GH4 Panasonic GH4 Hands-On Field Test by The Camera Store TV

Nice to see these guys doing a review. The camera offers a lot for the money and is a very well desinged useful tool. I do not know how much they tweaked or graded the footage in the review. While the footage is very nice for a $1600 camera, I was not blown away by the images either. The GH4 definately hits its mark and wil be a successful camera imho.
 
One thing I appreciated in their review was seeing the image quality difference between the Sony FS700 and the GH4. The Sony is outstanding and the GH4 was not too far behind. I really like the modular design approach with the GH4. I would not be surprised if Panasonic introduced other accessories soon to go along with it and possibly an external recorder. A marketing plan is pretty smart where you can start with basic equipment and build on to it as the need arises w/o switching to a new camera system. There is a lot of money to be made in accessories.
 
Last edited:
I shot the video, and as I said in the video, I absolutely loved shooting with the GH4. The Cinelike profiles make a huge difference, and I'm told the image processing was still not finalized on my unit.

A few notes, we were unable to test any recording over 100Mbps as Panasonic could not supply us with a UHS-3 SD card. The Sandisk Extreme Pro 95 MBps worked for all the 100 Mbps modes though. Also, the external recording was not yet functional, so we could only test internal recording. We'll do a follow up video with a production camera where we test those features.

Any questions, let me know!
 
Hey Jordan, thanks for the awesome review! I'm not sure if I missed it in the review but how is rolling shutter on the gh4. I know Panasonic's press release has stated it is 50% faster, but since you had the camera for review, I was wondering how much of a difference that is in practicality
 
Thanks for the work you did on the video. It looked very good. I can't wait to see some footage shot at 200 Mbps. I too am a little leery of rolling shutter as I have a GH4 on order and my experience is only with CCD cameras.
 
I've got a ton of questions... overall, how does the image quality compare to the AF100 in 1080p? It looked fantastic in the Youtube video... but that's Youtube. Since you mentioned the similarity to the AF100 menu, I'm assuming you have experience with it. Also, how does ease of use compare? I'm coming from an ENG background, and love the set up of the AF100. Because of that, I tend to get frustrated using a DSLR... but I've never shot on a GH camera before.
 
TCSJordan said:
I shot the video, and as I said in the video, I absolutely loved shooting with the GH4. The Cinelike profiles make a huge difference, and I'm told the image processing was still not finalized on my unit.

A few notes, we were unable to test any recording over 100Mbps as Panasonic could not supply us with a UHS-3 SD card. The Sandisk Extreme Pro 95 MBps worked for all the 100 Mbps modes though. Also, the external recording was not yet functional, so we could only test internal recording. We'll do a follow up video with a production camera where we test those features.

Any questions, let me know!
Click to expand...

Hey Jordan - thanks for posting and thanks for your review, it was well done and entertaining as are most of your reviews. I had a question regarding recording at 200MB/s. There has been some debate here whether a U3 SD card is necessary at all for recording 100 or 200 Mb/s. I have reasoned that as long as the card you are using has continuos write speeds that meet or excede the cameras requirements you should be fine......shouldn't you?

If the Sandisk Extreme Pro can write at 90MB/s then, technically speaking and if my math is corred, it should be able to handle the GH4's 200Mb/s mode which is equivalent to 25MB/s. Did you try to record 200Mb/s with the Sandisk? Thanks in advance your reply.
 
Could you confirm something about the control dial?

If you hold down the locking button in the middle, is it possible to rotate the dial (while depressed)? Thinking about my underwater housing and the difference in the dial to the GH3. I have a rubber push down wheel to that dial, so I can adjust from outside the housing. So with the GH4, the rubber push down wheel would depress the locking button and also move/rotate the control dial.
 
AHLiu said:
Hey Jordan, thanks for the awesome review! I'm not sure if I missed it in the review but how is rolling shutter on the gh4. I know Panasonic's press release has stated it is 50% faster, but since you had the camera for review, I was wondering how much of a difference that is in practicality
Click to expand...

I wasn't able to do a proper test, I'll save that for when I see a production unit, but I did notice very little rolling shutter on the drum sticks, which is a very common place for it to show up. I'll keep you posted.
 
Mike Harvey said:
I've got a ton of questions... overall, how does the image quality compare to the AF100 in 1080p? It looked fantastic in the Youtube video... but that's Youtube. Since you mentioned the similarity to the AF100 menu, I'm assuming you have experience with it. Also, how does ease of use compare? I'm coming from an ENG background, and love the set up of the AF100. Because of that, I tend to get frustrated using a DSLR... but I've never shot on a GH camera before.
Click to expand...

