FZ1000 vs GH4 - compared

I've had the FZ1K for a month now and wish I could use it for even more shoots to expand my knowledge of what the camera can do (and can't). First and foremost, there's so much beneath the hood that anyone who simply writes it off as a "must have" or "hate it," simply hasn't DONE enough with it to back up the statement other than they didn't read the extensive manual. How many have used the 4K Photo? Time lapse (along with clip production)? The multitude of color settings beyond the obvious ones, tweaking instead Cine-V and Cine-D?

Does anyone even understand those settings? I'm still learning them and tweaking this camera to get it to perform as best as it can for the wide variety of shooting scenes I might need to use it (from outdoor, to indoor, to night time).

I'm a pro of 30 years at one newspaper, and we've been told to stop wishing for a new D810 and D4S. A D4S and the FZ1000 are what we may be assigned, which was my recommendation after reading through pages and pages of other cameras' literature, plus reviews here.

The FZ1K is what we ultimately needed the most - the strongest lens range, highest video resolution in which we can extract large-enough images, and easy enough to not overwhelm us in the trenches. Read the manual. Learn your most important visual tool.

You'll see how terrifically versatile this camera would be. I asked myself, if I could only bring one camera and laptop anywhere in the world, which system would I bring?

This camera, which is adaptable for whatever we need at this moment. The Sony, Fuji, Canon, Olympus, and Nikon cameras don't quite have it. The 4K image extraction is the game-changer because we need sometimes to shoot one scene with two formats, and they don't want us to just choose one anymore. This gives us that option.The image quality can be really nice, because the new chip allows for an exposure value of over 11, which is similar to that of the Nikon D3 full frame camera. I like how the images and clips look, even at 480p! The tonal range looks great and film-like.

Granted, you don't get that shallow depth of field like a full frame chip but who would complain about that when the camera is built on a 1" chip platform? An FX chip cannot be placed in a bridge camera while maintaining the same lens/camera compactness - it's impossible at this date and time.

This chip was tested for extremes today as I left my D3 and D3S bodies in the office, using the FZ1K to document marchers. One image was truly amazing: Exposing to eliminate the zebra patterns on a woman with pale complexion facing a late afternoon sun, her two companions - one man, holding a black umbrella and a dark-complected woman with her back to the sun - were superbly exposed.

Even the sky had nice detail. The night protests presented true challenges and really tested the limits of the chip as images were captured at 3200 and 6400 ISO, with exposures of about 1/50th to 1/20th second, in mixed lighting of mercury vapor, an attached speed light and tungsten lighting. If an image is lit well, a decent image can be captured even to ISO 6400, but with any image captured in sparse light, the shadow detail will look terrible at almost any ISO range.

Switching between a white balance preset for the mercury vapor and auto white balance, I am still learning about switching with the quick menu function button, one that I will add a few more menu options. And I chose to shoot both jpeg and 1080p / 30p clips rather than shoot in 4K mode because of a tight deadline.

I use a Nikon SB-800 on either auto mode or at a dialed down manual mode (tonight it was set to 1/16 power) to have enough throw, and to provide light bounce onto the asphalt. I prefer the speed light over the built-in flash. When all was said and done, I shot about 9gb of mixed 20mb images and 1080p footage.

The battery, a Wasabi Power non-OEM pack held its own quite well. I was in no fear of losing the charge. Here are a few more "likes":Time lapse? The camera has a wide spectrum of time/length settings, and it can build the stills into a really seamless time lapse clip. A clip can be saved at 60fps (when set to FHD/60p), 30fps, and 15fps intervals to one fps, and the clip can be reversed. Audio?

Sure I can pick on Panasonic for not including a headphone jack to monitor sound, but I'm glad it has audio levels and in-camera adjustments. The FZ200 had none of that so it's a step forward.Articulating screen? Love this feature, as with such a compact camera, you can hold it out, above heads, or at the ankles and be able to frame subjects well. AF Button?

The fact that it's next to the EVF is great, since it's similar to how the Nikon cameras have a similar button (and I set it the way my Nikons operate). I only wish the button were a little more away from the viewfinder, but it's impossible to do that.

Bokeh? It's not an FX chip but you can really get some pretty nice bokeh through creative framing. The out of focus light spots are very appealing. While most of this is positive, I'll confront some buggy complaints a number have added, that I'd like to address:

Camera weight? This camera weighs less than any other camera and lenses you'd need to do similar work.

Battery life? One camera, two batteries, is all I need for a full day of shooting. Period. Even though I have three batteries.Image capture during video? I'm not talking about the 4K photo capture, but shooting jpeg images while shooting clips by pressing the red record button when the camera is in either P/A/S/M mode. It can capture images of over 5000 pixels wide!

But, the clip shows a stutter the moment a still is captured. This didn't happen with the FZ200, but then again the FZ200 only captured images at 1920x1080 pixels. Image noise? Yes, it's there. It can be easy to hide this when we are only allowed to post images only so large. But open an image on a 30 inch monitor and see the image at its actual size and you can see the jpeg artifacts even on ISO 80 images. The photo would be really large at this stage but it is there.

I can't shoot as wide with this camera as I can with a D3S of course, because that FX image can be cropped so deeply while the FZ1K can only carry so deep into the picture.

Remember again, it's a camera with a 1" sensor and any camera using this size chip will have jpeg noise. Cursor buttons? It's a matter of learning the new camera but the FZ1K's cursor buttons are changed slightly than that of the FZ200 and previous cameras. Why? Who knows, but the white balance and ISO buttons are switched, and I sometimes toggle the wrong button. Zoom? It's a little slow. It's taken just a little time to get used to but it isn't too bad. Any other issues?

No camera does EVERYTHING. One shouldn't expect that. But learn how to use the tool you have to get the best out there and anyone with this camera will get better image quality.

Tweak it to how you want the images/footage to look, read forums, share your own feedback, and learn more. If you still hate it, just write me and I'll take it off your hands.