Panasonic DMC-GH4EB-K Compact System Camera (Body Only)

Product Information

In the Multiple Exposure mode the Panasonic Lumix GH4 combines multiple frames to create a single image.

x 3072, 4608 x 2592, 3456 x 3456, 3264 x 2448, 3264 x 2176, 2448 x 2448, 2336 x 1752, 2356 x 1560, 1920 x 1080, 1744 x 1744, 1824 x 1368, 1824 x 1216, 1824 x 1024, 1712 x 1712

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TTL Built-in-Flash, GN12 equivalent (ISO100 ・m) / GN17 equivalent (ISO200 ・m), Built-in Pop-up (Reference）/Lighting angle: 24mm (35mm camera equivalent) IPB) (LPCM)/[4K] 3840x2160:23.98p, 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:59.94p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:29.97p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:23.98p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) The Lumix GH4 is Panasonic’s new flagship mirrorless camera, and the first of its kind to offer 4k video recording. Announced in February 2014, the GH4 is numerically the successor the GH3, but that model will remain on sale for those who are satisfied to shoot Full HD / 1080p. The new GH4 comes-in at a higher level to satisfy video professionals who want to film in 4k using a relatively affordable interchangeable lens camera. As well as the electronic viewfinder, the GH4's rear screen has been upgraded, now offering a 720x480 pixel output from 1.04m dots. The screen is still a touchscreen and makes more extensive use of this feature. Thankfully it's kept the rear-screen-as-focus-point-controller feature that helped make the GH3 so nice to shoot with.

We shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed by the low light capabilities of the GH4 in 4k – it is what it is, and if you want cleaner results at high ISOs, you’ll simply need a bigger sensor, which in turn means a more expensive camera. For me though, the more revealing story here is the difference in quality between scaling with an integer and non-integer factor. Panasonic made the decision to capture the full width of the sensor in the 1080p modes and use a non-integer factor to scale 4608 pixels down to 1920. This is no different from the GH3 before it, but I’d have preferred to crop the field of view a little and enjoy the far superior quality of integer scaling. Of course the good news is you can achieve just that by filming in UHD and downsampling later, but it seems a shame this may render the high bit rate and all Intra 1080p options redundant. Just briefly mentioning the quality options, the Lumix GH4 lets you record at three different image sizes with the choice of two JPEG compression levels or RAW files recorded with or without a Large Fine JPEG. You can also switch the aspect ratio between 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9, although all involve cropping the native 4:3 shape with a reduction in resolution and field of view. In my tests, Large Fine JPEGs typically measured around 6-9MB each, while RAW files weighed-in at 19.8MB. There are 9 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 which you can select at any time if the camera is in one of the creative shooting modes. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting: EVF: 2,359K-dot OLED, 100% coverage, 1.34x / 0.67x (35mm eq.) magnification, 21mm eyepoint, -4 to +4 diopter, adjustable eye sensor This card is rated at 95MBps Read, 60MBps Write (thats Megabytes per second so multiply by 8 to see the Mbps [Megabits per second] values). Those are burst speeds but the 'U3' rating indicates that the cards are designed to be capable of a sustained write of at least 30MBps (240Mbps).The headline new feature is the ability to shoot 4K video. 4K refers to the horizontal resolution of each frame, which is about 4,000 pixels wide. There are actually two commonly used 4K specifications. UHD is 3,840×2,160, which is equivalent to four 1080p screens arranged in a two-by-two grid. If and when UK TV channels adopt 4K, they’ll probably use UHD. Then there’s Cinema 4K, which has a 4,096×2,160 resolution and is widely used in cinemas. The GH4 supports both, with Cinema 4K at 24fps and UHD at 24, 25 or 30fps. FEEL THE BENEFIT Approx. 560g / 19.75 oz (SD card, Battery, Body)/Approx. 480g / 16.93 oz (Body only)/Approx. 865g / 30.51 oz (SD card, Battery, H-HS12035 lens included)/Approx. 825g / 29.10 oz (SD card, Battery, H-FS14140 lens included) IPB) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[4K] 3840x2160:23.98p, 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:59.94p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:29.97p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:23.98p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:59.94p, 28Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:29.97p, 20Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[HD] 1280x720:29.97p, 10Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[VGA] 640x480:29.97p, 4Mbps (IPB) (AAC)

So from these tests I’d say Panasonic’s technology certainly seems to let the GH4 focus a little faster and more confidently than the EM1 when fitted with Panasonic lenses, but again the difference was subtle and there was no benefit when using Olympus lenses. For [4K] or [C4K] video output, use an HDMI cable that has the HDMI logo on it, and that is described as"4K compatible". Full HD] 1920x1080:50.00i, 24Mbps (IPB) (Dolby) (Sensor output is 25.00fps)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:50.00i, 17Mbps (IPB) (Dolby) (Sensor output is 50.00fps)The GH4 offers an Extended Teleconverter option for 1080p footage. This takes a 1:1 1920×1080 crop from the middle of the sensor, which results in a 2.4x reduction in the field of view – handy for getting closer to your subject. It also has the additional benefit of being an unscaled crop, so the per-pixel detail is sharper than the full-width 1080p footage. Indeed quality fanatics may prefer to shoot 1080p in the Extended Teleconverter mode as it avoids scaling artefacts and only uses the best quality area of your lenses. The downsides are of course the significant field reduction which would make it impractical for wide views, and of course the absence of pixel-combining means the footage could be noisy in low light, but if the conditions are good, it provides an interesting alternative. Again, the GH4 seems a wonderful camera for video pros and serious video amateurs and is the best 4k camera around at its price point while being a good M4/3 stills camera, 4k is currently only up to 30p though. For 50/60p it would be nice to see some comparisons...and for stills, they are different class cameras.