Panasonic DMC-GH4EB-K Compact System Camera (Body Only)

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The Panasonic GH4 features many other focusing improvement seen on other recent Panasonic cameras like the GX7 and GM1 including Pinpoint AF and higher AF performance in low-light conditions (-4EV). The GH4 also introduces some new features for the GH line including a 49-area AF grid (up from 23 on the GH3) with the ability to manually select custom AF area groupings. There's also a freely re-sizable 1-area AF mode as well as face and eye detection AF. MOV (Audio format LPCM), MP4 (Audio format LPCM / AAC 2ch), AVCHD (Audio format: Dolby Digital 2ch) x 2160 (24p), 3840 x 2160 (24p, 25p, 30p), 1920 x 1080 (24p, 25p, 30p, 50p, 60p), 1280 x 720 (24p, 25p, 30p), 640 x 480 (25p, 30p) Of course you could alternatively achieve the same result by filming in UHD or Cinema 4k and making a 1920×1080 pixel crop from the footage, with the flexibility of being able to position the cropped area it anywhere on the frame. On the other hand, you could deploy the 200Mbit / All Intra 1080p option with the Extended Teleconverter for an ultra-low compressed recording of a magnified area – lots of possibilities! As a camera aimed at video professionals, there’s also a choice of Zebra patterns to indicate exposure. There’s two Zebra options, which you can independently preset to between 50 and 95% in 5% intervals.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4's Intelligent D-range feature adjusts the exposure setting to record more detail in the highlights and shadows, with three strengths available - low, standard and high. Excellent still image quality for its class; Fantastic, highly-detailed video quality; Superior video recording chops with 4K video (both Cinema 4K and Ultra HD); Responsive all-around performer with great AF performance and burst shooting; Rolling shutter is minimal with 60p and 30p video; Splash- and dust-proof magnesium alloy body; Built-in Wi-Fi with NFC. ConsThere are 9 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 which you can select at any time if the camera is in one of the creative shooting modes. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting: I’d say this is a good result for the GH4. Admittedly it’s nowhere in the same league as the Sony A6000 which can keep moving subjects in sharp focus at 11fps, nor even the Fujifilm XT1 which can do the same at 8fps thanks to their hybrid AF systems, but it remains the best result I’ve experienced from a 100% contrast based system and certainly allows you to capture action with reasonable success. There’s two pre-focusing options, one which refocuses as you recompose, and another which focuses on the AF area when you first bring your eye to the viewfinder. Both allow the GH4 to essentially focus on a likely subject before you’ve even had a chance to think about pressing the shutter. They certainly speed up the operation, although again I preferred to override this and turn both off. As it sits at the top of Panasonic's camera line-up, the GH4 is aimed at experienced photographers and, naturally, it has the usual program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure modes. However, there's also Panasonic's Intelligent Auto (iA) mode to help less experienced photographers and the Creative Control options that apply digital filter effects (Rough Monochrome and so on) to JPEG images. The red Motion Picture button on the rear, as you'd expect, allows you to start recording a movie with a single push of a button and then stop recording by pressing the same button, regardless of which shooting mode is currently selected. This is a lot more intuitive than having to select the movie mode then press the shutter button, as on some cameras, although you can still start/stop movie recording via the GH4's shutter button if you wish.

Expressive / Retro / Old Days / High Key / Low Key / Sepia / Monochrome / Dynamic Monochrome / Impressive Art / High Dynamic / Cross Process / Toy Effect / Toy Pop / Bleach Bypass / Miniature Effect / Fantasy / One Point Color This card is rated at 95MBps Read, 60MBps Write (thats Megabytes per second so multiply by 8 to see the Mbps [Megabits per second] values). Those are burst speeds but the 'U3' rating indicates that the cards are designed to be capable of a sustained write of at least 30MBps (240Mbps). Panasonic will distribute the GH4's Interface Unit through its professional video and channel, as it will appeal to professional videographers who plan to use the GH4 as part of a rig with an external monitor, recording facility and so on. Since the movie modes also employ an electronic shutter, Panasonic has tried hard to reduce the rolling shutter effect by speeding up the data readout of the GH4’s sensor. I believe it’s better than the GH3, but you can still trip it up under the right – or wrong – conditions. Either way though, I’m pleased Panasonic offer it as an option for stills, as it’s a rarity on other cameras. There’s certainly plenty of situations where the subject is fairly still in a quiet environment, and under those conditions a silent camera is very welcome.

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There’s also the chance to assemble timelapse movies in-camera in a feature inherited from earlier models, but now with the added joy of a 4k option. As before you can set the camera to record up to 9999 frames at intervals from one second to a second shy of 100 minutes, and you can delay the starting time by up to 24 hours. Once the capture process is complete the GH4 offers to turn it into a movie for you (while keeping the stills), and the options now offer 1080p at 30 or 60fps or 4k UHD at 30fps. Of course any camera could assemble a 4k movie from a series of high resolution still photos, but the GH4 is the first model I’ve seen to do it, and it’s a nice tie-in with the native 4k movie capabilities; it’ll be interesting to see if it becomes a standard feature on future Lumix G cameras even if they don’t have 4k video. No scene modes. Creative Control (Stills): Expressive, Retro, Old Days, High Key, Low Key, Sepia, Monochrome, Dynamic Monochrome, Rough Monochrome, Silky Monochrome, Impressive Art, High Dynamic, Cross Process, Toy Effect, Toy Pop, Bleach Bypass, Miniature Effect, Soft Focus, Fantasy, Star Filter, One Point Color, Sunshine; Creative Control (Movies): Expressive, Retro, Old Days, High Key, Low Key, Sepia, Monochrome, Dynamic Monochrome, Impressive Art, High Dynamic, Cross Process, Toy Effect, Toy Pop, Bleach Bypass, Miniature Effect, Fantasy, One Point Color The sensitivity ranges from 200 to 25600 ISO with an extended 100 ISO option and from the Photo Styles menu you can adjust the noise reduction, along with contrast, sharpness and saturation on a scale of +/-5 steps. Like many previous Lumix G models I’ve found the default style can benefit from a little more sharpening and a little less noise reduction, but you’re welcome to tweak away. Note an Auto ISO option is available, but not in the Manual exposure mode.

Still image: Max. 2x (Aspect ratio sets at 4:3. Not effective with L size recording. Magnification ratio depends on the recording pixels and aspect ratio.)/Motion picture: 2.4x (FHD), 3.6x (HD), 4.8x (VGA)IPB) (LPCM)/[4K] 3840x2160:23.98p, 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:59.94p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:29.97p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:23.98p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) In practice the Intelligent Auto Mode system works very well, with the GH4 seamlessly choosing the most appropriate combination of settings for the current situation. The 5 available scene modes are Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Night Portrait and Night Scenery, so obviously not all situations are covered by Intelligent Auto Mode, but it does work for the majority of the time. It makes it possible for the less experienced photographer to easily take well-exposed, sharp pictures of people, scenery and close-ups by simply pointing and shooting the camera. Panasonic also claims that the new processor helps produce better image resolution, dynamic range and more accurate colors, as well as doing hefty number crunching for 4K video encoding and giving a boost to the GH4's AF speed.