Phil Peel

Panasonic has unveiled new details about their GH 4K camera at CES, and it’s likely to be the lowest price  interchangeable lens 4K cam when it’s released in February  Under $2000 – £1500.   Though going on previous releases, more expensive in the UK

I shot my last film on a Panasonic GH3 and GH2 DSLRs and for me I really like working with Micro 4/3rds.  I can use all my old lenses and the viewfinder options are great. OK ..not having inbuilt ND filters is a pain …and the 8 bit colour output is very limiting for colour grading, especially when you get the colour balance wrong    ( …whoops.  )   …but all in all they’re great cameras.

I’ve shot these  on GH2 and GH3   John Lennon’s Turd  & Love

So a GH camera which will shoot 4 K and more particularly the rumoured 10 bit output  …for under £1500 will be really useful.

Now Panasonic has shown a prototype GH4K at CES. Following up rumours about the  GH 4K‘ spec  which will fit into their mirrorless camera line. Engadget got a few photos of the new 4K cam at the Panasonic booth, and managed to get some new details from the representative there.  Though the photos look suspiciously like a rebadged GH3

Here’s what he says..

UHD content can be recorded at 200 Mbps, and output in a full live feed via a mini-HDMI port (thanks to ALL-I Intra mode) to display on a computer or record to a hard drive. Of course, the Micro-Four Thirds shooter can save footage straight to an SDXC card — a UHS Class 3 prototype variant tuned for such a task was on display — though space will run out fairly quickly.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/07/panasonics-4k-mirrorless-gh-camera/

Previous rumoured specs   ..thanks to No Film School

 16mp
1/8000 shutter
1mil dot OLED screen
21mm OLED viewfinder, 3,000+ dot.
Time code
200mbps mp4 All-i/100mbps IPB
4k/30p
4:2:2 10/8bit output
3G-SDI and XLR adaptor (An adaptor that the camera sits on with XLR x2, HD-SDI x4)

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK HERE 

We used a Panasonic Gh3 on my latest short – John Lennon’s Turd. with the GH2 as B camera.

How was the GH3? Well it a bigger, chunkier stronger camera. But I think  the main lesson to be learnt that using a new camera slows the filming. There are probably over 100 menu setting on the GH2 and I know them pretty much by heart. But the GH3 is subtly different . So we spend some time trying to find the right menus.

The extended battery plate is good. We never had to stop for changing batteries.

At the moment looking at the first edit, I can’t tell which was shot on which.

Moral: maybe best to stick to what you know on a shoot. Leave using new gear till a quieter time.

Here’s Drew setting the  camera.

Though you can get a HDSLR into awkward angles, focus pulling is tricky.

My copy of the famous Beatles White Album. ..a numbered early …but not very white ..any longer… copy. This is a crucial element in the storyline of John Lennon’s Turd. My thinking is that there should be no copyright issues with a white cover. I also understand that there are no copyright issues with using the name of a band, but the lyrics are a different matter.  Apparently one author had to pay over £500 to use one line from “When I’m 64” in his book.

It’s been fascinating looking through all my old LPs.  I have at least 400. I think some of them are quite rare. I’ve discovered I’ve got an early version of The Who sell Out with Poster which was a limited edition of only 500. So maybe I can sell it to help finance the film.  That would be nice.  🙂

More info on the film on our Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/JohnLennonsTurd

Record Label created for “John Lennon’s Turd” Title sequence