Review on Panasonic Cinema Camera Livestreaming DC BGH1 by Josh Sharp

I was conflicted about the Lumix BGH1, but I went about my cautious ways, went to B&H and bought it. After hesitating before purchasing, I contacted B&H's Pro Video department, where, to my dismay, a video engineer worked. , got all my questions wrong, making this the first of many disappointments. Supposedly the Lumix BGH1 is a redesigned and improved GH5 camera housed in a box shape reminiscent of ZCam box cameras, but I soon found the workflow required quite a bit of learning. With no LCD screen, the BGH1 forced me to mount two monitors belly to belly; Shogun 7 connected via SDI at 1080p with camera information displayed and Ninja V connected via HDMI with no camera information displayed for ProRes recording. terrible omission. It lacks NDI, Waveform, VectorScope and RAW recording. It's 2021 and there is no RAW recording. You see, the battery that I bought is gigantic and almost physically larger than the camera. The BGH1 turned out to be heavier than I expected and once the battery was attached it was heavier than either my GH5s or GH5s. between two ¼-20 jacks with no additional 3/8-16 jacks. The camera has nine ¼-20 jacks on the body and no 3/8-16 jacks anywhere. The HDMI connector doesn't have a latch, but the Small Rig Cage solves that problem. The rear exit covers were bulky and I removed them; then I spent a hell of a long time replacing them. A piece of advice: never remap the FN1 key; it controls the display of information. The camera has a fan, but its noise is harmless as it is incredibly quiet. The bottom plate of the chamber got incredibly hot after two hours. According to the manual, BGH1 is not weatherproof. Nothing at all that's not good considering I'm used to shooting with my GH5 and S in all conditions. The front panel function keys are small and hard to find; With my work gloves it was almost impossible to control them. There is a power indicator on the front of the case but nowhere else and I found it very annoying at first. The camera has a rear "network" indicator that serves as a power indicator. Indicators in the front and a small one in the back. Contrary to what Video Tech promises, the battery is not charged by the camera. BGH1 does not load. have no data recovery function. I pulled the power plug to check. Once I plug in the Lumix tethering app and play around with it, my mind is useless. BGH1 is not broadcast out of the box. It doesn't actually stream, and I find that incredible as the main selling point of the Lumix BGH1 is streaming connectivity. There will be a firmware update, but who knows when? So if streaming is your only reason to buy this camera, I suggest you ditch your GH5 and buy a Birddog NDI or Atomos 4k connection converter and start with OBS. forget about BGH1, you don't need it. The OBS software never recognized the BGH1 as a VCD, although Video Tech at B&H mentioned this as a selling point, and after many attempts to connect I gave up and streamed via OBS with my Atomos 4k. Connect, it's easy. Now the final, is it worth buying Lumix BGH1? Do you have GH5 or S? If so, skip that camera and get BirdDog Studio NDI or Atomos 4k connect and you're good to go. Do I regret my purchase? Let's see what happens in the real world; but it's important to me that Panasonic is no longer at the forefront of the mirrorless world; Perhaps the real deal is coming, the GH6 is packed with: 6k @ 30p 4:2:2 10bit/8k is what it really needs because I believe 6k is already dead. 4k @ 120p 4:4:4 12bit 2k @ 960 4:2:0 10-bit ACES….and RAW color space Now below is the paper recap of the set that I have printed out here. Let's start with Part 2. This was determined after 3 weeks of filming in the studio and on 3 locations with BGH1. These notes are out of order and I read handwritten notes, so please give me some slack. I shot a dancer with a filter effect added and then the director asked for 120 fps. I toggled and bam, the filter effect was overridden. It was a terribly bad situation and embarrassing to say the least. The BGH1 menu doesn't pick up where I left off. The lack of a power indicator on the back was very annoying. The picture quality of the BGH1 is simply outstanding. The 2x digital zoom looks great. My Photo Style and Exposure Compensation are fantastic additions to the menu. I'm wondering if Panasonic can provide a tagging feature to identify them. Missing the 3/8-16 woman anywhere became an issue as AC wanted to attach a monitor and arm to her. Problem? Her hand had 3/8-16 on one end and ¼-20 on the other; Her monitor was only ¼-20. If BGH1 was somewhere 3/8-16, no problem. still not found. On the second day of shooting, the BGH1 menu appeared ghostly, like my Shogun7 after I cleared the display with FN1. This ghost image did not appear in the recorded file and was not returned. Shogun 7 burned, connected to BGH1 but not to Sony FS700. The Shogun 7 timestamp on the footage was five hours later than when connected to the BGH1, but spot on with the Sony FS700. The Shogun 7's AC connector burned out, but again only when connected to the BGH1 and not the Sony FS700, even when we were shooting in RAW. Tip: Set the Atomos Shogun 7 control menu to "Pan 3” and then the BGH1 will work. My eBay GH5 remote didn't work with the BGH1. Nothing special but just wanted to let you know. Did I mention the picture quality of the Lumix BGH1? It's awesome. Panasonic needs to add full help to describe the menu setting functions and why I can't set the grayed out item. In terms of low light situations, I saw a 2/3 improvement over the GH5s. Sharpen. Nothing about it. In fact, I wouldn't bother setting it to High or Low above 800 ISO. I only watched the footage on set; The image quality of the BGH1 is breathtaking. This camera is approaching VariCam and Arri Alexa territory. The bottom panels of the BGH1 were very warm, bordering on hot; Also, the tips of the SDI/HDMI connectors felt very hot. You cannot track Vlog with LUT Assist as it always embeds the footage. According to the manual, the LUT applies. See pages 120-123 Connectivity is this camera's forte; but nothing connects except the Type-C connection to the Lumix Tethering app. My laptop does not recognize the LAN connection and the tethering app. When the Lumix Tethering app is connected, you cannot format the cards. You need to exit the application, format the cards and reconnect. waste of time. I was upset when I saw the menu on my laptop as the tethering app was active and the director wasn't sitting too close for comfort either. IX app and HDMI to TV. Another thing is that I can't use full screen mode with this app. What's wrong with that white border down the middle? Annoying to no end. This app does nothing for me. Now the sync app is on my tablet; again that annoying white border, no full screen and you lose the wireless app it's connected to. Here is another one, how to update BGH1 firmware? Bluetooth connection never got established even though I waited over 3 minutes. The new menu layout is nice and easy to navigate, and I can't say it enough, SDI is only 1080p. Very annoying .4k SDI. No 4k SDI. No 4k SDI