GH4 Purchasing dilemma: Should I get the YAGH as well? Who is buying it?

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Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
I'm having trouble deciding whether or not to go all in and get the YAGH interface as well as the GH4. What's holding me back of course is the cost. The fact that it's nearly the price of the GH4 itself if bundled with it. And $2,000 if I later realize that I actually did need it.

So what do all of you think? Is it worth it? Or wiser to wait perhaps until the YAGH eventually comes down in price?
 
Well it was primarily for 10bit 422 work and XLR audio. I have an XLR mic and hearing about the audio buzzing issue by way of the GH4 mic port is making me a little nervous about connecting a mic directly to the GH4 body. But it's that big price tag of 1600 or 2k that's holding me back from the YAGH purchase .
 
The convenience of the XLR, SDI, large HDMI, are some reasons, but not $2000 worth. If they had professional preamps in the YAGH that bypass the internal preamps, then it might be worth it. I operate an audio recording studio and even very good preamps don't cost that much. A JuicedLink or BeachTek box and turning down the internal preamps should give us pretty good sound.

I too wonder why I would buy one, when I could probably get one of the new Sony A7s for somewhere in that cost range.
 
Thanks everybody for chiming in. Michael, regarding the Sony A7s, are you saying that it would handle audio better than the GH4? I'm primarily looking into the A7s for it's low light advantage.
 
Audio is always a problem with small cameras because it apparently is hard to jam a really good set of audio preamps in a small body. The advantage (if it works out) of the A7s with audio is that Sony has a whole rig that just sits on the hot-shoe and just plugs in. It takes XLRs, has levels, etc. I already own one as part of another Sony camcorder. You can do something similar with the GH4 by using a BeachTek or JuicedLink adapter.

Of course the low-light ability of the A7s is remarkable, but just as important to me is the fact that the sensor is being sampled in whole frames, so we should have no moire patterns, and so on, but rather some pretty crystal-clear video. It does not have a global shutter, so we will still have rolling shutter effects, and so on.

I want to use the A7s as a run&gun solution and to put it in one of these new 3-axis gimbal stabilizers. I have checked out the stabilizers and cancelled my order for a Movi M5 in favor of the 3-gimbal Helix from LetusDirect. It has everything we need plus once you balance it, you can change lenses in seconds compared to having to re-balance the whole rig.
 
I would buy the YAGH ($2000) only if I were ready to also buy a AJA Ki Pro Quad ($4000), a couple AJA 512GB SSDs ($1300 each) and an Anton Bauer Battery System ($1200) to power it all. I already have an Edelkrone Modus rig to put it all on, so that's another $1400 piece of kit. All total someone would be looking at spending upwards of $11,200 just for the luxury of recording 10-bit 4K 4:2:2. If I were shooting a low budget indie then it'd be a steal compared to a RED package. For my purposes right now I'll stick to recording 4K internally and delivering in 1080.
 
The YAGH is a specialty device that most wont need. If you really want to get the absolute most out of the GH4 and are willing to spend a whole lot more than the price of the YAGH it's for you. I dont see my self using it because I dont have a need to take my GH4 to that place. If I needed to then I would buy a different camera. The GH4 is really special and does so much in such a small package. The YAGH just blows that idea up. I would wait and see how the Atomos Shogun works with the GH4 first. It cost the same as the YAGH and gives you basically the same image you would get out of the YAGH except you have to use that dreaded micro HDMI out.

As for audio. Beachtek and Juicedlink products are proven and solid if you have mics that wont work directly into the GH4 or require phantom power. I highly recommend the Rode Lavalier system if you want to record direct. Very versatile lav mic. No phantom power required and has several connection options including a 3.5mm that goes right into the GH4.
 
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Bern Caughey said:
Still on the fence so waiting on owner reviews.
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I want to find out what the audio performance is like, and if this unit raises the bar compared to using the GH4 with an audio adapter.

Later this summer, I expect to be able to rent the YAGH interface when I need to. ( I can't see myself using this very often )
 
It has everything we need plus once you balance it, you can change lenses in seconds compared to having to re-balance the whole rig.

