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GH4 4K Panasonic video camera, official topic
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  • $4K for 4K - makes cents

    rimshot!

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev to be fair, I wasn't hoping for I-Frame, I was just commented on the rumoured 220mbs not extending to 4k mode. Hoping for a good 100mbs IPB implementation and very excited about this camera, just waiting to pre-order. (Twitter seems to be blowing up with people complaining about one thing or another which makes me yawn.)

  • Just a couple thoughts, after having seen several 4K cameras come and go nowhere ( JVC 4K prototype and in cancelling our BM 4K production camera order, and original pre-orders on GH2 and GH3) in combination with shooting Red for a couple years now, there's a hell of a lot more to a 4K image than resolution and frame rate to always keep in mind.

    GH4 might have merits at the ISO rating, if it holds at 4K... but as to Bit Depth, Dynamic Range and RAW workflow, which this camera seems to have little or no mention of, what are we judging? Also, no mention of hardware H.265 encoding/decoding? Hmm...

    I am more impressed technically by the Samsung Note 3 4K and Snapdragon 805 on upcoming smartphones and GoPro than this GH4 camera press release especially without IBIS...

    Maybe with a little upcoming competition and hopefully IBIS, the GH5 may be more my creek.

    I just have to pass on this as a B cam unless I see substantially impressive footage by many users, or unless they have magic compression tucked in that bitrate that Sony or anyone else can't achieve, but I doubt that...

    Good to see another camera enter the 4K fold, nonetheless. Choice is good.

  • How does the 100mbps IPB compare to the MJPEG on the Canon 1DC? Doesn't this compete very strongly and that camera is likely 6 times the pricing of this, not to mention the hard drive space savings you would have over the 1DC.

  • Doing the high frame rate modes without audio is a big mistake. Some of us shoot high frame rate but we only want to do slow motion for a portion of the clip. They really should just do a 1080p @ 120 FPS mode and leave it at that. The camera is capable of it.

    I don't need 4K yet and the GH4 won't give me the 120 FPS or even 96 FPS with audio I thought it would have. Bummer.

  • Just reading the text from Panasonic, they REALLY took this seriously. Lots of Pro Video features and lots of options. The video guys and photo guys really put their heads together on this GH4.

    From the way i'm reading the Panasonic text it seems like they're saying you can record internally 422/10bit but you can't simultaneously view that quality level via HDMI on your external monitor. You can only do one or the other. That's how it reads to me.

    "*1 Setting the HDMI output picture quality [4:2:2 / 10bit]

    You can output the image through the HDMI connection in higher picture quality, but you cannot record it as a motion picture or still pictures. Ideal when the HDMI output is to be saved on external devices. When using 4:2:2/10-bit output, simultaneous video recording on SDXC/SDHC Memory Card in the camera is not possible.

    *2 HDMI output from the camera is not possible when the camera is mounted on the Interface Unit."

    For me i'd be satisfied with the [4K] 3840×2160, 24.00p, 100Mbps(IPB), LPCM. I can't see how that won't satisfy most people's needs. Also the 96fps is good enough for me to get some good slow mo when used with Twixtor etc.

  • Jeeze, no need to whine guys. You are guaranteed to get 4:2:2 8-bit and possibly even 10-bit without the add-on. Even 422 8bit is a good upgrade from gh3, add in 96fps at full hd, 4K up to 30p, focus peaking and a host of other improvements.

  • Any word on how good the Dynamic range of this new sensor in video mode

  • Flatter, 'Cinema-like' gamma setting, Master Pedestal (black-level) adjustment and the ability to specify the scale used for luminance (16-255, 16-235 or 0-255). All good things. Price: " while we wouldn't be surprised to see a price increase over the GH3, we don't expect it to cost vastly more than its predecessor." (Dpreview)

    Audio: pcm. Thank the lord.

    Power: bigger battery, does one have to buy "the blob" for DC Power?

    Crop factor: extra crop for 4K??? So that is 2.25 total in 4K.....depending I suppose on "academy" 4K or quad HD.

    Some serious pro features. Frame rates from EOSHD.

    frame rates.jpg
    1599 x 743 - 197K
  • 4K adds 1,25x crop in addition to usual m43 thing :-(

    or 1.17x

    As a far more significant portion of the camera’s sensor is used to capture 4K than it is for 1080p Panasonic has also opted for a straight "pixel for pixel" capture system - the top and bottom sections of the sensor aren’t needed for capture and so are binned. That means a true representation, no pixel mapping, binning or zooming required to obtain the final output. The crop adds a 17 per cent addition to equivalent focal length, so if you’re using a 50mm Micro Four Thirds lens (100mm equivalent) you’ll achieve a 117mm equivalent for 4K capture

    see normal calcs at http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/158698#Comment_158698

  • A very brief series of bullet points

    The external XLR / HD-SDI add-on for this camera allows for uncompressed 10bit 4K output over 3G HD-SDI –

    DFD (Depth-of-Defocus) autofocus works like this: During live view (before a half-press of the shutter button), the camera will occasionally make a tiny adjustment to focus, to check whether subjects in the frame are in front of or behind the current focus point. In addition to this information, the camera judges how far out-of-focus objects in the scene are, based on how blurred they are, assessed using a profile detailing the blur behavior of the lens at its current aperture. Although this combination of data itself doesn’t give the GH4 enough information to achieve precise focus, it does give it a clear idea of where it should start using conventional contrast detection AF process to achieve fine focus.

    The new sensor seems to be able to get more detail out of the highlights than the sensor in the Olympus EM1.

  • According to my information GH4 can set absolute record for GH cameras between announcement and availability. And it is hard thing to do :-)

  • Pretty impressive footage - even the stills. Dang-nabbit, Panasonic, why do you have always make me save up for one of your products. It only makes sense to record 4:2:2 10bit externally, which would add to the total cost significantly - you'll always have to pay for quality, but I feel it'll still be a cheaper alternative to what's out there. Bravo, Panasonic keeping MFT alive! Also, love the Cine-like D and Cine-like V options - shout out to the old DVX100 gamma choices;) Thanks for all the info, Vitaly.

  • Absolute record meaning the quickest to come out or the record for being the slowest to come out?

  • Hopefully VK means fastest? As there have already been a few pre-production cameras out in the wild that people have been testing out.

  • Actual crop calculations:

    Stills horizontal resolution - 4608
    Cinema 4K horizontal resolution - 4096
    4K horizontal resolution - 3840

    This makes crop:

    • Cinema 4K - 1,125x
    • 4K - 1,2x

    of course, it is additional crop (to 2x typical for m43), so you must multiple two if you need to know relative FF crop.

    If you look at various previews it is all way off.

  • As there have already been a few pre-production cameras out in the wild that people have been testing out.

    As far as I see they even did not have any functioning EVF for now.

  • a lot to like so far... not a perfect solution, but looks ok on paper.

  • @VK, oh... so you mean the slowest ever GHx release....

  • It's way more than what I need for a workhorse camera.

    I'm always a camera or two behind, time to look for a GH3 :-)