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5 reasons the Olympus E-M1 will NOT get 4K video!


Andrew Reid
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OM-D E-M1

Sometimes the rumour mill is just so outrageous. I am not talking about the site admins (don't shoot the messenger - they do a great job) but rather some of the sources who feed absolutely made up information. You may have heard the rumours of the Olympus E-M1 getting a 4K video firmware update, but 4K video on the E-M1 is a technical impossibility and here's why...

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Sometimes I think these sources are also disinformation agents.

 

Also fanboys with a lot of wishful thinking (see all the FF rumours from Olympus/Fujifilm/Pentax).

 

Also to add on point #1: The E-M1 already heats up in an extended stills session that leaves the camera on all the time. The GH3/4 are just about the only mirrorless cameras that I've used that remain cool after prolonged use.

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Good to hear your thoughts on this one, Andrew. I have been excited by this camera as a potential video tool ever since seeing your review on it. I film weddings for a living and that IBIS... wow, so many occasions over the last few years when I would have got better shots more quickly with that. A little fedup of the rigs and z-finders and plates... handheld would be so much more fun and unobtrusive when I'm not mounted on sticks.

 

I don't believe 4K is possible either, but the rapidly turning mill makes me excited that 24/25p and a codec (that might deliver an image akin to what the GH3 does...) might be probable.

 

Thanks for all your great work on the site.

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This is from Olympus' official youtube channel related to the E-P5 getting higher frame rates in 720p.  Don't know if it is for real or not, as it was published in July and I haven't seen it yet.

 

The video examples shown in the clip were shot on the E-P5?  I'm not so sure as mine get blocky when shooting wide depth of field with lots of detail or movement.

 

http://youtu.be/cVZABJ-lzeA

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I agree that this particular rumor is a bit silly, but I can understand the tendency of enthusiasts to imagine such a thing is possible.  We're all well aware that manufacturers deliberately throttle back their hardware.  Combine this knowledge with exact ignorance of the technical capabilities, and the wishful thinking is actually kinda rational.

 

I, for one, am curious why the GX7, for instance, cannot handle RAW bursts larger than 1080 that last a handful of seconds.  Why exactly couldn't it shoot 10 seconds of 4592x3448 with a firmware hack or update?  

 

For that matter, why couldn't the EM1?  I mean, that's sort of a version of 4K.  A cheap Nikon can burst hi-res raw, but flagship models from the major camera brands can't?  Seems weirdly unreasonable, even if it's somehow the reality of the sensor capabilities.

 

Maybe there's an obvious explanation, but it's not readily available without some tenacious digging into on-line info.  Or, perhaps someone here knows exactly why.  Point is, there's a pretty big gray area.  And developer groups like Magic Lantern have delved into those darker shades and illuminated new possibilities...so it's easy to hope for better things with a simple installation of new code.

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Guest Ebrahim Saadawi

Andrew: Third point in incorrect I believe. The Panasonic Sensor in the GH4 and EM1 does support higher frame rates in the official product specifications. 240p and 481p modes. 

The same sensor is capturing 4K video on the GH4 so I don't think it's too impossible it could do too on the EM1. Perhaps with he IBIS off due to heat? Or even maybe that specific sensor produces the same amount of heat in 1080p as is 4K? I haven't noticed the GH4 getting warmer quicker in 4K mode certainly. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/207332069/Panasonic-MN34230-PL-m43-CMOS-Sensor-GH4-EM1

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I, for one, am curious why the GX7, for instance, cannot handle RAW bursts larger than 1080 that last a handful of seconds.  Why exactly couldn't it shoot 10 seconds of 4592x3448 with a firmware hack or update?  

 

For that matter, why couldn't the EM1?  I mean, that's sort of a version of 4K.  A cheap Nikon can burst hi-res raw, but flagship models from the major camera brands can't?  Seems weirdly unreasonable, even if it's somehow the reality of the sensor capabilities.

It's the way sensor readout works. The Nikon 1 Aptina sensors are optimised for speed, so suffer in other areas.

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A cheap Nikon can burst hi-res raw, but flagship models from the major camera brands can't?  Seems weirdly unreasonable, even if it's somehow the reality of the sensor capabilities.

 

The difference is that the Nikon has a smaller sensor (1" - half of the surface of a Micro Four Thirds Sensor, a fourth of the surface of an APS-C sensor, and an eighth of the surface of a full frame sensor) that needs less cooling. And that the whole Nikon 1 camera line has been designed around high computational speed (for better point and shoot, at the expense of manual operation). 

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One thing I'm not reading anywhere, that probably makes it impossible to handle 4K, is that it doesn't support UHS-3 speed SD Cards. Or does it?
If the conditions were right though, I don't render the impossibility of a 4K firmware update. Sony has done it.
From a business POV, it would be interesting to keep an older model alive by introducing a "in vogue" feature that would possible attract many customers that wasn't even considering it to begin with.
Take me for example, I'm going to invest in a Gh4 later this month. But if, let's say, Fujifilm decided to give the X-T1 a 4K update, I'd buy it instead... in a heartbeat. Wouldn't you?

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