Author: Video Shooter
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7 Pricing: http://amzn.to/1R9tsRl My facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/learnaboutvideo?ref=hl -this review is tailored to those of you who want to know more about the video capabilities of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7. I'm also doing this as a comparison, since the G7 is coming from the same stable as the excellent GH4 camera and seeing that both cameras record 4k UHD resolution. Obviously, it would be logical to consider the G7 as possibly an alternative to the GH4, or maybe for use as a second camera. So how does it handle? What is the 4K image quality like? Since it's newer technology, does it have some advantages over the GH4? (Actually there's a bit of a surprise there) and of course what are the disadvantages? I will also talk a little about the still image quality. , .---------------. before we get into it though, keep in mind that in reality, these two cameras were created for different types of users and are quite a bit different when it comes to features. ----- another thing, even though it might be unfair to compare with a $1700 camera, is that on the G7 you don't get video priority display like you do on the GH4, which makes it much easier to see and make quick changes.----------------- but on the positive side the G7 has buttons all over it, and they're customizable too, so you will be able to change settings you need most often, without ever having to go into a menu. In that regard, I would say it feels more like a professional camera than consumer camera. ------------------------- but if we're talking about professional features, there is something we don't get, and that is the shutter angle control of the GH4, we are stuck with a regular shutter speed control used by still cameras. The reason I like the shutter angle control is that you can set it at 180° and leave it, then, when you change your frame rate say from 24 to 48 or 60 it will automatically adjust the shutter speed for you because it's at 180° of whatever frame rate you happen to be using. With the G7 not so, if you change the frame rate you have to remember to change the shutter speed which is not as convenient ----------------------- So let's talk about video. With the G7 you are limited to a total of 29 minutes of recording for each take you can't go over that but what a beautiful 29 minutes it is! Really, the G7 shoots beautiful footage. Happily, the video compression quality of the the 4k mode is the same as the GH4.....100 mbps per second. But if you switch over to 1080p the compression is much higher on the G7 at only 28 Mb per second. The GH4 of course decidedly stomps all over that with 200 Mb compression in 1080p mode all intra, so that's a big difference if you're shooting to grade the footage afterwards... You will see a difference. Still, I was very happy with the 1080P video quality, Panasonic is doing a fabulous job with the imaging pipeline. I shot in MP4 format 60 frames per second conformed it in post and got some really nice slow motion footage. ...........LOW LIGHT Now, with micro 4/3 cameras one of the trade-offs that you deal with as compared to say a full frame DSLR camera is noise. More of it that is. Of course, in my opinion, the advantages of using micro 4/3 out weigh the drawbacks. It just depends on you and your workflow. But there's a nice surprise with the Panasonic G7 and that is they have improved the noise characteristics of the sensor at high isos. I actually noticed while shooting that it seemed better than my GH4, then I did a test side-by-side with the exact same settings on the cameras and confirmed my suspicion. I was shooting both cameras in Cinelike V -3 saturation, -3 Contrast, 0 sharpening, 0 noise reduction. Being purely subjective, I would say that the G7 gives you one stop better noise performance than the GH4 gives you. I will happily shoot the G7 at iso-3200 without worrying about the noise. Of course, in low light conditions you should always try to expose on the high side in order to keep detail in the shadows since the H.264 codec gives priority to brighter parts of the image and tosses out a lot of information in shadow areas.-------------------------------------------------------------- another big question I had before I received the camera was how much rolling shutter problem with their be? So I did a few tests and I can briefly show you here that it is significantly more than the GH4, obviously the GH4 is reading out that CMOS sensor much faster than the G7 is..... Probably still beats the A7 S in this department though:) So please don't try to film vertical telephone poles out the side window of your car while on the freeway:).........................................................................................