GH4 4K Panasonic video camera, official topic

caveport

Just because the Atomos records RAW does not mean the GH4 outputs RAW from the HDMI port!

Ausboy

Slow down - I didn't suggest it did - I posed a question. No need to put your exclamation mark friend. There have been rumours swirling around for a few days now that suggest that RAW video is coming to the GH4 in some sort of update. I am just linking the dots as it seems very plausible. The original tweet seems to have been deleted and more was discussed giving precious little more but the summary is below. There is an interview on the interweb that talks about how hard Mr Young of Atomos has been lobbying with the Japanese manufacturers to free up the crippled HDMI port on DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. He went over for a while and spoke to all of them that matter ( speaks fluent Japanese apparently ) as far as I can gather. The Shogun is being release in close co-operation with Sony ( even as a bundle with the A7S with much publicity ) and this may be Panasonic's side of negotiations. Time will tell - it's a rumour so it could be baloney

caveport

Sorry HenryO, you did not clearly indicate which HDMI port you were referring to. I thought you meant the GH4 HDMI port.

There has been a lot of speculation about GH4 stuff that is basically wishful thinking. Atomos are trying to get more functionality from the Panasonic HDMI port to allow things like Embedded Stop/Start Trigger, Embedded Timecode etc as these things are supported on Canon cameras. Maybe there could be some kind of RAW in the future, but everything I have read indicates the it's a hardware issue, not firmware.

Ausboy

@Caveport It's cool - guess I wasn't very clear so partly mine. Anyway - the GH4 is fantastic as it is and if a Cinema DNG solution was found I would be the first to jump on board. It would be heavy on resources but the BMPCC has shown me how frustrating normal video is if one wants to really smash an image. Being a fan of RAW using Cineform has truly made me feel that indie productions can look as good as the big pictures we are used to for a fraction of the cost now.

mrbill

@bleach551 - 'You keep your workflow and I will keep mine.'

I'm sorry, my intent was not to patronise but to help - there's a wide range of knowledge on the forums.

bleach551

@Mrbill,

After reading my previous post, I must apologize as well for coming off that way. I appreciate the help you tried to give to both @Astro and myself.

discomandavis

@HenryO COuld you post a link to those tweets? or a higher resolution of the conversation? It's unreadable in it's current state. But that is an exciting rumor, save the hackers some time.

Ausboy

@discomandavis Sorry I haven't got higher res. Did you click on the images or open in a new window? They open to full res.

Astro

@alcomposer @bleach551 Thanks for the responses. I saw the link on Andrew Reids site for the Thomas Worth command line downscale, I guess in time there will be more that comes to light (no pun intended) about the downscaling process. Also thanks to @bleach551 for his explanation about Avid, I am on the PC tho (10 real cores coming soon) and use Adobe...but the Adobe Media Encoder can do a lot of this, so I will play with that. But I need some 4K in the 1080P timeline...so I guess I will maybe leave that as is.

@alcomposer You are in Australia too...yeah I paid for mine along with the 12-35 lens nearly 2 months ago...still no sign of it. (No frills Cameras) I have had to download others 4K stuff using 4K downloader so I can get used to the workflow...meanwhile the GH4's are expected to be in stock in OZ anytime...its been a real snore fest waiting for them to arrive. I guess we are "down under"!!

caveport

Apple have GH4 RAW support in software updates on the App Store. Update Version 5.06

ntsan

http://www.43rumors.com/ft4-gh4-firmware-update-will-allow-some-sort-of-raw-video-recording-on-external-recorders/

awesome if it is true.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@ntsan

For now I think they have very vague idea that it is. As rumors major source - shops and reviewers have no clue also.

alcomposer

@astro, my gh4 arrived the other day- purchased from a panasonic rep in Adelaide. (pro lighting & grip company).

I am having fun with it. Bit disappointed with the moire in 1920 but that has to be my only gripe!

My sandisk pro 64gig cards work in it. However they are to hitting max bitrate - sitting around 60 even in 200mbps mode?! Bit confused. I have a 32 gig panasonic u3 card in the post so will get to the bottom of it ASAP. I don't think anyone else has discussed this. It's feasible that my gh4 is not able to write enough data and falling back to a safe mode - similar to gh2's safe mode.

Very good interface and screen, almost feels like AF101 replacement with focus peaking etc- would be nice with better video scopes- the current one is LAME- compared to focus peaking and zebras. It's like the software coders just cut and copied the crap histogram from the GH1/2/3- and the rest from the AF101! Panny have to do something with the GH4 as the AF line isn't getting any love- and using the gh4 as a successor makes sense. Especially all the pro features the gh4 has.

Will look into getting hdmi out into atomos "whatever I buy in future".

Will wait until new "rumoured" firmware does or doesn't come out this September...

Cheers Al

endotoxic

I think 10bit 4:4:4 1080p will be possible via YAGH interface in future firmware update. Also 10bit 4:2:2 internal recording via SD card. Maybe 120fps at some mode. I think is pretty possible, since 1080p is not premium any more, GH4 what a grate tool to transition to 4k.

What i actually expect is better 1080p performance and the awaited log-c mode. If 10bit 4:2:2 is made internally would be grate.

RKM

96fps raw could solve the apparant bitrate bottleneck

Astro

@alcomposer Thanks for update.

Yeah I rang NoFrills cams today..they dont expect an ETA until 10th September (over 2 months now)

I have the SanDisk 64 95Mb/s card as well, how can you tell its maxing out? Mine held together even with Driftwoods Moon T7...just wondering. I dont think the 1080P moire will probably bother me, hopefully I will shoot in 4K all the time....but yeah I will be interested to see how you go with it, keep us posted. Cheers

RatLabProductions

@alcomposer

What where you filming when you checked the bitrate of the record? My guess is that because its a VBR codec that if the scene is simple with little detail and movement then it records at a smaller rate as its not maxed out.

mintcheerios

Got it a couple of days ago and was most interested in a downsampled 4k to 1080p for the 4:4:4 color space. Not only is there visibly more color information than 1080p mode, it has more detail and less compression artifacts.

itrofnoc

@mintcheerios What is your workflow for the downsampling? Thx

alcomposer

@ratlabproductions, lots of stuff... I have yet to see a video over 90mbps... Hmmm... I wanna 150 or 190 or something at the same level as the gh2!

Dummy spit over...

Obviously I'll get a 132 gig transcend or something in the future anyway- my "indestructible" 64 gig Sandisk cards are getting shabby and breaking... ;-(

mintcheerios

@itrofnoc I used After Effects and made a 1080p composition to place the 1080p video. I shrunk the 4k image to match the 1080p image and then made pngs out of both images.

aae991

That's pretty compelling mintcheerios! I'm shooting everything in 4k. In fact I have yet to try 1080p on the GH4. Thanks for presenting this.

bleach551

@mintcheerios,

have you tried transcoding the 4K footage into ProRes 1080p, then importing that into you timelime? I transcode my footage to either DNxHD 175X when working in Avid Media Composer and Prores 422HQ when I work in Final Cut Pro 7.

Oedipax

I don't know if it's just me but I don't like the 1080p mode on this camera at all. I feel like it's inferior to the hacked GH2, even in the All-I variations. Anyone else find the same? In 4K I've grown to like it a lot more than I did initially. It's a pretty killer studio camera.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@all

All workflow talk must be in proper topic.

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