Panasonic DMC-GH4EB-K Compact System Camera (Body Only)

Product Information

To put the new technology to the test I compared the AF speed and confidence between the GH4 and EM1 fitted with a variety of different lenses. I started with the Lumix 14-140mm zoom which is a kit option for the GH4. Fitted with this lens, the GH4 focused almost instantly and almost always without any visible hunting. When fitted on the Olympus OMD EM1, the same lens focused a little slower and hunted a little more obviously, but remained fairly swift. SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card (Compatible with UHS-I UHS Speed Class 3 standard SDHC / SDXC Memory Cards)

By the numbers, the GH4 is nearly identical to the GH3 (just 1.9mm deeper), measuring in at 132.9 x 93.4 x 83.9mm (5.23 x 3.68 x 3.30 in.) and weighing just a bit more than its predecessor at 569g (versus 555g) with SD card and battery. The body construction itself is also nearly identical with rugged magnesium alloy body that's sealed to be splash- and dust-proof.IPB) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:50.00p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:25.00p, 200Mbps (ALL-Intra) (LPCM) / 100Mbps (IPB) (LPCM) / 50Mbps (IPB) (LPCM)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:50.00p, 28Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[Full HD] 1920x1080:25.00p, 20Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[HD] 1280x720:25.00p, 10Mbps (IPB) (AAC)/[VGA] 640x480:25.00p, 4Mbps (IPB) (AAC) To be fair, the approach is not dissimilar to the way most other manufacturers implement direct uploads, but even with a touchscreen to tap out captions, this side of sharing images is just so much easier and flexible using a smartphone or tablet. For me it makes more sense to just use NFC / Wifi to copy the image from the camera to a more capable device and upload from there instead.

TTL Built-in-Flash, GN12 equivalent (ISO100 ・m) / GN17 equivalent (ISO200 ・m), Built-in Pop-up (Reference） The GH4 also includes a pop-up flash unit, that's activated by a soft button along the left side of the EVF. The 1:1 pixel mapping for 4K capture means the crop is a little tighter than it is for photos and 1080p video, but the slight loss to wide-angle shooting is a gain for telephoto. COLOUR, NOISE AND COMPRESSION The Olympus isn’t short of customization options, but in terms of visible function buttons, the GH4 wins out with five physical ones around the body, along with a further five soft options via the touch-screen.Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction (when iA, iA+), Forced On, Forced On/Red-eye Reduction, Slow Sync., Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Off; Built-in flash supports wireless mode (4 channels, 3 groups) A 4:3 viewfinder panel with 2359k dots equates to a resolution of 1024×768 pixels, which matches the best of the electronic viewfinders employed by the Olympus OMD EM1 and Fujifilm XT1. Interestingly though, the GH4’s magnification is lower, at 0.67x compared to 0.74x for the OMD EM1 and 0.77x for the Fujifilm XT1. This means the panel is magnified more on the Olympus and especially the Fujifilm, resulting in a larger apparent image size, albeit with no greater detail. It’s also important to consider how each camera formats the panels. In use the XT1’s wider 3:2 native image shape means its images don’t fill the vertical height of the panel, which reduces its size advantage a little. But as both the GH4 and EM1 have a 4:3 native image shape which matches their panels, the Olympus enjoys a noticeably larger image when both are used side-by-side. I should also note in very low light, the GH4’s viewfinder became noisier than the EM1, and with a lower refresh rate too when panning, but the EM1’s viewfinder image was noticeably darker, so there is a case of swings and roundabouts. Like some earlier Lumix G models, the GH4 offers ‘silent’ adjustments of the shutter, aperture, ISO, exposure compensation and microphone levels using a pull-out toolbox and sliders on the touch-screen. The sensitivity range while filming is between 200 and 6400 ISO; it’s a shame the extended low sensitivity of 100 ISO isn’t available for movies as it’s difficult to shoot at 180 degree shutters with an open aperture in daylight without an ND filter. You can see how the quality compares between 800 and 6400 ISO above. Round the front of the camera is a PC Sync port for connecting to external lighting, and inside the viewfinder head is a popup flash, rated as GN12 (100 ISO) or GN17 (200 ISO); the presence of a popup flash is a useful benefit the GH4 enjoys over most cameras in its class which require separate flash units to be mounted. There’s also a hotshoe for the optional DMW-FL580L flashgun if you want more power. But while I’m happy with the 16 Megapixel resolution of the GH4, I do wonder why Panasonic continues to not deploy embedded phase-detect AF points or consider dropping the optical low pass filter. The former could greatly increase the continuous AF confidence and the latter may deliver slightly greater sharpness at the pixel-level. Is there something about the Micro Four Thirds format which prevents this, or at least discourages its engineers from doing so? Maybe Panasonic doesn’t want to sacrifice precious real estate to AF sensors and is instead developing a dual function implementation like Canon has on the EOS 70D. Finger’s crossed.