Can the GH4 shoot 48fps without converting to 24fps?

[thetimecode]

Can the GH4 shoot 48fps without converting to 24fps or 30fps? I would like to be able to shoot 48fps and export at 48fps with audio. Is this possible? and if so how?

[jcs]

The closest you can get is 50fps:

1. Go to Menu/Wrench-Symbol/System Frequency (page 5/6), set 50Hz (PAL), then power cycle camera.
2. Go to Menu/Camera-Symbol/Rec Quality and select FHD 100M | 50p.
3. Record footage- slow steady pans are helpful to judge motion cadence.
4. In your NLE, create a new sequence/timeline at 50fps.
5. Add 50p clips and render to check motion (a fast computer+GPU can render in real-time smoothly. If not fast enough, render to disk).

Premiere Pro, for example, doesn't support a 48fps sequence. 50fps is the closest.

if your goal is to get exactly 48fps playback a la 'The Hobbit', you can render out the 50p sequence and bring into After Effects (or similar tool), and Conform to 48fps and using Audition, rate stretch with pitch preservation the audio to match the video.

If your goal is 2x slomo, you can place the 50fps clip in a 24fps sequence and set Speed/Duration to 24/50 = 48% (you can also preserve pitch; Audition/Pro Tools etc. have better audio quality vs. Premiere Pro). Enabling Frame Blend might also help. Check slow pans to see if motion cadence is acceptable.

You can do 2.5x slomo by shooting at 60p and dropping the clip into a 24fps sequence, setting Speed/Duration to 24/60 = 40%. 60p also provides audio on the GH4 (when not using VFR mode). So you can switch between audio at normal speed and slomo at will in post (and either preserve pitch or not for audio).