GH4 Sigh. Disappearing screen info is here to stay.

I honestly think this burn in excuse/rumour that Panasonic have is a load of rubbish. Is the screen technology in the GH3 not used by any other manufacturer?

Sony also has cameras with OLED screens but their info stays on all while recording, as do many other manufacturers.

Panasonic are blatantly lying to its customers. Nothing new there then.

Why would they lie? What could they possibly accomplish by lying to their customers about this?
 
I'm waiting to see what NAB brings before deciding which dedicated motion camera I'll pickup but already placed deposits for two GH4(s). The GH3 has proven a great documentary camera for travel work & I would buy the GH4 if only for Cinelike Gammas.[/QUOTE]

Where did you place a deposit at for a GH4? The usual suspects for me are not taking pre-orders yet
 
Why would they lie? What could they possibly accomplish by lying to their customers about this?

Crippling cameras and saying its for technical reasons?

I don't know but every other manufacturer is able to make cameras with OLED screens and not have the info disappear. Why can't Panasonic?
 
Panasonic produces an amazing camera at an astonishing price and you call it crippled? Are we living on the same planet?
The GH4 looks to be an amazing camera. I already pre-ordered one with Texas Media Systems, and can't wait to use it.

However, the "disappearing screen info" is really unacceptable. There's no reason for it, when practically EVERY other DSLR and camcorder (at any price) keeps the info on the screen.
 
The GH4 looks to be an amazing camera. I already pre-ordered one with Texas Media Systems, and can't wait to use it.

However, the "disappearing screen info" is really unacceptable. There's no reason for it, when practically EVERY other DSLR and camcorder (at any price) keeps the info on the screen.

I have the funds ready to go as soon as someone is ready to take my money. Full prepayment is unacceptable to me without some reasonable idea of availability. I'm quite happy to do so when I sense the vendor and manufacturer are very close to delivery, as was the case recently with my purchase of the SLR Anamorphot adapter.

As to the disappearing screen information, unlike some I'm ready to trust Panasonic that they have their reasons for doing so, especially considering the vocal opposition to such a arrangement since the GH3. I'm sure they are not deaf and perhaps the GH5 will finally address this for those that are disturbed by the issue. In the meantime, it doesn't mean a lot to me. Once the camera is set up, what I worry about is framing and focus. Sudden audio level jumps won't be avoided just because some information stays on or off. If I need to worry about such an occurrence and don't have a sound person, I'll take that into consideration when setting up the shot. Hopefully focus peaking will remain on.

Would it be nice to have that information permanently displayed? Absolutely.

Unacceptable, a deal breaker, fail, etc? Not even close.

Having written about the camera and briefly played with it, I can't wait to get my hands on one. And here is my hope. That Panasonic has been listening to the criticism concerning the availability of previous models and is making as many as they can. They will fly of the shelves.
 
And here is my hope. That Panasonic has been listening to the criticism concerning the availability of previous models and is making as many as they can. They will fly of the shelves.

Here's what I don't understand. At least in the case of the GH1 and GH2, there were lengthy lack of availability problems. Yet, at the same time, it wasn't because Panny was selling so many they couldn't keep up with production - because in all the stats of cams sold, Panny's m4/3 offerings come in pretty much toward the bottom of units sold. I guess it may have been the flooding/nuclear issues that caused some of the delays later on. From what I could see, the GH3 has not had availability problems (I have a GH3 I bought new last year). So I don't suppose the GH4 should have availability problems.
 
Panasonic produces an amazing camera at an astonishing price and you call it crippled? Are we living on the same planet?

No doubt the GH4 is going to be an amazing camera.

As a side note, in an interview with a Panasonic representative I watched (will try to dig it up when I'm not typing on my phone), the rep stated that they haven't decided if, during wifi control with an android or iphone, they will enable the live video stream to be viewable on the device during recording. Currently, the GH3 cannot do this but a few cheaper models can. So, even though the GH4 is a flagship hybrid camera for Panasonic, they are still 'deciding' if they will give you that feature even through the camera is perfectly capable of doing so. While the GH4 will likely produce amazing images, it's no secret that companies will cripple cameras in certain ways for reasons of their own.

