Image courtesy: Photographybay.
I got some G4K info from different sources:
– G4K has focus peaking
– There is an attachable XLR adapter
– H264 codec all intra that give 422 color all intra in 100 mbps. To record this you will need to buy the new P2 Micro card in SD shape made by Panasonic (see image on top)
– it will be switch-able from 4K and 1080P with various frame rates (can shoot 120fps at 1080P for example)
Announcement on Friday Feb 7 at 4-5am London time. As usual follow the event live on 43rumors !
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96 Responses
Okay, I use my GH3 for all my video work constantly and THIS just became a must buy…
1080P@120??? Fuck yeah!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
4k, focus peaking & 1080 120p… this is gonna be hot!
Focus peaking – yes! And good riddance to AVCHD. This is sounding good.
Focus peaking works in video mode?
I would assume so! Would be a huge oversight to not have that too in a video focussed camera, especially as there are already Panasonic m4/3 cameras that can do it.
No, it works only with the camera turned off…. duh…
Jackass, not all M4/3 cameras (panasonic or olympus) support peaking in both stills and video mode so don’t think that you know better.
No more AVCHD, that’s fantastic!
We need more industry standard and not proprietary stuff that is not supported by all.
Why does 12.5 megabytes per second require a special memory card?
(Admin, your captcha system is broken, by the way.)
Because U1 (class10) is only rated 10MB/s minimum. U3 is 30.
WRITE that is, not the READ that cards are always happy labeling.
But yeah some of the more expensive U1/class10 cards are already writing 30+MB/s, there just wasn’t any official label for it yet!
I’ve benchmarked most Samsung Extreme (not even Extreme Pro) SDs at 18MB/s.
And there’s a lot of lexars running over the 16MB/s barrier…
And most people in personal-view have patched their GH2s to 170Mbs hacks on Sandisks Extremes, so I don’t understand what’s all this need for special cards.
It’s about the *minimum* write rate that you’ll *permanently* get with these cards, not the maximum speed that a card is able to achieve. Yes, your Samsung/Lexar/whatever branded card may reach 18 mb/s at peak, but that’s worth nothing if it can’t hold that speed permanently, as even the slightest drop below the required speed will cause the camera to stop recording.
What the hell?
CF cards can happily sustain 60-80 MB/s write (yes, megaBYTES per second, not megaBITS), and I’ll be damned if I haven’t read somewhere about a 120 MB/s card the other day.
I admit I’ve been out of the loop for a while, but I thought that even such an amateur toy standard such as SD would be able to perform on the level of CF from 2005.
Oh man, you SD people really have to tolerate a lot.
“I’ve benchmarked most Samsung Extreme (not even Extreme Pro) SDs at 18MB/s.”
Don’t you mean SanDisk?
No. I did meant Samsungs equivalents to Sandisk Extreme.
They have a fast (24MB/s) and a Pro line (48?MB/s).
Have you not realised it’s a Panasonic card!!!!!
Yeah this new P2 micro card requirement is BS on Panasonic’s part, UHS-1 cards can do 100Mbps minimum easy and most will also do 200Mbps minimum too, U1 cards can already reach and even surpasses this U3 designation but are still labeled U1 because U3 is a newly defined speed class for UHS. I hope this article is mistaken and we can also use normal UHS-1 cards.
I heard the P2 micro cards are needed for uncompressed 422 10bit but I also heard 10bit only works for HDSDI out, then I heard the P2 micro cards are only needed for 4K 200Mbps which is still nothing a decent UHS-1 U1 card can’t do; so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I assume these P2 micro cards will only work in Panasonic cameras (and only this GH 4K to start) so if they are forcing us to buy their rebranded UHS-1 cards then at least I hope they are the same price if not cheaper than Sandisk and Toshiba’s offerings but I would be ok buying a proprietary card that only works in one camera if it was cheaper than a “universal” UHS-1.
Is 120 fps the highest? Was hoping for 240 or 400 fps even at 720p, there is always Granjow for slow motion…
http://slowmovideo.granjow.net/index.html
Interesting….. how does this compare to other alternatives, such as Twixtor?
it’s free and quite easy to learn and no need to have an editing suite so twice as free 🙂
its good for climax scene when making adult movie.
