Andrew - EOSHD

- "GH4 has a quad core image processor"

- "GH4 has sold better than expected and reviews have been overwhelmingly positive"

- "AFF mode auto-focus has spatial awareness - knows the direction of travel of objects in a scene and can track a train at 200kmph" EOSHD notes: In the future, I can see this replacing manual focus in filmmaking. The degree of programmability will be high enough to be user assisted but it will take the tracking away from the focus wheel and do it perfectly.

- "25% more usable dynamic range over GH3". EOSHD notes: The new sensor has 1/3 stop more in the highlights and cleaner lows, so the net result is that 25% more of the total 12 stops from the sensor is usable in the image

- "30% increase in colour accuracy". EOSHD notes: red channel is important for skin tones but if you boost saturation in the red channel like Sony do, you get blotchy unflattering skin. Skin needs reds that are treated differently, with less saturation. The GH4 image processor knows how to improve skin tones with 3D colour control.

- "Sensor samples AF at 240fps". EOSHD notes: stills and AF on the GH4 do not get enough praise. AF locks on far faster in low light than my 5D Mark III. In fact AF performance overall in low light beats the Nikon D4.

- "4K was natural step based on user feedback".

EOSHD notes...

What next for Panasonic?

Clearly the GH4 is a unique camera, the product planners are very clever with the Hybrid emphasis. Live view implementation, video and AF are now way ahead of Canon on many different levels.

However to compete in the stills market, Panasonic need a premium FX Lumix. Full frame. Nikon has it, Sony has it, Canon has it and all have it alongside existing crop sensor product lines. Micro Four Thirds will never be 'replaced' by a full frame Panasonic system, it will be complimentary like EF-S is to EF, like DX is to FX.

Panasonic sensors will likely have a boost now their joint venture with TowerJazz is up and running. TowerJazz I believe manufacture RED's and Arri's sensors.

But I love what Sony have done with the 12MP full frame chip in the A7S. Panasonic have already made use of Sony manufactured sensors (like in the GH3). Imagine the A7S sensor in a Panasonic GH body. Dream come true. Over to you Panasonic :)

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdc.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fdocs%2Fnews%2Finterview%2F20140530_649605.html&edit-text=

Via 43 rumors: http://www.43rumors.com/panasonic-gh4-engineers-interviewed-at-dc-watch/

Just resize to 50% on the 1080p timeline and you're done.

Wow such hostile responses. Amazing.

Anyway... Yes I bought mine from B&H in the US. Delivery took just 3 days and they pay the import duties up-front at the time you order it, which expedites the path through customs, pretty much guaranteeing you that 3 day delivery.

Price is competitive as the Pound is quite strong vs the Dollar at the moment. Mine did not end up any more expensive than the £1299 UK price.

All models are PAL / NTSC world cams even the Euro ones which are crippled for 29min.

So yes B&H are absolutely the way to go if you want to avoid the crippled maximum run times.

This is a really nice update. Silent shutter is great to see (GH4 has it). Shipping end of July in Europe, too bad still quite a way to go. I thought it was supposed to come out end of June? Nice of Sony to confirm the dynamic range too, but let's see video mode and some independent tests in due course!

There would likely be an option for custom scores at a higher price. Uniqueness doesn't become a problem until the track has been sold 2000 times or so, and by that point, we'll have more material... and be able to invest back into the material... upping the quantity AND quality at the same time.

That's unfortunate that eleison wimped out at the last second... I had a witty reply waiting.

Maybe he does not in fact work, but sits around all day downloading music for free.

But maybe he has a day job in an office working long shifts and expecting to get paid at the end...

My suggestion is that he tries working unpaid and see if he likes it! As that is what he seems to think some musicians should put up with!

from  Sony : Dynamic Range extended to 15.3 stops as sensor RAW output  :) 

I'm sure this will be very nice, but there's a difference between 15 stops in 14bit raw and squishing that into 8bit.

RX100 is nice but consider the Panasonic GM1 as well... More flexibility with the interchangeable lenses. The tiny pancake 12-30mm has OIS stabilisation and it's sharp, whilst keeping the weight down to RX100 levels.

RX100 has stabilisation that is very effective but but video quality is better on the GM1 and the stills are slightly cleaner due to larger sensor, so you could fly in twilight and get some nice moody shots, especially with a fast aperture prime on it like the Olympus 12mm F2.0.

BTW if you use a fast shutter speed, why do you need stabilisation for stills?

