Panasonic GH4 4K Metabones Speedbooster Test. “Self” Graffitti Artist.

Cameras
Posted by Admin on 08, May 2014 with No Comments
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Here is a quick take on the new Panasonic GH4 camera with the Metabones MFT to Nikon Speedboster. We were shooting something for GoPro and brought the GH4 along for a quick test. The Metabones disables the aperture control on the lenses, The Metabones works in the seven position. This left us wide open all the time. It does reduce the crop from 2X to approx 1.3X 1.5X According to Andrew Reid over at EOSHD. This was very difficult to focus and keep steady handheld without a rig. The on-board LCD is sharper than the viewfinder. I highly recommend an EVF of some kind.

****UPDATE*** The Metabones BMCC Speedbooster will work with Nikon mount lenses on the GH4. We tested it again in the shop. The Metabones needs to be set at the seven position and then the iris can be controlled either via the lens or the adapter. Please beware! The Metabones did scratch the metal in front of the sensor on my GH4.

** Please note. Canon LP-E6 style batteries will fit and click-in with the GH4. I could not get them to power up. The Panasonic supplied battery was just OK. It lasted most of the day with very light use. We did pick up two extra Wasabi batteries for thirty bucks with a wall charger. The Panasonic supplied charger has a cord and this is a nice compact option.

We used a really cheap PNY 90 MBs Class 10 SD card. The card recorded without a hitch. It did break up a 16 min take into three clips without interruption to record. Not really sure how that went down but we will look into it.

We shot mostly in Cine 4K 24P 100MBs with the Cinelike D photo style. We did try the 96FPS in 1080 just for kicks.  The new Rode Go Mic kicked ass! This was one of the worst sound conditions we have ever had. Under the 10 freeway near LAX. We used a 20% noise reduction in FCPX. Not that bad given the conditions.

The workflow was easy as pie. FCPX had no problem working with 4K and 1080. It’s important to import the 4K footage first then 1080 to output in 4K. It had no problem with the mixed media and the import ratio was about three to one. Export in 4K for this short two and a half minute clip was about 1.3GB at H.264. It would have been ten times that using the source pro res 422 export. Overall this is the next level in DSLR style cameras. A simple all in one capture device that lets you record in 4K at 24P and 2K at 96FPS.  I’ll get some photos of the FCPX process etc. up  soon.

Check them out!

A HUGE Thanks to Josh and the Can’t Be Stopped Crew. Lan Bui and Misa Garcia for helping out and EVS Online for hooking us with the gear.

 

Camera and Settings Used.

Panasonic GH4 Camera.

Wasabi Power GH4 Batteries. Super cheap and good!

Cine 4K 24P at 24Hz (Must select 24Hz in menu and restart camera.)

Cinelike D Photo Style. Flat

PNY 90 MBs Class 10 SD card.  We got about 2.5 hours at Cine 4K 24P.

Lenses:

Zeiss 35mm f2.8 ZF prime lens.

Zeiss 85mm f1.4 ZF prime lens.

Lumix 14mm f2.5 prime lens.

Adapters:

Metabones BMCC Speedbooster MFT-Nikon

Fotodiox MFT-Nikon (Don’t get this one, it is loose and leaks light. The Novoflex is much better!)

Filters:

LCW Fader ND Filter

B&W Polarizer

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Jared Abrams is a cinematographer based in Hollywood, California. After many years as a professional camera assistant he switched over to still photography. About two years ago a new Canon camera changed the way the world sees both motion and still photography. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.