On Friday (Feb 7) at 5-6am London time Panasonic will announce their first Micro Four Thirds 4K camera. This is basically a GH3 with optimized sensor for 4K recording. This means it has a faster processor, better heating dispersion and same still iamge quality. Some specs already leaked ahead of the announcement:
– New 16 Megapixel sensor optimized for 4K recording
– 2,36 million dot OLED EVF
– 200Mps and ALL-I intra mode recording (4K)
– Price less than $2,000 (final price to be determined). – 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)
So after the 3D hype we will now enter the 4k hype. Will 4K succeed or fail just like 3D did?
6 Responses
Ale, are there any rumours about still performance improvements ? The GH3 delivers all the video I need but it would be nice to get a bit better still performance. By the way thanks for all the work you do on the site
They are saying that still IQ is not improved.
My only interest is using stills pulled from 4K clips for photojournalism.
For me 4K would (I guess), eliminate the need to shoot a still during video.
My first concern is my computer hardware and software capabilities.
Do I have enough memory and a fast enough processer (i5 at present).
How many GB’s would a 20 minute 30 or 60 fps 4K video be vs. 1080P?
And what would be the required time to render such a 4K video vs. 1080P?
Panasonic would have to sell me on these issues First before selling me their camera.
I am not very sure you can get what you want. Resolution isn´t the magic solution to print good copies from footage. Anyway, for me too much “K”. I´ll stick with Full HD or maybe in the future could test Blackmagic 2.5 K, but at present I am satisfied with the results I get.
I would think wedding guys would like 4k. You could essentially be the videographer/photographer for the wedding now. Just take the video and pull the stills from it later.
Also, have you guys seen 4k video? Holy crap it’s nice.
4k is not “hype” and not even close. Considering most cinema still projects 8k digital images with some 4k, you can flatly deny that 4k is merely “hype”.
With cheaper options to produce video at the same resolution as the rest of your production chain, 4k support will make the devices a possible choice in use by a broader audience.
That said, I think a 4k GoPro would be a much more significant product given the way most production companies for, say, “reality” shows are now using GoPros for production footage from odd/dangerous locations.