GH3 Panasonic Announcement Friday Feb 7th (GH4/4K)

Is that add on unit the first of its kind? I think everyone has been wondering why no one made something like that for the last couple of years. At least a dedicated unit from the manufacturer of the camera itself for seamless integration.

I concur on 4K though. I think other things would be more relevant than shooting huge just to scale it back down, but whatever. If it solves some issues like clarity and noise, I suppose thats helpful.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
Is that add on unit the first of its kind? I think everyone has been wondering why no one made something like that for the last couple of years. At least a dedicated unit from the manufacturer of the camera itself for seamless integration.
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Well, Sony has it's XLR audio unit for the RX10 and A7's... rather spendy for its function, though, vs. a Tascam DR60. The video out bits are what seem to set this one apart.
 
I dont get the 4 SDI on the interface unit. Interesting move with the GH4. Any guess why it would have 4? Panasonic doesnt have another camera product to protect like Sony and Canon does, so they can put out this type of camera that does so much more than any other available today. The only other camera is the AF100 and that one is over three years old.
 
adkimery said:
harddrive said:
Yes, but so far (AFAIK) all the most impressive results have been done with none real time encoding. Typically, using a powerful computer to crunch the numbers and taking many times longer than a clip lasts.
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If you have a specific hardware encoding chip it speeds the process up dramatically. Computers don't have these types of chips so the encoding is done by the CPU or GPU which is much slower. For example, do you remember how long it took to encode and burn a DVD back in 2002/2003 on a desktop computer? Many times real time yet there were cameras that recorded straight to DVD or mini-DVD because the onboard MPEG2 encoding chip could compress the signal on the fly.
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Oh indeed, technology moves on, and I don't doubt that what you say will be the case in the future. I was really saying what I believe to be the case at the moment, and I suspect for a few years to come. In the meantime, then although specific chips in cameras enable H264 compression, even those still have a long way to go to meet the theoretical limit of H264 encoding, and what can be achieved with a powerful computer.

And aren't more efficient compression systems more useful for such as transmission, streaming, etc than acquisition, anyway? When the bandwidth constraints are far more rigid? For a given quality, all a less advanced codec offers you is a lower datarate - but at the expense of a file that requires a lot more effort to process. That may be a price well worth paying for a broadcaster - mean a 4K signal could be transmitted with the same bandwidth as an H264 HD signal - but in a camera it may simply be more efficient to accept a higher datarate.
 
yea i'm really quite baffled at the size of the add-on unit....

My guess is that since panny has fewer resources these days, they're letting the gh division have what was the Af100's market since it seems af100 line is end of life.

so with that in mind, they figure to give an incredible addon with all bells and whistles to make an slr into a full video production camera.

But it looks like they got ahead of themselves. having the protrusion in the front, OK, but all that blob on the sides and rear is just ungainly.

are those in the market for such a camera in need of TC? all those SDI ports? i don't think they really thought about that, yea im sure some will use it, but i think the vast majority of those in the market for this camera won't use anything but the XLR and maybe monitor out.

baffling still... i don't see why it needed to be that large, if it's mainly for the connections, they should have borrowed from canon c300 and have some of the connectors facing out of the rear corner

idunno, maybe i'll be worth its salt, really depends on the price. if less than 1K, i see people buying, if more than 1k and the camera is around 2k.... that brings it into higher territory

that and if it raises the lens to higher than standard lens height...
 
Someone has mentioned that the box will be more than the camera. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that now the camera has the interface for all this stuff. So now Panasonic could come out with a smaller XLR-only box, or an aftermarket maker, like Beachtek or JuicedLink, could come out with their own designs.
 
All I needed to hear is 120fps @ 1080 and focus peaking. Oh-boy another camera to rent! :embarasse
 
Erik Naso said:
To use a mattebox the rails have to be at a certain hight so it lines up with the lens
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Looks like they already thought of that... the box is 15mm rail ready

GH4_slant_YAGH_zps2fe945db.jpg

My concern with the way this extends in the front is that it might put the kai-bosh on things like PL adapters with integrated supports in line with the mounting flange.



So at this point, is there anything left for Panasonic to announce? Maybe they all wanted to take the night off...
 
Erik Naso said:
I dont get the 4 SDI on the interface unit. ... Any guess why it would have 4? ...
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Having a built-in HD-SDI distribution amp is kinda cool.

Let's see: 1 SDI port for an external cam op monitor/EVF, another for a client monitor, another for the focus puller, and another for an outboard video recorder. Plus there's an HDMI output available, too. Pretty wild.
 
Darren Levine said:
… having the protrusion in the front, OK, but all that blob on the sides and rear is just ungainly ...
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Well, one side probably has to be there to connect to the camera's regular ports.

And when I say "has to be there", I mean, probably has to be there to keep Panny's costs down. Less retooling/redesign based off the GH3 form factor. Maybe.

Obviously if they wanted to they could design an entirely new camera from scratch, one configured for maximum capability and minimum size. But that costs more to do. As it is, even if the adapter is relatively popular, it'll sell in fairly small numbers.

My guess is Panny is making bigger investments in the cams & gear they'll announce at NAB 2014 in April. Everything from at least one prosumer 4K cam to compete with Sony's AX100, to at least one pro 4K cam similar to what they've previously talked about, plus more. My guess they'll announce at least 2-4 new cams at NAB, not including the GH4 this week. We'll see.
 
i dont think those holes are for rails.
note from the photo of the back view showing the lcd screen that there's no holes there.
so if those are in fact meant for rails, you'll have to mount it on the rear of the rig leaving no room for battery mount or should mount.

GH4_back_YAGH_zpse48ca0cd.jpg
 
prio said:
i dont think those holes are for rails.
note from the photo of the back view showing the lcd screen that there's no holes there.
so if those are in fact meant for rails, you'll have to mount it on the rear of the rig leaving no room for battery mount or should mount.
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Yep... they're suspect with their placement. it's a potentially odd setup. Big production cams like Arri, F35, RED, etc have rail holes that don't pass through... but then there's a heck of a lot more camera to hang back over a shoulder. It would make plenty of sense for a camera sitting on sticks, not so much for other uses unless you get creative with your rail tinkering
 
It wouldn't be hard at all to use a rod-to-rod riser to run rods backwards under the camera. Or you could even use a camera baseplate mounted backwards and upside down to give you rear rails that would sit above the level of the bottom of the camera- which would be nice to lower the COG a bit. Although I guess that would block your audio pots.
 
This thing will probably turn out to be a great set up image wise no doubt, but in about 10 years we will all look back at the "monster" and just go "WOW...we really used that?"
 
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