Andrew Reid

I've taken your argument back in time a bit and resized your image to SD.   Same argument, same flaw, but by taking it back in time hopefully you will see the flaws more clearly.     Technological progress is essential!

  Some very good points in here Tim.   Seemingly you're coming at this from the perspective of a professional and you want a broadcast ready 4:2:2 camera. The article wasn't quite aimed at you, more towards the affordable camera / DSLR crowd. That's why I don't mark down the GH4 very harshly for the lack of internal 4:2:2. Most shooters don't give a rats ass about whether their camera is BBC accredited or not. You're right on the placement of the HDMI port though. It's not ideal. Would rather see it on the right and full sized. As for WHY the internal codec lacks 4:2:2 sampling despite it being in the imaging pipeline right up until the final compression stages, it may or may not be a product segmentation issue. I expect Atomos and Convergent Design probably had a large say in it if they've been involved in product feedback with Panasonic. It's absolutely in their interest to see the spec of HDMI come up a bit, because it's been poor so far. It's also in their interests to see internal codecs stay relatively basic. Anyway enough speculation...   PL and native MFT lenses on the GH4 I see as an advantage, because neither go on the Blackmagic EF mount. Yes Canon glass is great but you will at some point be able to put it on the GH4 with full electronic functionality.   For DR specs I am going off what I am told by Panasonic and Blackmagic plus a visual evaluation of the footage based on my experience with other cameras. You're right, this can't be independantly verified until the cameras ship and are tested. I'd be very surprised if the GH4 doesn't have similar dynamic range to the C300.   In a professional setting what lets down the Blackmagic is audio. Sucks!

  P2 not necessary. Will take UHS speed SD cards.

Already we have 2 affordable 4K interchangeable lens cinema cameras due and we're only a month into 2014. Red shipped the first professional 4K cameras in 2007 but since then the rate of progress needed to commercialise such powerful hardware and sell it to consumers for $2000 in the case of the GH4 and $4000 in the case of the Blackmagic Production Camera has been relatively speedy. Quicker than the time taken for full frame DSLRs to break the $2000 price barrier. Neither camera is entirely finished yet but I've seen footage from both the new cameras and shot with their predecessors for much of 2013. Here's my opinion on how their strengths and weaknesses are going to work out... Read the full article here

  The external add-on isn't a "4K add-on" it is a HD-SDI and XLR add-on, you don't need the external add-on or a external recorder for 4K on the GH4 it does it internally. You know that right?! Surely you do. So are you just trying to make things look worse than they actually are with your list? If so I think that's a bit unfair.   Hopefully available by the end of the year? Try April at the latest (TBC)!   As for form factor, clunky is not a word I'd use to describe the GH4. Incidentally the Blackmagic is a lot heavier, the wrong shape, has no articulated screen, and a very cut down feature set in comparison. Still love Blackmagic but you've gotta state the facts!   My view of it is as follows...   BMPC 4K 1.5x crop Super 35mm sensor (1.0x crop in cinematography terms) EF mount (good if you have lots of nice Canon EF lenses, not so good if you have Micro Four Thirds or lenses requiring a mirrorless mount) Global shutter - nice - but comes at expense of dynamic range and low light 10bit ProRes - very nice Raw - great for heavy grading and VFX work   GH4 2.17x crop in 4096x2160 mode, 1.7x crop with Speed Booster in 4K mode (1.2x crop in cinematography terms) Mirrorless mount Better low light performance (goes up to ISO 6400 in 4K mode) 8bit 4:2:0 internal recording may lead to some artefacts and won't grade as well as ProRes, but it will still look stunning Better audio support and quality, with optional XLR box Articulated screen 16MP stills Built in EVF 10bit 4:2:2 available to external recorder Larger feature set   The Blackmagic Production Camera has enough unique features to be considered for certain jobs. The GH4 is the better all rounder.   If you need global shutter, EF mount, 10bit ProRes internal and raw, but don't mind the very basic feature set overall, basic ergonomics, heavier weight overall, need for external battery and poor low light performance go Blackmagic.   If you need mirrorless mount, better ergonomics, likely better 1080p especially via HDMI, better audio, more features, smaller form factor and internal battery go GH4.   Dynamic range probably quite similar on the pair.   And on price, the GH4 is a lot cheaper. You don't NEED the external box. You can shoot with it like you can the GH3. The Blackmagic puts more demands on storage space and processing power, and needs an external battery plus SSDs.

  Thanks, Herdwhite will be glad to hear that - it's actually Reflecktor he used as a reference point for the final mix. Not too loud and with plenty of space to let the different elements breathe a bit.   Next Herdwhite song takes a completely different sound altogether. We plan to make this zero budget music video thing a regular occurrence :)

  I think your attitude is persistently nasty and you're heading for the door.

