JazzBox

Just don't!
a) why reward a company which has had such a terrible attitude to their consumers for filmmaking? Canon more or less accidentally stumbled into this niche, then ignored the HDSLR enthusiasts
b) invest in Nikon F Mount lenses instead which will leave you with greater flexibility of choices and cheaper adapters
 
As for cameras, what kind of documentary films and what kind of short films? And which of the two are more important to you? (As they can have conflicting needs)
Also, what is your background coming into this? For instance a BMPCC or Samsung NX1 are both absolutely FANTASTIC cameras, arguably each the best in class for their niche. Yet at the same time.... they're not really for everybody, especially if they're new to this. While a Panasonic GH4 / G7 or Sony RX10mk2 or Sony X70 / AX100 could be far better more general purpose choices. 

Panasonic did officially put it out there and sought the publicity.
If they are to do that again, some concrete details about release date and pricing might help!

Ever since the first "gamechanger" threads on handheld gimbals emerged, I remained sceptic. Particularly the effect of travelling to, away from or around inanimate objects (cars, trees) is something that wears off quickly, more so if done with ultra wide lenses. This is true for Glidecam/Flycam/Steadicam shots as well, as long as they don't serve a well-defined purpose. Similar with extreme sDoF that was en vogue for a few years. But wouldn't you agree that it's nice to have these opportunities in our tool box?
We also made some shots with a 70mm, and they were smooth too, something you'd hardly try with a Glidecam. Didn't try longer lenses so far. Very few nowadays explore what tele lenses have to offer. Of course these things shouldn't be misused to just show off. Watch this clip on 'Bayhem' from everyframeapainting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2THVvshvq0Q
This is what we missed on the airfield yesterday: long lenses. As you can see, the best dynamic effect comes from cutting between wide shots and tele shots. And I don't rue to have bought the Ronin, because it offers some things you can't do with a Glidecam. But doubtlessly, two or three years from now, the construction of these devices will have improved to such a degree, that you need to change then. Maybe they become lighter, maybe 5 axis stabilization will be standard, who knows now?
 

Ciao Kangaroo, "Standard" is way too videoish, try "Natural" with contrast -3, saturation all the way down, sharpness -2/-3 (but sometimes 0 or all the way down are perfect) and, of course, shutter at 1/50 with 24 or 25p. 
I'm sure you'll love this little camera

You can get great colors out of the Panasonic cameras if you play with the picture profiles a little. It's a little less straightforward than the Canon cameras and requires different treatment (for example, don't turn contrast down in-camera), but they're capable of great results. 

That codec muddiness and blotchy noise bothers me way more. Panasonic's clean, crisp details and fine monochromatic grain ticks all the right boxes for me. 

I back Inazuma's LUT. Helps a ton.

Comparing MLraw to compressed video colors is ridiculous because it has nothing to do with what canon gives you but what raw gives you.

Well, you mount the camera, balance it (quite easy, no tools needed), then you establish a bluetooth connection with your phone to tune it with the "DJI Assistant App"(doesn't work all the time, we had to restart the app / the Ronin a few times, no idea why). With that app, you initially just need one button called "Auto Tune Stability". Once hit, the Ronin makes loud servo noises like an ED209 or a T800 , the calibration stand shivers, and the camera turns upright. After a few seconds, it's useable.
But there are other parameters to tune. By default, the camera follows your movements, but way too late and too slowly. This is what these guys are for:

Probably you don't want any roll behavior with a gimbal, but you'd want the camera to follow your deliberate pans and tilts, you just want these movements smoother. So you have to play with those settings, until you are satisfied ("Deadband" = the higher the value, the more the Ronin ignores your movement). Took round about an hour, until we were satisfied.
This morning, we went to the glider airfield to test the thing in the field. The sun was so bright, we couldn't see shit on the tiny A7s' display. So we mounted the Shogun on top. We still couldn't see enough to really frame the images. What is more, the additional weight of the Shogun made holding the Ronin for more than, say, two minutes - impossible. And we both go to the gym on a regular basis and do quite a lot of shoulder and neck workout.
We also changed the lenses. One was considerably heavier than the first, but balancing it (of course you have to carry the calbration stand with you) was a matter of two minutes. It took another ten minutes for the phone to find the Ronin (this is kind of a PITA) to hit Auto Stability, but afterwards everything worked fine.
For the time being, having not much experience with the device, I dare to draw some first conclusions:
1. To believe that such a gimbal replaces tripod and shoulder mount would be naive fallacy.
2. It replaces a steadicam.
3. Even though this is a lightweight model and we had a small camera, you really don't carry this around all day. 
4. I am musing about video glasses. Any suggestions? Comments? Has anyone tried this?
 

I think that, if they want to continue the little "revolution" they made in 2014 - offering all the features that Canon's user wanted (4K, 60p, peaking etc...) at a fraction of the price of a 5DmkIII - it could be a smart move to sell the new GH4 with the new firmware preloaded as "R" and to offer the update to existing user for a symbolic price, in the 50-100$ ballpark. 
In that way they could confirm their intentions to listen users while Canon still sleeps in 2009 and they could try to take aboard some BlackMagic user like me: I do love the ProRes HQ from my Pocket, but using it is really annoying, so I use GH4 95% of the time because it is so simple and fast to work with.
I'm sure this could give them more exposure then spending a lot in advertising. 

