Video reviews can not only take a while to produce but editorially you can’t include everything, my reasons for leaving some information out like future features and flaws are this blog and making the review watchable.
I decided this time to let you see a variety of shots and situations and leave the nitty gritty to a blog post.
Flaws
Strangely the YAGH stops the LCD from swivelling and can cause your tripod locking mechanism problems though Manfrotto do give you the ability to overcome this with a locking nut you can adjust.
The sound monitor output is set to REC SOUND only when a micro HDMI or the YAGH is attached causing a small delay in the sound, this may be fixable in a future firmware upgrade. (This was explained in the video).
The rolling shutter is worse in 4K mode, this does not surprise me as the chip is at its outer limits of its own technology in order to deliver an internal 4K recordable image.
The GH4 is noisier in higher gain than my previous Canon C300, once again in my opinion you are asking a lot of the technology to record fantastic pictures at 4K without something suffering. I do realise the Sony A7s with its full frame sensor does exceed low light expectations but is flawed like the C500 by not recording 4K internally.
The micro 4/3 sensor is by its nature not as good as a full frame sensor for shallow depth of field but the inclusion of the 42.5mm f1.2 Leica lens is hard to beat.
Future features
As a video tool it would help if you could disable the back thumb wheel or have the ability to lock the shutter, the GH4 like it’s sister the GH3 is all buttons and wheels with your thumb hitting most of them at the least appropriate time.
I would like a smoother more responsive aperture, adjusting the exposure during a live production is a nightmare. Unlike a professional video lens the GH4 uses photographic lenses that are made for photography rather than video so racking up or down the aperture is very noticeable.
I would prefer some indication from the back of the camera that I was in record mode, how easy would it have been to add a front and back tally light to the YAGH.
A definite feature for the 10bit GH5″ must be a second SD card slot this would be very useful and the exclusion of the tiresome 30 minute record restriction.
With 2 SD card slots you could also copy your cameras picture profile allowing you to use it on a second “GH5” saving a ton of set up time while using 2 cameras.
A major pain is the cameras lack of information during record mode, please stop the LCD information from timing out after 19 seconds in a firmware update.
Like all DSLRs the GH4 being no exception the lack of ND filters is a major pain during a sunny day especially as you want to keep your shutter to 1/50th of a second. Panasonic could take note by adding a slot behind the lens as was used in the 16mm Eclair during the 1980s.
HDW : These were scripted and recorded but not used as I decided it would extend the video beyond 20m and would make the back end rather boring.
