GH4 camera lockups / crashes FW 1.1

tacotim

tacotim

Well-known member
Fellow GH4 users,

I'm starting this thread to gather experiences for the engineers at panasonic.

I have been experiencing camera lockups post firmware 1.1
It does not happen often, perhaps 6 times in the last 4 weeks of very heavy shooting.


The symptoms are:

In variable framerate mode (usually 96fps for me although others have told me it happened in 4k mode as well) The camera starts rolling.
after a time when I push the shutter button to stop the recording, nothing happens, the display keeps showing what the
lens sees, the red dot keeps blinking, and all buttons on the camera are completely non responsive.
Even switching the power to "off" does nothing, the only way to power down the camera is to pull the battery.

The resulting footage is written as a .mdt file and is not playable by the camera or computer.


If you are having similar issues please report them here.
 
What memory cards are you using ?

Do you format your cards in-camera before you shoot ?

Both the GH2 and GH3 cameras had similar problems with certain memory cards, especially at higher bit-rates.
 
I'm using kingston UHSI class 3 cards (as recommended in the gh4 manual) I always format cards in camera before shooting to them.
 
I sent this to Panasonic earlier...
With Firmware v1.1 I still experienced 3 camera freezes. All times were with adapted lenses and shoot w/ lens off enabled. All 3 were also in 1080p @96fps. (24p mode) I was also switching back an forth between C4K and 1080 100mb @96fps often. Camera would lock up after about 6-10 sec of recording. Must pull battery.
 
I have experienced the exact same issue under nearly identical circumstances.

With DMC-GH4 firmware v1.1, I still experience occasional lockups using 1080p 96fps (at a base of 24p). "Shoot w/o Lens" is enabled. I use a SanDisk Extreme Pro (95 MB/s) card that is always formatted in the camera before use.

The camera becomes unresponsive during recording and a battery pull is required to restart it. The resulting clip is an unplayable MDT file as described by other users.

Though it isn't officially a UHS-I Class 3 card, I believe my SD media is well above the specification required for 96fps. The error happens only occasionally - but enough that I would still consider it a functional problem.
 
Per Finished Minute said:
I have experienced the exact same issue under nearly identical circumstances.

With DMC-GH4 firmware v1.1, I still experience occasional lockups using 1080p 96fps (at a base of 24p). "Shoot w/o Lens" is enabled. I use a SanDisk Extreme Pro (95 MB/s) card that is always formatted in the camera before use.

The camera becomes unresponsive during recording and a battery pull is required to restart it. The resulting clip is an unplayable MDT file as described by other users.

Though it isn't officially a UHS-I Class 3 card, I believe my SD media is well above the specification required for 96fps. The error happens only occasionally - but enough that I would still consider it a functional problem.
Click to expand...

I have the same card, was using the same shooting mode 96fps at a base 24fps and it froze and outcome was unplayable MDT file.
 
Had a lock up/freeze on the weekend. Had been shooting in the morning without problems, then rolling for about a minute and the screen froze, couldn't turn camera off had to drop the battery. File came out as a .mdt 874.4MB
Shooting 96fps/25 with a Panasonic 100-300 lens onto a 64gb Sandisk extreme pro card. FW1.1 Card had been formatted that morning in camera.
After re-inserting the battery, continued to shoot 96fps/25 without issue.
 
Last edited:
I shot with my GH4 daily for a solid month, and experienced this same issue 3 or 4 times (all v1.0 firmware). But I didn't pay close enough attention to recall what video mode I was shooting in. I was using a 64GB SanDisk Extreme PRO (95 MB/s). Sorry to hear it still exists in v1.1.
 
I've also had a few lockups both before and after the 1.1 firmware... more before than after. Using a Panny approved SD card. Some were 96 fps slo-mo and some were time lapse. Most probably with 12-35 panny lens - some with Minolta MD or Canon FD lenses. Don't remember any other settings.
 
A very similar experience on our end as described by Tim and the others.

Most often it is at 96fps. Usually having switched from 4K & vfr of 96. Kingston 64GB cards, formated in camera.

