Upcoming Panasonic GH-4K

[CheungyDiver 53]

Hi Peter

 

You could down load in 4K just change the setting. Most of the footage except the end looks like less than HD never mind 4K.

 

Youtube uses 4K H264 compression . So its really 3840 x 2160 AKA ultraHD at best at the end of the fooatge.

 

GH4 should allow you to record full 4096 x 2160.

 

Good attempt though Edmond. No banding issues. The Youtube must have chewed up the resolution for most part of the footage. Only the last part from 0.26 the image looks very clear at HD. Can't wait to see more.

 

Cheers

David

[Nick Hope 151]

Phoebe Lu of Nauticam posted this on Eunjae's facebook and allowed me to share it:

 

"yes, we will have a dedicated GH4 housing coming soon, size and button layout will more or less the same but added new features like our latest vacuum alarm, handle bracket with minimal cost. And now we have glass dome port and both zoom and focus solutions available for option as well. As for the timeline, I m not sure at this moment but we are doing our best to catch up ASAP."

 

She also told me they have housings for the latest Ninja recorder and Shogun monitor under development now.

[Pete L 48]

The handle is a good idea & the housing really needs one.

Interested to see the glass dome & manual focus gears, I wonder what lens it suits.

 

I took my GH4 out yesterday & am happy to report no banding when shooting UHD 25fps @100mbps.

[edmond320 26]

Nick,

And Don't forget about the "Trigger" of the right handle !!! This is a must have item for the new GH4 housing as well !!

As I don't see Phoebe mentioned it, hope they add this just like the BMPCC housing.

I did a transplant of the trigger from my BMPCC to GH3 housing, absolutely wonderful !!!

 

Cheers

Edmond

[Pete L 48]

Do you have a photo of that Edmond?

[Pete L 48]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWgUv9Vtp1c&feature=youtu.be

A little bit of footage from my first outing yesterday.

[edmond320 26]

Hi Pete, for your reference of my BMPCC trigger transplant to GH3 housing.

[thetrickster 328]

I think the GH4 housing will answer a lot of issues with the NA-GH3, stability, trigger etc..

 

But I'm not sure if I could justify the expensive of upgrading thou.... I've already fitted the vacuum system to mine and from looking at the NA-A7R, which I'm told the NA-GH4 will feature similar improvements, travelling with it will be harder, as at the moment I can strip the housing off the tray with just two screws.

 

The trigger for me is the biggest benefit, why can't Nauticam release an add-on for the Flexitray to benefit all 'non trigger' housings... If only I had a 3D printer (and the skill to use one!)

 

Looking forward to seeing the housing - and this new glass dome - which I believe is 180mm, add the fact the focus knob - now that is something I could be interested in...

 

Talking about focusing - we need a focus ring for the 7-14mm, as I'm not sure about you, but I'll my 7-14mm at 7mm all the time, so the zoom ring I have is pretty irrelevant.

 

[video=youtube;kWQGvuk4AXw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWQGvuk4AXw

Edited May 26, 2014 by thetrickster

[Pete L 48]

If they are releasing a 180mm glass dome suitable for the 7-14mm plus a manual focus ring then I am a taker for sure!

I love the 7-14mm, a beautiful lens.

[Nick Hope 151]

Nice job on the videos Peter & Richard! Those are encouraging.

 

I have passed some feedback to Phoebe and asked her for a bit more information.

[matdiver1234 29]

thetrickster,

thanks a lot for posting that video. The colours looked great. Could you tell us how easy manual WB was please? Did you have a red filter in place and did you use a white slate/palm/surface of the water/some other method. I'm seriously interested in this cam, but I want to be sure about the ease of manual WB. It took me a while to get things sorted on my GH2.

 

Cheers,

Matt

[thetrickster 328]

White Balancing was done very easily using the sequence: WB Button, UP Button and then Shutter, while pointing at a Amphibico White Balance slate. It never gave me any issues from 3m to 20m. Really fast, accurate and no problems. Can't see it needing that slate - Im sure it will work with any - it won't be for a couple of weeks, but I my old PADI Photography slate somewhere - I can do some comparisons for you - if you can wait

 

Colours have been adjusted in FCPX as I'm purposely running the GH4 in STD with every turned down (-3,-3,-3,0) and then I have a Preset which I've created to bring up the colours in FCPX - I'm not spending any time playing with it scene by scene, adjusting this and that - literally I imported the first couple of clips, got them how I liked (Saturation, Constrast etc) and saved the preset and then applied it to all the clips - so not a big workflow issue. I do need to spend some time with the other colour profiles (CineV etc) and see how much difference they are - and see how the camera responds to have for example the saturation turned UP on the camera.. these will be for when I have a tripod so I can really get some good comparison shots. I do believe with a correct profile on the camera a good white balance, no NLE adjustments could be needed.

