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GH4 Firmware 2.3, V-log for $99, Epic Panasonic marketing fail
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  • @shian, this is very interesting - thanks for spending your time with this. One question, did you take a clip with no filter as a baseline comparison?

  • It sounds a bit like the first pink frames with magic lantern raw.

    As far as I know it had to do with the chip that was less sensitive to green. It means the green histogram was a tiny bit smaller on the right end compared to red and blue. There was a small area of superwhites that had only red and blue values and missing green values. At the far right end, you get like:

    RGB: 252, 252, 252

    RGB: 253, 253, 253

    RGB: 254, 254, 254

    RGB: 255, 0, 255 (pink instead of white)

    Raw converters compensate for this and only Panasonic can fix this when the LOG conversion takes place. A great opportunity to bring out a fixed firmware worth buying.

  • very good! :)

  • I'm on a deadline today, so no time to really put into this. Very quickly: the filter doesn't fix the entire problem just half of it.

    The cyan blocking disappears, making the remaining magenta blocking easier to fix without employing NR. It's not a perfect solution. But an improvement. Needs further testing.

    See end of flickr feed for shots - https://www.flickr.com/gp/76276262@N04/33M81z

  • Wow just shows how well V Log handles highlights. Looks amazing.

  • Tested Vlog-L with Sky scenes to see if Exporting Sky scenes as a High biitrate(60mbps) h.264 file would help the look of the sky.

    shot with Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 @ between f2.8 to f5.6 and voigtlander 58mm f1.4 @ between f2.8 and f5.6

    music: "I had a farm" (main title) from "Out Of Africa" composed by John Barry.

  • Maybe we could all e-mail Panasonic and politely ask them fix that magenta cyan macroblocking issue in a firmware.

  • @soupertrooper. Ha ha, ha ha ha ha. I think they are convinced on doing it their way. Better if they made a new log profile ONLY for the gh4: GH-Log

  • @bleach551

    Yap, lots of cyan-magenta problems in the clouds. That said, I doubt a 'normal' person will be able to point it... the rest of the image takes you with it!

    (btw, nice, powerful and peaceful piece of music, always love it albeit I don't remember seen the movie)

  • @Jopereira,

    Yes, Its still there in all of its magnificence. I think we will all just have to use 10-bit external recorders with VLOG-L. No matter what everyone on all the forums whom have tried to work around its problems, I believe they all have come to same conclusion...VLOG-L=10-bit external recorder.

    "I had a Farm", which is the main theme song from "Out of Africa" is one of my favorite John Barry movie scores, God rest his soul.

  • @alcomposer Since the bad macroblocking artifacts are caused by the compression, creating a new profile wouldn't do anything. Look here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/12795/gh4-firmware-2.3-v-log-for-99-epic-panasonic-marketing-fail/p35 at jopereira's post with the cat and here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/12795/gh4-firmware-2.3-v-log-for-99-epic-panasonic-marketing-fail/p36 at Xenocide38's post for proof of this. And yeah I think if a bunch of people e-mailed them it could probably pressure them to fix this issue.

  • I sure hope so @soupertrouper! In my experience these things don't get much time spent on them.

  • I'm not sure how many of you have Magic Bullet Looks, but I started using a 4 way color corrector on V Log footage as the first step, instead of a LUT. It seems to keep the midtones in tact pretty well, unlike an S curve, or 3 way color corrector.

    Barn.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
  • ^^^ If this were shot for a job it would've been completely ruined by shooting in V-log. It's unreliable and almost unusable, but Panny still sells it for $100! I've already emailed Panny about "V-log L for my GH4" and encouraged them to fix the banding and macroblocking as well as asked if and when there will be another update resolving this, so I encourage all of you to do the same if you would like to get a good non-problematic working profile.

  • Agreed. I'm seriously considering cancelling my order, even though it's now ready for shipment!

  • @tedbrah I sent them an e-mail about the macroblocking, banding sucks but I didn't mention it. I also created a reddit post with all the info if more people want to (politely) e-mail them about macroblocking issues https://www.reddit.com/r/gh4/comments/3mk5cf/lets_ask_panasonic_to_fix_the_gh4s_bad/

  • If it were a problem with V Log only I'd say we have a shot at a firmware fix, but the macroblocking appears on all GH4 profiles. It's just enhanced, and easier to see with V Log.

  • panasonic just updated the image app with new "bugfixed" features...

  • panasonic just updated the image app with new "bugfixed" features...

    Fast for corporate standards :-)

    Anyone have APK of old one?

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    Yes, they are very good solving their costumers problems, unless they charge for it - them, things go a little slower... :)

    A free firmware that gives features for free, was corrected right away...

    A free app that gives access to a free feature, was corrected right away...

    Those who pay for a feature that does not work as it should, should wait until GH5 is out, please.

  • @jopereira

    You mean that Panasonic is not fighting for communism? Morons.

  • VK, i have the apk.