@Mistas sorry, just assumed you were shooting video. Were you using the electronic shutter? That will often cause problems with artificial lighting due to the sensor scan speed which is independent of shutter speed.

@Mista "I thought synchro scan was for video??? The banding I experienced was much more obvious at faster shutter speeds 1/1000+"

The electronic shutter can produce prominent banding similar to your examples when used under neon or fluorescent lighting. For stills images the mechanical shutter is always the better option in such conditions. However you still need to select an appropriate shutter speed to avoid the flicker issue mentioned above.

From the manual:

Taking Pictures with No Shutter Sound (Electronic Shutter): * Under fluorescent or LED lighting, etc., horizontal stripes may appear on recorded pictures. In such cases, lowering the shutter speed may reduce the effect of the horizontal stripes.

Sometimes when I hit the menu button the menu screen is much smaller than normal, not filling the EVF/LCD, as if it's much higher resolution than normal. Has anyone else seen this?

I think there might be an issue with the way Exposure Compensation works while recording in Creative Movie mode when AEL is engaged. Can someone try to reproduce?

I can adjust Exposure, Exposure Compensation and Focus after AEL/AFL lock, during recording. But the way Exposure Compensation behaves while recording seems different than before recording - and kind of strange.

To reproduce...

Set AEL/AFL Lock = On (to set AEL/AFL button in toggle mode)

Set Creative Movie on Mode Dial

Set Exposure Mode = A

Set ISO = AutoISO

Set Aperture

Set Exposure Compensation (+/-)

Press AE/AF Lock button, watch screen for green focus indicator at focus area, AEL (lower left), green dot and AFL (upper right)

At this point the exposure and focus are "locked," but you can manually adjust them.

My observations...including some guess-work:

Manual Adjustments once AEL/AFL engaged, before recording starts...

Manipulating the Exposure Compensation value will change the exposure using AutoISO and Shutter values until you reach the limits of either. The effect on the image is obvious and intuitive.

Begin recording.

Manual Adjustments once AEL/AFL engaged, during recording..

If you adjust Aperture, the behavior of the camera is the same as it was before recording. The exposure will remain constant within the limits of Auto ISO/Shutter.

If you adjust Exposure Compensation setting during recording and the exposure will change, but the behavior not the same as if you change Exposure Compensation before recording began. I don't know why this would be - perhaps it's a bug or just the particular conditions I'm recording in. Can someone test and see if they see a difference and post?

Yes, there's a bulb mode. It becomes active when you move the shutter speed past 60s. The shutter speed indicator turns into a "B".

Has anyone experienced any vertical banding on the GH4? I just got mine a few days ago and have noticed there is VERY visible vertical lines on all modes and on all shutter speeds. I thought it was the lcd at first but it is on the clip when played back on the computer as well. I think I may have a dud :( I better get it back to the store asap!

Wow so never buy a camera from Henry's in Canada! No returns or exchanges on items over $1499! How the hell is that even allowed and not announced at the time of purchase!? They said you should rent before purchasing an item of that amount. I said even if it's defective?

It's all good I spoke to a manager and they informed me the proper terms. No returns or exchanges on Non-defective items. So they said I just have to reproduce the problem in-store and they will do a straight swap thank god!

Besides that the camera has been working great!

Password: gh4band

This is the raw video compressed to upload at 50mbps I won't mention where the banding is so it is unbiased. Please download to get the full quality as vimeo smooths over the lines.

This is the same clip with lumetri looks "day for night" put on as it compressed and made the line more obvious

again please download the original clip to see (lots of colour banding which is expected from an 8bit codec.

I am uploading the raw file from the camera with no compression as we speak and will post after.

This is the lcd screen on the gh4 with permanent vertical lines on all modes including photo which leads me to believe it is the sensor itself.

password: gh4band

@Soupertrooper what format are you using mp3 or mov? The mp3 UHD format seems not to be supported by Win media player. I am using mov for everything shot with the Gh4. I have no problems copying the files to my 6 years old Dell XPS laptop, even using the built in card reader. I use Sandisk Extreme 95 cards

I downloaded the GH4 1.1 firmware but for some reason, my Mac (10.9 Macbook Pro 2011) won't let me write to the GH4 formatted SD Card. I tried 3 different cards but I get the same "read only" info. Please help. Izhar

A simple and unbelievable solution to my SD card problem.