GH4 Our Lumix GH4 Journey

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Darktide Media

Active member
Hello,

Just want to start by saying Hi, this forum has been great reading over the last few years for sure, so many great people that know whats up. My name is Russell, I own Darktide Media which is an Action Sports photography and cinema company located in San Diego, Ca. Feel free to check out our site to see what we have done over the last year that we have been in business. We are still new and growing but have gotten to work with some great clients at some crazy events. Late last year we started reading rumors about the now know GH4. It was something that we knew we wanted to get our hands on for filming. We really like the small light cameras for filming. We have used RED and most of the DSLR along with the Blackmagic Cameras. They all are great cameras no doubt but not too many did we want to really own for every day stuff and in house productions. RED is nice but alot of money and most of the time we will just rent them when the jobs calls for it. DSLR is starting to lack in some areas, and blackmagic to us just didn't have the things that we needed. So we thought we would wait and see. We are glad we did. To fast forward a bit we are now the proud owners of the Panasonic Lumix GH4, a camera that is what we are hoping is the best camera for our needs. The specs sure seem like it, the footage online looks like it, and the hype is there to push it, now its time to find out. I though I would start this thread to kinda show off the camera as we shoot with it and upgrade our kit to fit our new system.

Frist thing is I have to thank Hot Rod Cameras, they got the job done for sure. I had a preorder with Adorama since they you could pre-order, but since they were gone and couldnt find out when shipping I called Hot Rod yesterday and had mine shipped out and got here today. Thats how you do business. Well here are some photos of the box and whatnot, Iphone photos so dont bash.


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Now for the powerhouse....

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There is so much to this camera that we cant wait to get out these next few days as we go to the zoo, the beach, shoot some motocross and downhill with it plus more. The frist thing that I noticed is how much better built it is then the GH3 that we used for a short time. It just seems like it fits the hand alot better and has a good weight to it. One thing as action shooters we want to see how well the 4K frame grabs are going to be for us, hopefully it helps kill time on productions. I will be posting more in the next few days. Now time to go out and see what this thing can do!!!
 
Darktide Media said:
The frist thing that I noticed is how much better built it is then the GH3 that we used for a short time. It just seems like it fits the hand alot better and has a good weight to it.
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Interesting. One thing I'm slightly confused by is how it 'fits the hand a lot better' - I thought that the GH3 and the GH4 had the exact same form factor, so 'fitting' would not be any different... now, weight in hand I can understand, and different placement of controls, and better built quality... but fit? I ask, because I have the GH3 and want to buy the GH4 and I'm wondering if I'll need to buy completely new accessories because the GH3 ones won't fit on the GH4. When I read that they have the same form factor, I was encouraged. So are you implying that the GH3 and GH4 are substantially different in shape?
 
They are the same shape, I needed to explain that better sorry. The new grip the way its cut out and the way the weight is the camera just feels better. It feels very solid. The EVF after playing around is amazing, we still get slight smearing when at odd angles, but it is for sure sharper, clearer and just better. The eye-cup is a good upgrade as well compared to most to DSLR cameras. The back LCD is amazing, that with focus pecking is really allowing us to get the shot sharp on the older lens we are testing it on. We are hoping to have a short video of footage out next week as well showing off some of the things in the camera.
 
I got mine today. First thing I noticed is it is not a low light performer. It needs a lot of light. It took me about 20 minutes to go through all the menus and set it up the way I liked. The 96fps is very nice though. It has some a great look at 1080P with enough light. Colors are great. I haven't found a flat picture profile yet. Not sure one exists yet.
 
Thanks guys. Sounds like most accessories should fit well enough, hopefully the battery grip from GH3 will also fit the GH4.
 
Phalynx said:
I got mine today. First thing I noticed is it is not a low light performer. It needs a lot of light. It took me about 20 minutes to go through all the menus and set it up the way I liked. The 96fps is very nice though. It has some a great look at 1080P with enough light. Colors are great. I haven't found a flat picture profile yet. Not sure one exists yet.
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Cinelike-D
 
Cine D is what we tested today at the local store, lowlight is better then the GH3 from what I have seen but time will tell. Here is a still. This I believe was at F1.4 ISO 800. Shutter was a little to slow and it was handheld. Just a simple screen grab. Its Cine D with all at I think -3 or so. I was messing with the settings. So dont really judge these just yet. also its UHD mode not C4K mode. Im really happy and I think with time and grading this camera will excel.

P9790578.MOV.Still005.jpgP9790579.MOV.Still001.jpgP9790578.MOV.Still003.jpg
 
I dont think the GH4 will be like the D800 lowlight, We really hardly ever shoot in low low light. We get lights or get creative with lighting to make it seem how we want.
 
Small update on our camera. So far we love it more then any camera that we have ever used.

- The 4K image is amazing, very clear. When put on a 1080 timeline it is some of the best 1080 we have seen.
- The 96fps is super fun, yes its a little softer but by no means bad. It can be used no problem for most work out there. We will be doing some twixtor and high shutter speed test in the next few weeks.
- Cine D is the way to go, but still hoping we see something like Lumix Log that will help out a little more.
- The build of the camera is great, it fits the hand and feels like its built to handle a few falls
- The LCD and EVF are so much better then the GH3. Thanks to Panasonic for fixing this, it really was to us a big a downfall of that camera.
- Battery life is really nice, I dont know what it is in hours but in real world use its lasting us no problem

We are doing a good sized blog post that will be out in a few weeks with our footage and a review of the camera.
 
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