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GH4 Firmware 2.3, V-log for $99, Epic Panasonic marketing fail
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  • They could piss-off and lose a huge chunk of their market to more innovative and consumer friendly competitors like BMD

    But they want money. Very much.

  • But if they release V-log they will get a lot more money. They will sell a load of new cameras.....

  • But if they release V-log they will get a lot more money. They will sell a load of new cameras.....

    You mean that you have info about their managers getting recently severe head trauma allowing some sanity to return to long abandoned home?

  • If the FW will cost Vitaliy gets finally something to hack :)

  • I understand the feelings of several above ... and also got a bit of perspective of the inside politics after talking with and listening to several people. Sometimes just hanging around a dark booth is handy. Best guess? The 'serious' cine camera staff may not like their cheapo little cousin camera having the same "tools" to play with. And they might then be pushing for a price for okaying the release at all. I could be wrong ... but I wouldn't bet against me.

    And if say the price was $50 USD ... considering the total price of the camera, and that there's not a GH5 for another year to come ... how many people would jump at it? From the conversations there at and around the booth, you start getting below $100USD and it gets interesting to a done deal. Drop to $50USD or less, everybody there would sign up now. So ... with that kind of clientele input, and the perhaps reticence of the "serious" cine staff ... well, we'll see soon enough I think.

    Neil

  • can we subscribe to a camera brand already! Lets get into the firmware cloud and receive bugfix feature updates every half year. That keeps us busy testing, so we do not have to produce something for real.

  • Of course I'd like it for free. But i'd be willing to pay a reasonable fee. Its a great update to the camera and would certainly 'pro-ify' it. I just think it would also mean that new GH4s with a V-Log pre-installed would see a big spike in sales.

  • Oh men, this is gonna be interesting if you decide to rape me. Don't do it man, please don't do it. But if you really really really have to, please make it without much pain and satisfying for me. :-)

    lolol, what can I say lol. Panny better know that companies like Samsung is watching them like a hawk and are ready to jump in and claim any missed or lost opportunities. You don't need market data to see that V-log is gong to attract more new buyers to the GH4. Of course making it free will be the way to go but if the price is very reasonable or like @VK said "make it without much pain and satisfying for me" then it could be accepted lol.

  • wuuuut? pay for a firmwareupgade from panasonic himself?! just for a videoprofile?! With no higher bitrate for 4k or a better videomode in 1080p? i mean, the gh2 beats the gh4 in 1080p with moon t7! THAT is a great setting and pushes the cam up to the limit and a good reason so spend some money for the great work. but just a videoprofile? and the compression is the same, the artefacts are the same, the base-quality is still the same - i have just more options for a better granding, but i lose a lot of details in 4k with just 100mbit - that is like filming in 1080p with 25mbit.

    I would pay for it, if the firmware turned the gh4 into a hulk - like on the gh2

  • now wouldn't be a kick in the butt if the final release of v-log was was only a yagh fw update.

  • Does not make sense as all profiles are on the camera, not the YAGH.

  • if the yagh is not attached the selection does not show up, just like all the sdi settings don't show up if the yagh is not attached. it does not have to make sense, it just has to be so. maybe along with yagh only v-log we may also get yagh only 4k raw.

  • just speculation like everything else in this thread, and i choose to speculate that the future will show that the yagh contains a lot more untapped processing power that can work in tandem with the the cameras processor.

  • I speculate that no matter what Panasonic decide to do, that some people will be unhappy.

  • Nice example of Anamorphic and V-Log early firmware

  • Not convinced that V-Log is going to be all that great unless you have very well lit scenes. The noise in the guys beard at the end of Bag Men is hideous. Looks like most images using cineD and -5 contrast.

    IMHO, the GH4 just doesn't have the range into the blacks to get it to work for anything, but the highlights.

    Cheers, Pete

  • @C3Hammer

    You are definitely right about the noise. I didn't notice the first time through. Then again, we are less tolerant of noise than average people seem to be. I shot a wedding last weekend. I ended up having to go all the way to 3200 ISO in portrait mode.

    There was a bit a noise in the shadows. It bothered the heck out of me, but no one else seemed to care.

  • I can fix noise in post. But I can't fix a horrible blown highlight.

  • Uhhh, that Bag Men example looks pretty bad. That really doesn't look like log footage, or any increase in dynamic range. It looks like the highlight/shadow curve adjustment where the midtones get totally flattened, but no new information is being added in highlights or shadows.

  • It's not extended dynamic range ... apparently the sensor can do so much & not more (at least that Panny can get to) but primarily, according to the staffers, a less saturated "cleaner" signal at 4:2:2 10 bit uncompressed, if using the HDMI out. If you're using the internal card for recording, it's still 8 bit.

    So the difference for the v-log firmware with an external recorder is in two areas: 10 bit (1064 levels rather than 255) and uncompressed output though still in an H.264 wrapper. Exposure is still a must to control in-cam, and it's also good to be as close to neutral WB as possible in-cam. If you do those two things, you do get a bit more grading room with it. HUGE difference? No. Usable difference? In good hands, it seems so.

  • I fear that one day we'll be giving oscar awards for best camera demos

  • Thats probably the most cinematic thing I've seen from the GH4. That could be due to the vintage Cooke lenses though.

  • Judging by that short I much prefer v log over cine-d!

  • Would be interesting to know what settings they used?