  The main reason I shot raw was to learn DaVinci Resolve and make full use of the Blackmagic cameras and make use of a 5D Mark III liberated from the hum-ho stock video mode. Raw gave me lovely ProRes and much better resolution and colour on the 5D Mark III so I am very grateful for it and the efforts of Magic Lantern.   But given the choice I will always choose a compressed codec over raw, as long as the image quality is in the ballpark, I don't have an overwhelming desire to spend hours in Resolve doing heavy grading work on everything I shoot. There's also space considerations and it does creep up on you after a while with the Cinema DNG files.   Raw is still a GREAT solution for the 5D Mark III and unshackling that beautiful full frame sensor.   In future though, I'd rather just have a good compressed codec.

  To be exact I think it's 2.17x in 4096 and 2.33x in 3840.   In order words the 4096 x 2160 DCI 4K mode is 17% smaller than the sensor area used in 16:9 1080p mode.

  So what's new? Anything at all? Just better in low light?   Oh dear. Not good news for future Blackmagic cameras is it...

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Not a fan of technological progress are we Quirky? :)

Just to be clear (as if it wasn't already) Blackmagic haven't announced anything, this sensor is from Fairchild Imaging.

A parrot could be the new gold standard for testing moire!   How bad is it on a scale of 1-10 Bryan, is the moire level on tricky shots similar to any other cameras like the Blackmagic? Better than GH3?   I think it could be a 4-2-0 artefact rather than a moire pattern?   I have one remaining question mark on the GH4 - whats the 4K mini-HDMI output like? 10bit or 8bit? Playback mode only, or is it live and uncompressed? That could be great with the Odyssey.

  Indeed, and nail the focus as well. Quite important for 4K. Time to stop down a bit!

No, two 11 bit ones.   Now the question is - how are they used?

It's an open secret that the Blackmagic Cinema Camera was based around a sCMOS sensor from Fairchild Imaging. Now the company has announced it's successor, the sCMOS 2.0 Read the full article here

  Shame MoVi gave up the ghost, I feel the GH4 and MoVi could have a good marriage if only they'd get on better ;)   GH4 is going to be popular for aerial multicopter shots I feel. The detail on the ground just pops out at you. Currently other 4K solutions are either not as good or much larger. Even the Blackmagic Production Camera is much heavier.   I can't wait to see what it looks like with my Cooke PL lenses on, try as I might PL to 5D Mark III just won't go ;)   Did the 4K internal codec stand up well in post Bryan?

Are you the shooter Bryan? Fantastic job.   What lenses?

Even with all the muddy youtube compression it's lovely to see that much detail on my humble 2.5K iMac display.   Wait until you see it over HDMI to a 4K TV, then it looks mind-blowing.

  Can't wait to see Canon's response!   What are they going to do on strategy now?   Their 4K cameras are mainly aimed at Hollywood. C500 is not really aimed at the C300 crowd. They don't have a 4K camera for the masses yet.   The GH4 is a consumer camera which has appeal to pros. Smashes a price barrier.   Suddenly upgrading from a GH3 to C100 with external recorder lost a lot of appeal.

I think the GH4 is just the start of a big wave of lovely 4K shooting DSLRs and cinema cameras to come before NAB in April, so great for us, who have finite budgets :)   This spec and price is going to be hard to beat.   As for the industry, well, people are not going to swap out their F55 for one. But there's going to be very good commercial reasons to shoot 4K soon and it's VERY important Canon bring out better 4K solutions. The C500 isn't aimed at C300 users and the C300 doesn't shoot 4K. The 1D C is aimed at Hollywood and has no videographer features at all.   If Canon don't have a 4K version of the C300 at NAB, I think the GH4 could gain a lot of ground in that market, even though it's marketed as a consumer camera.

I'm confused why you keep insisting it's an 8bit camera when it does 10bit over the HDMI port.

People talk about 8bit as if they have no choice.   If you want raw, shoot 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern or go Blackmagic. If you want 10bit use an external recorder with the GH4 or shoot ProRes on a Blackmagic. Chill!

  If it's their intention to sell it as purely an 8bit camera, then the engineers clearly didn't get the memo when they enabled a 10bit debayer, 4:2:2 colour sampling on the sensor, 10bit HDMI output and even a 10bit external box with 4 HD-SDI ports on it :)   The sensor in the BM Production Camera doesn't have the pixel design and light sensitivity of the GH4's sensor. The global shutter has a large trade off in image quality. Needless to say, neither camera is done. Neither camera is out there yet. You have looked at 10bit ProRes 4K on the Production Camera and automatically assumed it will be nicer than uncompressed 10bit 4K from the GH4's external box haven't you? Why exactly?