10Mar Panasonic GH4k $1699 pricing and Pre-orders
Pre-order’s are now available on B&H for the Panasonic GH4k. It looks like Panasonic has surprised everyone with a lower than estimated price of $1699. That puts the Panasonic GH4k within arms reach of Canon 6d pricing and well below the Canon 5d mark III.
If the GH4k lives up to even half the hype surrounding its announcement, Canon will have some pretty heavy competition. I’ve looked at the GH3 and GH2 in the past and all though many people loved those cameras, I didn’t find either one to be very compelling. On the other hand the GH4k seems to be a completely different story. This is the first camera I’ve seen in the last four years that has a list of specs that checked off just about everything on my list of wants.
The pricing on the interface unit is pretty much what everyone was expecting, $1999 for the unit itself, or $3299 as a combo deal with the Panasonic GH4k. While the interface unit looks pretty tempting, I don’t think I’ll be picking one up on pre-order. SDI and XLR interfaces are nice to have, but it isn’t something I really see myself needing right now. I already have a handful of XLR camera adapters and I don’t see myself using the 4k SDI output anytime in the near future. If that changes I can always pick one up down the road. I’m guessing the GH4K will sell out fast, but the interface unit will stay in stock.
If you want to get your hands on a Panasonic GH4k before the end of 2014, I would suggest you pre order as soon as possible. This is going to be a very popular camera and it’ll likely be sold out before it’s even released in april. I put my pre-order in at midnight last night on B&H when pre-orders first became available. Hopefully I’ll have the GH4k in hand sometime after NAB.
March 10th, 2014 at 9:00 am
I’m interested in this camera sometime down the road. I’d be interested in reading about adapting Canon glass to it, and suggestions for someone who is invested in that ecosystem.
March 10th, 2014 at 9:37 am
I’ve been looking at the “LiveLens MFT Active Lens Mount” from redrock micro and a few other solutions. I don’t really want to invest in a lot of new glass if at all possible. I already have a complete canon kit. Hopefully Metabones releases their rumored active electronics MFT to EF speedboost adapter. I’d be willing to pay an extra $500 to have all of my canon glass work with the GH4k.
March 10th, 2014 at 9:49 am
The $1699 price is good news, as this camera packs a lot of punch. As an owner of a GH2 and GH3 camera, its great to know that Panasonic remains committed to the MFT format. I am aware of the advantages of full frame sensor cameras, but the GH4’s extended dynamic range of the GH4 narrows the gap. The 4k resolution and optional interface make the GH4 more attractive to me than the BMCC.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:24 am
I agree, the GH4k looks much more attractive overall than the BMCC. I know many people want a raw image, but most people I work with rarely shoot raw DNG footage even though they are BMCC owners. Data rates and storage requirements are just too much for raw DNG. Being able to record 4k to a compressed format in camera is a pretty attractive feature for the GH4k and much more useful to people (IMHO) than uncompressed raw.
I wish RED would licenses out REDCODE to other manufactures. They have one of the best compression and raw workflow implementations on the market. You don’t have the DNG file management issues and you can choose compression as high as 18:1 for projects shot in 4k that will be scaled down to 2k deliveries or use 5:1 or 3:1 for projects where you really want the extra detail. When you’re done you have a nice .R3D file to work with and you don’t have to deal with 1000’s of DNG files.
March 10th, 2014 at 11:17 am
The price of the interface seems a bit odd in that it puts the GH4 + interface package into the price of other cameras. Maybe dealers will bundle the GH4 w/interface for less than $3700. If the interface doesn’t have a lot of exotic electronics inside, it may be something a 3rd party will offer, like the DSTE brand GH3 battery grips that cost a fraction of the OEM Panasonic battery grip. Wishful thinking…
Licensing REDCODE is an intriguing thought, but I suspect that would undermine the appeal of investing in RED hardware. I do enjoy working on RED projects, and agree it would be cool to have REDCODE available to other cameras.