Second camera to compliment GH4

[Alex Khachatryan]

What do you use as your 2nd camera to compliment GH4?

Looking mostly for live coverage, something that will nicely cut together with GH4.
My previous setup was two GH2 cameras with 20mm and 45-175mm power zoom.
Body with power zoom was hacked and I was able to push ISO up to 2500 and live with that.
Now with GH4 as primary camera with 12-35mm native glass and 42.5mm Voigtlander I am about to try FZ1000 and looking forward to hear more about LX100.

[Dave Partington]

The obvious choice would be another GH4, but it sounds like that's out of your budget, otherwise you'd have chosen it, correct?

[Alex Khachatryan]

I'd love to have two GH4, but as second camera I need something with power zoom and be able to go wider than GH4 with 45-175 can offer.

[Dave Partington]

So how important is that power zoom to you and your style of shooting?

Personally, we've never included zooms in our videos with the possible exception of the B+G coming back down the isle in a really long church. When we were shooting DSLRs only we never had a single zoom in the video, so, is a power zoom really that important? When would you use it?

[Alex Khachatryan]

Dave, I do mostly live events such as conferences, public speakers, concerts, theater and so. Power zoom is very important and must have for this type of work (at least for me).

Just went to B&H and recorded some video with display FZ1000 in mp4 HD 60p ISO 200-1600 and AVCHD 24p. Can share the link to raw files if somebody wants to check it out. It came out surprisingly good.

[Dave Partington]

Alex, if you need it you need it - no problem!

Yes, please share a link if possible since I'm always looking to downsize more myself.

[Kevin McRoberts]

For conferences I'd want something with XLRs to potentially plug into sound boards.

It's a bit vaporware, not available until late October to November, but Panasonic's new HC-X1000 looks very good on paper specs

[Alex Khachatryan]

Originally Posted by Dave Partington

Alex, if you need it you need it - no problem!

Yes, please share a link if possible since I'm always looking to downsize more myself.

You can download the clip from here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnp6wv3qpj...60020.MP4?dl=0

I started with ISO 200 and pushed it all the way to 1600 after 10 seconds or so.
One thing which is noticeable right away is aperture change while zooming out. I guess the best way to avoid it will be to lock it on f4.
This is mp4 HD, 60p with Cine D, 50 frames.
Auto focus isn't bad at all. I assume it might take some time to get used to it and make it work.

Dave, btw camera isn't small at all and is more on heavier side rather than compact.

[Alex Khachatryan]

Originally Posted by Kevin McRoberts

For conferences I'd want something with XLRs to potentially plug into sound boards.

It's a bit vaporware, not available until late October to November, but Panasonic's new HC-X1000 looks very good on paper specs

I don't mind recording audio on external device.

HC-1000 looks very promising. I miss my video camera days... but currently looking for something similar in size to GH4 or smaller.