The box arrived, time to put FZ1000 to the test
against GH4 with 14-140 mm lens.
Body and handling
With matte surface finish, sharper edges of the top plate and
massive lens barrel FZ1000 looks like the boss of the pack. Inclusion of the large
lens has some consequences. Firstly, the camera is more unbalanced to the front
and to the left. Cleverly, hand grip was sculptured accordingly: it is deeper
(64mm vs 60mm on GH4), but with narrower ridge to increase space between
fingers and the lens barrel. That makes the hand to claw slightly more, and the
security of the grip is further improved by slightly bigger protrusion of the
step at the fingertips. Secondly, tripod socket is offset from the axis. That
is of course inconvenient for panoramas, but very bad for access to battery and
card compartment – with most tripod plates it will be impossible without
removing a plate first.
The rear part of the grip is in my opinion improvement over
GH4: more pronounced ridge is further away from all the controls – I can
see no chance of accidental pressing right D-pad button (moves focus point on
GH4), and at the same time ‘Disp’ button is much easier to operate (required to
reset focus point on GH4, to add to annoyance).
The dial is gorgeous. It is wider, with deep, square profiled
knurling - it actually beats those of GH4. With its push-action toggling between
main exposure parameter and exposure compensation, that makes it absolutely
equal alternative to dual dial setup. The only improvement I can see is to
reduce angle between clicks to allow for more adjustment during one move, or
add some intelligence and when fast movement detected, to change full stops
rather than thirds.
The 4-way control on FZ1000 is not obstructed by the grip,
but the biggest improvement against GH4 are the buttons: they are bigger, with
better tactile feedback, image review button of different shape (concave top) to easily
differentiate from the other two. My only wish would be to swap (or allow to
redefine) review and Fn3 (Quick Menu by default, used more extensively on
FZ1000 due to fewer direct controls) buttons, so Q.Menu operations, engaging 4
way controller, could be quicker by cutting the travel from the button.
My biggest worry - focus point selection - is gone: I
programmed Fn4 button (delete/return by default, kudos to Panasonic for using
this button at all in the record mode) to invoke that option
and it is actually even better idea than using one of the positions on the pad
itself (like on some other cameras): no confusion whether pressing pad
activates function or already moves the position, especially on ‘mushy’
buttons. If necessary, 4-way controller can be used for direct focus point selection.
Dial mode on GH4 is taller, more metal and has got lock, but
for me neither of those make a difference. ‘C3’ position present on GH4 becomes
‘Scene’ mode on FZ1000: another hint of who are the two models intended for,
and clever way of differentiating product lines and still sharing guts.
Strap eyelet on the FZ1000 is a letdown, being very close to
the index finger – on GH4 it is moved further back, which is better position.
Display
Both cameras have display of practically the same size
(FZ1000 62x41mm LCD 921K dots, GH4 63x42mm OLED 1036K dots - this one feels bigger, being flush with the frame),
but it actually makes a difference: on FZ1000 it matches sensor ratio so the
full area is used, on GH4 there are vertical bars at native 4:3 aspect for
stills.
Touch control is a nice addition on GH4 with Panasonic
excellent touch-control friendly approach. Apart from useful ability to select
focus point/trigger the shutter, it includes 5 extra Fn buttons. In its
creative movie mode it adds even more controls and also lets to touch-focus
even in manual focus mode. For button-challenged there is tapping, swiping and
pinching (where applicable) provided.
The display of FZ1000 is more accessible, with large recess
to open it, and feels more robust as it’s got bottom edge covered by the body
and display surrounded by a bezel.
EVF
Both use the same OLED 2.359 K dots panel, but optics on GH4 is much better: I can see the whole area sharp, whereas on FZ1000 there is smearing in the corners with eye centered in the finder, and when off-axis, this affects the actual preview. Also on GH4 the eyecup can be replaced
Flash
On GH4 there
is a flush fiddly button, FZ1000 is equipped with much more pronounced lever. In both cases hood shadow is present until about 55mm (equivalent), there is no shadowing with hood removed at any focal length.
