GH3/GH4 are not Panasonics "high end / professional" cameras, they offer far more expensive cameras for professional use. And that is already explaining why you won't see many (even trivial to realize) features in "consumer price range" cameras: Such features are intentionally kept away from the less expensive cameras to separate markets and to create incentives to buy the extremely pricy "professional" models.

You can bet Panasonics product managers spend only half as much time on thinking what great new features to include into some future camera as they spend on thinking what existing features not to include in which new model to justify the pricing of the more expensive models.

I must be doing something wrong. I see shutter speed, aperture, and ISO on my GH4 when I shoot video.

Fran

I must be doing something wrong. I see shutter speed, aperture, and ISO on my GH4 when I shoot video in Movie mode or in S, A or P photo modes. In P mode I need to adjust the aperture/shutter dial on the camera to activate the display.

@caveport

I am talking about video modes A,S,P,M via video menu. If using photo modes (dial) the video is always automatic and uses program mode P. The values you see are for current photo mode but not for video. After starting recording using the red button GH4 is not showing aperture and shutter and it uses very high shutter speeds in good light. GH4 is not using traditional 180 degree rule when it uses auto exposure for video. With auto exposure for video you can never know what the camera is doing.

I think Panasonic has thought not to confuse user by showing changing auto value but the results is opposite. The user is confused because he has no idea what is happening. With S one may use happily aperture f22 and wonder why GH4 videos are so soft (I have done it). With A user may have completely odd shutter speed and with auto iso the GH4 may use iso6400 and the user wonders why videos are so noisy etc, etc...

It is funny that I must use Exiftool to check later at home what exposure values I was using during shooting.

I see the values on my phone. But no auto ISO in full manual is a bummer.

@vesku - Agree completely. Its so short sighted of Panasonic to not include these options / display aids.

As to the comments, the GH3/GH4 are not high end / professional camera. Panasonic would disagree. http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/gh4u/index.html

I think it shows that unless you run it full manual, the GUI developers think you are stupid, so shouldn't know what the camera is doing.

On my GH4:

Auto iso limit works in video.

Auto iso in M works in video.

Program exposure shift works in video, even during recording.

Maybe you should play with your GH4 a little more....

I just switch to the appropriate photo mode, set the menu options and make a preset for the top dial 'C' settings. Now I have all the options I want instantly.

One way to get around the automatic video is to use the Flicker Reduction feature. I use it on my G7 all the time. Then I can set my shutter speed to 1/50 or 1/60 always, even when pressing the video start button without entering manual video mode.

One way to get around the automatic video is to use the Flicker Reduction feature..

It leads to jumpy exposure because the aperture works in steps. Also 1/50s or 1/60s gives you easily soft video outdoors because the aperture goes to f22.

How can it lead to jumpy exposure when the camera does not have the flicker reduction feature?

It was a surprise for me that the GH4 has removed the flicker reduction but GH3 and G7 has it (maybe others too). Still the major issue with Panasonic is to shoot without exposure information. That leads to many troubles and confusion.

It is not really about the Manual mode and I think that is partly why it is confusing to discuss.

It is about locking down the shutter and aperture you want for aesthetics while letting the camera control iso as the third element in the exposure triangle. Without exposure compensation in this configuration, you give up the ability to very quickly correct for the default camera exposure. My old Nikon D100 had this, so did my D7000, some higher end Canons, and recent Sony mirrorless too. etc. I believe Pentax has a mode (but not called manual) just for this use case. I remember Panasonic didn't even have auto iso in M until after the GX7 so I think the next step is to allow exposure compensation as an option. The GX85 also doesn't have EV comp as mentioned by Richard Wong. http://www.photobyrichard.com/reviewbyrichard/panasonic-lumix-gx85-review/

It is really useful in high speed photography situations like BIF, airshows, etc and could be harder to understand for people who don't do these things. Aperture priority and program priority don't replace this feature and this has been discussed ad-infinitum in many other places. It is about giving the user (who might come from other systems) the option to choose and Panasonic could leave it as disabled by default out of the box if they worry about confusing those who don't care.