Press Release: Panasonic Announces 4K Mirrorless DMC-GH4

[John Chalmers]

Here is the link to the release date for the GH4 Body and 4K Video Interface, along with the prices of each and a kit being released later:
Panasonic GH4 Pricing and ETA Update | TMSAV Blog

[Peer Landa]

Originally Posted by Anthony Lelli

limiting intentionally a sensor already good is disgusting, unethical, makes me sick in the stomach.

Actually, this "unethical, disgusting and stomach sickening" practice has been going on for quite some time, and not only in the film industry. I used to work for a film/music company in the '90s, and back then one of our sound-for-picture editors ranged between $5,000 and $50,000 -- for the very same product! This, of course, because we intentionally limited its features. The same goes for the German sports car I own -- it too was limited intentionally so I could get it for less dough. Yeah, how dare those Germans be so disgusting and unethical that they will make such a snazzy car available for us with limited funds?! Makes me sick in the stomach.

-- peer (who wrote this on an intentionally limited laptop, that will cost less and have more features next year)

[Ronald Jackson]

A hopefully simple question. I have no 4K hardware. If I have a GH4 will I be able to record 4K, use this to produce 1080p footage for my current "hardware", archiving the 4K footage for when I can acquire 4K hardware (TV and projector)?

Perhaps reasonable to assume that 4K TVs and projectors will drop on price as they become more popular. (I remember paying over £2k for a just released Pioneer 1080i telly, similar thing now would cost what, £700?)

I edit in FCPX on a 2014 iMac by the way.


Ron

[Phil Lee]

Hi

Yes you could resize in post.

However given 4K is just 24/25fps, and much more compressed comparatively to HD capture with the same camera, we may be better of in these cases to just capture HD, which should be pretty much visually lossless at 100Mbits/sec long GOP.

Regards

Phil

[Cliff Totten]

This is interesting. I have read a little bit about the G4's sensor cropped read out and I'm hoping to get some clarification. Can anybody add what they know to this....

The G4 takes a 1:1, 16x9, 4k crop from the center of it's 16 Mp sensor?

The G4 does not read the "entire" width of the sensor in a 16x9 crop and scale those pixels to 4K. (the way Sony supposedly does with the AX100/RX10)

The G4 does not over sample on read out? It's a 1:1 RGGB Bayer readout? (No over sampling would mean that it scans roughly 2 million red, 2 million blue and 4 million green pixels)

Wouldn't the best procedure be to start with a 20% "over" sample to account for the de Bayer loss and scale that down to 4k? If you start with 4k and de Bayer the RGGB, that would put you 20% "under" 4K resolution with finished.

Just some thoughts but it "seems" that Sony as already accounted for this with their full (over sampled) 16x9 crop / readout and Bionz X processor. I was just wondering how the GH4 does it.

CT

[Ken Ross]

Here's one I hadn't seen:

Panasonic GH4 4K 4096x2160 24p Test. - YouTube

[Noa Put]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here already but on vimeo, see video below (check out the 4k downloadable file) the creator of the video confirms that the screen info doesn't disappear anymore like on the gh3,

GH4 first 4K shots in Paris (Pre Serial Camera with Beta Firmware) on Vimeo

[Ron Fabienke]

That is good to hear Noah. Where is the notion coming from in the Panasonic forum in the current thread, where it's being stated as fact that the GH4 has the same disappearing info problem? Did someone with a beta unit report that it had not been fixed?

[Noa Put]

If you go directly to the vimeo page of above video you can see where I asked the question in the comment section, there you can see the owner comment about the display.

[Joe Ogiba]

Newsshooter interview: GH4 feature breakdown with Hotrod Camera's Illya Friedman:

Newsshooter interview: GH4 feature breakdown with Hotrod Camera's Illya Friedman on Vimeo

[Ken Ross]

What's interesting is that the shooter is the same guy that did the cat video with the AX100. I wonder how he gets these cameras so early from different manufacturers. I wonder if he has some kind of relationship with them.

Let me ask the group a question regarding this video. I've looked at many 4K videos from different cameras downscaled to 1080p (my monitor resolution) and quality varies of course from camera to camera. What's impressed me about the AX100 is how sharp many of the videos are even when viewed on a 1920x1080 monitor. They're like nothing I've ever been able to get out of an HD camera in terms of sharpness & resolution.

However with the few GH4 videos I've seen, I honestly don't know that I could tell them apart from 1920X1080 videos in terms of sharpness & detail. Now granted, that may change radically when viewed on a 4K monitor, but in terms of the viewing experience when watching on an HD monitor, I'm not seeing what I've seen from a few other cameras when the 4K is downscaled to 1920X1080.

So is it just me?

[Ron Fabienke]

No it's not just you. But then in my opinion it's not just the GH4 either. I don't know what it is with a lot of HD clips on Youtube or Vimeo but yeah they don't look sharp at all. But I know my GH3 looks very sharp unconverted with its 1080 on my 27" Apple monitor to 2560x1440. So I make the assumption it is something else in each "soft" looking clip's display on Vimeo or wherever else that is the problem and not the cameras.

[Joe Ogiba]

Panasonic GH4 Hands-On Field Test :

Panasonic GH4 Hands-On Field Test - YouTube

[Adam Letch]

wow cool review, I'm glad I held out for this over the GH3, can't believe though about the need for external power on the 'brick', and also they didn't incorporate the internal image stabilization which they have on the GX7.
I guess there's only so much you can fit into a small body, so something has to go! All the 1080p options are of the most interest, 4k is nice but neither here nor there if you have to drape around with external SDI recorders, conversely I guess if you have a good shoulder mount rig then all these things are the norm anyway.

[John Chalmers]

Here is an Interview with Zacuto and Panasonic's Matt Frazer

First Look at the Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Zacuto on Vimeo