GH4 Panasonic GH4 Firmware Update Version 2.5 Announced: Post Focus & 4K 30P Photo Burst

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Panasonic GH4 Firmware Update Version 2.5 Announced: Post Focus & 4K 30P Photo Burst

Newark,NJ (March 16, 2016) –Panasonichas today announced the new firmware update Version 2.5 for theDMC-GH4 to further enhance its performance at no charge. The newfirmware Version 2.5 includes following functional updates:

-PostFocus
PostFocus is a special function that enables users to select an in-focuspoint after shooting. It has already been integrated in new LUMIXcameras such as the GX8. With this function, users can enjoy changingthe perspective for greater photographic expression or to choose thebest in-focus shot for macro shooting.

-4KPHOTO(4K Burst / 4K Burst (Start/Stop) / 4K Pre-burst)
With4K PHOTO mode there are three dedicated modes - 4K Burst / 4K Burst(Start/Stop) / 4K Pre-burst – are all now available on LUMIX GH4*.The addition of these modes further enhances the usability of 4KPHOTO to capture fleeting photo opportunities at 30p.

-ExternalFlash Burst
Consecutiveshooting with flash burst is available with an external flash that iscapable of continuous emission. This includes the followingPanasonic models: DMW-FL580L, DMW-FL360L, DMW-FL500, DMW-FL360 andDMW-FL220.

Thenew DMC-GH4 firmware Version 2.5 is scheduled to be released at theend of March 2016 at the LUMIX Customer Support website:

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/

Panasonic GH4 Body $1297.99
Panasonic GH4 YAGH KIT DEMO with V-LOG Upgrade $1699 OBO
Panasonic V-LOG Firmware Update for GH4 $99.99
G-CUP Eyecup for GH4 $35

 

[TheDingo]

It's too bad this doesn't really do anything for video shooters.

It would be great if Panasonic developed a GH4 log profile designed to work specifically with it's 8-bit internal recording format.

 

[stoneinapond]

It's too bad this doesn't really do anything for video shooters.

It would be great if Panasonic developed a GH4 log profile designed to work specifically with it's 8-bit internal recording format.

No, but it's good to see a company supporting a camera this late in its product cycle. And some of us do shot photos as well as video, so every bit of added functionality is good news (and as an aside, speaks well for the camera's eventual successor).

V-Log L already works well with internal recording. I feel that a lot of people who have problems with it don't understand how to work it.

 

[TheDingo]

V-Log L already works well with internal recording. I feel that a lot of people who have problems with it don't understand how to work it.

But it could be better. Compatibility with Varicam 35 LOG limits how the log data is recorded with the GH4, where a dedicated GH4 8-bit log format could produce better results.

 

[stoneinapond]

But it could be better. Compatibility with Varicam 35 LOG limits how the log data is recorded with the GH4, where a dedicated GH4 8-bit log format could produce better results.

Can't argue with that (in the absence of knowing what an improvement engineering-wise entails).

 

[Thomas Smet]

I have never been a big fan of LOG on any 8bit camera so to be honest I'm not sure how much better it would really get. Sure maybe it could have been optimized a little bit more but really 8 bit will always be starving the color space for a LOG format no matter how clever one tries to cram it in there.

 

[soarprod]

Just like slog2 vs 3. 2 is better for 8bit cams or clog on the c100

 

[Vesku]

They should have corrected many little things like showing exposure values in video or adding important FN-options for video shooters.

 

[buggz]

2.5 firmware upgrade

2.5 firmware upgrade

Does this upgrade reset all the settings in the camera?
Do you have write all the settings down, before using, if it does reset them?
Is there a way, I haven't found one, to save all the settings?

 

[aljudy]

I did not notice any settings changes from the upgrade.

 

[stoneinapond]

Does this upgrade reset all the settings in the camera?

Upgrade does not change settings. Unless you did the free V-Log backdoor, in which case it might take that out. Mine's payed so I don't know.

 

[blazer003]

No, but it's good to see a company supporting a camera this late in its product cycle. And some of us do shot photos as well as video, so every bit of added functionality is good news (and as an aside, speaks well for the camera's eventual successor).

