Here’s the first footage, from Hot Rod Cameras (follow on Facebook here) shot with a beta-firmware GH4 in V-LOG. The update is coming out later, but first we have V2.2 to look forward to almost immediately.
This brings anamorphic support in 24p and more.
Say Panasonic:
“Anamorphic lenses are used to create a cinemascope aspect such as 2.39:1 or 2.35:1. Panasonic discovered that cinematographers had been experimenting with the 4K PHOTO mode 4:3 aspect ratio in the LUMIX GH4 and vintage anamorphic cine lenses to achieve the classic Hollywood look of anamorphic film capture. Unlike complex digital post processing needed to achieve the look, many of the background distortion and light flare effects that became so popular with anamorphic film capture can now be achieved optically in the LUMIX GH4.”
This is fantastic news for anamorphic lens users, and proof that Panasonic listen directly to filmmakers including this community at EOSHD.
You can visit the EOSHD Anamorphic Forum to find out more about shooting in anamorphic or read the EOSHD Anamorphic Shooter’s Guide for anamorphic lens buying advice, editing and shooting techniques. I am proud to say these are the biggest anamorphic filmmaking resources available on the internet.
Here are the Cineovision anamorphic lenses used by Hot Rod Cameras to shoot the test footage.
The GH4 will now capture 3356 x 2496 in 24p. In addition this 4:3 aspect ratio will be output via 10bit 4:2:2 HDMI to an external recorder.
However as HDMI is limited to the 4K spec, vertical resolution is limited to 2160 pixels in this mode and black bars will be recorded at the sides of the 16:9 image. Your content (2880Ă—2160) will still be 4:3 though and you can then de-squeeze in post to cinemascope and simply discard the sides.
If shooting internally the full 2496 pixel vertical resolution advantage of the anamorphic mode will be captured to 100Mbit/s MP4 files.
In addition, the new firmware adds a high shutter speed of 1/16,000 when using electronic shutter mode for stills.
The GH4 Firmware update version 2.2 will be available shortly from http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/
