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The GH4 does a Parade

Framegrab from 1080p

Framegrab from 1080p

Here is the 2014 Sequim 119th Irrigation Festival Parade in all it's glory shot in AVCHD 1080/60p. With the limitations of YouTube the video was reduced to 480p at 30 frames a second. YouTube does not do 60p. I reduced the video to 480p because the parade video is 105 minutes to keep the file size down. The lens used is the New Lumix 14-140mm f4-5.6 O.I.S.

Doing long form video on the Panasonic Lumix GH4 is wonderful.
Number one: Unlimited Recording. There is no limitation on how long you can record, unlike most other HDSLR's. The bigger the SD card the longer you can record. The camera does not stop till you stop the camera.
Number two: No Overheating. The GH4 does not overheat and shut down, period. That was a problem with other cameras that I have used.
Number three: Long Battery Runtime. The camera battery lasts a long time. I have had one battery cover an entire opera, symphony concert or musical.
Number four: Buit-In Viewfinder. The viewfinder works while shooting video. In sunlight, in shade, in the dark, does not matter.
Number five: Adjustable LCD. The rear OLED LCD is adjustable. It can be viewed from any position.
Number six: Bright LCD. The OLED LCD is bright enough to be seen in daylight without a hood. Wonderful while working on a tripod.
Number seven: Audio Level Display: The audio levels display on the screen and stay on screen as long as you are recording video. On the GH3 display the audio levels went off after a short time.
Number eight: Focus Peaking. Being able to manually focus on the fly with the LCD and viewfinder is great when the subject is constantly changing.
Number nine: Zebra Bars. Being able to see what will wash out in exposure is very helpful. They can be set to 80% or 100%.
Number ten: Low Rolling Shutter. 1080 60p has the lowest rolling shutter on the GH4. A noticeable difference. 4k has the most rolling shutter.

The Panasonic Lumix GH4 replaces a video camera.

I Am Interviewed by MacVideo.TV @ the Final Cut SuperMeet

FF Intvu FF Intvu

Rick Young of MacVideo.TV interviewed me at the Final Cut SuperMeet after the announcement of Final Cut X. I am in the second video. Go to his MacVideo.TV to see the Interview. It was great meeting Rick at the show and MacVideo.TV has great information about shooting video. I am holding the rig I used to interview people at their booths. (My rig consisted of a Cam Caddie Scorpion, a Hoodloupe 3.0 with a Hoodstrap and an Audio-technica ATR55 Telemike plugged directly in to my Canon 60D.)

Final Cut Pro X At the NAB FCPUG Supermeet Tonight (#NABhdslr)

Supermeet-0

At the sold out Supermeet tonight, after a long wait in line outside black curtains in the Ballly Convention Center, we all sat down for an expected evening. A lot of the rumors around the net were true. Tonight Apple's Peter Steinauer announced Final Cut Pro X.

Supermeet-2

FCPX has been rebuilt from the ground up. It has an all new 64bit engine, hyper threading, rendering in the background, no transcoding and 4K support. It is a lot faster because of this. Also the timeline has been completely redesigned to make editing easier.

Supermeet-3

FCP's original creator Randy Ubillos was on hand to demonstrate to the audience in real-time the new Final Cut Pro experience without many hiccups of his beta version.

At long last there is no need to transcode footage. All footage, whether ProRes, DSLR H264 or AVCHD drops straight into the project and is available to edit immediately. Final Cut Pro X allows you to begin editing footage on the timeline before it has finished ingesting. This will be greatly appreciated by HDSLR users.

Supermeet-4

Media management has been much improved. The intelligent detection of footage allows automatic grouping of clips to form scenes together in the media manager for easier access to media in an ordered fashion, according to the project. This is really great – so much better than the basic project management in current NLEs with their crappy bins and tiny thumbnails. There is also a Filmstrip View of clips allowing you to identify and find shots quickly.

Timeline intelligence has been improved. A key area. Apple dubs this a Magnetic Timeline. For example audio clips move out of the way if extended into the edges of other clips. It's faster to use and harder to accidentally stuff up. There are no real video or audio tracks – it is more liquid now, with clip tracks appearing automatically as and when they are required. The Instant Color Matching is also a wonderful new feature. Color grading at the single click of a mouse on the timeline.

After having many flavors of FCP, there will only one. Final Cut Pro X will be available in June for $299 from the Apple App Store online. No mention of the other apps in the Final Cut Suite. Looks like Apple has unbundled the suite like they did with iLife and iWork.

We will have a video of the presentation soon. Stay Tuned.

Apple to Introduce New Final Cut Pro on April 12th? We Will Be There

ProVideoCoalition claims to have heard rumors that Apple is planning to use the Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet to announce the next version of Final Cut Pro.

Philip Bloom just confirmed with me that Canon has canceled his appearance at the Supermeet. Canon was told last night that Apple has demanded ALL “lecturn” or stage time exclusively. Some sponsors who were not using presenters may continue to sponsor the Vegas event, but none of them will be presenting on the stage.

The post goes on to talk about other sponsors including Avid that have had their sponsorship canceled for the event.

Apple has been known to be prepping a new version of Final Cut Pro and according to early reports the changes were described as “dramatic and ambitious”. While the SuperMeet seems a strange venue for Apple to announce a new product, Apple has been taking a somewhat unusual approach to promoting and previewing this product.

Earlier this year, Apple invited individuals including Final Cut Pro author Larry Jordon to a hands on. Jordan describes what he can of the preview meeting: “I've Seen The New Version of Final Cut Pro… and it's a jaw-dropper. Last week, Apple invited a few folks, including me, to a short meeting in Cupertino where they previewed the up-coming version of Final Cut Pro. While I am under NDA and can’t talk about what I saw, I CAN tell you the meeting happened and that it showcased the new Final Cut Pro. While the invited crowd was small, it was a Who's Who of leaders in the post-production community. I felt like I was standing on the red carpet at an awards show, watching all the stars walk past.”