V-Log L already works well with internal recording. I feel that a lot of people who have problems with it don't understand how to work it.

I don't know if a slight gradient would be any less posterized if V-Log Space was mapped to the whole 0-255, but I think it would be. You don't see nearly the same posterization/solarization of gradients in Cine V or D. Nor do I see the magenta blocking. Granted, no one else really notices too much, but it does take away from the overall image. Maybe I haven't played with it enough (I haven't used it much since the first month after I bought it, electing to start trying Leeming LUT Cine D) but there were just a lot of average shots that seemed to have those two specific artifacts, no matter exposure.

I knew when I bought it that it was designed more for external recorders, and I do have the Shogun and am very pleased with those results, but I also take the GH4 just to shoot stuff, don't want to rig it up, nor have a conspicuous rig, and would love for the color fidelity, that bit of extra dynamic range in the internal recording, but without having to stretch it as far, nor have the camera compress all that information into so few levels of detail within the image.

 

[Thomas Smet]

I don't know if a slight gradient would be any less posterized if V-Log Space was mapped to the whole 0-255, but I think it would be. You don't see nearly the same posterization/solarization of gradients in Cine V or D. Nor do I see the magenta blocking. Granted, no one else really notices too much, but it does take away from the overall image. Maybe I haven't played with it enough (I haven't used it much since the first month after I bought it, electing to start trying Leeming LUT Cine D) but there were just a lot of average shots that seemed to have those two specific artifacts, no matter exposure.

I knew when I bought it that it was designed more for external recorders, and I do have the Shogun and am very pleased with those results, but I also take the GH4 just to shoot stuff, don't want to rig it up, nor have a conspicuous rig, and would love for the color fidelity, that bit of extra dynamic range in the internal recording, but without having to stretch it as far, nor have the camera compress all that information into so few levels of detail within the image.

Honestly I'm not convinced v-log itself is the problem as much as the encoder in the GH4. Adam Wilt did a test even with 8bit external and many of the issues people see go away so v-log itself doesn't have an issue with 8bit as much as it has an issue with the internal encoder. Think of it , a DSP doesn't work in blocks of color or pixels, only the H264 encoder does that. I think any LOG format no matter how much of the 0-255 range it uses may push the limits of what the encoder considers "close enough" colors to block together.

Even with the other profiles if I shoot green screen I see a lot of the color grouping on the green screen because the encoder assumes those colors are close enough and not detailed enough to spend the extra bits on. Because LOG shoots colors with very subtle differences similar to a green screen with very subtle shades of green I just don't think the encoder can tell the difference between them as well as it should. Remove the encoder from the equation and even 8bit external recording does very well.

 

[hectordsilva]

I found 2 very important changes after updating firmware 2.5.
1. Using GH4 with Blackmagic video Assist, the Exposure jump, while using Auto focus half shutter release is no more a problem. Now I can record 10bit externally without any issue.
2. GH4 with VA, the 50fps use to show drop frame, but now no drop frame while rec 50fps, I am using the same SD card 45MBs in prores.

 

[joe12south]

Honestly I'm not convinced v-log itself is the problem as much as the encoder in the GH4.

To be sure, it is the exaggeration of the H264 encoder artifacts that looks so bad. Stretching any profile far enough will reveal them ... but since V-LOG L wastes about 40% of the signal, and you have to stretch a LOG image so much in post to get back to a linear response, even a very conservative natural grade reveals the problems.


Sony and Canon have proved that you can make a much better LOG profile for compressed 8-bit formats.

 

[Thomas Smet]

To be sure, it is the exaggeration of the H264 encoder artifacts that looks so bad. Stretching any profile far enough will reveal them ... but since V-LOG L wastes about 40% of the signal, and you have to stretch a LOG image so much in post to get back to a linear response, even a very conservative natural grade reveals the problems.


Sony and Canon have proved that you can make a much better LOG profile for compressed 8-bit formats.

Since I don't have v-log yet I'm curious if anybody has ever tried the HD 200mbps mode on the GH4 with v-log? Since its an intra-frame format I'm wondering if that would help due to a lack of macro blocking. Clearly not a solution if one really wants 4k but could be a solution for some people.

