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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

The Panasonic GH4 (1 Viewer)

Neil

Well-known member
I weakened yesterday and picked up the GH4 (body only). I've shot a few clips with it today and am very impressed so far . I've shot with the 100-300 mm Panasonic Lens, Nikon 18-105 mm G lens , Nikon 50/1.8G and Zeiss 28/2.0 (N) Lens.
I've put some short videos up on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/96403303
I'll be taking it out to the wetlands tomorrow for some serious videscoping.
Neil.
Hong Kong,
May 2014
 
I went out to the wetlands again yesterday not expecting too much as it was going to be a hot day. I was going to shoot mostly in 4k with the Panasonic 100-300 mm Lens as well as digiscope a and I also had my Nikon D800/500mm with me .
On the walk back to the car park I shot these few clips with the 100-300 mm lens.
You can view them on Youtube in the rez that fits your screen and wifi bandwidth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dhVfIRzDFw&feature=youtu.be
Neil.
Panasonic GH4 and Panasonic 100-300 mm Lens

Mai Po Nature Reserve
Hong Kong,China
13th June 2014
 
Strikes me as an awful lot of money to spend for just videoing. Okay it is in 4K mode but still very expensive. The videos look fine but for a real test should have shot a video on say the Canon SX and then compared them side by side.

BTW if it is in 4K does that not mean to get the benefit of that resolution one would need an UltraHD TV running at 4K?
 
Strikes me as an awful lot of money to spend for just videoing. Okay it is in 4K mode but still very expensive. The videos look fine but for a real test should have shot a video on say the Canon SX and then compared them side by side.

BTW if it is in 4K does that not mean to get the benefit of that resolution one would need an UltraHD TV running at 4K?

Paul,
I'm photographed most of the birds in my patch many times at all times of the year and was getting a bit jaded by it. Also the light quality in Asia is deteriorating so getting quality stills is a big challenge so I'm mostly videoing now. About 80%.
The advantage of shooting in 4k is not only the extra resolution but it enables you to stabilise and crop in software. Also reducing 4k to HD gives a better quality video than shooting in native HD.
I have an iMac with a 2.7k screen and it's nice to see it full of detail. I don't have a 4k screen yet but I expect to have one in inside of 12 months. Most of the tv stores in Hong Kong are demonstrating a wide range of 4k screens (3D seems passé ). I'm only interested in my own use so I want a 32inch 4k monitor.
I shot a lot of video in Florida last week which I'm looking forward to seeing when I get home as the light was beautiful and the birds were still in breeding plumage.
Several people I know have moved up to the GH4 and they are also digiscopers.
Don't forget the camera will also shoot at a rate of 40 fps in full raw so it does have advantages for the nature photographer. I mostly shot with the 14-140 mm lens in Florida.
Neil.
 
Hi Neil. Thank you for replying just a small point, Paul is my son I am Robert!!

Now to the camera i can understand where you are coming from judging from your response. However irrespective of the 4K and the resolution the camera is limited to the lens attached if you wish just like a DSLR in terms of magnification.

The canon HS range may not shoot in 4K but does so in 1080 hd but does as have good optical magnification and judging from the leaks the next one "60" is going to upto 80/100x. Personally a bit much because at that times surely extremely difficult to keep steady even on a tripod. However probably very useful to 50/60x. These days although I still do many stills I also do quite a lot of video with my SX40 as can be seen from my website.

The GH4 clearly gives extraordinary clarity no question of that but for me the stumbling block is the lack of magnification not with standing the cropability due to the high resolution. But best wishes to those who wish to try it.

For stills I would still stick to my 7D/100-400 lens combo and for video the SX series.

One last query do you put all your stuff on you tube? if so what address is to view? I never put any thing there all mine is on my website shown below.
 
Hi Neil. Thank you for replying just a small point, Paul is my son I am Robert!!

Now to the camera i can understand where you are coming from judging from your response. However irrespective of the 4K and the resolution the camera is limited to the lens attached if you wish just like a DSLR in terms of magnification.

The canon HS range may not shoot in 4K but does so in 1080 hd but does as have good optical magnification and judging from the leaks the next one "60" is going to upto 80/100x. Personally a bit much because at that times surely extremely difficult to keep steady even on a tripod. However probably very useful to 50/60x. These days although I still do many stills I also do quite a lot of video with my SX40 as can be seen from my website.

The GH4 clearly gives extraordinary clarity no question of that but for me the stumbling block is the lack of magnification not with standing the cropability due to the high resolution. But best wishes to those who wish to try it.

For stills I would still stick to my 7D/100-400 lens combo and for video the SX series.

One last query do you put all your stuff on you tube? if so what address is to view? I never put any thing there all mine is on my website shown below.

Sorry Robert, I should have that sorted by now.
Your right about the SX50. For reach and stills and video it's a classic. I have owned it ( I lost it in a taxi) and still have the SX40. If I could only have one camera and lens to travel the world with it would be the SX50 . I have a Raydio Timelapse (Bluetooth ) gizmo for it too which works well.I also have the G1X which is really good for stills and video but not enough zoom unfortunately. The main reason I got interested in the Sonys and Panasonics is that I wanted 60p video as I like to slow down some of my action video to see more of the action. I'm not sure why Canon have been a bit slow to introduce 60p video into their digicams. Maybe it will be in the SX60 when it finally comes out. So I've been using the Sony HX200v for video only . The 24-840 zoom range is not bad. Our light quality (pollution and haze) is so poor most of the time that anything over 1,000 mm is not going to be good.
I still have the Nikon D800 and the 300/4 + 1.4x next to me most of the time for action stills.
I'm using Youtube now mainly for the 4k videos and time-lapses ( of course you can shoot 4k time lapses with any 8 meg or better camera) as they are the only site that can handle the large files at this time. I use Vimeo for most of my HD stuff and I put some 720p videos on Flickr. So I'm making 3 versions of the 4k originals (easy to do in Quicktime).
If you search on "Neil Fifer 4k" on Youtube you will see some of the recent hi def videos. You can select the rez that matches your screen.
Fingers crossed on the SX 60 specs. I will have to get one.
Neil.
 
Cheers Neil

The real problem is that there is so much choice out there in the market these days unlike say 10 years ago, poor beginners hardly know where to start.

I shall be in Singapore for a few days 15th to 18th November, hope the air is clearer than you have in HK.

Robert
 
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