The last time it occurred was with a Voigtlander 25mm. A DMW-BLF19 battery I believe, third party and not Wasabi.

I pressed the shutter button to begin rolling and within 5 second I pressed the shutter button again and the light flashing red not stopping. Buttons don't work and dials don't help either. Battery pull only.

Speaking of batteries, can we improve the warning time for the batteries? The third bar goes so fast and then the red flash is more like a message trekking you you're too late to cut and change.
 
Mrsansom, FW 1.1?



MrSansom said:
A very similar experience on our end as described by Tim and the others.

Most often it is at 96fps. Usually having switched from 4K & vfr of 96. Kingston 64GB cards, formated in camera.

The last time it occurred was with a Voigtlander 25mm. A DMW-BLF19 battery I believe, third party and not Wasabi.

I pressed the shutter button to begin rolling and within 5 second I pressed the shutter button again and the light flashing red not stopping. Buttons don't work and dials don't help either. Battery pull only.

Speaking of batteries, can we improve the warning time for the batteries? The third bar goes so fast and then the red flash is more like a message trekking you you're too late to cut and change.
Click to expand...
 
I have been fortunate to not have experienced this at all since V1.1 update. Out of curiosity are you guys shooting C4K or UHD or both when it happens.

I don't record C4K as UHD downscales perfectly to 1080p without much math. Wonder if its combining C4K and 96fps on same card. Are the lockups repeatable? Wish I wasn't stuck in post and had time to go play in the sunshine and test these theories. Would rather source out the cause now then when out in the field.
 
UHD for me. Had my first crash at 24 fps last night. I have spent some time trying to repeat the crashes without success, so far, they seem completely random. Ratings, can I ask you a few questions, what cards do you use? Do you use 3rd party batteries?

Thanks, tim.


RatLabProductions said:
I have been fortunate to not have experienced this at all since V1.1 update. Out of curiosity are you guys shooting C4K or UHD or both when it happens.

I don't record C4K as UHD downscales perfectly to 1080p without much math. Wonder if its combining C4K and 96fps on same card. Are the lockups repeatable? Wish I wasn't stuck in post and had time to go play in the sunshine and test these theories. Would rather source out the cause now then when out in the field.
Click to expand...
 
tacotim said:
UHD for me. Had my first crash at 24 fps last night. I have spent some time trying to repeat the crashes without success, so far, they seem completely random. Ratings, can I ask you a few questions, what cards do you use? Do you use 3rd party batteries?

Thanks, tim.
Click to expand...

I use two main cards (I don't shoot a ton of long takes). I use Panasonic 32GB U3 card R:90MB/s W:45MB/s and a Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB U3 280MB/s ( overkill I know but was jammed with delayed bags and local store only had this card $$ :( ). It also has a 2nd row of pins on it. Wonder if that is why its so fast.

Honestly thought if I think about it I've only used the Sandisk EXPro since upgrading to FW1.1 as I've been in post and only shot a enough to fill and dump 32gb at a time so never got into the 2nd card before I had a chance to dump and well since I spent a $$$ on that card I feel obligated to use it all the time. lol

I have 3 genuine panasonic batteries (2 from my GH3 & one from GH4 kit)
 
I have a repeatable crash situation. In Timelapse mode 1 pic every 5 seconds for 199 images. The camera finishes the 199 then asks if I want to make a video I say yes, then it shows setting options I say OK. Then it says will take 1 minute, I say OK. It finishes then I try and play it and it locks up. Only pulling the battery will fix it. Once it is back on I can play the file fine.

This was 4 times in a row. All with Panny 12-25mm all with approved SD card (dont remember which one but one that B&H suggests with the camera). I'm running firmware 1.1.

I then shot a bunch of variable frame rate footage at 2fps and all that was fine as was all the cinema 4K at 24fps.

I'll try the timelapse gain later today and see if it locks up again.
 
Well - I just tried it and it worked fine... so not as repeatable as I thought. A bit frustrating when you can't trust your gear.
 
1 camera freeze in 350GB of recorded footage. The camera happened to freeze while recording a 1080p/50mbs clip. Resulting clip was unplayable. Annoying!
 
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