Adjustments:
Color: Global 0%; Shadows 3%; Midtones 16%; Highlights 0%
Saturation: Global 0%; Shadows -12%; Midtones 4%; Highlights 47%
Exposure: Global 0%; Shadows -30%; Midtones -13%; Highlights 0%

One thing I've played with and forgot to reset was master pedestal its set to +12 on the camera (doh) - hence the minus exposure / sat adjustments

 

Running 4K on my little 11" MacBook has been quite amazing too be honest (apart from the initial import and transcoding the proxies!!)

 

Below is a side by side of a ungraded vs graded frame. (if it helps)

[video=youtube;2fofPXkfOkQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fofPXkfOkQ

[Pete L 48]

I'm very surprised at how much colour information it captures for an 8bit 420 camera.

I havn't seen any banding yet & there is plenty of colour in the red Chanel for grading.

I am very excited about this camera so far.

[Nick Hope 151]

White Balancing was done very easily using the sequence: WB Button, UP Button and then Shutter, while pointing at a Amphibico White Balance slate. It never gave me any issues from 3m to 20m. Really fast, accurate and no problems. Can't see it needing that slate - Im sure it will work with any - it won't be for a couple of weeks, but I my old PADI Photography slate somewhere - I can do some comparisons for you - if you can wait

 

Try white balancing on the palm of your hand. Is that possible with your rig? You might be surprised. Check out the tests I did in 2007 with my Sony Z1.

 

Also, I find your graded footage rather red. Personally I would make it less red and more blue. But of course this is personal preference.

[thetrickster 328]

Yeah, it probably is too saturated in the Reds - I might blame my cheapie monitors at home when I edited at the weekend. Also the same preset was applied to all the clips - so some might be a lot shallower so the preset has blown the reds more on particular shots..

Here at work I agree... the Saturation is erm.. WOW.... LOL

 

This was my first go with it, so I'll let myself off for now, have plenty of time to refine how I use the camera and how I edit it. But again - really pleased.

 

Didn't try my hand, will do thou.

 

(Just had a look at your post - yeah the hand its a much nicer colour balance!)

Edited May 27, 2014 by thetrickster

[Nick Hope 151]

But of course the GH4 white balance behaviour may be very different from the old Sony Z1 white balance behaviour. Definitely worth a try. A big advantage of using the palm of the hand is that it's always with you and you usually know where it is.

[recd 7]

To those using the olympus 12-50, could I get by with it as my only lens initially?

 

I've only had a fixed lens/dome port before but attracted to the idea of being able to shot macro and wide angle on the one dive. Is this even possible. My limited experience with a still camera involved fitting a macro or a wideangle port before the dive.

 

thanks

[Nick Hope 151]

I've yet to see a single video clip from it, just stills, and I've been monitoring things pretty closely. It sits behind a flat port of course. I expect you might be rather frustrated with the limited field of view for "wide angle" dives, and I expect corner sharpness might not be good. I view it as a way to get "wideish" establishing shots on "primarily macro" dives. I stand to be corrected on these points, as I haven't used it yet.

[thetrickster 328]

Personally for me, before diving in, you have to make a choice...Macro, CFWA, WA and from there you select your lens for that dive. Anything other than this is a compromise, especially behind a flat port.

[Nick Hope 151]

I spoke too soon. Here's some macro with the Oly 12-50. Looks like it's all shot in macro mode though.

 

 

edit: Just realised it's Pete's

Edited May 30, 2014 by Nick Hope

[Pete L 48]

Haha, you beat me to it Nick, I was just about to post my video.

Yes I pretty much used it only the macro mode as that was my main goal for that dive. I wanted to see how well the macro setting worked.

It actually shoots pretty wide in that flat port & I will do some tests with that lens soon in a wider setting.

Pretty happy with the macro setting but I desperately want manual focus on this lens.

Cheers Pete.

[recd 7]

Thanks for the info. Was thinking it may limited 'wideish' establishing shot before the macro use but wondered how wideish that was.

 

On one dive last week I sawMantas, pigmy seahorses and a leaf fish. Maybe need to dive with 2 cameras.

 

Peter, great work.

[Pete L 48]

Thanks mate. I am actually using this 12-50mm again tomorrow at a site that offers both medium & macro shooting so will do some tests with a wider setting & see how wide I can go & how it looks.

I'll get something together after the weekend & post it up.

Cheers pete.

[ScubaBob 37]

I've yet to see a single video clip from it, just stills, and I've been monitoring things pretty closely. It sits behind a flat port of course. I expect you might be rather frustrated with the limited field of view for "wide angle" dives, and I expect corner sharpness might not be good. I view it as a way to get "wideish" establishing shots on "primarily macro" dives. I stand to be corrected on these points, as I haven't used it yet.

 

Nick - I have several clips on vimeo using the 12-50mm exclusively:

https://vimeo.com/67626406

[Nick Hope 151]

Thanks Bob. Having watched those, I think it's probably OK for wide static shots but a bit strange for moving shots because of the inherent distortion of wide angle behind a flat port.