GH4: List of quirks and problems

[aldolega]

If you're shooting 1080p internally you're completely wasting the talents of the camera.

I would say that the 50% improved rolling shutter and super-high stock bitrate for All-I are both strong talents of the camera. Unfortunately neither are available in 4K mode. So they may not be the fan's flashiest talent, or your personal favorite, but they're talents nonetheless. Jello reduction and motion rendition are high priorities for some people, and forgoing resolution in their interest wouldn't be wasting any talents at all for those users.

Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to use 4K for great 1080p finish- when I can get away with it, motion- and jiggle-wise- but let's remember that the GH3's 1080p modes are already very, very good. Assuming the GH4's are at least a nominal improvement on that, it is still a worthwhile camera outside of 4K mode.

[AaronChicago]

One problem that I've encountered is getting a signal to my SmallHD monitor in 24hz mode. It's yet to be determined if its the GH4 or the monitor. SmallHD is waiting to get their GH4 to test it.

[Richard Wait]

Wow that A6000 AF is pretty amazing!

[Vesku]

I am shooting a lot 50P or 60P in sports events. I use 100-300mm and I need good autofocus. If 1080/60P mode is improved from GH3 I would be very happy. I am not sure if GH4 fullHD is much better and now some are saying that video autofocus is bad too. I have GH3 and I have ordered GH4. Is it going to be a disapointment I dont know but I am a little worried.

 

I like GH3 because I can shoot with it "camcorder style" but get much cleaner video. I hope that GH4 would be still better in quality and handling.

 

Bottom line: 1080P mode is very important to me.

[dafreaking]

 

A nice comparison with the GH3

[jgharding]

That A6000 autofocus is insanely fast... that'd be great for documentary.

 

So at the moment, we know that over 60-odd FPS the GH4 softens and has more aliasing. This is in line with the FS700 as well,  probably a better option than Red Epic's sensor cropping still.

 

That audio pulsing is probably solvable by using a TRRS jack and sending the correct part to ground, so the pulsing signal doesn't oscillate the recorded sound. It probably doesn't make a huge difference, but still isn't great design, as you can't really bury it, it will always oscillate the audio recording (probably creating a harsh feel) unless it's defeated by grounding.

 

Their own mics are TRSS connectors, and I'm sure they want you buy the YAGH too.

 

A real design flaw is obsessing about 24p. why not 25p at full 4k? why no 100fps? It appears to be an artificial limitation.

[pietz]

Andrew, i just sometime feel like youre selling your opinions as facts, which i dont agree with nor like. your tests are perfectly objective and i love your page for that. but saying that its "madness" not to use the gh4 in 4k or declining that it doesnt come "at many costs", is not true. whats true is, that these draw backs are so little to YOU, you dont mind them, and that is absolutely fine. but its just not true for everybody, like it sounds like in your answer to my post.

 

obviously the 4k image of the GH4 is absolutely lovely and i can understand everybody using it exclusively for everything they do. but i for example shoot weddings and like to record everything with at least 50frames to have a dreamy slowmo when i need it. my G6s 50fps is soft, i hate it. having a crisp 62fps on the new gh4 is a real advantage for me. next, i shoot on cruise ships that often vibrate due to the engine. with even worse rolling shutter in 4k the footage will look terrible, having 50% less rolling shutter in 1080p is another huge advantage for me. that also applies when i have to stabilize shots in post. these things sum up in my personal use cases, which is why id rather use this camera in 1080p 62fps than in 4k. this goes against anything you believe in, but only because you re putting your focus on different features than i am :)

 

what im saying is: the way it works right now the 4k is not a selling point for ME. the gh4 comes with other great features that are good to have, but especially on the auto focus (in video), i expected some better. i understand your opinion thinking "pietz, its the first camera that shoots seriously impressive 4k material and it even costs below $2k. how can you complain about this camera?" but if 4k isnt a selling point for me, im not left with so many other improvements in the gh4. and not having auto focus in VFM at all is just rediculous in my oppinion.

