GH4 The yahg? Worth having???

T

TFilipiak

Well-known member
Anybody here use the YAGH with their GH4? I noticed they've come waaayyy down in price. (Under a grand on Panasonic's site!)
I was thinking of pulling the trigger on a GH4 and wondered if it's worth getting the YAGH too.
Like to hear some pros and cons from actual users. Thanks!
 
I used one for a project and have mixed feelings about it. Audio in is the best part of the YAGH but can also be achieved with a Juicedlink box for a ton less.

The lag is so bad for external monitoring but it's also bad in general on the GH4. I was hoping that the YAGH would fix this issue but it didnt. I wish Panasonic would fix this.

Audio is great. Preamps are good.

You have to use all 4 SDI outs for UHD 4K recording. HDMI is easier so no YAGH is necessary for that if your recorder can do 4K with HDMI. Having full size HDMI is nice.

Need a gold mount or V Mount battery to power it so now a rig of some kind is needed.

After the project was done I sold mine with a GH4. If I was to do it again I would use a Juicedlink box and a cage with a full size HDMI adapter locked in with a pinch. I despise Micro HDMI and how fragile it is. If you are going to use it get a cage or a HDMI pinch/lock on or you will break the input and have to send the camera in for service. I had one break after two weeks without a cage. After I put the others in a cage I didnt have anymore broken ports.
 
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I just bought one.. very very mixed feelings. (maybe other owners can chime in if I have this lot wrong). The Gh4 yag combo was supposed to replace my FS100, giving 2XLRs, big HDMI in a light package for B cam use. I hate mini HDMI and the sort of XLR shi_tscape you see on the A7s/C100/C300 - on paper the Gh4Yagh is cleaner.

My dream was a sling about little B camera (where I consider the whole thing to be little) with a second mode - more heavy build with remote SDI monitor, but not to strip the thing apart during a mode change, just plug my sh_t in if I needed it.

Overall I would say this is designed by complete utter clueless cretins - honestly what where they thinking?

-audio monitoring is hugely delayed with yag in place - so cross out monitoring your audio
-cant get it working to record 1080 10 422 with my Hyperdeck Shuttle*
-flip screen is hugely retarded in movement (coming from 5d2/3 I cannot believe how handy the flip screen is)
-playback seems to be external monitor or screen but not both
-needing an external battery is hugely annoying because there is absolutely no where to mount one (it works with a sony batt and Dtap dongle - nice better than tiny batts that die every 30mins and are buried in a rig like all other mirrorless cams)
-with XLRs your right hand is pushed up to be constantly snagged by the strap ring
-pretty flexible a hard remote focus would pop out under torque
-reading the manual even the max cable run for the batt is 2m, which officially fooks it as a remote cam with the brick at basecamp.
-fat HDMI interferes with your hand if you want to pull with the left hand
-virtually impossible to build a tight cage as every side has something in the way be that SD card door or big HDMI out
-unlike my FS100 the roll time is restricted (uk GH4)

really the list of things that made it never get out of the design prototype door is endless.


When will I use it????

SDI out ->Decimator->compositeSD on my Steadicam

Remote head on a crane?
If you had one then this would be the daddy as you could do a long SDI run

Pop concert drum or overhead camera?
Need to set up 2 hours before the gig and cant get back on stage? You will need to run the camera off a brick - and record to an external HD.

Basically the sort of jobs where you are placing cameras hours in advance and must roll for long durations (if the recorder worked*)

For 'sling about' like a simple car bonnet mount or windscreen mount the (supprisingly competent) App and flipable monitor get you 90% there.

The Yagh is another design tragedy to be honest. The sort of design tragedy that basically makes Arri the only people with brains.

Will I flog it or send it back? Im on the fence.

S

*this is the only point that I hope is resolvable.
 
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I think Panasonic was making the YAGH for the AF-100 users that wanted to see a Af-200 or AF-4K. Kind of killing two birds with one stone. It didn't happen.
 
Nobody makes a third party device that interfaces to the camera and actually works? Very sad that Panasonic didn't get this right, they have enough experience that this shouldn't have happened. The NX-1 is sounding better every day.
 
thanks a friend just got a GH4... and I just got a link to Panasonic offering the camera and the yagh for $2,199... will pass on the combo...
 
OK I just got the recorder going (set the camera in AVCHD)

And you see another side to the thing.

A quick examine of the 10bit looks great - and grades like a mo-fo.

Now If I owned an Ody7q I think this might make remarkable images is it 10bit 4k?


Using my SDi smallHD 502 (you instantly lose interest in the onboard monitor!) - either through the black magic or direct onto the second HD SDI and you start to understand the thing.. maybe.

Consider this set up..

Sound Devices 302 into the XLR in (monitor off the mixer no delay)
SDi 1 output to Operator monitor
SDi2 output to HD recorder for long roll time 10bit 422 edit ready sound attached proRes, recorder SDI output to video village
Brick powers Camera and operator monitor, second brick pwers director monitor and SDI recorder

To some extent if you live in that world of two SDi monitors SD302 mixer and multiple bricks batts then.. well I think it could be sweet.

S
 
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Wow!!! Sounds like the YAGH is very popular. I better buy 2 then!

Thanks everyone for the replies! Definitely will be steering clear of that bad boy and save myself some dough.

Gonna look at the Juicedlink or Beachtek options.
 
Hmm..in Morgan's pumped up scenario (now talking multiple bricks!), one would expect a sound recordist handling audio side...which is a good idea in most situations. Although..I have to wonder how many higher end shoots would pick GH4 if not wanting 4k files. The audio monitoring delay of the YAGH is..to put it nicely..counterproductive.
I'd love to see the sales/resales of this thing
 
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$200 total is the price point for me to buy a YAGH as I just don't need many of those features. But, I'd like to raise the camera an inch or so. :)
 
Gweilo66 said:
Hmm..in Morgan's pumped up scenario (now talking multiple bricks!), one would expect a sound recordist handling audio side...which is a good idea in most situations. Although..I have to wonder how many higher end shoots would pick GH4 if not wanting 4k files. The audio monitoring delay of the YAGH is..to put it nicely..counterproductive.
I'd love to see the sales/resales of this thing
Click to expand...

So we have been discussing the thing in the office.

We are not going to use it day to day, where a 'sling about' dslr style camera is what we need for Broll - the 'naked' GH4 and rode vid mic will do that (replacing a 5d3 or 70d) with a premium in image quality

We can however see the Yagh coming in to play on certain specialised jobs especially where the camera is set before an event and then must be remotely fired and left rolling.

If I had a contract, say to cover a pop concert I can see that many Gh4/yags planted around the stage could be excellent either fed into a live desk or recorded for multicam - I think an 07q would record four!

To me the competition in that environment would be the IO Flare 2/4k at a significantly higher price point (and imaging pros and cons) - I did nearly buy a Flare2k but have decided that I would wait for the upcoming BMC mini instead.

So for $550 (yep barter!) above the cost of the GH4 significant functionality is added.

S
 
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