GH4 GH4 in Europe and time limit of 29 minutes. Solutions?

A

alohype

Veteran
Hi!
I am about to purchase GH4. What I really don't like is that time limit: I will be shooting a lot of live events and GH4 will be just setup to record wide shots. 30 minutes will be hiting sometimes 6-7 times and I won't be able to keep track of if.
So is there any country that sells GH4 without time limit in Europe?
Does this time limit applies to all the shooting modes or 4K/UHD is without limit? (I've read that possibility somewhere).

So what are your solutions to avoid that?
Recording to external recorder?

I thought about an app. If GH4 SDK is open sourced maybe it would be possible to write an app that could monitor recording of GH4, and when it's close to 29 minutes it would stop and start again automatically. Problem is that second device (smartphone, tablet) would have to be constantly close to GH4.

Any other solutions? (besides buying it through US websites ;)
 
I think if you set it to NTSC, it will record continuously until the card is full. Even if it breaks it into 4gb clips, the breaks are seamless when you stitch the clips together in post.
 
alohype said:
Hi!
I am about to purchase GH4. What I really don't like is that time limit: I will be shooting a lot of live events and GH4 will be just setup to record wide shots. 30 minutes will be hiting sometimes 6-7 times and I won't be able to keep track of if.
So is there any country that sells GH4 without time limit in Europe?
Does this time limit applies to all the shooting modes or 4K/UHD is without limit? (I've read that possibility somewhere).

So what are your solutions to avoid that?
Recording to external recorder?

I thought about an app. If GH4 SDK is open sourced maybe it would be possible to write an app that could monitor recording of GH4, and when it's close to 29 minutes it would stop and start again automatically. Problem is that second device (smartphone, tablet) would have to be constantly close to GH4.

Any other solutions? (besides buying it through US websites ;)
Click to expand...

Don't own one. But I'm pretty sure the GH4 doesn't have time limits, remember reading it in a press release. Also why it is a bit more expensive, as there is a special tax on video recording devices that can go longer than 29min.
 
It does not have in certain regions (USA, Asia) but in Europe has (because of that tax for video cameras). If it would not have that limit in NTSC mode that would be amazing: unfortunately I haven't got a possibility to check that.
 
Could you purchase the USA version somehow? It definitely doesn't have time limits in NTSC mode, but I bought the USA version. Don't know if the European version is the same in that regard.
 
European version definitely has a 29 minute limit in all recording modes (24 / 25 / 30 / 50 / 60). I was using all last week in 24 mode...
 
Any gh4,s sold in Europe have the 30 min limit in all formats. It's a VAT issue. I bought my gh4s thru BHphoto in the USA to get around this. Gh4s imported from HongKong or indeed anywhere outside of Europe don't have the time limit. Vitalys hack removed this limitation from the gh2, so until there is a hack European cameras are stuck with this time limit..
 
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