[jurgen]

Back on (designated) topic ... I'm getting a strange "clattering" shooting stills with my Oly 25 1.8. It's like the rattlesnaking problem that some E-M5's had with the Pan/Leica 25, only it's not constant. Changing from very bright to very dark conditions (say, going from in your apartment to pointing the camera out the window), the aperture will close down and reopen very quickly causing a short flicker on screen. 

It's annoying, and sporadic. I've encountered a number of bugs on this particular body - multiple crashes being the worst of them - so I have a replacement coming early next week. I'll check for all these things when that one arrives.

[pietz]

Back on (designated) topic ... I'm getting a strange "clattering" shooting stills with my Oly 25 1.8. It's like the rattlesnaking problem that some E-M5's had with the Pan/Leica 25, only it's not constant. Changing from very bright to very dark conditions (say, going from in your apartment to pointing the camera out the window), the aperture will close down and reopen very quickly causing a short flicker on screen. 

It's annoying, and sporadic. I've encountered a number of bugs on this particular body - multiple crashes being the worst of them - so I have a replacement coming early next week. I'll check for all these things when that one arrives.

 

do you have a preproduction camera? you have been talking about some menu bugs as well, it kinda sounds like yours is broken or comes with unfinished firmware.

[jurgen]

do you have a preproduction camera? you have been talking about some menu bugs as well, it kinda sounds like yours is broken or comes with unfinished firmware.

No, I've got a full release body, but it's certainly problematic. Hoping the replacement can alleviate some of these issues.

-edit- Some more testing and I actually think this normal behavior. The aperture stops down on the lens once the shutter speed tops of at 1/8000. I think it's for the sake of the metering system once it gets too bright.

Also, the menu quirks are on the GH3 as well.

The crashes, I have no answer for ... that's why I'll test a replacement before keeping/perhaps warrantying one.

[iliasgh4]

hi at last two jobs wedding a have a big trouble!!some of mov clips in my sd card extreme pro 95mbs they don't exist and i see only a extension file MDT!!!i can't open this!!i lost my footage?its an error? i record at 1080 50p 50 mbps!!this is serious big problem!!!

[Darwich]

Hi all, I think this thread is valuable for a guy like me.. 

 

I got a question for you. I am going to buy my first camera for music video shooting soon, and I dont know if I am going for GH4 or wait for Sony A7S as it also have slog2.

 

I am mostly interrested in the slowmotion effect (No lip sync needed as it is intrumentals mainly). I can not figure out if there is better cameras for 1080p than gh4, is it really that bad in 1080p 60/96fps mode?

 

If it is, then I might want to look at other cameras, hopefully you have some good advice, because I am now considering a 2nd hand Red Scarlet X, but it is sooo expensive for me atm.

 

I must say that footage I have seen shot with GH4 4k downscaled to 1080p is freaking awesome looking, but for my needs its the slowmotion that is the most important as I live en Denmark, and there is not that many exciting looking locations, so the slowmotion would be a great way to make interesting footage I supose.

[ita149]

Hi,

My gh4 makes a strange short sound when im doing Af with an aperture of F9 or higher. Same "problem" on all my lens but no problem at f8 or lower. When im doing af during video, no problem either.
Anybody else experiencing that ?

[Filmmack]

I bought my GH4 only 2 weeks ago and I love it!

 

However the biggest issue I've had so far is: why can't I use an external monitor when shooting in 24p? The monitor works when it's in 30p mode but goes blue in 24.

 

I've searched far and long for a simple explanation. I've been told it's been answered on other forums, yet, the answer is still not clear to me.

[Jim Robinson]

I have had the GH4 for awhile now and my background did not include shooting video with a different DLSR so I don't compare the GH4 to other cameras. My opinions are only based on logic. Focus magnification during recording is a no brainer. You can't fix Focus in post - so while I am recording - checking my focus with magnification is a must. I realize also that there is no actual measurement view ( feet/inches etc. ) because there are too many different type of lenses and that would be impossible but one would think that Panasonic could figure it out for their own lenses. Focus Peaking is great but I find that it is sometimes really hard to see - my other camera is a CANON XF300 and focus peaking is very obvious on that. 

