Thanks to all for GH4 advice. I'm agreeing with all of it. :-) I agree 1/200 is not going to be fast enough for the stills. I agree it is a good idea to shoot with the highest res now, just to capture at the best res and make the captured clips as future proof as possible. I'm beginning to wonder if it is really possible to use the GH4 for video with fast action and also pull any worthwhile stills? It seems you would either have to set the shutter speed so fast that the video would be stuttery (but the stills might freeze motion), or, get a good cadence in the video but have blurry stills, especially shooting 4K at 24 fps!

I always shoot my stills in RAW. So, if my wife will agree to this plan, I think we will also rent the Oly 75mm f1.8, and put that on the GH3, and my wife will shoot all the stills with the highest shutter speed we can use without pushing ISO 'too high'. The f1.8 aperture will help out a lot. Our fastest lens that has any reach is the 35-100 f2.8. This will be an indoor meet at MIT's Zesiger Aquatic Center, so, we need the fastest aperture we can get. The Oly 75 is not stabilized, but...if we can make the SS fast enough, maybe my wife can get some good stills?

I will use the GH4 with the 35-100 and shoot 4k video at a SS=1/60. I will miss the ability to do Slow Motion, but...shooting at 4K, there just doesn't seem to be any options. I may use the 96fps suggested by @jopereira (but I've heard it has poor, 720p like resolution?). So, I may fall back and use the GH4 at 1080p 60fps for some clips, like maybe the warm-up Sprints to capture the practice starts? But, I wonder if the GH4 at 1080p/60 is really that much better than the GH3 at 1080p/60? I guess we'll find out in about a month. :-)

@jjj_ri_usa - set your shutter to 180degrees. that way you'll keep a proper shutter relationship whatever speed you use

@aldolega and @RRroger. Thanks for the advice. Glad to know I don't need a 4K monitor to edit 4k. I shoot 95% of my clips on the GH3 using 1080/60, so that I can always do smooth slow motion by interpreting clips as 24p in PP. I'm wondering how bad 4k 24p video would look shot at a higher shutter speeds to freeze action in each frame (like maybe 1/200th). I usually always shoot at SS=1/125 when I shoot 60p. I know I should use 1/50 or 1/60 when shooting 24p, but, then the 4K stills would be very blurry. I guess I can test out how bad 24p looks with a shutter speed of 1/200 right on my GH3...

jjj_ri_usa

You might actually get your best Swim Videos by shooting at 1080p60. I had a GH3 and actually got the GH4 for Action Stills. Since then I have found the camera is an improvement in every other way as well.

When I do take 4k Video, I drop the files on a 1080 timeline in CyberLink PowerDirector 13 to burn a BlueRay Disc or I just watch them with free VLC Media Player where I can speed up or slow down the action with a click of the keyboard.

@RRRoger. Thanks for the recommendations. I have the 35-100. I didn't use a polarizer last year with my GH3, and since the swimmers mostly stay on top of the water, I think I'm OK without one. But...in addition to renting the GH4, I've started to think about other expenses. I don't have a 4k monitor. In fact, my graphics card won't support 4k, (I have an old NVida GTX 470). So, with the meet about a month away, I'm having a few second thoughts on renting the GH4. I have to do some pricing of new video cards and a 4k monitor. So...it might not happen for this year's championship meet. Thanks again for the advice.

jjj_ri_usa

Wow. I suppose that cinematographer, (Fery), could make any camera look good, but...wow. Makes me think "Who needs anything more than a GH4?". But, I will still hold out for the next generation camera that can give us 4K at 60fps. Probably need a new computer to edit such data files, but...

I will be renting a GH4 for my daughter's season ending Championship Swim meet in about a month. I probably won't want to send it back and return to using my old GH3. :-)

Two things you may also want to rent/buy 1. Polarizer (not always needed) 2. 35-100 lens

Be sure to keep the shutter speed up enough for the action. I recently shot 4k at 120s and was surprised how good it looked.

I am getting a 4k 60P HC-X1000 next week and let you know how that compares to my GH4. If it has the same low light problems that the HC-W850 did, it will will be returned too. The problem is the gap between good light and no light. The W850 was good down to about 800 ISO and then in dark the IR would kick in. Where I record, I doubt lights would be allowed but I will try a LED anyway.

Ciné D -4-5-0-5 0-255 pedestal +5

First try with the GH4

Was a demanding shoot with lots of lighting changes. Couldn't keep up with correct white balances so was impressed how much I could do in post to match up the shots. Not perfect but that's more to do with my abilities than the cameras! The footage at the end is from the Red Epic.

@Panamedia For the rotary dial re-assignment, check P312 of your manual for Dial Set.

I have 2 questions / settings I wanted to change. How do you get the GH4 to adjust ISO with the top dial? I've been trying to figure it out, but the ISO can only be changed with the rear dial. And also, was there a way to remove the direct focus area box (white box in the middle of the screen which you can touch/drag on the touch screen to focus) ? It goes away when changing to autofocus, but is there a way when switched to manual focus?

First proper test :-) Just remove blur.

flablo you should post this elsewhere or start a new topic, I think it will get lost here.

Anyway, sounds like the old "impact damage" scam that Nikon El Segundo pulled on me and others. I would contact Panasonic about this.