I have a feeling waiting until NAB to make a purchase decision is the right move for many of us who already have a workable camera solution. That said, if Panasonic would have included a 10 bit 4:2:2 HD in camera recording mode, I would be ready to sell off my BMPCC. Coming from a 1" sensor format, I like the fact that there is a bit of a crop to the 4k mode as I will just crop a bit more in post and be able to use my collection of 1" c-mount lens at a higher than HD post crop resolution from the 4k video mode. Anyways, I don't care as much about the specs as I do about how it stands up against a RAW HD workflow when delivering HD resolution. We shall see...

Just noticed a headline that the Blackmagic 4K is now shipping and they lowered the price to $2995. Competition is a good thing. :)

@JDN I've been asking that question since I first saw the video...I refuse to believe that vid is straight out the camera, matter of fact, I'm 100% it isn't, even if someone claims that footage is untouched.

Your Mexico reel looks green enough for me to think it's untouched....is it? :)

@Vitaliy_Kiselev : translation please :D

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Could you please translate the sensor improvemebts slides. By separating the frequensy/fr and the rest of the svettnings tells me that they have totally reworked the codec implementation. My guess is that this will be seen in the final result.

With the new aggressive pricing from the BMPC 4k, maybe we could get the GH4k with brick at an affordable pricing considering the pros and cons for each of the cameras and what set them apart.

@Tomaso http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20140207_634398.html with google traduction, dynamic range will be 25% better than GH3 … hum … video ? stills ? both ? true ? :-)

Going from @lolodigital link, here's the complete translated version: http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdc.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fdocs%2Fnews%2F20140207_634398.html

In Panasonic's words:

"It is affirmed is the number of pixels, but there as well as the effect of the low-pass filter with optimally designed, 5% limit resolution, 30 percent more than the contrast, more than 3dB improve color reproduction accuracy in comparison of the model in the "DMC-GH3" before that was. Also, has expanded 25% dynamic range."

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

from the footage ive seen in vimeo and youtube, and by knowing how this places destroy DR, i must say tha GH4 must give us in video mode some real good 11 stops. Panasonic dont want to mess arround with its pro level cameras, but recons the need of good quality image in the GH4 line, thats why i see this sensor even more advanced then most of their top level ones, and the posibility of 11 stops in video mode 10 bit 4:2:2 is at 200mpb is enough to challenge raw at certain level.

@THE_WHOLE_WORLD

It is almost as if no one cares about what really matters anymore. All they want to know is did the spec increase or not instead of will this change actually make a difference.

The GH4 is said to have 1/3 of a stop better dynamic range than the GH3. That was from the Dpreview quick summary on the link below. You all do realize that 1/3 of a stop is a 33% increase, right?

33% difference sounds like a lot on paper. However, try going from ISO 200 to ISO 250. The difference is almost negligible.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/9092895041/panasonic-lumix-dmc-gh4-a-quick-summary

Really we all get so caught up in specs and which one is infinitesimally better than another. Yes the GH4 is going to be better than the GH3. 10 Bit 4:2:2 4K @ 30 FPS could never be seen as anything but good. However, the internal 8 bit 4:2:0 4K @ 30 FPS is going to be perfect for almost everyone as well.

If you can’t possibly live without 10 bit 4:2:2 4K now then what have you been shooting with up until this point? If you were shooting with anything less than 10 bit 4:2:2 4K before how did you ever make any money since it that is an absolute requirement now?

I wish everyone would just see the GH4 for what it is. It is a sub $2000 camera that will allow the user to shoot with a Pro camera for stills or video or both at the same time if they want to.

No matter how you slice it this camera is going to give everyone the results they desire and for less money than they have ever been able to do it for before. And even if the form factor doesn’t suite everyone the technology in the GH4 will quickly trickle down to the smaller cameras.

Eventually we will have 4K compact m4/3s cameras and then I am sure that everyone will be begging for 4:4:4 8K @ 120 FPS which is just a waste of band width in my opinion.

@killagram 12.4 usable stops on the GH3????? facepalm not in this or any other universe. You must be operating on a different meaning of usable than the rest of us.

@shian

He is talking about in RAW stills mode. DXO mark reports that the GH2 had 11.3 stops of DR and the GH3 had 12.4 stops. Interestingly the GH1 had 11.6 stops which is about 1/3 of a stop more than the GH2

If the GH4 has 12.7 stops of DR are we really going to notice it? The difference between the GH3 and GH4 for stills dynamic range will be about the same as the difference between the GH1 and GH2. The difference between the GH2 and GH1 for DR was not significant. The difference between the GH2 and the GH3 was.

http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Compare/Side-by-side/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-GH3-versus-Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-GH2-versus-Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-GH1___842_677_630

Now that the dust has settled a bit, i hope to read more pro's opinions on the quality of the video/photos, although we definitely need more video samples to make a proper judgement.

I think it was @kholi who made a good point somewhere about the video: the skin tones look plain awful. it does get a bit better when you download the file (there is a dropbox-file floating in the internet), but still... i have to agree. look at the man on the beach in an orange jacket. i assume the jacket and maybe harsh sunlight has some effect to his face but still. Awful.

i very easily recognize this image behaviour as same type of oversaturation that has plagued my beloved Gh2 in photo mode for years. And i'm talking photos taken with a nice low contrast lens with saturation dialed all the way down. (you can deal with this btw, by shooting your stills in raw, then open the photo in adobe camera raw, decrease saturation to at least -15 and start working from there, add some vibrance to compensate...)

Then again when i look at the Gh4 photo samples, especially the tribe people shots from Kenya, the skin tones look much, much better than previous GH-series! I mean the colors are finally realistic, unlike the oversaturated crap that is Gh2 and much better than Gh3 photo with the plastic looking sony-sensor skin tones.

In those sample photos, i find Gh4's colors to be quite nice. I sure wish this can be replicated in the film mode!

Based on those photos, the Gh4 looks like a really attractive update to my Gh2, although when i look at the video, all the blackmagic offerings still tempt me more. Of course waiting until NAB to make any decision, but based on the photo quality alone, i'm pretty impressed with Gh4.

We urgently need tests on skin tones with different film modes and non-panasonic lenses.