Another thing that bothers me is the ISO reading while changing ISO - you lose the exposure meter. So to see if you have added sufficient ISO for lack of light, - you have to change the ISO - hit the button again  ( to turn it off ) then check the exposure. I only mention this as a bug because if you use the wifi app - you can see the exposer while changing the ISO.  

I  have seen it mentioned in other forums but it has only come up once for me as a problem. The shutter speed when changing from stills to movie isn't remembered - I set my movie SS to 180 degrees and when shooting a few quick stills and switching back to movie mode  the angle was all screwed up and had to be reset. Just annoying. 

Biggest problem is video noise ( dancing pixels  ) in any video where there was not quite enough light (  basically any normal indoors shooting without extra light  ) If the A7s could store 4k   and have focus memory  - it wouldn't even be close - I would never pick the  GH4.  People that rave about the GH4 usually  throw in  the value for dollar bit. I think we  are at the beginning of new technology and competitors will outdo this camera - it's the old thing of sit back and wait or jump in.  I know this well as I sit here trying to sell my Canon  XF300  for less than half  of what it was worth a couple of years ago.

[JazzBox]

Jim, I had the same noise. Then, after some tests I saw that if I underexpose the scene, GH4 has noise even at 200 ISO.
So it is way better to use an insanely high ISO to proper expose or overexpose (without clipping the highlights): you'll have a better image with less noise.

Take a look here: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/7922-ettr-the-ultimate-exposure-technique/ 

[Vesku]

GH4 is kind of odd thing. It has very sophisticated gimmicks like recognizing friends faces and teaching and entering their names or many useless image effects. Very good IQ. Still the camera cant show exposure values it uses or it cant adjust aperture steplessly. AE/AF-lock is crippled, too few customation saving options, cant assign important items to FN-buttons, cant do even AFS in slowmotion mode etc, etc. Panasonic lenses has also bad features like worst OIS of all brands, sticky zooms, very unparfocal designs and jamming AF. These are the mix of very high IQ/design and toy-like mistakes and faults.

[Inazuma]

I think you're being a bit overly critical Vesku. It does show exposure value, just not when changing ISO. But its not exactly rocket science to work out what your EV value will be as you change it.

No DSLR-like camera except for the d750 and d810 can change aperture steplessly.

I've never seen problems with the AE/AF lock. What are you talking about?

Its got plenty of button options and saving options. More than most other DSLR-like cameras.

Why are you using AF for video?

OIS is worse than other brands, but still much better than handholding. Lens stabilisation is kind of overrated anyway. Rigging the camera against your chest or shoulder generally gives a more weighty, cinematic feel.

Noise at ISO 200? Who cares really. Real film has noise at that ISO too.

[Vesku]

I think you're being a bit overly critical Vesku. It does show exposure value, just not when changing ISO. But its not exactly rocket science to work out what your EV value will be as you change it.

GH4 doesnt show the current automatic value it uses. And yes sometimes automatic is usefull.

No DSLR-like camera except for the d750 and d810 can change aperture steplessly.

That is a big mystery because the aperture motor is stepless. How many years will pass before some brand actually makes that happen? Maybe Panasonic??

I've never seen problems with the AE/AF lock. What are you talking about?

You cant lock it and release it again during shooting like with other cameras. It would be very nice to stop AF during a clip and release it if subject moves etc...

Its got plenty of button options and saving options. More than most other DSLR-like cameras.

There are several very important functions which cannot assign to FN. Some less important can. Who decides which are important? There are completely useless buttons too.

Why are you using AF for video?

AFS is very usefull and more accurate than MF.

OIS is worse than other brands, but still much better than handholding. Lens stabilisation is kind of overrated anyway. Rigging the camera against your chest or shoulder generally gives a more weighty, cinematic feel.

No rig can remove micro-jitter. A decent OIS can.

I forgot the autoiso in M. Not rocket science but very very usefull.

​

[Inazuma]

GH4 doesnt show the current automatic value it uses. And yes sometimes automatic is usefull.

Settings > Custom > Dial Set > Exposure Comp On.

No rig can remove micro-jitter. 

What... That's the whole point of rigs