 

[joe12south]

Since I don't have v-log yet I'm curious if anybody has ever tried the HD 200mbps mode on the GH4 with v-log? Since its an intra-frame format I'm wondering if that would help due to a lack of macro blocking. Clearly not a solution if one really wants 4k but could be a solution for some people.

That's an excellent question, and one I've been slightly curious about myself. As I only drop to 1080P if I need to record slo-mo, I've never tried. I think it's a pretty safe bet that it would have less compression, and hence less chance for YUV errors. You'd still have to be really careful to avoid banding.

 

[Thomas Smet]

That's an excellent question, and one I've been slightly curious about myself. As I only drop to 1080P if I need to record slo-mo, I've never tried. I think it's a pretty safe bet that it would have less compression, and hence less chance for YUV errors. You'd still have to be really careful to avoid banding.

Speaking of not having v-log yet does anybody know why B&H lists v-log as back ordered and it will be 4-6 months before they have it in stock again? This thing is very difficult to buy.

 

[blazer003]

Honestly I'm not convinced v-log itself is the problem as much as the encoder in the GH4. Adam Wilt did a test even with 8bit external and many of the issues people see go away so v-log itself doesn't have an issue with 8bit as much as it has an issue with the internal encoder. Think of it , a DSP doesn't work in blocks of color or pixels, only the H264 encoder does that. I think any LOG format no matter how much of the 0-255 range it uses may push the limits of what the encoder considers "close enough" colors to block together.

Even with the other profiles if I shoot green screen I see a lot of the color grouping on the green screen because the encoder assumes those colors are close enough and not detailed enough to spend the extra bits on. Because LOG shoots colors with very subtle differences similar to a green screen with very subtle shades of green I just don't think the encoder can tell the difference between them as well as it should. Remove the encoder from the equation and even 8bit external recording does very well.

I'm sure that could be true, and I don't think V-Log itself is the problem, but the GH4 records in all the other modes resonably well. There are magenta blocking issues, but you barely see them. So I think that V-Log limited to 20-196 part of the 0-255 spectrum in order to match the Varicam's V-Log gives the less intellegent encoder less to work with, and the problem is exacerbated. So the GH4's VLog is only using 176 levels of detail (per channel) vs 256. That's a 32% reduction in the amount of image data that it can store, in an already pretty limited (compared to 10bit) 8 bit spectrum. I just think that if it was to still capture all the same details that it packs in 20-196, but the encoder was instructed to use all 256 levels of detail in each channel, the encoder wouldn't see so many similarities as it does in the super flat image, and encode it a little more properly. You probably wouldn't see a ton of difference between Cine D and V-Log-R (my made up name for it) except that slight bump in dynamic range, and more accurate color, and that would be fantastic in my opinion.

 

[Thomas Smet]

I'm sure that could be true, and I don't think V-Log itself is the problem, but the GH4 records in all the other modes resonably well. There are magenta blocking issues, but you barely see them. So I think that V-Log limited to 20-196 part of the 0-255 spectrum in order to match the Varicam's V-Log gives the less intellegent encoder less to work with, and the problem is exacerbated. So the GH4's VLog is only using 176 levels of detail (per channel) vs 256. That's a 32% reduction in the amount of image data that it can store, in an already pretty limited (compared to 10bit) 8 bit spectrum. I just think that if it was to still capture all the same details that it packs in 20-196, but the encoder was instructed to use all 256 levels of detail in each channel, the encoder wouldn't see so many similarities as it does in the super flat image, and encode it a little more properly. You probably wouldn't see a ton of difference between Cine D and V-Log-R (my made up name for it) except that slight bump in dynamic range, and more accurate color, and that would be fantastic in my opinion.

I think we see them more with v-log because of how far the levels have to be pushed to get back to rec709. Most other modes don't get pushed that hard in post plus those modes start off with a more full image so the encoder can see more of a difference between subtle colors. Because v-log is so flat many colors sit very close to each other and the encoder might assume they are in fact the same colors and block them together. With v-log our eyes can't see much difference between subtle colors and likely the encoder struggles with that as well. Remove the internal encoder from the equation even if just recording ProRes at 8bit and v-log still seems to work very well.