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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