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GH4 4K Panasonic video camera, User reviews and opinions
  • 1273 Replies sorted by
  • nopacnonenopacnone

    Check out this GH4 footage color graded in Adobe Camera Raw! You can really do a lot with ACR on GH4 footage

  • rNeilrNeil

    @nopacnone

    Interesting vid to post ... yea, I knew Photoshop has some vid editing capability. In fact Suzette Allen showed me a vid she'd shot & edited using a timeline (completely done in Ps!) with about 10 tracks between camera-shot layers, Ps effects, music, all of that ... start to finish done in Ps. I asked her ... so, you've "got" the CC ... why not use PrPro? Her answer ... she already was an expert in Ps (certified teacher par extraordinaire) " ... so why would I learn another program?"

    Hadn't thought about it's ACR stuff for grading, though. I've been PrPro/Speedgrade routing my projects, and though Sg in the new direct-link mode in/out of PrPro is swift & handy I do miss those hue controls particularly in Lightroom & ACR. Being able to shift say the magenta, "purple", and orange or green just a titch towards a neighboring hue is HUGE in stills processing. I've asked for that repeatedly using Adobe's wish-request form & posting discussions about in on their boards. Yea, they know some of us would like that ... but it's on the stuff to get to eventually not the list that is a must right now. Sigh.

    This does illustrate the difference between pixel-changing editors (like Photoshop) and "non-destructive" editors like Lightroom & PrPro/Speedgrade. Note ... after the guy in the vid completes his grading, he renders-out the entire vid to a new file. That file would then be the one you'd bring into your NLE, not the original footage. You can import some video codecs into Lightroom, but cannot access the full "ACR" stuff in the "Develop" module in Lr, just use the "quick" controls in the main Library module, so I've not even thought of going to Ps to get access to the same extensive and very handy controls.

    PrPro & Sg's grading tools are "saved" like the ACR tools in Lr, as instructions of what to DO to the footage, but aren't actually DONE to the footage until you export out to some final spec. I've seen so many demands from people who want to know where PrPro/AeFx/Speedgrade store the massive video files from their editing/effects/grading work, and then ... why it takes any time at all to "render-out"; why don't they just take the files they've already created?

    Point is, they HAVEN'T created a new file ... they just have an extensive list of the instruction set for all your editing/grading/effects work and apply that to the original footage. If you render a section of the timeline for playback reasons, it doesn't create a "full-size" bit of footage, just enough better quality of a fast-compression codec to play better. Nothing whatever to use in a final render/export for use of a project.

  • AzoAzo

    @nopacnone

    Thank you for sharing this information. Looks like a super easy workflow even thought it will take longer to export. I also find that the GH4 footage is a lot easier to work with in comparison to footage from the GH2 or other Nikon DSLR's. Once I performed a custom white balance, BAM footage looked good straight from the camera a couple of small tweaks color correcting and done!

    I am pretty sure I will sell my 3 GH2's and purchase another GH4 it is just that good. The noise levels (4K very fine grain structure) skin tones, wifi, battery life this camera is awesome. So glad I did not hop on the BMCC or BMPC bandwagon. I like a fast easy workflow and with the GH4, Photoshop, and Final Cut ProX this is exactly what I get.

    Oh... I forgot the GH4 actually shoots stills ;-) Unfortunately Lightroom doesn't recognize the GH4 yet but the Jpegs look really nice. I will hold off on my thoughts about the stills until I can see the raw files. Honestly though I did not buy this camera for stills I have Nikon's for that but hey if the stills turn out great, bonus if not I didn't buy it for that to begin with.

    Anybody who is thinking about the GH4 don't think just buy it, you won't regret it especially if you are coming from a GH2.

  • jamesgh2jamesgh2

    Variable Frame Rate Tests....

  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • mickosmickos

    Aerial footage from KopterCam in Helsinki; looks good!

  • RRRRRRRR

    Had the cam for a couple of weeks and I LOVE the stills I get. Not so much the 1080p which is prone to moire / artifacting. Anyone tried to record this externally for comparison? Right now, I won't use the cam for anything but 4k.

    With that said, I have not had a lot of time to try everything out, but those are my initial impressions. If anyone could give me an update on high quality downscaling or more info on how to get good 1080p – I'd be very thankful. I got another 5 films to grade before the 10th of june so little or no time to get updated. :)

  • nobbystylusnobbystylus

    Hello all. Just did some very quick shots over the weekend on the GH4. Graded in AFX. Its not an edit, just test shots for grade testing. Cine D, 0,-2,-5, 0, 0, 16-235. SLR MAGIC 23 1.7 lens. Tiffin vary ND. The 2K is too big to upload so you're looking at a vimeo re-encode obviously. Shot 4K 100 IPB and scaled down to 2048x1080.