Lens operation
There are 2 switches on the side of FZ1000
barrel: Power O.I.S on/off and zoom/focus action of the ring. I prefer zooming
with the lever, especially that it provides 2 speeds, whereas the ring seems to
operate only proportionally to the rotation angle (about 160 degrees for full range)
and it keeps being activated every time it is accidentally touched by the hand
holding the lens (and the best support is right on the ring). The ring rotates
smoothly with soft stops at the end of range. In the focus position the
focusing itself will work when manual focusing (MF or AF+MF) is enabled. The
lens retracts with quite audible whirr, internal mechanism* is also louder than
on 14-140 lens (* initially I thought it was stabilisation, but it is audible
with IS off. Then I switched AF off but it did not make the lens quiet neither.
Both lenses exhibit that, just on FZ it is noticeable). Movie tests will show
how it affects recording. 14-140mm lens have only Power O.I.S switch, but 2
rings: wider for zooming, with 90 degrees rotation to cover the whole range,
and narrow focus-by-wire ring at the front. Focus ring moves smoothly with soft
end stops, lens extension is a bit jerky (steep helicoid I suspect) – it
doesn’t matter when framing for stills, but it is terrible if attempted to use
during movie.
Battery
BLC12E of FZ1000 rated at 1200mAh (8.7Wh), BLF19E
of GH4 at 1860mAh (14Wh). Apart from obvious difference in capacity, FZ1000 consumes
more by driving the lens. I started a test, but I quickly got bored of turning on/off, zooming and pressing shutter button, so no results. Guesstimate gives FZ1000 half to 2/3rd life of GH4 on a battery. BLC12E full charging takes 2 hours, BLF19E - 3 hours, so it looks like they are charged with the same current.
Burst
It is one of more important features for me, because
my subjects include 5 year old boy (‘action’ photography, spray-and-pray proves
to be the best option) as well as trains, which often happen to be obstructed
by trees and other objects and the best location in the frame depends on
perfect timing or high sampling rate. Modern cameras seem to get better in that
respect, however marketing is happy to quote just one number (rounded up, with
compulsory ‘up to’ prefix), whereas the reality is a bit more complex. This
summary should be self-explanatory though:
41/6.9s = 5.9 fps, then every 1.1s
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42/7.9s = 5.3 fps, then every 0.95s
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35/3.6s = 9.7 fps, then every 0.7s, then 0.9s
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41/6.3s = 6.5 fps, then every 0.9s
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6/0.8s (7.5 fps), 0.4 pause, 7/1.2s (5.8 fps), then every 1.8s
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13/2.5s (5.2 fps) then every 1.8s
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12/1s (12 fps) then every 1.4s
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12/1.4s (8.5 fps) then every 1.3s
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(click on the link in the table to hear the burst series)
For the test I set my standard JPEG+RAW mode, if you save
only one of those file types, expect some improvement. In both cases single
autofocus, IS off, base ISO, super-duper fast card. In such conditions the
results are about the best one can expect. GH4 is of course the king of the
buffer, with about 40 deep bucket of photos. Speed-wise at M setting it is
nearly there. At H it is just shy of 10fps, but when stopped down, lens aperture
adjustment is the limiting factor. It is a bit curious, as focus and exposure
are locked, so the aperture could stay constant, but clearly that is not the
case. So if speed is what you need, open wide (that makes sense too) and you
have a machine gun. Otherwise, settling at M doesn’t cap the speed much, and
you gain live preview (frozen on first frame in H mode).
FZ1000 behaves a bit strangely: leaf shutter, acting as
aperture at the same time, should not affect at all – but there is significant
repetition rate reduction coinciding with aperture value. Then there is a gap
(that is repetitive behaviour) at M wide open. Also card writes get faster at
H, I’d expect the same write time from the moment the buffer is full. The
buffer holds advertised 12 images, which at H wide open lasts for exactly 1s. I
think realistically that is enough for a burst shooting – 4 times that, offered by GH4, is more important when there are consecutive series needed, so
the top speed is maintained without need to wait for write to the card.
FZ1000’s 12fps is very respectable figure, and even after stopping down it beats
GH4. All that at bigger files size!
Read next: Panasonic FZ1000 vs GH4 with 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 (3): image quality compared
Read next: Panasonic FZ1000 vs GH4 with 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 (3): image quality compared
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