When discussing cinema cameras on a budget it's extremely difficult to dispute that the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera the leaders of the pack. Nothing comes close in terms of shear image quality until you step up into a camera package costing over $10k. Will new 4K offerings from Panasonic and Blackmagic raise the bar?
Panasonic recently announced its GH4, successor to the GH3 and highly esteemed GH2. The camera, rumored to come in just under the original BMCC at around $1700, can record up to 200 Mbps 1080p and 100 Mbps 4K internally. Although internal recording is limited to 4:2:0, 4:2:0 4K apparently downscales to 4:4:4 1080p. While it's nice to finally get something other than 4:2:0 in a DSLR-style camera, I just don't see the advantage when RAW and ProRes is already so readily available at this price point in Blackmagic cameras, which also boast greater dynamic range. From the single sample video on YouTube it's much too early to tell just how good the GH4's video quality is. To really reap the benefits from this camera you'd need the $2000 add-on box (the YAGH), which features XLR inputs and 4:2:2 4K over SDI (hence requiring an expensive SDI recorder). The GH4's specs have met much fanfare, and I agree that it is a huge improvement over the specs of the GH2 and GH3, but I think it is a bit too little too late. 18 months ago, this camera would have seemed too good to be true, but there is just far too much competition that is nearly as capable or more capable.
In my opinion the Blackmagic 4K Production Camera is much more capable than the GH4 (even with the YAGH) at just $3000. The only sacrifice over the GH4 is ergonomics and size as neither camera natively feature XLR inputs with phantom power or ND filters. Blackmagic's entry into the world of 4K can record 4K ProRes (and soon with a firmware update) RAW internally. The BMPC also features a global shutter, finally ending the dreaded rolling shutter, and producing stunning film-like motion. Some early footage looks promising although I have noticed that BMPC footage does suffer from a bit of reduced dynamic range and more noise than the BMCC, the latter becoming less noticeable when watching from a normal viewing distance. Also, the BMPC footage can be very sharp...sometimes even too sharp, looking a bit unnatural, like something that was over sharpened in post. Perhaps the GH4 may prove better in low light, but when it comes to the final image I think the BMPC will be hard to beat when it comes to the budget 4K cinema camera showdown.
From what I've see so far I still prefer the image of the original 2.5K BMCC. I'll stick with the increased dynamic range over global shutter, some slightly better ergonomics, or 4K (which will for the next few years still be viewed by the vast majority downscaled to 1080p).
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