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GH4 Firmware 2.3, V-log for $99, Epic Panasonic marketing fail
  • 1451 Replies sorted by
  • I'm not a big time guy, but after playing with V-log and other settings on a couple of informal projects, I pretty much only want to use V-log any more... Lol

  • Thanks @aaronchicago, I agree, even at 8bits with all the problems we all Known (banding, blocking, noise etc) it's better than any other profile in terms of color and skin tones, (please excuse my bad english)

  • Do you gives avoid using vlog for low light shots? Since cineV shall be best for low light? Whats your experience?

  • @alexauwa I guess it depends on what you mean by low light. If you're wanting to use natural light in a dark setting where the blacks needs to be raised up in order to see detail then no it's not very good in that situation. It does work great though in low light if you're providing enough light on a subject or piece of the frame. I find it almost necessary to use a LUT preview while shooting V Log to get the best exposure, for now at least. Maybe with more hours of use I'll get the hang of it sans LUT preview.

    EDIT: Below is a frame where the room was dark except for a 650 watt fresnel light shining through a window.

    VesperteenVLog.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 704K
  • Strange rumors

    1. A new major GH4 firmware upgrade is coming within the next few months.
    2. The Panasonic GH5 will be on market by 2017.
  • @Vitaliy_Keselv Great news! Do you know what the firmware update could bring us? How about RAW video so we can grab and "fix it in post" more effectively? Time is at a premium with high end actors, so RAW can save us a lot of money simply by allowing us to worry about the settings less... Unless I am doing this totally wrong!

  • it would be sweet if gh4 got a lut preview function , monitors with it are not cheap these days , anyone has any info what this major update should bring to my little baby ?

  • A new major GH4 firmware upgrade..

    ...Like showing focus box in 4k photo or adding color choices to peaking :)

    GH5 must come this year. There was a working prototype few months ago. Or maybe they are changing design and adding new features like 4k 60P 10bit HEVC with some new chip.

    I would be still very happy if they add some useful things to GH4. Maybe then it is easier to wait GH5 a bit longer.

  • A working prototype months ago = Outdated when released.

  • My wishlist for the firmware upgrade:

    1. Improved reliability. I had a great take spoiled by the sudden appearance of weird rainbow-like bands appearing for half a second, Looked like someone'd waved a magnet on an old-style TV screen.

    2. More Vlog options-- say, letting us see the image with more vivid colors while shooting.

    3. I'd love 60fps in 4k.

    4. Recording 10-bit video to the internal card. Not sure why this is a problem, considering the speed and capacity of the cards coming out these days.

    (Improved low-light performance'd be great, but that might be remedied by using higher ISOs and Neat Video.)

  • Brian, that sounds like a GH5 wishlist :P

    BTW the rumor was rated FT3, so pretty unlikely. Then again, who knows...

  • @hedrox LUT preview would be great for the GH4 + VLog. That's something that seems realistic unlike 4K 60fps, or 10 bit internal.

  • @aaronchicago Thx for reply. I agree with. Proper lighting is your best friend.

  • Looks to me that Sony's A6300 is going to put some pressure on the GH4/GH5 line. Personally, I'd recommend the Sony over the GH4 to my friends right now.

  • At least Panasonic could offer us a higher bitrate for slow motion to reduce the compression artefacts... Maybe they could offer us 4K at 200+Mbps... up the ante!

    Technically the best Sandisk or Lexar SD cards offer sustained write speeds over 90MB/s which equates to over 700mbps, so the SD card speeds are definitely there...

  • As for Sony and their colour science, well, it is somewhat undesirable... I say that hesitantly because I come from the Sony FS700 shooting RAW... As for their consumer cameras, their HDMI port only outputs 8-bit colour, not very good at colour grading...which you need to do to that lovely 14+ Stops DR SLog3 footage...

    For those that go off of spec, yes, Sony is leading the pack for sure. However, if you need to make money from your art, you may be better served from another manufacturer that cares less about spec wars, and more about colour art... Yes, a hail-storm of furious comments may be imminent here, but remember, I do like Sony for their spec! Specs makes money too! LOL... What a controversy!

    If the GH5 offers better noise levels, RAW video output and 4K 6G SDI, some nice F/2.8 10X parfocal power zooms as the kit lens, some kick-a$$ AF, some better preamps, top-notch artistic colour renderings, UHS-ii SD slots X2, modular add-ons like the YAGH, slow-motion with less compression, the whole package, I would hands down drop $2000-$6000 for that camera, depending on the kit!