  • nobbystylusnobbystylus

    Handheld by the way..

  • joe1946joe1946

  • AdamTAdamT

  • chauncychauncy

    From eoshd, reid's review of gh4(oversampling)

    "Bit depth increases in the luma channel from 8bit to 10bit and colour sampling goes from 4:2:0 to 4:4:4 so effectively we are getting close to 10bit 1080p 4:4:4 internally with the GH4′s 4K files. I see the results by eye in Premiere with the 4K at 50% size on a 1080p timeline, no special techniques required."

    He lost me here. I thought the 444 1080 from 4k thing(not that I believe that for a second. Math is not equal to reality) required that we run the files through a separate process someone was developing and that would do the trick of changing the file to 444 colorsampling. Here- it sounds like it happens automatically or something.

  • RRRRRRRR

    @chauncy - don't believe the bullshitter. He always go to extremes from the smallest encouragement. Downscaling done well no doubt will be huge for 4k in general and here - gh4 in particular. However, what you see in premiere or vlc for that matter is a very roughly downscaled image, ridden with artifacts because of that. Obviously you can see that it holds a lot of detail, but how it will look, intelligently downscaled is a completely different matter. AFAIK it's not even possible to get any more than an 8-bit preview in Premiere. Maybe this has changed in later versions?

  • markr041markr041

    Lenses: Lumix 12-35mm f2.8, Lumix 45-175mm zoom. ND filters.

    Edited in Sony Vegas Pro 13. Original 4K video is downloadable.

  • aaronchicagoaaronchicago

    I shot this music video with the GH4 + BMPCC.

  • mizamiza

    Hi guys,

    I have one video shoot where I must do a flight in the night above the city with RC helicopter and GH4.

    Do you suggest any settings for a night shoot? Can I do it with my 14-42 vario 3.5 lens? I really need image stabilization.

    Thanks!

  • Zaven13Zaven13

    I mounted GH4 with 14-140 lens on Wondlan Aries stabilizer and tested in IPB 100MBS 1080 60p and 4k 30p modes. Using normal walking speed moving around the house, in the back yard and circling around the trees, 1080 60p was very smooth as far as movement, auto focus and AF tracking. However, 4k did present jitter, focus hunting and tracking problems. When I slowed down and moved in straight line, 4k looked much better but until Panasonic makes some improvements in a firmware upgrade, I will stick with 1080 60p when using stabilizer.

  • joe1946joe1946

    Cruz Pedregon raced to the Funny Car qualifying lead Friday in the NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

    "Pedregon, a two-time Funny Car season champion, powered his Toyota Camry to a track-record performance of 3.959 seconds at 310.48 mph. Pedregon's time, the quickest ever in the 10,000-horsepower category, will become an NHRA national record if he can certify the run by posting another time within one percent of the mark." http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/05/30/cruz-pedregon-leads-funny-car-qualifying-in-nhra-summernationals/

  • AzoAzo

    Hey guys it seems like the GH4 has more moire and aliasing then the GH2 at 1080p. This is a bummer, the files are cleaner in terms of noise and I like the fact that I can shoot 1080p @ 200mpbs ALL Intra but the moire and aliasing kinda sucks. I wanted to sell my GH2's and purchase another GH4 but I think I might just hang on to the GH2's due to the moire and aliasing in the GH4.

    On the the other side of the coin... I really don't see myself shooting any 1080p footage with the GH4 anyways but it would be nice to have. Moving forward I will shoot everything in 4K and export to 1080p if needed but it would be nice to have a nice clean 1080p image as well.

  • joe1946joe1946

  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • azza_actazza_act

    @Azo any examples please? Be interesting to see. Cheers

  • pwcpwc

    GH4 stills grade well: look at my gallery at GH4 graded stills gallery

  • spreenispreeni

    @Azo interesting for me, too. I always thought moire and aliasing would be the same or better in 1080p compared to GH2. Please, can you upload an example GH2/GH4 moire&aliasing?

  • AzoAzo

    @azza_act @spreeni

    The aliasing and moire really depends on the subject that is being filmed, in my case I was filming a subject wearing glasses and the GH4 had more aliasing in comparison to the GH2. I actually deleted the files that I recorded for the tests that I performed so I don't have the files sorry. I have a lot of footage that I will be shooting in the next couple of months so if I have some time I will shoot the same exact thing again and post the footage.

    I was actually surprised by the results as well... To be fair though I normally have the GH2 at -2 on the sharpening and on the GH4 I just set the picture mode to portrait with all the settings at 0 so I am assuming that if I lower the sharpening I will see less aliasing. I actually like the results that I am getting with Portrait mode straight out of the camera. Drag and drop footage into Final Cut and just about done with very little color correction required.

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