That's all I'm saying about it, sorry!

I have seen some externally recorded A7S footage which is secret for now. The friend can't publish yet.

I have to say I am absolutely blown away by it.

The low light performance and dynamic range transformed the image... the shadows when graded were silky smooth with a fine noise grain, but it had latitude to catch the illumination realistically... and when the light source bounced against the shadows it looked like film... very nice. I believe it was shot externally to an Atomos Ninja... no signs of moire or aliasing and detail was good...a little soft and filmic but not exactly lacking in fine details and would sharpen nicely.

And also I don't understand why compression and small size is a good thing when comparing the GH4 to higher end cameras with higher bit rates and it is a bad thing when the A7s does it, compared to the 200mbps HD of the GH4.(which almost no one uses anyway as they shoot 4k which is HALF the data rate of the A7s. A 50mbps rate which is constantly under attack).

Let's compare apples to apples here.

A7S internal 1080p 50mbit is vs 200Mbit on the GH4

GH4 100mbit 4K should be compared to internal 4K on the A7S... Oh it doesn't have it. Guess you forgot that part!

Therefore A7S external 4K should be compared to external 4K on the GH4!

Agree?

Here it is 10bit 4K vs 8bit 4K. The low light of the A7S will be amazing vs the GH4... no contest there... but the GH4 is respectable and has F0.7 apertures with Speed Booster. I've had usable ISO 3200 out of it... It depends on the glass and the exposure. What will also improve low light performance further on the GH4 will be taking the 10bit 4K out of the HDMI because the noise grain will be much finer, uncompressed, and the extra bit depth will help the shadows no end. The internal encoder allocates more of the available data rate to the mids and far less to the lows. What people are actually seeing with 'bad low light' on the GH4 is very compressed blacks and shadows, not a defect of the sensor at high ISOs. So uncompressed 10bit HDMI will help HUGELY with that.

Can't wait for Shogun.

Can't wait for A7S!

All good. Be happy.

100Mbit/s to transfer 4K data = 25Mbit/s to transfer FullHD data.

The A7S uses 50Mbit/s for the same FullHD data.

 

There seems to be a lot of criticism about this 50Mbit/s of A7s but no one complains about the 4K from GH4 being "crippled". The equivalence if I understand correct would be to have 4K at 200Mbit/s.

 

Regarding the FF myth, it seems to me that besides those who seek the extra shallow dof, there are many who prefer it for the qualities I mentioned earlier, namely better DR and less noise.

 

I hope my criticism didn't come across very harsh. :(  The GH4 seems a fantastic camera, but as I said, I believe for the sake of information the negative sides should be pointed out very clearly for those readers who don't spend so many hours as others have been doing, reading dozens of reviews per day. 

 

But, I must thank you for the effort you made to make all these reviews possible. I guess nothing is perfect. 

 

p.s. One last thing, a camera that wants to be considered pro level, with this audio grounding issue? Works only with panasonic's mic? Seriously? 

Do you work for Sony. If you are getting paid for these posts, congratulations. However if you're just another fanboy, don't give up your day job!

100Mbit/s is 100mbit. When you oversample 1080p from 100Mbit/s 4K you end up with 100mbit, 10bit luma, 444 sampling. The A7S is half the bitrate, 8bit everything (the in-between shades have larger banding) and 4:2:0 sampling, causing pixilation.

Those are the facts my friend!

As for BMPCC, I own both cameras, like them both, first comparison between the two I shot a few days ago... and to my eye, the usable dynamic range is similar between the two, but the GH4 has less moire and aliasing and a much larger sensor.

What do you do for a living eleison?

How does 100Mbit/s = half the data rate of 50Mbit/s on the A7S?

Already given you the factual evidence... research EOSHD my friend :)

Who cares?  Do people know how many bands there are out there????  It's like photography.  When it was expensive and hard to create photographs, photographers made a good living.  Now, with the advent of inexpensive dslr, equipment, etc.  It's very hard to make a living off of pictures.

It's a far more nuanced situation than what you're describing here.

On the one hand you have the blatant theft with the pirates, which the UK government has been trying to persuade Google to stop for ages...

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/29/google-curb-online-piracy-cameron-adviser

Google are ducking the issue because it costs them money to implement the curb, so here is a billion dollar company effectively putting their financial interests ahead of the content producers, many of them very small and vulnerable. That is wrong!

