Panasonic GH4 for Wildlife photography

Aniol1349

Aniol1349

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Hubert
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Hey everyone,

I would like to invest in a system for wildlife photography and videography and I'm thorn between the Panasonic GH4 and regular DSLR like 7d2.

I would love to have the 4k video capability and I had my mind actually set on GH4 but what bothers me is no autofocus with adapted lenses, even with the metabones speedbooster.

I'm aware MF is really important for wildlife but I'm not sure if with my skills I will be able to take successful shots relaying purely on MF.

I don't own any lenses so I'm not committed to any particular system however, my plan was to use full frame lenses purely because of the wide range of choice.

I can see three scenarios:

GH4 + native lenses = crop factor

GH4 + adapted lenses = MF

DSLR = no 4k

any recommendations?

Thanks!
 
I had the GH4 and it's a cracking camera, I only sold mine as I also had (have) an OMD-EM1 and most of the lenses I had were unstabilised (Olympus lenses), so it made more sense to keep the OMD rather than the GH4. I never took the GH4 wildlife shooting but I did its predecessor the GH3 (which the GH4 bests in almost every way), and found it very capable so long as you didn't expect too much from the M4/3 sensor. Up to about ISO800-1600 was about the most I'd want to go, and you also need to get as close as possible to fill the frame to avoid cropping the image too much (when they start to break apart), but to be fair, on that last point, that's true no matter what you shoot.

I had at the time the Panasonic 100-300 OIS (so an effective 600mm F5.6), and with care and a decent support found it quite good in decent light, but no full frame with fast super telephone lenses. TBH, I still run two systems, a M4/3 (OMD-EM1 and OMD-EM5 II) and Nikon full frame DSLR's (D810 and D750). Most of what I shoot when travelling is done with the Olympus cameras as they are so portable, however when it comes to wildlife or highly detailed landscapes, then it's the Nikon pair. The D750 for instance will happily shoot at ISO6400-8000 and still give incredible images with very little noise (and what there is cleans up very nicely).

Basically with wildlife there's no free lunch I'm afraid so it's all down to your expectations, but don't anyone tell you that a M4/3 camera can't shoot wildlife - it can perfectly, just not in really demanding conditions where a full frame DSLR would excel.

For info, here's a few images shot with the GH3 and the Panny 100-300 - you decide.





 
Thanks for your reply Andrew!

cracking images, it is really tough to decide though. And I'm really leaning towards the GH4 as the 4k video got me really inspired and I think it could be an amazing feature, however I'm still not sure if it would be a good choice for the long run. I have never shot 4/3 so I'm not really sure what to expect regarding the smaller sensor.
 
I'm stuck now between the GH4 and the Canon 7D mk2. Any recommendations? I would really want to go for the GH4 but the lack of native lenses is a bit off-putting, I could use adaptors but to lose autofocus for wildlife probably would be too much of a trade off.

Any thoughts?
 
I know if I want to shoot video only I probably go for the GH4 because of the 4k. If I shoot video most likely I will use MF lens anyway.
 
Just a question on 4K. If your camera has it, does everything else need to be in 4K to see the benefit i.e ......................computer screens, DVD, TV etc...............??
 
Aniol1349 said:
I have never shot 4/3 so I'm not really sure what to expect regarding the smaller sensor.
Click to expand...

I think that the best option would be to download some files at various ISO's and process them and see if you are happy with them how you'd normally view them, ie. on screen or in whatever print size you do.
 
Harvey, thats great news! Thanks for letting me know!

Woof - I have seen many stills taken from the GH4 and I'm really impressed, the only thing holding me back was the AF which now can be solved.

Heh still not sure tho if the 7D mk2 wouldn't be better for mainly stills.
 
For me the modern M4/3 sensors are in the same ball park as any APSC sensor so I wouldn't let that put you off - I'm mega impressed with mine (being a FF Nikon owner).

The only places where a DSLR has the edge nowadays is AF (which is massively better) and battery life (which is massively better). However, the question is do you need the best in these areas or simply good enough. And that sums up M4/3 perfectly - not the best at anything but (more than) good enough in more areas than anything else (edit: actually, the GH4 is maybe best at video but you get my point).
 
Swanseajack said:
Just a question on 4K. If your camera has it, does everything else need to be in 4K to see the benefit i.e ......................computer screens, DVD, TV etc...............??
Click to expand...

Not at all, many people are shooting 4k & using it in a 1080p timeline. This gives you highly detailed video without any moire or aliasing. You also get the option to scale in on your footage so you can add movement to your shots or just crop the 4k footage to get a different shot composition.

Have a look on YouTube there are lots of examples, also watching Philip Bloom's or Dave Dugdale's review of the GH4 might answer a lot of questions about 4k on the GH4 if you don't mind spending 45 minutes each to watch them.
 
Nawty said:
For me the modern M4/3 sensors are in the same ball park as any APSC sensor so I wouldn't let that put you off - I'm mega impressed with mine (being a FF Nikon owner).

The only places where a DSLR has the edge nowadays is AF (which is massively better) and battery life (which is massively better). However, the question is do you need the best in these areas or simply good enough. And that sums up M4/3 perfectly - not the best at anything but (more than) good enough in more areas than anything else (edit: actually, the GH4 is maybe best at video but you get my point).
Click to expand...

Certainly massively better at continuous AF tracking, but in my experience m4/3 has the advantage in single shot AF both interms of accuracy and speed.

Simon.
 
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