[Note: All aspects of this review refer only to the video capabilities of the GH4.
I have to admit that I was skeptical about how good the GH4 is and whether it could truly achieve a cinematic look with all the lackluster, overly sharp videos floating around. I don't proclaim to be a great cinematographer, but 99% of the GH4 videos of seen online are frankly utter garbage and do nothing to show off the camera's full potential.
There really is a ton to say about the GH4, maybe more than any camera I've review, and it's difficult to even begin to review it, so I'll start at the beginning. After watching a plethora of GH4 videos I was thoroughly convinced that the GH4 could not produce a cinematic image. Everything I saw looked too sharp or had clipped highlights or the colors just looked off. I conceded that if I wanted to enter the realm of 4K, I'd need to pony up for a RED Scarlet or deal with all the shortcomings of the Blackmagic Production Camera. Nick Driftwood's Le Cas, especially the scene in the restaurant, was the first glimmer of hope that the GH4 had cinematic potential. I tried grading some of the scenes in Le Cas and watched it on my TV. I was impressed. The footage graded extremely well despite being only 100 Mbps and looked great on TV; it was quite cinematic looking.
So why take a chance on a camera based in a large part on a single scene? The short answer is that the alternatives in the 4K market are either much, much more expensive or impractical to use.
In order to overcome some of my dislikes of the Micro Four Thirds system I mounted a Nikon to BMCC Speed Booster (yes, the BMCC Speed Booster does work fine if you disable the mechanical shutter). This decreases the crop in Cinema 4K mode from 2.2X to around 1.4X over full frame, which is comparable to a Super 35 crop. It also increases the speed of lenses by 1 and 1/3 stops, thus making the maximum aperture of an f/1.4 lens effectively f/0.9. This boost halves the ISO you need to shoot at while the small M43 sensor maintains a shallow, but manageable DOF when shooting in the vicinity of a wide open aperture. Also, the adapter lets me use some nice Zeiss glass rather than the overly clinical Panasonic lenses or overpriced, yet somewhat underperforming SLR Magic and Noktor lenses. With the Zeiss ZF 50 f/1.4, the GH4 with Speed Booster performs very well. With the added light from the Speed Booster, I rarely find myself shooting above ISO 640, thereby keeping noise in check.
With all of that out of the way, let me actually talk about the GH4. If you have one or get one, please don't bother with 1080p24 or 1080p30; the lower bit rate 4K blows the 1080p out of the water even when downscaled to 1080p. I haven't messed with 1080p96 much yet. From what I've seen it looks fine enough, but what I'm really interested in with the GH4 is, obviously, 4K. I prefer the added width of the 4096x2160 Cinema 4K mode (only available in 24p) over the 3840x2160 UHD mode (available in 23.98, 24, and 30 fps) as I like to crop to 2.33:1, but this is really just personal preference.
The 4K GH4 footage grades extremely well, nothing like any other DSLR footage I've ever used. Aside from the inability to recover some highlight data and easily adjust white balance, I'd say that it grades almost as well as BMCC RAW for most situations. Dynamic range definitely is not quite as wide as with the BMCC 2.5K and highlights can blow out quite easily. Other than that, the footage is excellent, although it does require quite a bit of grading to look "cinematic."
The ergonomics and usability of the camera are amazing in my opinion. The GH4 is light, but does require some type of stabilizer (or possibly a stabilized lens) for handheld shooting. Best of all is the battery life, which simply destroys the BMCC, and the battery is swappable. I haven't tested an exact amount of time from a charge, but I feel like it's probably around 45 minutes of setting up shots and shooting on a charge, maybe even more.
Settings seem to be quite important on this camera if you're going for a cinematic look. Based loosely on James Miller's settings, I've been shooting in Cinelike D with Sharpness -5 and Saturation -5. I prefer Noise Reduction at only -1 as I find it does a good job at suppressing noise without much image degradation as may be true on other cameras. Some recommend a Master Pedestal of +15, but I've had better results with only +5. iDynamic at Standard, also gives good results.
The GH4 is not a perfect camera and the image is perhaps not as cinematic out of camera as may be the case with the BMCC, but it is much more useable than the BMCC, without the need of external power. For 4K, the GH4 doesn't have the horrible fixed pattern noise issues and extremely short batter life of the BMPC and is about a tenth of the cost of a functioning Scarlet.
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