The Panasonic GH4 may be coming soon - and it might be 4K!

Are reports of a new 4K “GH4“ just made up nonsense or are we about to see the release of a significant new cinema camera from Panasonic?

 Rumours are flying around of a new 4K Panasonic camera to be announced shortly but it isn’t about the arrival of the 4K Varicam we have been waiting for for so long but instead is apparently a camera with a similar form factor to the gh3 but dedicated to video, not stills.

The idea seems to be a bit similar to Canon’s Cinema EOS series of cameras such as the Canon EOS C300. The idea seems to be to look at what is working from the existing DSLR line up and to then take that to a whole other level.

"4" probably means "4K"

The camera is being dubbed the “AG-GH4“ although it remains to be seen if that will be the final name. I suspect the 4 is a reference to 4K rather than to indicate the next step on from the Panasonic GH3. It’s expected that the camera will downsample slightly from the sensor to get 4K video as opposed to the somewhat extreme pixel binning techniques used on many DSLR’s which basically dump information to get it down to a size where it can be recorded as 1080p.

The rumoured specs so far

4K/24/25/30fps

16mp sensor with full pixel readout

1/8000 shutter

1mil dot OLED screen

21mm OLED viewfinder, 3,000+ dot.

200mbps mp4 All-i/100mbps IPB

10bit 4:2:2 codec (likely AVC Ultra)

3G-SDI and XLR adaptor (An adaptor that sits on the camera with XLR x2, HD-SDI x4)

Form factor similar to the GH3 but slightly larger, all output jacks facing out of the left side

Time code

Price: €2799

 Accessible

The price of $2799 seems fairly accessible depending on the cost of accessories, so this could be a significant camera release if Panasonic gets it right.

The big question I would immediately ask is will this camera come with the much loved micro 4/3 mount or will it have some other kind of lens mounting? The cost of lenses is a big factor to consider of course when buying a new camera body and MFT mount gives you a LOT of options.

Of course the other big question, is whether this is all just invented nonsense anyway. Only time will tell. There’s very vague details about this so far, but it does make me ask, what would you actually like to see in a Panasonic manufactured Cinema EOS style camera?

For more information about the rumours check out the reports at EOSHD and 4/3 rumours.