GH4 questions

[Vincent Oliver]

Although for most uses a 29min recording time may not be a problem. However when I do a stage production which lasts for 45 -60 min per act this will be a problem. Can anyone tell me how quick you can start shooting the next 29min clip or does the camera have to wait for a period before you can start again. At the moment I am using both a Sony EX3 and Canon XF305 for stage productions, but would like to introduce a wide angle camera for on stage and front row plays etc. .

I am considering the GH4 with 7-14mm and 14-140 lenses to start with and will add a 12-35mm as and when.

Also when shooting 4K, what cards should I be using?
How long will a 16GB card give me in recording time?

Any advice will be much appreciated

[Noa Put]

Have you considered the ax100? This one might be better to shoot stage productions.

[Vincent Oliver]

Thank you Noa, yes the ax100 does look like a nice camera and no doubt would suit the job well, may consider adding one to my kit. But I also wanted the ultra wide angle lenses and the stills capability of the GH4. I also have a large collection of long Nikon lenses which I could use on the GH4. Really just want the GH4 camera as a B roll camera for stage productions and as a lightweight camera for travel stuff.

[Vincent Oliver]

OMG, I have just seen my join date, I have been on this forum for over 10 years now, doesn't time fly

[Vishal Jadhav]

for the card,
I use the 32 GB one and it gives me around 29-30 minutes of footage at 100mbits at 4K

so technically for a longer footage on same card you need to have a 64GB card to start with.

best regards
vishal

[Mark Whittle]

If you know someone going to Australia for a holiday get them to pick a GH4 up for you. We have no 29 minute limits here. Or better yet, have a trip yourself ;) Bloody long flight though!

About time that ridiculous tax law was abolished. Time to lobby your local MP?

Cheers,

[Vincent Oliver]

Yes, I could never understand why they don't just add the tax on and give us the full functionality - Nikon, Canon and other manufacturers have this limitation too. I am sure many would be quite happy to pay the extra, it probably wouldn't be much either.

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Vincent Oliver

Yes, I could never understand why they don't just add the tax on and give us the full functionality - Nikon, Canon and other manufacturers have this limitation too. I am sure many would be quite happy to pay the extra, it probably wouldn't be much either.

It's not just the tax that would be the increase.

Let's take a round number of 10% (I thought it was14% but not sure)/

Let's also take am import price of (say) £1000 * 10% tax = £100. The prce to the importer is no longer £1000 - it's £1100.

Then the importing company adds their margin (say 20%) so now the £100 became £120, then the retailer adds margin (say 20%) so now it's £144.00, then add VAT on top (uk = 20%) so now it's £172.80 ($276 +/-). Given that we already pay more in europe than the US this would only add insult to injury!

At a higher import tax the situation only gets worse. As the price of the body increases (eg Canon / Nikon offerings) the net effect gets worse still.

Would I be willing to pay more? Sure, but if you're not buying it for video, or you don't need > 29m59s (as many family shots don't) then you'd be killing sales due to higher prices.

I'd much rather we got rid of the stupid tax.

[Vincent Oliver]

Dave, the tax would be a UK thing so would not be placed on the importer, it would be tax on the selling price here in the UK so the camera which retails at £1000 would then have the extra tax applied. I did question Nikon about this at a recent press launch (yes I do write for various magazines), and the sales manager said exactly what you are saying, that not many people would want this and video may not be high on their list. However, I don't see why the feature could not be added in for those who want to pay the tax. I don't think this is a hardware limitation, but a software or firmware fix. I may be wrong on this point.