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GH4 4K Panasonic video camera, User reviews and opinions
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  • @aaronchicago I would also like to know why you chose cineV over cineD. The screen looks really great!

  • Thanks. I chose Cinelike V after seeing James Millers video. I tested out Cine V 0,-5,-5,-5 master pedestal +15, iresolution STD, idynamic STD. I'm liking the results better than Cine D. I shot this scene 2600k to get a cold look.

  • A lot of people are just using Cine D and calling it a day, and wondering why others aren't. Tons of settings available for whatever your taste/shooting style, etc. It's funny how so many 'net fools flamed James Miller for not using Cine D. To each his own profile, I myself prefer Portrait.

  • i personally liked the look of cineV over cine D also. the skin tones on D just don't look that great to me, more work needed to get right. well for my workflow anyway.

  • I'm a bit confused with a section of the review posted by Vitaliy : Another user review - http://sherifmokbel.com/blog/?p=85

    In the review: "Coming from a DSLR photography background, I never bothered to understand the “Shutter Angle” concept, till I tried it on the GH4. I find it to be very practical, here’s why: When you’re shooting a sequence and switching frequently between frame rates probably for slo-mo effects, set your shutter angle to 180D and it’ll set the perfect Shutter Speed for you to achieve the cinematic look without too much fiddling. It’s even more accurate than doing it manually with the Shutter Speed as doubling the frame rate number to set the SS is not perfectly accurate in 24FPS or 60FPS scenarios, as we only have 50 and 125 SS respectively, not 48 or 120."

    So by setting the shutter angle to 180 it looks after the shutter speed for you? What happens when you're in Manual Mode. Does the GH4 over-ride the shutter speed or do you need to use another mode?

  • So by setting the shutter angle to 180 it looks after the shutter speed for you? What happens when you're in Manual Mode. Does the GH4 over-ride the shutter speed or do you need to use another mode?

    Shutter angle is term used in movie cameras. Yes, it is another method to set shutter speed.

  • The shutter degree feature is great, I just set it and forget it at 180 degrees. For indoor or night shooting, one thing to keep in mind is that it may affect your sync with lighting. For proper sync use 144 degree shutter when shooting 24P in 60Hz countries (1/60 sec equivalent) and 172.8 degrees when shooting in 50Hz countries (1/50 sec equivalent). There is no exact degree angle that matches 1/60 sec when shooting 25P in 60Hz countries so you'll have to go back to manual shutter speed selection to get 1/60 and avoid the flicker or crawling.

  • I too love the shutter angle feature, especially switching between 23.976P and 60P. Set it and forget it. Also, I read Neumann's film post where he was stating that the previous 1/50 shutter wasn't exactly 180 so it may have contributed to the non-cinematic motion feel.

  • If this was posted recently, then please disregard, or Vitaly delete. Adam Wilt did a pretty thorough review: http://www.dvinfo.net/article/acquisition/review-panasonic-dmc-gh4-camera.html

  • @lunalobo75

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/170850#Comment_170850

    It is in other topic, here it is only personal user reviews and references, not on review and such sites.

  • A-ha! Thanks, Vitaly.

  • If you're using the Panasonic Image App for wifi remote control, have you found an option for full screen viewing? I love that you can start and stop recording with live view now but the windowed display is smaller than I'd like.

  • Here is a video I shot at the Dominion Riverrock festival this past weekend. It was shot with the GH4 in 4K @ 30 FPS, 1080p @ 60 FPS, and 1080p @ 96 FPS.

    I hope you like action sports.

  • Here's some screenshots comparing CinelikeD, CinelikeV and Standard color profiles. No post color treatment has been done and this is exactly how it was shot in camera. Lit under fluorescent lighting and the profiles were dialed to all zeroes (0,0,0,0,0).

    For this particular setup I think I actually prefer the Standard color profile.

    CinelikeD.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 354K
    CinelikeV.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 374K
    Standard.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 385K
  • Tried to skim the entire thread, but at 21 pages, I could have missed something. As a working filmmaker, and huge fan of the GH2 I've been eager to consider the GH4 before making the leap to RAW 5D. I've always had an affinity for the panasonic sharpness, particularly hacked; this has been the first year that I've had projects exhibited on the big screen, and while they have for the most part held up well, I'm hitting the ceiling hard these days with 8 bits for color grading. Looking towards a future feature as well as client needs on short format work, I recognize that I'm about due for an upgrade to remain competitive. Low ISO and monitor issues make the Digital Bolex imperfect because of the amount of run and gun I do. I hate the form factor and moire on BM. And the Red Epic and Alexa price me out. With respect to the GH4, my main concern is the 100mb 4K footage. I'd love to hear thoughts from users and owners on artifacts and blocking, moire and image between ISO 800 and 1600.

  • @mistermay. In my opinion GH4 is very good until ISO 3200, and ISO 4000 is the limit for professional work. ISO 6400 is better to be avoided, but all of them can be successfully cleaned in post process. ISO 3200 cleans so well, that looks like ISO 200 afterwords, with minimum loss of detail. For this scenarios is better to dial minimum NR in the camera (-5) if you plan on cleaning in post process. If not, just leave the NR to 0. I do not like the results of +5 NR setting very much.

    All the remarks are made related to a natural or standard color profile in the camera. If you use CineD or play with the master pedestal and curves then things get nasty in the shadows very quickly.

  • @mrmay - what format are you delivering in? Also, what editing system do you use?

  • @Eno Thanks so much for the thoughts. What are you using for NR in your post process? Also, have heard about strong artifacts issues in things like blue sky and such. Thoughts? @mrbill end result would be DCP for festival circuit and typically Premier 5.5 sometimes CC.

  • @mistermay, I use Premiere pro for editing and Neat video for cleaning. On standard or Neutral profile I see no artifacts what so ever. If you use Cined D and master pedestal, curves or/and I dynamic, then you will have nasty artifacts, and horrible noise even at low ISO's. If you want good dynamic range, Neutral profile with maybe -1 or -2 contrast or Cine D with 0 settings are very good. If you you go beyond that, you get a lot of noise and artifacts. Personally I do not know it they are compression artifacts, I think are macroblocks of noise, because of the extreme shadow lifting.

    For a lite grading I totally prefer neutral setting in contrast to Cine D, The colors are so much better preserved on neutral after grading.

  • @mrmay - I think you've probably got the best nle for the job - people seem to be editing gh4 4k natively with no problems, and the native 4k really does seem to be artifact free. I've tried some grading on some 4k files I shot down converted to HD in my avid symphony, and seems to me you can push the image around pretty much to your heart's content. May not be the same if you've tried to give the camera a log profile look. I shoot cine d with everything flat apart from nr at -2. My advice is to shoot much closer to the image you would like to end up with. This camera is not designed to produce a log image. My 2 cents

  • @mrbill: "My advice is to shoot much closer to the image you would like to end up with. This camera is not designed to produce a log image."

    Totally agree!