You would be surprised…
120 is plenty. We don’t even officially have that yet. I’d be surprised if this camera does include 120fps at 1080p. That is 5X slow motion over 24fps and 4X over 30fps. Anything more than that, just rent a specialty camera like a Phantom for those shots.
120fps at 1080p – now if only it had Olympus’s video stabilisation I’d buy it in a heartbeat!
@Farrukh
120fps at 1080p will look quite stablised if you and the camera are moving at normal speed anyway…
Good point. Though I’ll wait to see some footage before jumping in 🙂
not if you playback at 120fps…
And yes 60fps is way amoother than 30fps and 120fps starts to look liquid 😀
Why anyone is even looking at 24p in this day and age I have no idea!
very appealing.
Still sound to good to be true 🙂
oh, i want to cry. When I m happy I always cry! 120 fps!!!
AVCHD. You will not be missed.
+1
Whoa! Now video people are gonna take notice. If this is true this is will be the ultimate cinema cam. I suppose Panny is going to make money on the cards. The feature set seems to blast it past the whole pack. If the image is strong with good DR then it’s a win. The DR needs to be good or people will talk themselves back into unneeded RAW workflows.
If this is indeed 4:2:2 10 bit at 4K with good dynamic range it definitely get the attention of indie filmmakers. A global shutter would also be nice but that might be asking too much and I seriously doubt it.
120fps 1080p would be great. That is 5X slow motion over 24fps.
But it will all depend on image quality. Look at the Alexa, it is not a 4K camera yet it is preferred by many filmmakers even over a 5K Red Epic because of it’s film-like image. I seriously doubt the GH4K will look anything like it, But ideally that’s what most of us want.
It won’t be the “ultimate” cinema cam. I can think of a dozen reasons why RED/Arri Alexa/Sony F-series/new Varicam are better. You also need to drop a ton of money on a proper set up for those cameras.
But under $10k? It will trounce the competition in that price bracket. The only major thing that would make it better would be to stick it in a body similar to the new PX-270… but I think I could deal with it =)
Is its name now G4K and not GH4K?
Lol, didn’t even notice. I guess admin needs coffee.
oh yay… soo happy, just read the bit about it being 120fps! 😀
(I wonder if it will be able to do 720p too? For even higher frame rates…. 😛 )
@Admin
are you thinking Panasonic and others will announce new lenses on Friday also?
Yes. FT 0:
1) 135mm F2.0
2) 200mm F2.8
Like Minolta did it 35 years ago!
But in a much more compact size for MFT.
means also the gh3 goes down to 499,- hmm..nice? not?
I wish….. I’d pick one up in a heartbeat. With the new cam costing close to $2,000 I don’t see that happening any time soon. But one can dream…..
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!
@admin: check out this picture which is meant to be of the GH4K:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=791869604160783&set=a.706134859400925.1073741830.641486265865785&type=1&theater
But hasn’t Panasonic displayed the camera earlier in CES? I don’t think it’s s mystery BUT I do think it may be slightly different since at CES it looked exactly like the GH3, it didn’t seem to have the design changes for better heat dissipation.
It was stated many times by Panasonic that the camera on display was just a “placeholder” for the real camera. The demo model was a GH3 with a sticker on the label, not the real camera. But I am sure they will look very similar.
cool!!!!!
422 and 120fps 1080p with 4k thrown in for good measure! This is going to be GREAT!!!!!!
Yes, I agree, what is interesting is the way this GH4K camera ups the features for 1080p…..with 4K as something I might play with from time to time.
Wouldn’t mind having zebras for video exposure monitoring and I certainly would like this GH4K to have a new multi-aspect sensor….please.
I’m hoping for a multi-aspect sensor as well. We do know that at least it will be a Panasonic Sensor and not a Sony sensor like the GH3 was.
You are going to need another $1K for 2 x 64 GB microP2 + a card reader. : )
I don’t buy the P2 only spec. Why would Panasonic announce fast SD cards in parallel with the GH4K at CES if this thing will only run on P2 media. Highly doubtful me thinks.
43 world – here i come!
I often find the “square with split image inside” better than focus peaking.
At the moment, you get that with Canons + Magic Lantern and I believe with some new Fuji.
43 is a crippled format, so they should work on “innovations” like this much harder to justify the prices.
I don’t often respond to comments like yours, but what is crippled about m4/3rds? Weight? Size? Features? Practical I.Q.? None of the above. Each format has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on photographic goals.
