GH4 Continuous shooting (PAL Version)

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pmk396

Well-known member
I am an established independent filmmaker based in Dublin, Ireland. I have used my trusty GH1 (unhacked) for the past 5 years and, still to this day, I'm delighted with it. I never hacked my GH1 because I've been afraid in case it "bricks".

I am now considering moving into the world of videography such as corporate videos, wedding videos, etc., and I'm considering increasing my arsenal by getting the GH4. However, one of the downsides of living in PAL land is that my GH1 will only allow to continuously film for 29mins59secs. If I needed a camera to film a wedding, musical/concert/play, etc., I'd need something that allows me to film as long as the battery and memory card allows it. I'm wondering if the GH4 in PAL land falls under the same restrictions as the GH1 with continuous filming??

Or does the option of going with the hack on the GH1 eliminate this restriction?

Although it's a brilliant priced camera for 4K footage, if the PAL GH4 still suffers this continuous filming restriction, I was looking at going with the Panasonic AG-AC90A.

Thanks
 
I believe only the Euro GH's have the time limit. You could import one from anywhere else and be limitless.
 
pmk396 said:
I never hacked my GH1 because I've been afraid in case it "bricks".

Or does the option of going with the hack on the GH1 eliminate this restriction?

Although it's a brilliant priced camera for 4K footage, if the PAL GH4 still suffers this continuous filming restriction, I was looking at going with the Panasonic AG-AC90A.

Thanks
Click to expand...

With any modification you're risking your camera, to be sure, but that said, the GH1 firmware modification (or "hack") is rock solid and has a very good track record. I have updated my GH1 and GH2 with modified settings dozens of times and never had any problem (other than video stopping recording because I experiemented with video settings to high). I've never actually heard (doesn't mean it didn't happen) of anyone bricking their camera with the firmware mods, other than a person who's 3rd party battery died while it was updating. That bricking would have happened had he been doing any update to the firmware, including a Panasonic update, and highlights why I don't use anything but a fully charged authentic battery for firmware updates. Even using a power adapter you risk the power randomly going out.

I too was very worried the first time I put a modified firmware on the camera (especially since I was a very early adopter with the GH1 hack), but like I said, the track record from the beginning has been completely solid in terms of safety of the camera. I wholeheartedly recommend doing it for your GH1, if for nothing else than to get the time limitation off. Then, bumping up the bitrate, at least slightly, will do wonder for detailed scenes on the GH1, but if that seems too much, at least take off the time limit.

As for the GH4, as someone else mentioned, I don't know how the taxation and what not works over there in Europe for ebay purchases, but buying a nice used American GH4 off ebay and just paying the shipping would seem like a good choice. The GH4 is switchable in the menu into PAL or NTSC (really, it just gives you options to change the "Frequency" to 24.00hz, 50.00hz, or 59.94hz without distinguishing "region") so any GH4 that's non European should work.
 
Hi guys,
Thanks for the replies. Yeah, it's my understanding that in the EU (from what I read somewhere a few years ago), any camera that records video continuously for over 30 mins has to be classed as a "video camera"/camcorder. They obviously never changed these regulations.

In relation to your advice Blazer003, I think that I'm gonna bite the bullet and go for the hack. I've had it this long and it doesn't owe me any favours so I've nothing to loose there. Based on what you are saying, I'll probably reaped the rewards once I upgrade with the hack. Thanks again.
 
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