GH4 Panasonic GH4 $200 Price Reduction Now $1497.99 at Texas Media Systems

Oh I'm not doubting Terry, just wanted to forward on the press release to a friend. This is exciting news, I'll be ordering my second body next week now because of this.
 
It's just smart marketing.
The RX10 II hit the streets this week with a new sensor, 4k, S-log2, high frame rates to 960p (underwhelming IQ for HFR.) 3 stage ND and a 24-200 2.8 Leica with IS.

I was just going to grab a GH4 as a C/D cam, small form factor until a got sent some 4k S-log RX10 footage. Down scaled to 1080 and graded I was amazed at how good it looks and I'm a regular BM and Canon producer.
 
With the 4K flood gates now fully open and with Panasonic's own GX8 featuring a 20 MPX MFT sensor, GH5 is likely to be the last hurrah for the MFT enthusiast and pro users. And Panasonic better hurry too because, once the 4K APS-C models hit the shelves, MFT drops down to the entry level/loss leader category.
 
stoneinapond said:
It's not always about sensor size......
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Naturally .... but Nikon, Canon and now Sony have pretty much the entire image ecosystem figured out and should be able to compete with Panasonic on price in the one inch/MFT niche while simultaneously offering a wide range of APS-C/s35/FF and probably MF models. And then it'd be up to Panasonic to decide whether they want to move up in sensor size as well.

Mind you, GH4 was likely the result of the other Japanese manufacturers ceding the 4K segment to Panasonic for a very limited time. If that time is up, then Panasonic 4K products will have to face a virtually unlimited competition and their only s35 sensor is in their flagship Varicam.

For the consumer, the story is different because even the entry level models will be capable of phenomenal image quality. Only if large monitors and TV's could catch up.
 
DLD said:
With the 4K flood gates now fully open and with Panasonic's own GX8 featuring a 20 MPX MFT sensor, GH5 is likely to be the last hurrah for the MFT enthusiast and pro users. And Panasonic better hurry too because, once the 4K APS-C models hit the shelves, MFT drops down to the entry level/loss leader category.
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If the GH5 magically had a global shutter, I'd reckon it'd be a heck of a last hurrah. But if not, then the GH4 is probably my last LUMIX (though who am I kidding, I won't have the budget for another camera for a long time).
 
DLD said:
With the 4K flood gates now fully open and with Panasonic's own GX8 featuring a 20 MPX MFT sensor, GH5 is likely to be the last hurrah for the MFT enthusiast and pro users. And Panasonic better hurry too because, once the 4K APS-C models hit the shelves, MFT drops down to the entry level/loss leader category.
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thats assuming the same would have been true for HD video and yet Panasonic cameras always excelled with HD video even though all the DSLR cameras shot HD video. Remember the littles cameras called GH1 and GH2. The GH2 still to this day holds its own compared to many other HD based DSLR cameras. Just because a camera says it can shoot 4k doesn't mean it does it well. We have plenty of HD cameras out there all over the map in terms of quality to know this to be true.
 
The Panasonic GH line has always excelled with its video features. I don't expect that to change. A global shutter would be icing on the cake it is doubtful that it will happen.
 
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Thomas Smet said:
thats assuming the same would have been true for HD video and yet Panasonic cameras always excelled with HD video even though all the DSLR cameras shot HD video. Remember the littles cameras called GH1 and GH2. The GH2 still to this day holds its own compared to many other HD based DSLR cameras. Just because a camera says it can shoot 4k doesn't mean it does it well. We have plenty of HD cameras out there all over the map in terms of quality to know this to be true.
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I'd look at it as not necessarily Panasonic succeeding - although the GH series has indeed been at the forefront of the DSLR video - but others failing or failing to make the DSLR video a priority for a variety of reasons. I doubt this will last, as the past "video forfeitures" had been made at the behest of Sony as the part of the licensing of the latest Sony sensor technologies by the likes of Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax. This non-compete situation explains the year long gap between the introduction of GH4 and the entry into the sub-$2,000 4K market by Sony itself. And with rumors of Nikon D5 and so on, it seems like the other Japanese manufacturers are entering the fray as well.

The other part of the Panasonic's relative excellence with its GH models was their competitors intentional self-crippling imposed by themselves and onto themselves in order to protect their higher end product. That isn't likely to stop but the hybrid 4K market is being compressed so quickly, there should be a plethora of sub-$2,000 models by the time GH5 is ready to come out.

PS. I doubt the global shutter will make its appearance on GH5. More likely is a combination of a faster sensor readout and some sort of in-camera interpolation that isn't that different from the already developed pixel shifting/multi-axis stabilization technology.
 
I can count at least two other times this year alone B&H has the the Gh4 at under 1500. Think it's nothing more then marketing after the initial full-price grab the masses lined up for.
 
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