Hands on Review with the Panasonic GH4

Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake from the Camera Store in Canada got an (almost ready) pre production Panasonic GH4 to play with and came back with some very interesting notes.

The GH4 was announced in early February 2014 (we had an extensive coverage when it was originally announced) and will start shipping soon, this review looks at the camera and the external recorder that you can buy alongside it (which interestingly – and maybe somewhat disappointingly does not have a built in battery). Other than that the review seem to focus mostly on video and be very positive.

Here is a quick reminder of the GH4 specs:

  • Sensor: A new 16.05 MP Live MOS (micro 4/3).
  • Image processor: New quad-core imaging processor – Venus Engine 9AHD.
  • Sensitivity: 200-25,600 ISO (improved over the GH3).
  • Shutter speed: 60- 1/8000 seconds.
  • Viewfinder: digital – 2,359K-Dot OLED Live.
  • LCD: Tilting 3.0″ 1,036k-Dot OLED Monitor.
  • Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi/NFC.
  • Advanced features: Focus Peaking,  silent mode, Highlight/Shadow Control, RAW data development in Camera and more.
  • Shooting speed: up to 12fps burst shooting  (AF-S) and up to  7.0fps in continuous AF (up to 40 images buffer in RAW).
  • AF: Face / Eye Detection AF or 49-point AF with Custom Multi AF mode (up to 00.7 AF with the new Depth From Defocus” (DFD) technology – currently only with Panasonic lenses).
  • Flash: Built-in/external flash (sync speed max.1/250 second).
  • Video: 4K video in MOV & MP4 (resolutions include:  4K 24p  – 4096×2160, 4K – 3840×2160 30p/24p.
  • More video: 4:2:0 internal SD recording / 4:2:2 out to external recording devices (4K – 100Mbps Bitrate, 1080p – up to 200Mbps; ALL-Intra or IPB Compression).
  • Sound: 3.5mm headphone jack for live audio monitoring while recording (many more options for connections including XLRs SDIs micro HDMI with the optional DMW-YAGH /AG-YAGH –  attachable interface unit).
  • Storage: a single SD UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) – 30 MB/sec data stream guaranteed.
  • Price and availability: available for pre-order (should be ready at the end of April 2014) for around $1700 (you can order one on B&H).

You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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