Then there is the complex barter between music producers and visual artists... Some give and take is needed here to give filmmakers and their own careers a leg up.... but that does not give commercial video producers the rights to slap music on their videos which they have just sold to a client without paying the musician a single penny! With the non-profit artistic stuff, well you know my opinion on that and the Vimeo issues... this is where some give and take is needed between the music industry and filmmakers, I really hope they can get their house in order on this one and get the lawyers out of the picture completely because nobody wants to be sued for just exercising their freedom as a human being and an artist to mix media together and create new art.

As for this...

Music.  You don't need a dedicated sound studio anymore.  You don't even need a label.  Hell, the main artists are making most of their money from concerts and not really from the music itself.  It's about the experience.  After all, these very same artist that are complaining that people are "stealing" their music and putting it on youtube... guess what....  these same artist would yell bloody murder if google decided to only allow "indie band music" on their sites.  Have you notices how youtube initially was full of indie band music.. but yet the main stream, big label, music people have slowly tried to muscle into that media space?  Putting their music on the front page.. trying to marginalized the indie bands?

I think it shows a bit of a lack of understanding and appreciation of musicians really...

Not all musicians are live performers. Some are recording artists and to do high quality recordings you need to invest in the gear.

It is bullshit to say you don't need a sound studio anymore. Where are you supposed to put a vocal track down!? In your bedroom? The poor acoustics of the room will fuck the quality. You will get reverb and all sorts of rattling. The neighbours will complain. A dog will bark and you will lose the whole track.

My friend in Berlin has to LIVE in his music studio and forego a flat, plus work part time as a teacher to fund his studio.

Quality costs money. Quality should be paid for when the situation warrants it. Simples.

That's a bit like saying you shouldn't ban a dangerous driver because TECHNICALLY it is the bumper of their car that hit the old man at 60mph.

Google need to shoulder some responsibility because regardless of technicalities they ARE promoting piracy.

Well you're both wrong then :) Shoot a chart and find out for yourselves!

And put the GX7 at -5 sharpening and turn it all the way down on the A6000 to make the results consistent.

Let me know what you find... Ha!

VLC plays it on my rMBP (Mid 2012). No drop frames.

Interesting.

VLC not working for me (2013 iMac 27")

What graphics does your mid 2012 MBP retina have?

What version of VLC?

portrait or natural -3, -3, -3 there isn't any moire or aias as shown this comparing with nex5n

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Bullshit. It's still there, just less than the NEX 5N.

The A6000 is a fantastic lovley camera is a bigger and too better sensor than all M43 cameras. This sensor handles stunning stills and perfect video stream detailed and with super 35mm look. With Speed Booster you go full-frame and produce stunning images with all canon FD lenses that are cheap; A6000 body + speed booster clone + some FD lenses costs less than 1000 and you have a perfect cinema equipment to wait next gen cameras probably A6000mk2 or A7000 that allow XAVCS.

 

A6000 produce nice video with NO moire and alias and optimal deep of field. Consider that A6000 have a clean HDMI (for record prores on ninja bypassing AVCHD compression for example) that GX7 not have and have a possibility to mount external mic (sony accessories) on flash hotsohe.

 

There is a sample that demonstrate another time how good is A6000

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Rumblings from my eagle eyed moderators have suggested previously that "iag01" is behaving like a Sony staffer designed to infiltrate forums to talk up Sony's products. I have my eye on you sir.

Posts like these certainly suggest as much....I'm afraid if you don't get the facts straight from now on, I'll have to take action. The A6000 does produce moire and aliasing!

it's unreal the amount of copyright theft that goes on and Youtube does nothing

I am surprised at how long Google have been promoting the Pirate Bay in their search results. Incredibly damaging.

When crime is so obviously cut and dry like with an illegal download site such as that, it's a no brainer really isn't it?

Take a stance Google!

the video mode on old NEX was affected by alias, muddy detail and moire.. Now with A6000 this problems vanish.

No, it doesn't vanish. Still there like I said in the latest review of GX7 vs A6000.

Even with full pixel readout on RX10, there's moire. Sony loves those rainbows!!

Okay, with another look and thought, the simplified pricing looks pretty reasonable.  Let's hope the project will take off, with plenty of musicians opting in.

It won't be about quantity, but quality. Hand picked stuff. I can't compete with The Music Bed on the sheer amount of sleep inducing ambience ;)

Correct, commercial work = paid work. Reward the musician not just yourself :)