Andrew Reid and Frank Sauer shoot with the Panasonic GH4 - Production Diary Day 1

[johnnymossville]

Maybe Andrew's spellchecker broke.    :wub:

[estarkey7]

A little bit of pee just came out...

LOL!!!

[McKajVah]

https://www.copy.com/s/EoeMcoA2T9L4/GH4

A little teaser...

[AaronChicago]

https://www.copy.com/s/EoeMcoA2T9L4/GH4

A little teaser...

Holy cow. Grades smooth as butter.

[johnnymossville]

holy cow the porsche clip looks,....      Yow! 

 

Borrowed the holy cow line from AaronChicago.  Just put the clip in after-effects and in my excitement threw a bunch of magic bullet looks at it and I'm drooling.  

 

OK, now I just dropped an Eastman 5298 EXR 500T film stock on it and I'm in love.....

[nib187]

https://www.copy.com/s/EoeMcoA2T9L4/GH4

A little teaser...

It's prores 422, was it recorded internally and then converted? Anyway, looks fantastic.

[Andrew Reid]

Recorded internally, 8bit 4:2:0 4K. Exported from Premiere Pro CC as ProRes 422 LT.

 

It isn't even ProRes 4444. Try converting it to that before grading :)

[jcs]

Can you upload original H.264? Looks like H.264 decodes faster on Windows at 4K with PPro vs. mov (slow QT decoder?). No advantage in this case to transcode...

[Andrew Reid]

Try using VLC Player. Quicktime is s**t

[jcs]

My comment was for PPro editing... slowdown was caused by adding just two RGB Curve effects. Changing PPro to 1/2 playback resolution got back to real-time. Resolve does 15fps with 2 nodes active (and modified curves). The PPro update I posted in another thread should help with 4K work.

 

Comparing the 4K GH4 video to 5D3 RAW 14-bit and FS700 8-bit, the GH4 appears to show less compression than the FS700, however dynamic range appears a bit less than both the 5D3 (very close, but can bring up shadows well in post with 14-bits) and FS700 (guestimating by ~2 f-stops). Not conclusive, of course, just examining this initial GH4 footage (lots of clipped and/or quantized highlights (when brought down)).

 

Someone mentioned IR and too much red- I see that too.

[Pascal Garnier]

First of all thanks for the extensive tests and footage.  Only makes me happier about having preordered one.

 

Any chance you'll be shooting regular old HD with it ? 
Just to know what that looks like for those of us who still shoot and deliver in Full HD and look for the simplest workflow.

 

And any idea if you can transcode 4K to 1080p ProRes directly through 5dtorgb (without having to go through Premiere or FCPX) ? 
If possible, this would allow us to edit native 1080p in our NLE's.

And I could possibly get rid of my Ninja2, since that footage would probably have less resolution than downconverted 4K.

[see ya]

To second JCS's request any chance of the native camera files.

[nib187]

Can someone explain me why is it better to transcode original files from camera to ProRes, and then apply grading, please?

[Andrew Reid]

Because it gives the grading tools 10bit colour space to work with and higher data rates.

 

Elbow room.

[Amro Othman]

I was thinking the ultimate setup would be GH4 + Metabones Speedbooster + Ninja blade recorder- but it seems like we maybe don't need the recorder that badly huh :)

[nib187]

Because it gives the grading tools 10bit colour space to work with and higher data rates.

 

Elbow room.

Thanks Andrew.

[Tim Naylor]

oh well, actually this first report just made me cancel my pre-order, i think ill wait to see if they fix the slow motion function, since this is the selling point for this camera for me and most people i think. That and the hopes for a flat gradable picture style, which isnt even mentioned.

Don't cancel. Buy it. Try it. If you don't like it return it within the 15 days or whatever the return policy is. I did that with a GH3 a while back. I wouldn't base your decision off one person's test. 

[jcs]

Because it gives the grading tools 10bit colour space to work with and higher data rates.

Elbow room.

PPro, AE (settable), and Resolve all convert to 32-bit float after decoding. Unless another tool does a better job of converting 420 to 444, there really isn't any advantage to transcode to 10-bit ProRes except for perhaps editing speed.

[boxtree]

Looking at the BTS pics I noticed the Gorillapod being used as a stabilizer, genius idea. Can anyone tell me which Gorillpod would be best suited to the GH4, as their seem to be three  to choose from that may be suitable hybrid, DSLR Zoom, and focus? 

 

Thanks.

 

G.

[dafreaking]

It's not a pretty new idea. Personally, the focus is the best because of the length of the legs. You can really then make an on the fly shoulder rig out of it.