Panasonic G7 Does anyone use the 4k prefocus feature

The Panasonic G7 camera offers a lot of features but I'm wondering how useful some of the features are. Using the 4K prefocus feature you end up with a lot of photos and after finding one or two photos then you have a lot of photos to delete. Does anyone use the feature?

The same with the 4k burst mode but you have one second gap to take the moving subject which you can easily miss if you delay in taking the shot , but then there's the unlimited 4k burst mode but you do end up with a lot of unwanted photos to delete else your memory card will get full fast.

I'd be interested in hearing from someone that has found usefulness in the 4k photo feature.

Brian

Brisn5757 wrote:

The Panasonic G7 camera offers a lot of features but I'm wondering how useful some of the features are.

An excellent feature if it is useful to you.

To me, it is fun to use, can open up my door of high speed shooting which was only possible on specialized gear. But in reality it is rarely used because I shoot still object most of the time.

They are actually sort of high speed shooting, good to catch action particular to capture the critical moment of happening, like balloon burst, fire burst, bird catch an insect in air to tiny facial expression changes etc...

Making use of 30 fps of video recording technique (or 60 for for G9 etc, that could be very fast burst shooting of the industry, but sadly Panny has to improve its CAF), and MP4 encoding such that even low spec models can support these features without the need of a super fast CPU nor deep buffer. Olympus goes another pure still burst shooting way such that it limits the feature to its flagship model only.

Using the 4K prefocus feature you end up with a lot of photos and after finding one or two photos then you have a lot of photos to delete.

It depends on which 4K photo mode you used. The S/S and 4K Photo mode are no different from usual 4K video (but not limited to 16:9, and 180 degree rule of shutter speed is meaningless to observe), could end up with a lot of frames. On another hand, the Pre-burst 4K Photo mode, will be limited t0 60 shots only.

Does anyone use the feature?

I used it a few times so far (since GX85 in 2016). Among the latest was to shoot friends hung on a sliding cable downhill (a few seconds shooting recorded from the time the gate open and all the way passing through in front of me, 70~80% of shots in focus). The other was to shoot my friend who blew the candles on the birthday cake. I can pick a few  frames capable to show the best facial expression of that event...

Might search for some older works of our BIF expert member Trevor, who had posted a lot in of very interesting birds in action shots here on M43 forum from his G85...

The same with the 4k burst mode but you have one second gap to take the moving subject which you can easily miss if you delay in taking the shot ,

Therefore Panny provides the Pre-Burst mode. The shooting will start recording when the feature been selected on a rolling basis, but only the 30 images taken from the 1 second before the shutter hit will be saved, and further 30 shots after the shutter hit. Therefore, as long as we enable the feature, point the camera to where the action will happen, we shall never miss the critical moment.

It is very good for the scenario when we expect thing will be happened, prepare our camera well before the happening. But as the recording will stop 1 sec after shutter hit, we can't keep on recording throughout the event.

So there is the other 2 4K photo modes (only difference is how we start and stop the recording) which can't do pre-shutter hit recording, but can take as long as we wish (subject to the video time limit?).

but then there's the unlimited 4k burst mode but you do end up with a lot of unwanted photos to delete else your memory card will get full fast.

4K video can eat up a lot of space relative to HD video, but at the end a 32Gb SD card can take 42min 4K video (as per P.34 of G7's pdf manual). I suppose it could be a lot more than we usually need for the purpose of shooting 4K photo...

I'd be interested in hearing from someone that has found usefulness in the 4k photo feature.

Brian

G7 4K was fine at the time when it was launched. I used it mainly as a bit of fun and it gave me some decent results. Next generation on the G80 was identical and gave me shots like this.

Negatives were that you could get some nasty rolling shutter effect, extracting the stills could be a faff, 8Mp means quality is not as good as stills.

A big step forward on the G9 which does it in 6K and more importantly has a new function using a different technology to produces 20Mp RAW stills up to 60fps, great quality and no extraction needed, the camera produces each frame as a still. I still get some rolling shutter effect on some shots..

I don't have proof but from reading these forums oly procapture may have less issue with rolling shutter.

Brisn5757 wrote:

...but you do end up with a lot of unwanted photos to delete else your memory card will get full fast....

That's why they make 128GB and 256GB SD cards.

Thanks Alcelc.

It was interesting to read how you use the 4k photo feature on your camera.
Far as I know there isn't a 'delete all 4k photos except the ones I've marked' option for 4k photo modes but it would be useful to have one. or maybe the option of deleting a range of photos apart from the protected photos.
The other problem you pointed out is that the camera needs time to recover as it's writing the photos from the 4k photo mode to memory. I have not used this mode except to test it out but it's good to know that it's available if needed.

Brian

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

G7 4K was fine at the time when it was launched. I used it mainly as a bit of fun and it gave me some decent results. Next generation on the G80 was identical and gave me shots like this.

Negatives were that you could get some nasty rolling shutter effect, extracting the stills could be a faff, 8Mp means quality is not as good as stills.

A big step forward on the G9 which does it in 6K and more importantly has a new function using a different technology to produces 20Mp RAW stills up to 60fps, great quality and no extraction needed, the camera produces each frame as a still. I still get some rolling shutter effect on some shots..

I don't have proof but from reading these forums oly procapture may have less issue with rolling shutter.

Thanks Trevor.

