Ultra HD recording (4K) was just as important as still photography at the launch of Panasonic’s new mirrorless camera, the Lumix GH4, in Sydney yesterday.
Presentations were divided equally between the camera’s photographic and video capabilities, in a bid to impress both professional filmmakers and photographers.
With good reason too, as the GH4 is the world’s first DSLR camera that offers 4K video recording and is a new benchmark in Panasonic’s commitment to provide a complete 4K product solution from capture, through production, to viewing.
Filming in 4K offers certain advantages, at four-times the resolution of Full-HD, the resolution is high enough to correct footage when editing, by cropping, stabilising or straightening the horizon, and an eight megapixel still image can be exported from video.
The camera is geared towards a professional market, but the price point RRP $1,999 for just the camera body, makes it an attractive option for semi-professionals considering the number of features packed into the lightweight body.
The size and weight of the camera make it appealing for independent filmmakers, documentary makers or photo/video journalists who need to be mobile in the field without sacrificing quality. In fact, size maybe one of the camera’s disadvantages, with talent being filmed not believing such a small form factor could produce professional footage.
Photographer Ken Duncan was on hand at the launch to talk about his experience shooting with the GH4 in the Kimberley, during the filming of his new TV series Chasing the Light with Ken Duncan. According to Duncan, the splash and dust-proof camera more than proved itself during the wet season in Australia’s top end and was able to withstand hours of baking heat while recording timelapses.
For photographers the GH4 produces high quality stills. Key features of its still imaging performance include high-speed burst shooting at 12 frames per second at full resolution, supported by 40-shot buffer for RAW images, and a 2.3 million dot Live View Finder and newly developed dual OLED displays for reviewing images and video.
The GH4 also has nifty focusing features, by selecting parts of the grid displayed on the viewfinder users can autofocus in blocks or horizontal or vertical lines. It also includes face detection and eye detection for portrait shooting.
The shutter has been designed to for a lifespan of up to 200,000 releases, a useful feature for a wedding photographers who often take more than 1000 pictures per job.
The Wi-Fi connectivity has been enhanced with NFC for simple pairing with a smartphone or tablet and a powerful GN58 External Flash and a shotgun microphone can be plugged directly into the body.
The interface unit allows for high performance when connecting to professional external monitors and recorders and Panasonic has also announced the Gold Series SDUC Cards to support the 4K recording.
The GH4 will be available early May, 2014 in the following kits:
Body only (DMC-GH4GN-K): RRP $1,999
Single kit with 12-35mm F2.8 lens (DMC-GH4AGN-K): RRP $2,999
Body with Interface Unit for professional workflow (AG-GH4UEN): RRP $3,999
Interface Unit for professional workflow (AG-YAGHY): RRP: $2,649
