Cameras

First Impressions: Panasonic GH4

Chris Gampat
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02/06/2014
4 Mins read

Last Updated on 02/07/2014 by Julius Motal

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s been rumored for a while now, and Panasonic is announcing the brand new GH4 just in time for CP+. The new camera is the company’s flagship and is said to live above the GH3, but is not a direct replacement to it. On that note, the GH3 will continue to be sold. During our short briefing time with Panasonic, we learned about the heavy emphasis that the company is putting on video output with the latest offering. But overall, it so far seems like only minor improvements were added to the already pretty darned good GH3. And by minor, we’re talking about a brand new sensor and a couple of features that should have been included in the first place.

Think of this almost as the upgrade from the Canon 5D Mk II to the Mk III, but with less ergonomic changes. Except that with this one, they’re targeting it at Pros and enthusiasts.

Tech Specs

– Brand new 16.05 Micro Four Thirds sensor

– 4K Video output in MOV or MP4. Resolution is 3840 x 2160 or 4096 x 2160. 100mb/s or 200mb/s video recording

– 4:2:0 to the SD card, 4:2:2 otherwise

– NFC, Wifi capabilities

– 1/8000 shutter speed

– OLED viewfinder

– 2360K Dot viewfinder

– Splash and dust proof with a magnesium alloy body

– Venus 9 engine

– Contrast AF and a new focusing type called DFD. New focusing isn’t as fast as Olympus or Sony

– Focus peaking

– 3 inch LCD screen with 1040K Dots

– Bulb mode of up to 60 mins

– FHD 60P readout

Ergonomics

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

For the most part, the Panasonic GH4 looks and acts identically to the GH3. And with that said, there are very few buttons on the front of the camera.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The top of the camera is where the user will find lots of action and control. Here is where you can see a mode dial, shutter control, function 1, and drive dial. Plus you’ll see the pop-up flash and the hot shoe.

Additionally, you can adjust ISO, white balance and exposure compensation here.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The back is where you’ll find even more controls. The playback button, various functions, other control dials, menu buttons, and video record button are all here. Plus this is where you’ll find the EVF and the LCD screen.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Panasonic’s LCD screen swivels as opposed to the tilting option offered by Olympus. This can be of great use to many photographers in awkward standing positions.

Build Quality

The overall build quality of the GH4 feels solid, just like the GH3. Panasonic spent maybe a good seven minutes talking about the weather sealing and durability though. There are lots of seals all over the camera, but it’s not clear if there are more than the GH3. I’d hope that there are.

Autofocus

Panasonic talked about improvements in the autofocus, and for the most part, we saw only slight improvements in the real life situation that they presented. However, we saw a pre-production unit and that may be the issue. We suspect that the algorithms will work best with Panasonic lenses.

Ease of Use

The Panasonic GH4 seems ergonomically identical to the GH3 and with that said we want to warn potential buyers that there are buttons all over the camera. While this will make it easier for you to customize it to your liking it can also make things a bit complicated. We recommend spending a lot of time with it and gaining the muscle memory.

Image Quality

Since we held a pre-production unit (and it was a very pre-production camera) we weren’t able to put a card inside to record images. But we were able to see prints and video. Both looked very good despite the fact that they were shot in auto mode. They showed us comparisons and the new sensor seems to be able to get more detail out of the highlights than the sensor in the Olympus EM1.

Again though, this was their own test. We’ll have to test that one out for ourselves.

First Impressions

In truth, we only got to spend around six minutes with the camera towards the end of the meeting until we had to run to another one. Panasonic’s GH4 seems impressive on paper, but we still don’t know the price and availability as of this post. The company expects to make an announcement in Mid-March.

Ergonomically, we’re not expecting much different than the GH3. Where we’re really going to test the camera is in the video, photo, and autofocusing abilities. But we’re still waiting on our review unit.

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autofocus camera cp+ ergonomics first impressions gh4 image quality panasonic
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.