    Am I asking too much? Likely! :)

  • So Panasonic saw the announcement of the A6300 and now some "rumors" about GH4 and GH5 starting coming out. Competition!; I love that word.

    But I agree with you @Brennak and I think what you're asking is not too much. I just don't see Panasonic that ambitious enough to put together a simple camera like that.

    I also think the GH4 can be tweaked with some necessary stuff that should have been there to begin with and make a very capable camera. I shut a short documentary with v-Log recorded externally on the black magic video assist and the guy who's doing the coloring asked me, "this footage came out of that camera?"

  • Personally to stay competitive they have to stay away from cropping the m4/3 sensors for video. M4/3 is a reasonable compromise IMO if they don't don't crop it for 4K, IBIS or whatever. Of course a multi aspect sensor would also be a help there. I also think it's time to drop creditable rumors on the GH5 before to much of their market looks to the likes of Sony. At least I hope they have something worth rumoring about in the wings : )

  • The possible FW update for GH4 is very welcome. Panasonic can/should easily correct some limitations of video features. GH4 is after all video oriented camera. I hope that FW will fix:

    -show exposure values during video

    -make AF/AE lock work properly (on-off-on-off..)

    -auto iso in M for video with EV adjust

    -ability to set important video functions to FN-buttons

    -smoother single focus with half shutter

    -play button adjustable to right side (FN)

    -sharpness setting to EVF

    It would be very nice if the whole camera setup could be saved in menu. There are so many shooting situations like indoors, sports, low light etc. I must re-program my C-memories all the time.

  • If you want to see what the GH4 is capable of producing in 4K VLog 10-bit 422 using the Odyssey 7Q+, have a look at the video at the BOTTOM of this page: http://www.studiocastone.com/projects/

    I am not 100% satisfied with the video, but it was shot with NO budget, shot it for a charity school, had a bunch of kids making the story... I shot it in about 2 hours with almost no help, mostly one man run/gun/direct, all natural lights except a couple of scenes, in totally awful filming conditions, -15 degrees Celsius outside!!!

    You can totally tell the film needs tons of work, but hey, I was impressed with the video quality... No noise reduction at all... I edited it mostly at midnight, so yes, it sucks, but not bad for the circumstances...

    Only used 2 Osiris LUTs for the whole colour change for VLog to REC709... No time was allowed for manual colour grading... :(

    Thoughts on the colours in the video? Camera work? Any comments on it? Good? Bad? "Next time do..."? Be brutally honest! No feelings hurt here!

    Cheers, Brennan K.

  • If this update could bring punch focus and a buffer of 5s (pre-recording) it would be fantastic addition.

    I love this cam because it's light, lens are light so you can bring it almost everywhere. I don't want to go with an external viewfinder to focus on run & gun situation, I just want to punch focus to see quikly if i'm ok and be back to my framing. Another point is when you shooting in low light with a very fast aperture the peaking is not precise enough to be shure of the focus-point.

    For V-log user a Lut preview and false color would be awsome too.

  • I do believe the GH4 has "punch focus" already... Is the button above (and slightly left of) the main rotating rocker switch not for that purpose? Or is it just mine?

  • You're right but there is no "punch focus" during recording. Am I missing something ? Anyoine here oucld get it while filming ?

  • @Celullo

    There is single focus (AFS) during recording. You can use it by half pressing shutter (faster focus) or with touch focus (slower focus shift). Also there is loop recording (pre-recording) with 4k photo.

  • @Vesku

    I work with a lot with manual lens, it's where punch focus could be fine, I like also doing focus by my self to control the exact focus point (essential with fast aperture). AFS is good with autofocus lens but I can see several push and pull effect (mostly in low light situation) when I use it.

    Loop recording is not acting like as standard pre-buffered video, it's a loop, which means 10min max.

    Loop recording (from panasonic support) notes : - Only available in 4K mode, why not FHD ? - Once you start recording, the motion picture will be recorded and divided approximately every 2 minutes. When the recording time exceeds 10 minutes (approximate), only the last 10 minute (approximate) part up to the end of the recording will be saved. The part before the 10 minute part will be deleted (!!!) - Beside that you cannot add markers to motion pictures when Loop Recording is on.

    One last thing I'm very frustrated with the 29'59 time limit in EU, it would be nice to have an firmware to have unlimited record time '.)