Panasonic GH4 pricing official - $1698 body only, $1998 for the external 10bit / XLR box

[Musty]

Placed my pre-order in the UK today... can't sniff at £1299 plus no money is taken until despatch so hopefully by then Andrew or someone would of had a chance to shoot with it and relay some information about it. I'll hold onto my 5D MKIII for a little longer.

[Julian]

Why would a new card be required? At maximum nitrate of 240mbit that's only about 35mbytes/s and the 4k internal is only 100mbits/s. Aren't most people at least using 45mb cards already?

 

You need a card that is able to write 35Mb/s without speed drops. All cards are specced at 'max' speeds. A 45MB/s card does 45MB/s, but is not guaranteed to do this continuously. This doesn't mean it won't work on current 45MB/s or 95MB/s cards, only way to find out if your card is suitable is to try.

 

 

So does anyone think this will have an impact on the GH3 price?  Does the GH4 make it go lower because there is a 'newer and better' model out, or does it drive it higher because the GH3 is now part of a system with an easy upgrade to 4k?  Or is there no impact?

 

(I would like cheaper to be the answer!)

 

If it will change, I'm pretty sure the GH3 will get cheaper. I don't think the GH4 will influence the GH3 price much though, even though they are in the same line-up I think they are pretty different products.

[RobertoSF]

The GH4's sensor is standard m4/3 size, not s35

 

Yep. I was thinking of the Varicam 35, also recently announced here.

[joe1946]

I pre-ordered from B&H. BTW the GH4 supports UHS-1 Class 3 SD cards and the best deal I have seen is for the Kingston Digital Kingston Digital 64GB SDHC UHS-I Speed Class 3 Flash Card (SDA3/64GB ) at Amazon for $109.70.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I3BQJNA/ref=s9_simh_gw_p421_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0NT042C2FTD7Q2D5208F&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

 

 

[richg101]

I pre-ordered from B&H. BTW the GH4 supports UHS-1 Class 3 SD cards and the best deal I have seen is for the Kingston Digital Kingston Digital 64GB SDHC UHS-I Speed Class 3 Flash Card (SDA3/64GB ) at Amazon for $109.70.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I3BQJNA/ref=s9_simh_gw_p421_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0NT042C2FTD7Q2D5208F&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

 

 

 

 

i'm not aware of media technology.  is this type of card faster than a sanny extreme pro 95mb/s?

[PeterGregg]

I would like to see a "Top Dog" page on this web site. It is hard to keep track of what is the best buy out there. Last year the 5D3 with ML was pronounced to be Top Dog by Andrew. Then there was a list (that I cannot find again) showing the best cameras ranked in 3 or 4 different catagories. A permenant Top Dog page would be a nice addition and probably an attraction to this web site.

 

Peter

[pietz]

I 'd say rendering 4K video to 1080p will make the footage sharper than the GH3 1080p footage. But that doesn't mean I think the GH3 footage is not sharp, as a matter of fact, I find it the sharpest non-raw footage there is.

 

you ripped my quote out of context, if you had included my next sentence, your comment would have been unnecessary... 

[BenV]

am I missing something or are these new panasonic SD's not as fast as the current Sandisk extreme pro 95MB/s cards? As far as I can see the Panasonic cards are 90MB/s write and 45MB/s read (or are these the wrong ones)

[odie]

I would like to see a "Top Dog" page on this web site. It is hard to keep track of what is the best buy out there. Last year the 5D3 with ML was pronounced to be Top Dog by Andrew. Then there was a list (that I cannot find again) showing the best cameras ranked in 3 or 4 different catagories. A permenant Top Dog page would be a nice addition and probably an attraction to this web site.

 

Peter

+1

 

i still want the 1dc (if discounted)..vs gh4

[Oliver Daniel]

I'm not going to pull the trigger until NAB has passed and I've seen a bit of footage, such as the 10 bit HD recorded with a Ninja compared to downsampled 4k internal, see how much of a difference it is to 1080p on GH3. Even then, I might just sell my GH3 and get this anyway. 

 

And I bloody wish Metabones would hurry up with this EF Speedbooster! 

[BenV]

I have gone for it! I had a play with one at the photographic show in Birmingham and the LCD & viewfinder where lovely. Also looked at some sample footage on the 4K LCD, which was incredible. It was next to a GH3 so could give it a good comparison (well as much as you can at a show). Along with the other obvious changes I think its also slightly heavier.

 

When I saw the price was just £1299 I couldn't resist. Pretty much the same price as a EM-1 + a free battery grip into the bargain.

