just as soon as Panasonic can spare one.

  • blackspotblackspot

    @tron Yes, you are right. It is just my feeling, about dynamics and details of GH4 compared to BMPC4k. I have downloaded GH4 4k clips from YouTube, and there is definitely more to shadows than it appears in Youtube! But those Vivid colors need huge amount of curves adjustment to match BMPC style colors. Im confident that there will be more picture profiles available later for gh4.

  • AdamTAdamT

    @mpgxsvcd not sure what's going on on your end, but most of the 4K Youtube clips I've seen look fantastic, at least compared to 1080p Youtube clips.

  • TronTron

    @blackspot It's difficult to compare log footage to rec709, but I have to agree that highlights appear to clip in BMPC4K before the GH4 (without any visible increase in shadow detail). The uploader also claims more dynamic range is recoverable in Resolve with the GH4 files. Very interested to see what the cine-gamma modes look like as my understanding is that they are still not available in the preproduction firmware and testing to date has all been from the "standard" color profile. We could be in for another surprise as far as DR is concerned.

  • tonalttonalt

    What this "variable frame rate" mean in practice? How does it differ from shooting with "normal" frame rate?

  • badiebadie

    Free battery grip for the GH4 in UK!

    http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-panasonic-lumix-dmc-gh4-digital-camera-body/p1550272

  • blackspotblackspot

    To me, it looks like GH4 have greater dynamics range and resolves more lines. Im little bit worried about GH4 skin tones and "vividness" of the colors and curve. I hope there is more s-curve type picture profiles available (like gh2 "smooth" or "nostalgic"). :/

  • anti12anti12

    Panasonic GH4 vs Blackmagic 4K by 2011peopleasia:

  • RRRRRRRR

    @jamesgh2

    I guess that is why they have made efforts to minimize noise from the sensor.

    On a side note, the gh2 image still can kick some major ass. It just look really darn good in many situations despite all it's limitations (and of course we owe a lot to Driftwood and others for that). While cameras keep getting better and specs get all the more ridiculous for ridiculous prices - it's clear as day that tech is very unrestricting these days. The hand and eye that wields the image (and the mind behind what's told) is everything. Getting back to the gh4, I really hope it continues panny's tradition of making sensors that produces beautiful images.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    Watching 4K on youtube is like kissing your sister. You think it will be OK until you try it and then you realize why no one else does it.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    @ahbleza

    The AF in the first clip looked very good. Watch the blue truck in the background. Watch how the words on the truck blur very consistently as they run towards the camera. It looked like M4/3s depth of field and AF for that matter.

  • jamesgh2jamesgh2

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    I should have known better, sorry about that!

    @IVIaverick52

    On the Yucatan video the Aliasing artifacts on the Macaw were confirmed to be on the original footage with pretty bad results too by the author. However every camera even Film has a hard time interpreting these patterns as even human vision can see them to some extent on the feathers "I have shot many of these birds in the past". However looking at fine textures it seems it will be an improvement over the GH3 and even the GH2 regarding aliasing. Since the GH4 is using a cropped EX Tele like mode for the 4k it should have minimal to no aliasing like that on the GH2 EX Tele mode.

    What I am most worried about 4k is the amount of noise it will produce in that mode. The GH2 EX Tele is full of noise and banding depending on the brightness level inside the image. Maybe the NR algorithm is doing a good job to suppress that in 4k. Also if the EX tele mode is still in there for 1080p which it seems it is, it will benefit from that new NR tech. Which in itself is worth the upgrade alone in my case as I use EX Tele on the GH2 a lot.

  • IVIaverick52IVIaverick52

    @AdamT Moire and aliasing should be minimal on the GH4 compared to other DSLR's. The higher resolution and especially the lack of line skipping will make edges very fluid.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @fomalhaut3 @jamesgh2

    Please use proper place for this discussion, like topic we have about Neat Video.

  • jamesgh2jamesgh2

    @formalhaut3

    Record 10 seconds of a neutral gray or 50% gray card that fills the frame and make sure the exposure histogram is in the middle with no under or over exposure this is for every ISO in this case 400.

    Step 1 : Use that footage for your neat video profile sample and then tweak the settings to the minimum values you can dial down in order for the footage to still have organic noise but very few artifacts. Save this as a preset.

    Step 2 : Use footage of a detailed scene be it nature or a studio setup with fabrics and apply the preset. Now enter the advanced interface for the effect and play with the Y, Cr, Cb and their NR amounts and Noise Levels and lower them in order to match the amount of detail you want to preserve. Less is better as you only need to get rid of the electronic noise and preserve as much detail as you want.

    Step 3 : Ad digital Noise in post by the Add Grain or Ad noise effect conservatively like 1.3% and or use Noise plates. It will make the footage more organic and help with banding inherent in the GH2 codec.

    I added my ISO 400 GH2 Preset for reference which can be used with the GH4 face footage with minimum tweaking.

    GH2Iso400PresetNeatVideo.zip
    10K
  • fomalhaut3fomalhaut3

    @jamesgh2 Hi, really interesting point on how to use neat video..would you mind sharing your gray samples for gh2?

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Someone mentioned that the GH4 will be in Park Cameras, in London. This is incorrect.

    It's actually going to be at Park Cameras in Burgess Hill, Address: Victoria Business Park, York Rd, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 9TT

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152234431007570&set=a.277393362569.144137.16669522569&type=1&relevant_count=1

  • jamesgh2jamesgh2

    @LPowell

    Yes if you use defaults or auto area sampling. I have carefully made gray samples for all my cameras at different ISOs which I use and tweak them accordingly even after applied. I sell my work to all major networks and even some A film studios and I have yet to receive a complaint of compression.

    For the GH4 face footage I used a GH2 ISO 400 preset I made and enhanced it by reducing the effect in most color levels and the luminance to be very mild as I have no access to the camera to create a profile. The macroblocks tend to disappear because with movement it can tell between 2 or more frames that those are artifacts and constructs a less blocky image in the end by averaging but also because it it tuned to work with macroblock footage and detects it as an undesired artifact. As for the Cascade footage if it was available it will be useless even with this technique as there is no information of importance between two frames that quickly.

    If you apply defaults in Neat Video be prepared to loose most fine detail and end up with wax figures. you are right, you have to know what you are doing with it.

    Once my preorder fills and I get the camera I'll try to do some workflow comparisons. BTW I admire your work on the GH2 hack, has served me well this past two years. Thanks!

  • LPowellLPowell

    @jamesgh2

    Neat video is a noise reduction and artifact plugin for a variety of editors and effects packages I used it in After Effects CC to get rid of noise and block artifacts quite effectively. It lost just a small detail level but cleaned up very nicely. Then used color correction tools on top and played with the image its quite a good codec.

    After you run NeatVideo on a 4K H.264 video you'll want to use an Unsharp Mask filter on it to completely obliterate any remaining original image details.

  • killagramkillagram

    @apefos or you can just purchase an ARRI. Panasonic didn't have to make a GH4 but they did and according to the specs/videos out there it meets if not exceeds most expectations, especially considering its price point. I don't believe pushing the GH4s native resolution or DR will make any of us a better videographer, at least not for quite some time.

  • x_worpig_xx_worpig_x

    @apefos I thought this was the GH4 thread? :P

  • AdamTAdamT

    @anti12 Good moire test at the end of that first clip -- closeup of a man's checked shirt. I think it's not bad at all considering how tough the test was. I bet it would look clean if downsampled to 1080p.

Add a Comment