The image quality is noticeably better than the AF100 in all respects, especially resolution. It's also great to get the cinelike profiles on a smaller camera.

I've spent the last five years working with DSLRs in conjunction with large sensor cameras, mostly the AF100 and Sony FS700, and I find the GH4 is the closest thing I've found to using the larger bodies. I do miss the built in ND for run and gun outdoor work, and it's a pain that you need to power the Video Interface Unit to get XLR input, but in terms of pure ease of operation, the GH4 is actually easier to use that either the AF100 or FS700. I loved shooting with it.
 
True North said:
Hey Jordan - thanks for posting and thanks for your review, it was well done and entertaining as are most of your reviews. I had a question regarding recording at 200MB/s. There has been some debate here whether a U3 SD card is necessary at all for recording 100 or 200 Mb/s. I have reasoned that as long as the card you are using has continuos write speeds that meet or excede the cameras requirements you should be fine......shouldn't you?

If the Sandisk Extreme Pro can write at 90MB/s then, technically speaking and if my math is corred, it should be able to handle the GH4's 200Mb/s mode which is equivalent to 25MB/s. Did you try to record 200Mb/s with the Sandisk? Thanks in advance your reply.
Click to expand...

I used a Lexar Professional 90 MBPS card, and the 200Mbps recording conked out after about 10 seconds. I haven't had a chance to test the Sandisk Extreme Pro cards, I will once I get a production unit.
 
Thanks for posting your experiences, Jordan! Did you use the focus peaking function? How well did it work? And does it disappear after a few seconds, or does it stay visible for the duration of the recording?
 
Thanks for the reply:

3 questions:

1: The cards that worked with 100mbps video, were they class 10 cards? If so, what models. (I know you mentioned the sandisk extreme pro...didn't know if lexar as well worked at 100mbps)

2: At 100mbps, how many megabytes a minute? By my calculations, it should be at 750MB per minute. (100mbps/8=12.5 x 60sec = 750MB) I ask because others have indicated that they were getting less than a minute for 1 GB of video. This makes sense with 200mbps, but not 100mbps.

3: With the electronic shutter, can we now expose more than one second? (this is what the limit was on the GH3) I ask because it would be quite handy to have exposures longer than a second for timelapses.


Thanks
 
Jordan, Thanks for the video and for your follow up here. Two questions for you:

1. The opening shot seems to have very low resolution, below 720p even. For example, it is not possible to read the brand name on Chris's fishing bib. Is that original 4k footage from the GH4, or did you crop down to get the opening shot?

2. Why didn't you upload the footage to youtube in 4k?

Thank you!
 
DerekPW said:
Thanks for the reply:

3 questions:

1: The cards that worked with 100mbps video, were they class 10 cards? If so, what models. (I know you mentioned the sandisk extreme pro...didn't know if lexar as well worked at 100mbps)

2: At 100mbps, how many megabytes a minute? By my calculations, it should be at 750MB per minute. (100mbps/8=12.5 x 60sec = 750MB) I ask because others have indicated that they were getting less than a minute for 1 GB of video. This makes sense with 200mbps, but not 100mbps.

3: With the electronic shutter, can we now expose more than one second? (this is what the limit was on the GH3) I ask because it would be quite handy to have exposures longer than a second for timelapses.


Thanks
Click to expand...

1: Both the Sandisk and Lexar cards were Class 10 UHS-1 cards, the Sandisk rated at 95MBps and the Lexar at 90MBps.

2: I was able to shoot an hour and 10 minutes of footage at 100Mbps.

3: I was unable to test this during my limited time with the camera. I'll check when I get my hands on a production camera.
 
noirist said:
Jordan, Thanks for the video and for your follow up here. Two questions for you:

1. The opening shot seems to have very low resolution, below 720p even. For example, it is not possible to read the brand name on Chris's fishing bib. Is that original 4k footage from the GH4, or did you crop down to get the opening shot?

2. Why didn't you upload the footage to youtube in 4k?


Thank you!
Click to expand...

1: This is a really odd issue with the YouTube compression. The first minute of the video is a 4K master shot, with the coverage being a series of crops, something Chris mentions. The footage looks fine on the original export, viewed on a 1080P monitor. The resolution is much lower on the Youtube intro, with serious compression issues. This leads me to:

2: The footage was uploaded as a 4K UHD file, which is what the footage was shot at, not a 4K cinematic 1:85 file. YouTube does not recognize UHD as a 4K format yet, though I expect this to change with the BlackMagic Production Camera and forthcoming GH4. I expect this is the reason for a few shots looking a bit shabby to downright awful in the 1440 resolution upload. I'm hoping the video will start to look better as YouTube's 4K algorithms change.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top