I suspect this feature is mainly for getting those near impossible shots.
20Mp Raw still up to 60fps sounds good but it must use up the cards memory fast.

PS: I liked your photos on your web site.

Brian

uncle dunc wrote:

Brisn5757 wrote:

...but you do end up with a lot of unwanted photos to delete else your memory card will get full fast....

That's why they make 128GB and 256GB SD cards.

It seems with time that cameras will accept larger SD cards as long as manufacturers can create them. I think the Panasonic has a limit of 256 GB but need to check this.

Brian

Brisn5757 wrote:

Thanks Alcelc.

It was interesting to read how you use the 4k photo feature on your camera.
Far as I know there isn't a 'delete all 4k photos except the ones I've marked' option for 4k photo modes

As 4K photo mode will produce a single MP4 and upon this, we can extract frames into individual jpg. Therefore, after orchestrated the useful jpgs, we can just delete that MP4 like any video file.

Those extracted jpgs become a individual photo will need to delete one by one or use the erase all option.

but it would be useful to have one. or maybe the option of deleting a range of photos apart from the protected photos.
The other problem you pointed out is that the camera needs time to recover as it's writing the photos from the 4k photo mode to memory.

It is no difference from shooting video. When we end the 4K photo shooting, it will return to standby mode in not much observable delay. Smart for Panny to apply video technique on still shooting.

I have not used this mode except to test it out but it's good to know that it's available if needed.

Brian

Enjoy it.

alcelc wrote:

Brisn5757 wrote:

Thanks Alcelc.

It was interesting to read how you use the 4k photo feature on your camera.
Far as I know there isn't a 'delete all 4k photos except the ones I've marked' option for 4k photo modes

As 4K photo mode will produce a single MP4 and upon this, we can extract frames into individual jpg. Therefore, after orchestrated the useful jpgs, we can just delete that MP4 like any video file.

Those extracted jpgs become a individual photo will need to delete one by one or use the erase all option.

but it would be useful to have one. or maybe the option of deleting a range of photos apart from the protected photos.
The other problem you pointed out is that the camera needs time to recover as it's writing the photos from the 4k photo mode to memory.

It is no difference from shooting video. When we end the 4K photo shooting, it will return to standby mode in not much observable delay. Smart for Panny to apply video technique on still shooting.

I have not used this mode except to test it out but it's good to know that it's available if needed.

Brian

Enjoy it.

I must be wrong as my understanding was that the camera creates a series of still photos to choose from just like it does in the normal photo taking mode, but if like you say it produces a single mp4 file then it's easier to delete once the photos are chosen.

Brian

Brisn5757 wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Brisn5757 wrote:

Thanks Alcelc.

It was interesting to read how you use the 4k photo feature on your camera.
Far as I know there isn't a 'delete all 4k photos except the ones I've marked' option for 4k photo modes

As 4K photo mode will produce a single MP4 and upon this, we can extract frames into individual jpg. Therefore, after orchestrated the useful jpgs, we can just delete that MP4 like any video file.

Those extracted jpgs become a individual photo will need to delete one by one or use the erase all option.

but it would be useful to have one. or maybe the option of deleting a range of photos apart from the protected photos.
The other problem you pointed out is that the camera needs time to recover as it's writing the photos from the 4k photo mode to memory.

It is no difference from shooting video. When we end the 4K photo shooting, it will return to standby mode in not much observable delay. Smart for Panny to apply video technique on still shooting.

I have not used this mode except to test it out but it's good to know that it's available if needed.

Brian

Enjoy it.

I must be wrong as my understanding was that the camera creates a series of still photos to choose from just like it does in the normal photo taking mode, but if like you say it produces a single mp4 file then it's easier to delete once the photos are chosen.

Brian

Yes some Panasonic does it. It is the SH1, SH2, SH1 Per and SH2 Per of G9. It is different from the 4K/6K photo modes of lower spec Panasonic cameras.

4K/6K photo mode, making use of the high speed video shooting frame rate (30 or 60 fps), encoding the recorded image into a MP4 file for still photo application. Such that any 4K video capable camera (could be a lower spec model like the entry class GF10, or a compact like ZS100 etc) can enjoy the feature.

The SH modes of G9, like Pro Capture mode of Olympus, handle the high speed shooting on conventional still photo shooting technique. So, very fast bursting speed, deep buffer, fast file writing speed etc are needed. Hence, we get every shot as an individual photo in full resolution, RAW or jpg or both (4K/6K photo mode will produce 8Mp or 16Mp jpg only). But only the top spec hardware can handle it.

alcelc wrote:

Yes some Panasonic does it. It is the SH1, SH2, SH1 Per and SH2 Per of G9. It is different from the 4K/6K photo modes of lower spec Panasonic cameras.

4K/6K photo mode, making use of the high speed video shooting frame rate (30 or 60 fps), encoding the recorded image into a MP4 file for still photo application. Such that any 4K video capable camera (could be a lower spec model like the entry class GF10, or a compact like ZS100 etc) can enjoy the feature.

The SH modes of G9, like Pro Capture mode of Olympus, handle the high speed shooting on conventional still photo shooting technique. So, very fast bursting speed, deep buffer, fast file writing speed etc are needed. Hence, we get every shot as an individual photo in full resolution, RAW or jpg or both (4K/6K photo mode will produce 8Mp or 16Mp jpg only). But only the top spec hardware can handle it.

Super fast processors in cameras are certainly an advantage.

Brian