[Musty]

Hey guys,

 

A couple of stores in London will have a working GH4 with a Panasonic rep this weekend. The dates are Friday 14 March, Saturday 15 March and Sunday 16 March 2014 from 10-4pm at the following stores:

• Jessops, 129-131 Oxford Street, London, W1D 2HU
• Park Cameras, 53-54 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1JR

Full press release here: http://news.panasonic.co.uk/news/panasonic-announces-preview-campaign-for-dmc-gh4-79357

 

I'll be there to check it out on Saturday around midday.

 

Looks like Panasonic are also giving away a free battery and battery grip with every GH4 purchased! They are really gunning for it!

 

Adrian

[johnnymossville]

Hey guys,

 

A couple of stores in London will have a working GH4 with a Panasonic rep this weekend. The dates are Friday 14 March, Saturday 15 March and Sunday 16 March 2014 from 10-4pm at the following stores:

• Jessops, 129-131 Oxford Street, London, W1D 2HU
• Park Cameras, 53-54 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1JR

Full press release here: http://news.panasonic.co.uk/news/panasonic-announces-preview-campaign-for-dmc-gh4-79357

 

I'll be there to check it out on Saturday around midday.

 

Looks like Panasonic are also giving away a free battery and battery grip with every GH4 purchased! They are really gunning for it!

 

Adrian

 

wow,  that's a great bonus for the free battery and battery grip. 

[apefos]

For the GH5 Panasonic needs to develop a 4096 x 3072 native resolution sensor to allow the 4096 x 2160 video without horizontal crop in the micro four thirds sensor, better shallow dof, better wide angle and better low light due to increase in pixel size. Also it will be good for still photos because 4096 x 3072 is 12.6 megapixels, enough for most photo work. Dynamic range increase to reach ARRI is the most expected improvement in the Panasonic now... maybe this will be implemented in the organic sensor they are developing. And why not 200Mbps IPB in 4k?

[etidona]

For the GH5 Panasonic needs to develop a 4096 x 3072 native resolution sensor to allow the 4096 x 2160 video without horizontal crop in the micro four thirds sensor, better shallow dof, better wide angle and better low light due to increase in pixel size. 

 

My dream: 4096x4096 square sensor.

16mega stills, no more vertical grip needed, the flash stays always on top of the sensor, no horizontal crop in 4k video mode, shallow dof, better wide, better low light. Theoretically all the lenses should cover the area.

Shooting square photos is fun, someone ever tried a 6x6 film camera?

Who knows when and if that dream will be true!

[dafreaking]

Do you want the depth of field to be just an inch? Seriously. Sometimes this talk of DOF is utter crap. People want sharp videos and they want smaller DOF. What do you keep in focus? An eyelash?

[Damphousse]

Shooting square photos is fun, someone ever tried a 6x6 film camera?

 

 

All the time.  Rollei 6008i is my favorite camera!  That's why I laugh when people say full frame 35mm has a "shallow depth of field."  Shallow compared to what?!  It's just one stop on a continuum.

[Andrew Reid]

My dream: 4096x4096 square sensor.

16mega stills, no more vertical grip needed, the flash stays always on top of the sensor, no horizontal crop in 4k video mode, shallow dof, better wide, better low light. Theoretically all the lenses should cover the area.

Shooting square photos is fun, someone ever tried a 6x6 film camera?

Who knows when and if that dream will be true!

 

Good idea. Why in 2014 do we still have to physically rotate the camera body to do a portrait shot? It should be done with a button press to change the sensor crop.

[dafreaking]

Good idea. Why in 2014 do we still have to physically rotate the camera body to do a portrait shot? It should be done with a button press to change the sensor crop.

 

Bah. By now we shouldn't need cameras. We should have implants in our brain that click and alter pictures to our liking.

[Damphousse]

Good idea. Why in 2014 do we still have to physically rotate the camera body to do a portrait shot? It should be done with a button press to change the sensor crop.

 

It's a cost thing.  I shoot 6x6 film.  My Rollei 6008i even has a rotatable film back if you want to shoot cropped 645 film to save money and have more exposures on a roll.  The 645 back costs more than many DSLRs!  No one that I know of makes a square medium format digital back chip even though the camers have everything set up to accept them.  The answer is simple really.  For what you would get a square piece of silicon costs way too much.

 

The problem with chips is they are made on big waffers.  It is not a perfect process.  On any given waffer there will be a certain amount of defects.  The fewer chips per a waffer the greater likelihood any given chip will be defective.  If you chop the waffer into smaller chips there is less of a chance any individual chip will be defective.  Plus you can spread the fixed cost of the waffer across more chips.  Even ignoring square for a minute it is the reason we have cropped censors and the reason full frame will always cost more.