Lumix GH4 Review

[Russell Johnston]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]I have been using the GH4 for over a good month now and really have fallen in love with this little camera, its amazing. For all you RED users I understand that this camera is not as good as RED but it will make a great B camera for some of you. I love the Epic and would use it as a B Camera for sure on only projects where the Epic is an A Camera.
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http://darktidemediaco.com/blog/2014/4/15/the-panasonic-lumix-gh4-the-ultimate-hybrid

 

[Burke Doeren]

Great review and examples Russell! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Curran Giddens]

Russell, nice job! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

In another thread on REDUSER.net (summarized here), I reported my own experiences of trying to get the GH4 and EPIC DRAGON to play well together. I am also pretty excited about the GH4, albeit as a "C" camera instead of a "B" camera. (For me, EPIC DRAGON and SCARLET DRAGON will be my A and B cameras.)

The common flaw I have seen in most tests published on the internet is that they attempt to evaluate the camera (or lens) at its limits, but indeed they go well past the limits, and then begin their commentary from there. Kudos to Russell Johnson for not falling into that trap. Knowing, and respecting, the limitations of the camera definitely allows one to capture great images that really can match up with DRAGON, which is fantastic for many reasons he states, including being able to treat the GH4 as a disposable camera. I also agree with Russell that "no, the GH4 is not itself a DRAGON-killer". The DRAGON is by far the most amazing camera I've ever used, and the imagery it captures has finally fulfilled what I've always wanted from a camera. If only there were a 12-240 f2.0 lens that covered 6K FF and weighted 8kg to go with it...

Back onto the subject of the GH4. For scenes that don't have too much dynamic range (10 stops maximum), the GH4 "natural" setting really matches nicely with DRAGONcolor/RG4. It's almost uncanny.

For scenes that have 10 or more stops of dynamic range, things are more of a toss-up. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera clearly wins when more DR is needed. Last week I shot a studio scene with the 9ft grand piano in the frame. Pianos are hell to capture on video because they look so great when you can see the harp and the strings reflected in the lid, but the lid is so black that those reflections can easily fall into the darkest shadow exposure level. When you open up to get the details in the reflection, the white keys and/or the strings themselves can blow out highlights. Using CineD and minimum contrast one can barely extend the dynamic range to get some details in the reflections without losing highlights, but overall the image really loses its integrity (possibly because of the 8-bit limitation that I'm also stuck with until the Shogun comes out). The BMCC really is a better camera than the GH4 for that kind of higher DR requirement.

But the BMCC is not always a better compromise: its color is not nearly as nice as the GH4, and it does not match up nearly as easily with the DRAGON. Perhaps Resolve 11 and its color-chart feature will solve that. And then there is the moire of the BMCC, which seems to work its way into everything I shoot. The GH4 has a fine OLPF that really keeps the image smooth and nice.

So the way I'm looking at it now, the GH4 is the ideal companion for DRAGON when, as a "B" or a "C" camera, the goal is to capture an alternative fraction of the scene--one with limited dynamic range, but otherwise beautiful, colorful, rich, and interesting. If only Panasonic would put that into an AF100 body with built-in ND filters, waveform monitors, and a vectorscope, how cool would that be!

 

[Russell Johnston]

Glad to hear you guys enjoyed my review. Ya Michael, I just got tired of hearing people saying this camera was just the best and tried to say it was better then RED or Sony F55 or whatever. Its amazing and is our A camera for the fact of we offen need to move around fast in the middle of now where and need battery life and memory space while still having an amazing image. The GH4 fit that bill to a T. So I hope more people will understand that.

 

[Eric Watson]

Kudos Russell.
This was a straight forward and honest review...without all the skew.
Using a Zeiss or Leica prime would've been nice to see, but nonetheless very good information.

Thanks

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Nice review and I'm finding myself in agreement. I've had my GH4 for about a week. I never shot with the GH3, but have owned a few GH2's. I have to be blunt and say that I have never been a fan of the micro 4/3 format and cameras in general. I think that is finally changing. The GH2 was the third m43 camera I've purchased, the other two I bought before I promptly returned. They just didn't have the image quality and performance I was looking for and I felt they couldn't come close to living up to the hype surrounding them. The early days of the format were extra tough when Panasonic and Olympus were both pulling various shenanigans in the lens department and cutting some corners I couldn't believe. My first m43 zoom from Panasonic had a *PLASTIC* mount. WTF?

The GH2 changed that opinion for me and it actually shot some passable video too. I hacked a couple GH2's for use in various places and these quickly replaced 7D's for getting into tight spots and other similar usage situations.

Now I have the GH4 and the new 35-100 f2.8 zoom. It's an excellent work-horse. I have the 12-35 f2.8 on order and also own a few others like the 100-300 zoom and a few primes. I just ordered the Metabones Nikon adapter and I'm contemplating the Wooden PL adapter.

Honestly, I'm using it 90% for stills and it makes a nicely compact SLR kit for that use. Smaller than 35mm kits, but not getting stupid small and limited like we see with most other mirror-less systems. Of course there's the A7 full frame mirror-less arriving now, that's a whole different animal. I actually canceled my A7s order. Perfectly happy with all the camera crap I have now. I'll let that whole A7s thing play out a bit and see what lens options come along. Right now there's really nothing that interesting, IMO, and I really don't want to start yet another lens collection with yet another camera interface...

I'll see how it goes over the next couple weeks, but so far the GH4 fills like a win for me. For video, I've played with shooting 4K, but it's just been family stuff and it works great for that. I'm sure I'll use it on a real job sooner rather than later.