Really, go out and try, you will learn why M43 is crippled. If you set the bar low, fine, but then why do you pay the price?
What bar…. so I assume you are shooting 8k @ 120fps HDR footage in 3D or is your bar too low… Its not unachivable… because I know a man who does!
This theoretical Broadcast quality or bar – makes me cringe… All I have known is PRO formats to come and go to be replaced by something in just a couple of yrs… Even without seeing any samples I can easly say The IQ of the GH4K will be good – good enough to use where ever you need it… evon comercial use – no client is gonna run you in because the codec is not 444 or the alising is just not so – as long as your production is good the camera wont let you down.
>>I often find the “square with split image inside” better than focus peaking.
>
Are you kidding??
1. The 4x superimposed square is completely useless for focusing in the EVF of my GH3, and about 98% useless when viewed on the LCD screen. It simply does not have enough res to even help you make a decent Guess where focus is. Had it been implemented with the equivalent res of the full screen 5x assist, it would have been very useful.
I complained loudly to Pana about this, and am always amazed that nearly no one on the web brings up the issue. Most probably assume it’s the fault of the lousy eyepiece optic so don’t even mess w/ the 4x assist square. But this fault is not because of the poor eyepiece, it’s probably lack of processing pwr available, as the EVF is being pushed to do 2 addtl tasks at once (superimpose + magnify).
2. And of course magnified focus assist is not available while recording video.
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Ok, so peaking will finally be available on the GH4. Wll it be implemented well, or half-assed? Sorry to be blunt, but for a 4K camera, getting critical focus will be that much More critical.
Will the EVF be done well (as in WAY, way better than GH3’s), or half-assed?
I hope Pana has some Good surprises for us, this time.
I believe you, it gets better with Magic Lantern but you need… ehm… a Canon.
We need to get out of “marketing by numbers” or “marketing by feature check” and see if stuff is implemented properly instead. To me, proper focus control is all, and no mirrorless does it yet. A reflex with large sensor and ground glass does better but we are far from the excellent ground glasses from the Eighties. This is why, aside of all bell and whistles, today’s cameras are all a bit crippled. Some call it “progress”, some call it more cynical names 🙂
This is why cameras need live HDMI out during recording, so you can do all this on an external monitor that they missed out from including in the camera itself.
Glad I skipped the GH3 because it had –
– terrible viewfinder
– non broadcast codec
– no focus peaking
and if the rumour is true, then I’ll definitely fork out for the GH4 if it has –
– high quality viewfinder
– broadcast codec 50+ mbps and 422 colour
– focus peaking
LOL, this means Canon C300 had also no “broadcasting codec”. And it is one of the most used camera today. You are totally wrong, the minimum quality accepted for broadcasting is 50 MB/sec 8 bit 4:2:0.
Although you are right about the lack of focus peeking and the terrible viewfinder, man can always attach those optional. There are plenty of external screens with peeking etc.
So, GH3 is great camera, but GH4 shall be greater!
Sorry, 50 Mb/sec not MB/sec 🙂
Read 2.2.1
https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/r/r132.pdf
In Europe/ Australia etc – You’ll find that sub-sampling standard for broadcast acquisition is 4.2.2
Wish it was 4.2.0 but not so!
Canon’s C300 XF codec is 4.2.2
that’s one of the reasons it qualifies for HD broadcast acquisition.
From Canon’s website
“With 4:2:2 color sampling, EOS C300 image files have double the vertical resolution of color components created with 4:2:0 color sampling, minimizing jagged edges between red and blue channels and ensuring ample quality for chroma key compositing with green screens.”
Also here-
http://www.canon.co.uk/About_Us/Press_Centre/Press_Releases/Consumer_News/Digital_Cinema/EOS_C300_receives_coveted_broadcaster_approval.aspx
“MPEG-2 Full HD (MPEG2 422@HL compliant) compression and 50 Mbps recording rate….”
Needs H.265 codec for 4K video. As it hasn’t it will be just a clunky 4K prototype
H.265 is a delivery format, not an acquisition codec… Troll much??
Yeah well that’s pretty much said about every mpeg codec and yet they still use them for acquisition unfortunately.
So is JPEG!
Cameras should save TIFF/PNGs and RAW…
FCUK JPEGs!
OK, 120fps 1080p rocks.
(Even 120fps 720p rocks when available!)