It only takes me a couple minutes to change lenses and balance the Movi M5. It nothing like trying to balance a Steadicam.
 
The downfall of the YAGH is that it's limited to 16-bit audio at 48khz. For $2000, the YAGH should have a lot more than pre-amps, it should offer 24-bit backup recordings in addition to feeding digitized 16-bit audio directly to the GH4. Even a $200 Zoom H4N or Tascam DR60D offers more flexibility than that, with comparable XLR features and ability to record up to four tracks of 24-bit audio.

In live event recording, 24-bit audio and backup tracks are far more important than preamp quality. The YAGH looks more like it's intended as an interface to broadcast studio equipment than an XLR adapter for the GH4.
 
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I have way more experience in audio than I do so I can say with confidence that while 24bit audio is certainly preferred to 16bit you aren't going to notice it especially if you are only recording dialogue. If I got you to blindfold test two audio files recorded at 16 bit and 24 bit you would not be able to pick up them apart consistently.

However, if I gave you a crappy, noisy pre-amp vs a clean low noise floor, low distortion pre amp, you would be able to pick them out rather easily.

Even if the YAGH recorded 24bit it's still overpriced in my opinion.

Go with an external recorder. As far as recording the 10 bit video there will be two options for doing that without the YAGH. Atomos already announced their solution and Convergent Design is doing something with the Odyssey 7Q which will allow users to record directly from the micro-HDMI out of the GH4
 
True North said:
I have way more experience in audio than I do so I can say with confidence that while 24bit audio is certainly preferred to 16bit you aren't going to notice it especially if you are only recording dialogue. If I got you to blindfold test two audio files recorded at 16 bit and 24 bit you would not be able to pick up them apart consistently.
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I'm talking reliability rather than audiophile sound quality. When you're recording live, amplified performances, it's hard to predict how much headroom you might need to capture loud transients without overload. With 24-bit recording, I can reserve 18db or more headroom without dropping too close to the noise floor. With 16-bit recordings, I have to make do with 12db or less headroom. Preamp noise can be dealt with in post, but nothing can save an overloaded recording.
 
People keep looking at the YAGH for it's XLRs, which makes sense because that's what most users want. But the primary purpose of the YAGH is for the SDI outputs and TC-in. These are the features that you should be evaluating whether you need or not. You can't compare the price of this to standalone XLR preamps because that's not it's primary purpose. If you only need XLR inputs, get an XLR preamp. Like Benjobe said, the YAGH is only the tip of the iceberg-- if you get it, you also need to be prepared to get a SDI recorder, power supply/batteries, and the necessary rigging to shoot with all of these things. It's much more than determining whether you're willing to spend $2K.
 
In my mind, my $2000 would be better spent on the Shogun rather than the YAGH. Once I get the Shogun, I will evaluate the need for the YAGH.
 
David W. Jones said:
In my mind, my $2000 would be better spent on the Shogun rather than the YAGH. Once I get the Shogun, I will evaluate the need for the YAGH.
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Will the Shogun record a 4k 10bit 422 signal from the GH4? Philip Bloom mentioned that the Odyssey 7Q will not record 10bit 422 via HDMi.
 
Are you confident with that choise Michael? I don't know what to think but Letus started by selling adaptater which i bought for my old panasonic HVX200 and i hate it.
Movi's bussiness is only dedicaced to this, and so far their product have made a name in this field isn'it?

Has someone heard and seen some test of the letus anamorphic adapter?
Im curious ....

vincent*

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Vincent Thomas
Creative Art Director & VFX supervisor / Senior Lighter & DigiMatte Painter / Concept Designer
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Michael Erlewine said:
I want to use the A7s as a run&gun solution and to put it in one of these new 3-axis gimbal stabilizers. I have checked out the stabilizers and cancelled my order for a Movi M5 in favor of the 3-gimbal Helix from LetusDirect. It has everything we need plus once you balance it, you can change lenses in seconds compared to having to re-balance the whole rig.
Click to expand...
 
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