Now i understand that you can't have it all at $1699, but these are features that do not cost Panasonic anything to enable. In fact, they are already there and then they decide if we should be allowed to use them. This, I have a problem with when it's interfering with the basic operation of the camera. In not asking them to give us any amazing features for free, just camera that functions like it should and like every other camera out there does.

If the OLED cannot handle the info due to burn in, then the screen is not fit for purpose and shouldn't be on the camera. As I said, the OLED on the GH3 is not all that amazing why not use another technology that allows the info that every operator need?

other companies can produce screens that look just as good as Panasonics and have info remain, do you really think that Panasonic can't?
 
Another 'feature' of the GH4 that perplexes me is the 100Mbps limit on 4K when you can do 1080p at 200Mbps.

We know the hardware can encode at 200Mbps, surely this is a crippling feature.

Just pointing out that while the GH4 might be a great camera, crippling still goes on.
 
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If the OLED cannot handle the info due to burn in, then the screen is not fit for purpose and shouldn't be on the camera. As I said, the OLED on the GH3 is not all that amazing why not use another technology that allows the info that every operator need?
Exactly. They didn't have to do this. Do any of the other Panasonic mirrorless cameras have the same disappearing info?
 
Another 'feature' of the GH4 that perplexes me is the 100Mbps limit on 4K when you can do 1080p at 200Mbps.

We know the hardware can encode at 200Mbps, surely this is a crippling feature.

Just pointing out that while the GH4 might be a great camera, crippling still goes on.

4k delivers four times the resolution of 1080p. By your logic if 4k is recordable at 100Mbps then 1080p should be recordable at 400Mbps, but there's much more to it then just comparing numbers.
 
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4k delivers four times the resolution of 1080p. By your logic if 4k is recordable at 100Mbps then 1080p should be recordable at 400Mbps, but there's much more to it then just comparing numbers.

That's not what I am saying at all.

what I'm saying is that if 1080p can be encoded at 200Mbps by the camera, 4K can be encoded at 200Mbps too.

I know that you can't really compare the 200Mbps 1080p ALL-I to H264 IBP of 4K but a higher data rate for the 4k is do-able easily.
 
4K is 4 times as much data as 1080 - so no, there's no logic whatsoever to stating that (without 'crippling') the processor can encode 4K @ 200, just because it can do 1080 @ 200.

It's like saying because you can carry a 100 lb weight a mile in 20 minutes, you can also carry a 400 lb weight a mile in 20 mins.
 
4K is 4 times as much data as 1080 - so no, there's no logic whatsoever to stating that (without 'crippling') the processor can encode 4K @ 200, just because it can do 1080 @ 200.

It's like saying because you can carry a 100 lb weight a mile in 20 minutes, you can also carry a 400 lb weight a mile in 20 mins.

That's not a good example. it's not like your weight scenario at all. Encoding 4k at 200Mbps is no harder for the encoder than 100Mbps.
 
That's not a good example. it's not like your weight scenario at all. Encoding 4k at 200Mbps is no harder for the encoder than 100Mbps.

So why don't you fly to Japan and show those bozo engineers what's what. And give us a full report when you get back.
 
That's not a good example. it's not like your weight scenario at all. Encoding 4k at 200Mbps is no harder for the encoder than 100Mbps.

Then why isn't the GH4, or more other cameras encoding 4K at 400mps? or 800mps? or 8K at 800mps? Why is there any limit at all, if there's no difference in the amount of work the processor has to do?
 
So why don't you fly to Japan and show those bozo engineers what's what. And give us a full report when you get back.
GH2 rings the bell? The same story keeps repeating itself. That was the case with GH2 and 5D. Apparently it was also impossible to implement zebras and have proper sound bar, and apparently it was impossible to get a clean HDMI out on 5D. Interestingly enough a couple of guys in a garage managed to hack both pieces of hardware and significantly improve the performance.
 
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