I wonder if it offers 240fps at 720p…
Ohhh the coolness!
Powerful machine. Especially if they are able to do full-sensor readout at least at 1080p30. Panasonic goes after Canon and Sony pro equipment.
120fps… man… Apparently Panasonic woke up and realized we are infact ‘their base’. I use GH3s across my company for all projects. Can’t wait to pick this up if these rumors are true!
That’s only if your company is willing to fork out the 2K for it!
Unless his company is doing extremely poorly, 2K is very little to ask for…
Sounds like a charm, hopefully it will get the gx7 sensor then the look will be fine…. didnt like the sony sensor in gh3..
Nice, This is looking good.
is it sexy like G6? 1080p 120fps is awesome.
If all these rumors turn out to be true, it looks more and more like this is going to be an instant buy. Goodbye GF-2. You served me well.
Don’t bad mouth the GF-2. There is a slight difference in price between the two cams.
I must admit, 1080p/120 is great for now, but will be looking obsolete in a couple of years once 4k hits mainstream. Prefer to wait for the same framerate at 4k resolution. A 4:4:4 codec with global shutter would be ideal.
Sounds like you’ll always be waiting!!
As there is always something else just around the corner….. once what you’re waiting for now arrives, there will be something else new and flashy you’ll want instead.
Well 8K is in existance and specs 120fps @ 8k … 4:4:4… That’ll Be fun 🙂
I don’t know why everyone is cheering for removing AVCHD. This forces windows users to reencode through apples horrible 32bit wrapper for windows… It’s not a great workflow for us. I’ll be avoiding this camera if it’s true.
Oh well, can’t win ’em all.
Windows users only have themselves to blame for the headaches they encounter.
We actually have Apple to blame for making a horrible proprietary wrapper to work with their videos. They deliberately gimped it on windows as to entice people in to purchasing a PC with an Apple logo on it for an extra $1,000. Other than that, my PC works flawlessly with the AVCHD that I use on my GH3. No complaints.
The second part of the title is incorrect. So don’t worry.
Thought so 🙂
Btw, while the headline the other day claimed No Improvement in Stills, assuming the EVF has been vastly improved over the GH3, that alone would make it about 100% better for stills, too.
Well said. Totally agree!
No AVCHD but I think it will have AVC-Intra/Ultra, that what I think
Long before most of people commenting here started video shooting with DSLR, I was using a Panasonic HVX200 with a Letus 35mm adapter to get that film look for the film making course I am teaching.
Check it here: https://vimeo.com/12316839
Dysfunction
https://vimeo.com/50420150
The camera cost me about 6000 USD at that time, but the real pain was the P2 card: 1200 USD for 16GB, less than 1 hour recording in full HD… For shooting event, we needed at least 3 cards… 2 in the cam while the third one was backed up in a computer by an assistant.
How much will be the new Panasonic P2 SD card?
This is a proprietary format, a technology from Panasonic, which means no competition… if the camera is 2000 USD, I guess the card might be around 300 USD. And will we might need a specific card reader for it?
Yhe original P2 card 60GB back-up/reader unit costed me 2000 USD…
Any information about that?
A great Camera is something, but a great workflow is what make the camera workable.
The card in the picture and the card displayed with the GH4K is not a MicroP2 card, but just an unreleased next generation fast SDXC card. I don’t know where the admin got the MicroP2 from.
Here is the already shipping MicroP2: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/963983-REG/panasonic_aj_p2m064ag_64gb_microp2_fast_memory.html
And the new SDXC card: http://www.photographybay.com/2014/01/09/panasonic-shows-prototype-high-speed-sdxc-card-for-use-with-4k-lumix-camera/
Yeah hopefully it’s not a necessary and overpriced proprietary format. I’ll wait to see what the reviews say, if it’s gonna cost me and extra grand or two in special cards and card readers then I might get a mk3 with magic lantern and hold off to see what high speed offerings are around.
I’m excited about this camera not because of the 4K (200Mbps h.264 intra sound 4x too slow), not the 1080p120fps (I have little use for anything over 1080p60) or the XLR and HDSDI connections (I’ve already converted to TRS and HDMI) what I am excited about is its full sensor scan readout for video!
Similar to the GX7 and GM1 but finally an acquisition quality 10bit 4:2:2 capture/output. This makes the GH3 look like a failed experiment, which is saying a lot.