Monday
Mar102014
Panasonic GH4 Available for Pre-order
Monday, March 10, 2014 at 12:16AM 
The Panasonic DMC-GH4, also known as the “GH4K” for its ability to record 4K video, is available for pre-order at B&H for $1,700. UPDATE: And now Amazon as well.
The YAGH breakout box is $2,000. UPDATE: Also at Amazon.
A bundle of the two is $3,300, which saves you $400.
I ordered the body only. The price for the breakout box is reasonable, but what I love about this camera is that it obeys Wingrove’s Law.
The camera is said to ship in late April, the YAGH in late June, the bundle in late May.
Reader Comments (8)
Um, I thought it could put out 10-bit 4:2:2 externally but only record 8 bit 4:2:0 internally therefore failing to obey Wingrove's law. Did I miss something?
On the plus side, high bit rate 4:2:0 UHD should down-sample to absolutely kick ass 4:4:4 1080p.
Radio receiver for the boom mic on the hot shoe, sadly into crappy 3.5 mm jacks but no worse than my Scarlet, and we're looking at an absolutely kick-ass B/action cam. If the autofocus is good enough to use it as a one man band on a light gimbal rig, my happiness will be complete.
Which will give me even fewer excuses to hang around on camera tech websites when I should be writing more screenplays and shooting!
1-chip Bayer data is basically 4:2:0 to begin with—4:2:2 or 4:4:4 are just higher levels of interpolation... More importantly, if you can tell the difference between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 4K at a normal viewing distance, you might be a spy satellite.
I was pretty skeptical when I heard about 4K from M43, but the footage from this camera looks amazing. I can't wait to give a try.
And if you scale the 4K down to HD, you're effectively making 4:4:4 HD.
Still, point taken Hywel—there is something this camera shoots that it can't record, so it doesn't quite comply with Wingrove's Law. Maybe what I should have said is that I like the capabilities of this camera that fall within Wingrove's law.
Oh, and thanks to PluralEyes, I wouldn't bother tethering any audio to this camera.
Stu could you explain a bit how scaling the footage down makes it similar to 4:4:4 I'm a bit confused. Also can I use any of my canon glass on this? Or would I be better off getting Panasonic glass
In 4:2:0 footage, the color information is essentially half-res, or 2048x1080. That's more than 1920x1080. So scaling down the image (in the RGB domain) makes new pixels that each have distinct chroma. That's 4:4:4. It can also increase the bit-depth of the luminance information.
Canon glass will require an adapter. I seriously hope there will be a speedbooster option soon. I'll probably (re-)buy the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 to have a super compact option as well.
preordered my gh4 also!
this will be my first micro 4/3rds
besides the 20mm f1.4, any suggestions for lenses, stu?
on my canon i regularly use 17-55 f2.8 and 70-200 f.8
hoping to put together a similar kit for the gh4 (if possible)
i'm more concerned about wide lenses (14mm to 24mm) than telephoto, due to the crop factor…
Note on caution on the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7: it's a very nice lens, optically, but I didn't like the focus-by-wire system at all (it seems to have a mind of its own, probably because the relation between ring rotation and change of focusing distance is not linear and is changed with some lag). Nice for stills, a pain to use for video.
Good advice, thanks Samuel!