Seems like I cannot apply that to my g6 footage due to the inability of my panasonic to play with advanced picture profiles, thank you anyway!
Totally agree, I love the g6 and I'm not gonna sell it, I can't go back completely, I really can't stand the aliasing of canon cameras for example.
I'll try your setting, right now I'm testing standard with -2-2-2-2
I'll try that, thank you!

I really don't think that's the case. it's much more likely that GH4R just means V-Log is pre-installed. And I'm sure the pricing will reflect that too.

Could it have some of the GX8 tech, though?
Don't see the point of bringing out a new camera package if it's just a firmware thing... they've been handing out V-LOG firmware for GH4 users to test already, so that should already work, no need to bring it out as a new camera unless there's some actual change in hardware, I'd say.

http://www.43rumors.com/ft5-strange-rumors-panasonic-to-launch-a-panasonic-gh4r/
Panasonic is doing exactly what i hoped they wouldn't do. 

I have created a new set of LUTs for Panasonic cameras. Having spent the last year and a half reviewing footage from my camera (the GX7) and various others, I have become quite familiar with its colour characteristics. In general I do find them very pleasing but in some respects they are quite flawed. And I wish to have pleasing colours without resorting to film emulation.
My new LUTs do the following:
Fixes the shift of reds to orange Gives greens and blues a subtly deeper and more satisfying colour. Stops the abrupt shifts of orange to yellow (which is generally what causes the poor skin tone rendition) Stops yellow from becoming overpowering. Allows film emulation LUTs to be applied without certain colours going mad  
The set includes two types of LUTs. One is called “Pleasing” and it gives a Canon-like rendition. The other is called “Neutralising” and gives a RAW photo look (ie. very neutral). Within each type, there are several alternatives. “A” is the main one to use, whilst “B” and “C” are offshoots with slight differences.
Each LUT is actually quite subtle in how it changes the image, but its the subtle differences that can change how natural an image looks. The LUTs will also make it easier to apply film emulation LUTs without certain hues going out of control (eg. yellows becoming nuclear).
Download now: Inazumas_Panny_LUTs
A note on camera settings:
Having done a lot of testing of camera profiles, I do believe Standard is the best. Some people recommend Natural but it shifts a lot of colours towards orange, which looks good for grass but is a bit unnatural. It also makes people look orange. Contrast at -5 is good but saturation at -5 is a bad idea if you plan to increase saturation in post anyway. This is because when you increase saturation in post of the 8bit footage, you will get loads of colour noise in the footage.
I also have iDynamic on Low and highlights at -5. I use preset whitebalances with the adjustment dot set to M5 (5 points below the centre).
I don’t have a GH4 so I can’t say how well it will work for CineD footage.
Some images:
Without LUT:

With LUT:

Without LUT:

With LUT:

Without LUT:

With LUT:

Original post here

If colour is your only problem then you're in luck my friend. http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/8438-pleasing-neutralising-panasonic-luts/ It was created by colour matching GH4/GX7 footage to Canon footage of the same scene and colour charts. 

I still use my 5DII for stuff.  It is what it is, and absolutely offers a certain value.  Choosing a camera body is a lot like choosing a certain film stock to shoot on back in the day...

After I bought my G6 (thanks to Andrew's article on this blog) I regret all the Canon I bought
I sold that 70D and all the Canon digital lenses, so I had some money to buy the GH4. 

I'm totally in love with Panasonic G6, I use it as second unit with GH4 and they can match really well. 
Since I don't use 4k that much, the only drawback is the lack of live-HDMI: with an external monitor you can check only the shoots you made, but you can't monitor what you're doing.

Anyway the EVF is GREAT (try to do that with a Canon!), the dynamic range and the final quality are stellar and in my opinion they smoke easily any non-hacked Canon DSLR.

With G6 is also very simple to achieve a natural cinematic look in camera: just use "Natural" profile with contrast -3, saturation all the way down and sharpness -2/-3.

With Canon FD lenses and Zeiss M42 lenses you can shoot really filmic things. 

I would never return to Canon DSLR, at least until they remain in 2009

Only yesterday we received the Ronin M. Works from the start. Only concern is that it feels heavier (with camera) than the demo videos suggest. Maybe one day we change ...

I have not tried it. I have heard it is very well made though.

The title says it all. Can't comment on the app so far, must read the 341 page manual. I'm looking forward ...

Came 7500 is a newer version of 7000 so I'm sure it's great. Not sure about Came Mini, but the Single looks pretty wobbly from tests I've seen.

F stop measures the opening of the iris in the lens. But all the different elements of glass and their quality can effect the amount of light that actually hits the sensor. So the T stop tends to be slightly higher in numerical value to the F stop. Most of the time it's about 0.2 higher 

I have yet to see any of the small one hand gimbals look good. For some reason it seems the smaller they are the more they wobble. I have the CAME 7000 which is really stable. The Ronin M seems very solid too.

I'm betting that it would. Want to send me a still and I can convert it and add a LUT?

Btw, Marumi DHG ND filter works for me:  http://blog.danfrei.com/2011/07/12/marumi-nd8-filter-review/