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So I played with the GH4 this afternoon at Jessops, Oxford Street, London. Although I spent around an hour with the camera, I was not allowed to record any footage to my SD card as the Panasonic rep said that the unit was a pre-production model without the release firmware. Being a nice chap, he did allow me to test many of the video functions and looked closely at the 2 Cinelike profiles the camera has, Cinelike D and Cinelike V. I've never held a GH series camera in my hand before, so I was very suprised by the light weight of it. I'm used to the weight of my 5D MKIII with lump of L glass, so it was lovely to hold a camera that felt so nice in my hand. The OLED screen was very sharp and clear and worked perfectly to pull focus. The EVF was bright and full of detail. The eye piece was ultra comfortable. Focus peaking worked an absolute treat. A quick word about the autofocusing, its very impressive and I noticed no 'hunting'. I think it will be pefect for shooting with the 96fps function when you want to track something that is moving at speed. The Cinelike profiles look interesting and I believe no footage we've seen so far has used these profiles to capture footage. Cinelike D is pretty much like a Technicolour style flat profile which is probably going to be the most used one on the GH4. Cinelike V seems to crush all the shadows into black and I found it hard to see what purpose this profile would serve. The DR of the GH4 looks really good. Even though we were inside near the back of the store, when shooting out towards the windows, plenty of detail was retained outside. I know on my 5D, lots of it would have been blown out, almost white! Unfortunately, I was not able to look for moire or aliasing as we could not connect the GH4 to a monitor and it was too hard to notice it on the OLED or EVF as they are too small. In all, its a great camera and I can't wait to see more footage from it in the coming weeks. I did get the Panasonic rep to watch my showreel and while winking at him said I've love to shoot something for them :) If you have any Q's please feel free to ask. Finally, some photos of the Cinelike profiles, this is the best I could do :( '> '> '> '> Adrian

I hope so! Last year was really bad - high prices and low quality/broken anamorphics. I think everyone getting into it finds out how hard it is to shoot with anamorphics. Even with SLR Magic, it ain't that easy...

@jonpais: I recently made the switch from an APSC Canon DSLR to a MFT camera (GH3). The video results are much better than with my Canon but I'm not sure if I'm ready to invest a ton of money for MFT lenses yet. I can adapt my APSC lenses to the GH3 but not the other way around and as you mentioned, most MFT lenses are very small and plasticky. This is great if you're looking for a small and lightweight system but obviously has some drawbacks, too. I also feel like many people who shoot both stills and videos aren't quite convinced of MFT sensors yet... so that might be another reason why people are hesistant dropping a lot of cash on dedicated MFT lenses. If money was no object I'd go the same route as Olly P. I haven't decided yet whether I will make a full switch to MFT for both video and stills or not so for now I'll try to purchase prime lenses that I can use both on the GH3 and on my Canon DSLR. I've had some time to play around with the Samyang lenses and the build quality is fantastic, so to me that seems like to best option if you're looking for affordable, future-proof lenses that offer charcater, too. They're built like a tank as well so you should check them out. If you're looking for an example showcasing the differences between a digital-looking lens and a vintage lens with character, check out this comparison: - one lens is the MFT Olympus 12mm f/2.0 and the other one is the MFT SLR Magic 12mm f/1.6. Now both these lenses are native MFT lenses (you can't use them on any larger-sized sensor) but the SLR magic show some of the imperfections that vintage lenses also show. The Olympus delivers a better image (sharper, more detailed, no corner softness etc) but overall the SLR Magic looks better. This is desirable for videos but for stills I'd rather buy the Olympus and add the character digitally if neccessary.

I bought a yashica 50mm f2 based on Andy's recommendation still waiting for the adapter. I'm a bit hesitant to buy other focal lengths because the rest are only f2.8 and I have that covered with my 12-35mm zoom. For a prime I want at least f2 or faster. Too bad metabones doesn't come out with a speed booster for these yashicas. Edit: hmm will this work? I didnt see this when i looked last guess i missed it http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPCY-m43-BM1

Would love to hear more about this!

the guy you're filming is a madman. i had sweaty palms watching it. i'd love the guts to do that.