The Lumix GH4 with 4K video bridges the divide. I’ve been predicting that video capture and still photography would eventually merge for the past 10 years. It finally happened in 2007 with the release of the Red One camera. Red One was the first video camera to shoot 4K video and advertise that still images could be pulled and printed from the video frames it captured. The camera itself has created a revolution in the film industry that is directly affecting the still image industry as well. You can read more about Red Digital Cinema on Wikipedia for more history.
Watch the video below for the newest camera capable of creating video images that can be pulled as high resolution still images – the recently introduced Lumix GH4. The video features photographer Giulio Sciorio discussing his work with this newest Hybrid camera. At 1:25 into the video watch for Giulio pulling still images from the video clip he’s working on. That’s where the future is going with no doubt and with the addition of the new GH4 it’s well on the way. More history of this newest technology below the YouTube video.
It didn’t’ take long before other video and still camera companies saw the writing on the wall and began investigating similar features. A little over a year after the Red One was announced, Nikon introduced the world to the D90, the first still camera to incorporate HD Video in to a still camera body. I’m convinced that once Red showed how to make a single chip video camera, Nikon thought, “hey, why can’t we do that?” and created the first still/video camera in the form of theD90.
Here is a screen shot from Red Digital Cinema’s web page that shows numerous super high quality, glossy images of some of the world’s leading magazines that used video frames featured as covers that were originally pulled from Red video 4K cameras.
Even though the two cameras feature similar ideas, the D90 was not producing RAW video capture like the Red One was able to do. That being the case and the fact that the video images on the D90 where not using the entire 12 megapixel sensor for video, pulling individual video frames wasn’t a quality option like it was on the Red One.
Nikon’s revolutionary D90 with HD Video capture built in.
Fast forward to Friday, February 7th, 2014 when Panasoinc announced their newest Lumix professional Hybrid Camera the GH4 . The Lumix GH4 will not only shoot 4K video, but the photographer will have the ability to pull 8-9 megapixel stills from each frame of the video as well. Yes, the Red One was here first but at over $50,000, the Red One was beyond what most photographers had the ability to afford. The GH4 on the other hand will be selling for about $1700, so it will most definitely be a camera for the rest of us. I can’t wait to get my hands on this amazing new Hybrid photographic/video tool.
Is anyone else out there as excited about these video capabilities as I am? Would love to hear from anyone wanting to sure their thoughts on this new technology.