Panasonic GH4 Available for Pre-Order

Will Vincent

Will Vincent

Just got an email from B&H.

GH4 Body Only: $1,699.00
GH4 Body w/ Interface Unit: $3,299.99
Interface Unit for GH4: $1,999.99


I know there are a few folks who've been eyeing this guy, so there ya go.
 
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I was actually impressed in the drumming shots that they seem to have really minimized the rolling shutter - the sticks don't get the wobbly look I'd expect. Also the cinelike D profile does seem to handle highlights/shadows reasonably well, as long as you know how to grade it. Comparing to the BMPC it's clear to my eyes that the colorist was a lot better than the camera store guy; it would be interesting to see how the GH4 compares in the hands of a competent colorist.
 
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Interesting - I hadn't realized you could do 10bit 4:2:2 over the hdmi all the way up to 4k. It'll be interesting to see if third-party recorders show up that can support that soon.

I've been planning to pick up a pocket cam to replace my 5d, but this thing has honestly got me rethinking that. I'd prefer to do 10bit 4:2:2 on board - and I'm puzzled why they can't do that for 1080 at least - but I might be able to live with an external recorder when I really need that, I've used the ninja 2 with the c100 several times and been pretty happy with the results. The GH4 addresses a lot of the things I don't like about the pocket cam like the display quality & adjustability, lack of a histogram, slow motion & variable frame rates, etc. Plus I could still use it as a stills camera. I'm not really sure I'd end up using 4k much, although I could see it being useful in doc situations for punching in on interviews when cutting. I'm heading out to NAB this year so this is definitely on my list to get some hands on time with it.
 
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ItDonnedOnMe said:
Interesting - I hadn't realized you could do 10bit 4:2:2 over the hdmi all the way up to 4k. It'll be interesting to see if third-party recorders show up that can support that soon.

I've been planning to pick up a pocket cam to replace my 5d, but this thing has honestly got me rethinking that. I'd prefer to do 10bit 4:2:2 on board - and I'm puzzled why they can't do that for 1080 at least
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I figured it was due to write speeds or something, but I wondered why they couldn't do 1080 4:2:2, too.

My guess is 4k external recorders will not be cheap, at least not at first.

I remember reading about one that interfaces to a sony f5 that uses fiber connections. I don't know how much it costs, but I'd be surprised if it was under $15k.
 
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ItDonnedOnMe said:
I'd prefer to do 10bit 4:2:2 on board - and I'm puzzled why they can't do that for 1080 at least
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The video downconversion would take extra processing, not a huge ordeal, but extra processing, and additional effort involved in developing firmware to support that. So, it technically probably could be done (assuming the cards were able to write fast enough for the bitrate, etc)

but it would make the camera cost more for a feature that most likely not everyone buying it would use. Gotta weigh all the variables together when developing tech to determine what gets included and what's left out due to time and budget, etc.
 
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I don't know that I buy that. It's clearly already producing a 10bit 4:2:2 signal which is available over hdmi - even at 4k. So then it reduces that to 8bit 4:2:0 before applying the h.264 compression - it seems like keeping it at 10/422 would remove a processing step rather than adding extra.

The only way I can see that making sense is if they're using existing encoder hardware that's shared across their video line and simply isn't capable of higher bit depth. I find it more likely that they've got an update to the AF100 on the way and they're reserving the higher quality on-board format for that as part of the justification for it's likely higher price.

Now you can actually get 4:4:4 out of it at 1080 - by shooting @4k and downscaling in post, which has the added advantage of oversampled resolution, although you're still stuck with 8bit. The trade off, of course, is that you're compressing 4x as many pixels into the same 100mbits data rate, so there's going to be more artifacts as well. Won't really know if the trade-off is worth it until the camera's readily available for testing.
 
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Will Vincent said:
the recently announced kineraw looks promising, but it's basically vaporware at this point.
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KineRaw has been vaporware since at least 2011.

Also, if they ever get anything to market you can bet it would be fraught with problems, bugs, build quality issues, and probably demonic possession.

They can hardly be called a camera company, much less one that can produce reliable hardware suitable for the abuses of production.
 
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Fwiw: Personal View is reporting that Panasonic is dropping m4/3 and sending their small camera engineers to either the mobile or pro camera divisions.

Haven't seen the story corroborated elsewhere and linking to PV breaks the CoC on indietalk.

Take with a grain of salt, or the whole shaker.
 
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