when i hear budget 4k camera i immediately think under $1,000 after a
thorough research online and from using this camera for a few months I strongly
feel the panasonic g7 is the best budget 4k camera coming in at under
seven hundred dollars those familiar with cameras may be wondering why I'm
not recommending this sony a6300 it comes in right under a thousand dollars
so its budget and it produces excellent 4k quality content but even with the
most recent firmware update to this camera this camera is still having
overheating issues and it's not reliable
therefore I cannot recommend it and especially if you're using it for paid
jobs the panasonic g7 is by no means an end-all be-all camera but it has a lot
of features that will satisfy budget 4k filmmakers and in addition for
consumers who want 4k content of their family friends and pets
it will also satisfy them and remember this camera is under seven hundred
dollars with the kit lens so it's extremely affordable i can give you ten
reasons why this is a great camera starting with number one when I was
looking for a 4k camera
it had to have a microphone input where I could plug in a wireless Mic, a shotgun
mic or a lavalier Mic having good audio quality is just as important or even
more important than having good video quality if you have a video that has bad
audio it will immediately turn people off this camera has a microphone input
and hot shoe adapter where I can slide in a shotgun mic on the top of the
camera in addition I have the ability to manually control the audio levels in
camera
another feature I was looking for was a pop-out articulating LCD screen
I'm a one-man band and I need the screen to pop out and flip towards me so I can
see myself while I'm recording in addition the articulating screen allows
me to shoot with the camera at different angles either at high or low angles and
also if i'm recording video outside i can angle the screen away from the Sun
so there's no nasty glare on the screen and this makes filmmaking a lot easier
going along with being able to see what I'm record
this camera also has an electronic viewfinder so i can see exactly what I'm
recording without any interference from the Sun part of filmmaking is being able
to use different lenses to achieve different effects such as shallow depth
of field and focal lengths this micro four thirds camera allows you to use
interchangeable micro four thirds lenses in addition with an adapter or speed
booster you can use your existing canon or nikon glass
next let's talk about the video quality of this camera the panasonic g7 offers
4k video at 24 and 30 frames per second if you're familiar with its older
brother the panasonic gh4 surprisingly this camera offers similar video quality
at half the price one area where the panasonic g7 actually shines over the
panasonic gh4 is at high iso such as iso 3200 and 6400 if you would like to see
some low light test and some other test footage click on the video card on the
top right of your screen
this camera has both automatic and manual exposure and focus controls so
you can have the camera automatically focus on the closest subject or you can
use the tap to focus feature to make focusing really simple if you want full
control like most filmmakers do you can switch the camera to manual focus mode
and focus manual exposure works the same way you can have auto exposure or
you can take full control and set it to manual exposure going along with manual
focus this camera also has focus peaking which allows you to visually see what's
in focus on your screen
so now while you're manually focusing you no longer have the guess if your object is
in focus or if it's not in focus on the screen it will now highlight which part
of your object is in focus another nice feature this camera has is called zebras
this visually shows you on your screen which parts are potentially clipping or
are overexposed and this will allow you to make the proper adjustments without
looking at your histogram there are a variety of picture styles you can choose
from and you can fine-tune the contrast sharpness noise reduction and saturation
of each in addition there are flat picture styles like natural cine-like d
and cine-like v which are good for color
grading in post lastly this camera offers long record times i can record up
to 29 minutes before the camera stops and I have to restart it and on a
full charge i can record about an hour and a half of 4k video and I have never
had any issues with overheating in addition the file sizes are manageable
so for about an hour recording a 4k video it takes about 40 gb now I
don't want to paint this camera is all sunshine and roses there are some flaws
with this camera after all you are only paying seven hundred dollars for it so
we can't have everything but I feel for the features it packs we can get around
these flaws my first issue is there's no headphone jack to monitor audio in
real-time second if you will be using the auto focus feature the autofocus
will be a little bit slow from time to time and also it may do some focus
hunting so it may not immediately focused on your subject my third issue
is this camera has a micro four-thirds sensor so that means whatever lens you
put on this camera you're going to get a 2x crop so for example if i add a 24mm
lens to this camera
I'm automatically going to be positioned at 48mm now if you saw my
canon 5d mark iv rant video you know I complained about the crop factor now I
feel this situation is a little bit different this is just going to be a
dedicated video camera and there are ways to get around it
Panasonic offers wider lenses so for example you can buy the panasonic 12-35mm lens
s at f/2.8 and that will be equivalent to a 24-70
mm lens which is more standard now if you add the price of that lens
and the camera body it's still going to equal less than a canon 5d mark iv and
also the more expensive sony 4k camera or you can use a speed booster which
will give you a wider field of view it will let in more light it will give you
a shallow depth of field and it will also allow you to use your existing
Nikon and Canon glass another issue with this camera is it doesn't shoot cinema
4k it only shoots ultra-high-definition and lastly the
door that opens to the SD card and battery is positioned to close to the
tripod mount so that means when I want to access the battery and the SD card
and
I want to remove it i often have to remove my camera from the tripod and that's a
little of an inconvenience so those are the inconveniences i have experienced while
using this camera but they really don't hinder my workflow now if any one of
those five issues are an absolute deal breaker
just don't buy this camera but otherwise for the positive features it has
and for the price i think it's a great camera to have there is a link in the
description below to where you can buy one of these cameras along with some
recommended accessories and lenses if in any way I was able to help you make this
purchase or help you decide on this camera i would really appreciate it if you
bought that camera with the link i gave you because I earn a little Commission
and that allows me to make free content for you guys on youtube I would be happy
to answer any questions you have in the comments below and if you enjoyed this
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