Zenmuse GH4 Owners thread

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
I am honestly as frustrated as you guys that you're having problems with the Zen. I can't believe I am just lucky, it must be something simple that you're over looking. I plugged everything in and every mode works. The only thing I hate is the bloody low res stills!

I am getting the GH4 out now and looking through the settings....
 

Buzz_Roavr

Member
I've lost track of what I've tried and haven't tried now! It let me down once on a shoot but I will get this to operate reliably!!
 

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
Okay, in no particular order:

Live view mode: 60fps
TV aspect: 16:9
System Frequency: 50Hz (PAL)
Bit mode: 4:2:2 8bit
4K down convert: auto (sorry! it is auto)

If you have any other settings you'd like to know ask now.
 

Buzz_Roavr

Member
Cheers Ben I'll look at mine later. I think live view is 30fps on mine and system frequency is NTSC but will check. Ta.
 

Buzz_Roavr

Member
Right. On Bens setting (although I haven't changed live view from 30 to 70 yet!) the cam wouldn't start up in 4k but the view stayed when I switched from 1080 to 4k. Wahoo! I then turned it all off and restarted in 4k and the view was there again!

Will check again tomorrow and change the live view to 60p.
 


Buzz_Roavr

Member
As a package with the S900 it's hard to argue against the value.

I wouldn't buy the Zen outright myself. Would save up for an M5.

It does the job very well however.
 

Stratifier

Member
Shutter problem! for the first time today for no reason apparently, I can't trigger the shutter. When the camera starts it starts recording immediately and I can't stop it. Will have a look at the cable tomorrow. Meantime, if someone has an idea...
Thanks.
 

Buzz_Roavr

Member
Mine nearly always starts recording as soon as it initialises. I stop it on the camera but the tx control remains functional.
 




Buzz_Roavr

Member
Yep all is good. I can guarantee if I fire up the gimbal without the GH4 turned on first I almost never get a feed out.

It's one of the many things / procedures I have developed as a result of my live view issues!
 

scotth

Member
The gimbals are great when they work... but so flaky. It doesn't seem to matter on mine whether the camera is on or off during initialization but if on I often find that it's recording. It amazes me that there can be so many different types of issues with these things. I will mention that I use a couple of Gh4's on small productions, and have issues with HDMI feeding monitors there as well.. I have read that it's best to power up all the devices before plugging in HDMI cables, but that's not going to last very long with this gimbal setup.
 

Stratifier

Member
Mine doesn't. I start the camera after the Zen fully initialises if that makes a difference.
I think that makes a difference.
I started the GH4 after the Z15 initialisation and all seems ok, triggering shutter works fine. It was just that then.
Thank you Ben!
I believe (I hope) that problems with the Z15 GH4 could be mitigated by following a sort of "best practice" guide. I see already 2 things that can be avoided by starting the camera after initialisation:
- Hitting the FN button during initialisation, triggering the bluetooth and loosing transmission to the fpv monitor.
- Getting the lanc working correctly everytime.
Definitely going to add this to my procedure.
 

Jumpy07

Member
http://www.dji.com/product/zenmuse-z15-gh4-hd/download

New assistant released today...

Date IMU firmware version GCU firmware version HD -AV version CMU version Assistant version User manual version : 2015/1/4 : 1.8 : 2.4 : 1.18 : 1.0 : 1.4 : 1.2 Major Update ● Upgraded the GCU firmware to V2.4 to support the latest A2 firmware V2.5, now all of the gimbal channels can be setup through the A2 receiver. ● Upgraded the IMU firmware to V1.8. Notes ● When using A2 firmware version 2.5, connect the GCU CAN-Bus port to the CAN 2 port of the A2 flight controller, and all of the gimbal channels can be setup through the A2 receiver, you cannot setup the gimbal channels through A2 receiver if connect to the CAN 1 port. ● When using A2 firmware version 2.4, connect the GCU CAN-Bus port to the CAN 1 port of the A2 flight controller, as before. The function of the gimbal remains the same as before.
 

scotth

Member
Well they refer to A2 V2.5 but I fail to find any documentation on it, or even that the download is available for that matter.
 

Timtim

Member
We are not making any progress with FPV. Yesterday we fitted a new GCU and did get a solid image if we waited for initialisation before switching on the camera. But this was in a warm office. We took it outside for some test flights, and the image went back to being very flaky. Has anyone noticed it being an ambient temperature issue? I have seen this mentioned elsewhere. It was around 5-7°c yesterday, so not that cold.
 

PMaughan

Member
We are not making any progress with FPV. Yesterday we fitted a new GCU and did get a solid image if we waited for initialisation before switching on the camera. But this was in a warm office. We took it outside for some test flights, and the image went back to being very flaky. Has anyone noticed it being an ambient temperature issue? I have seen this mentioned elsewhere. It was around 5-7°c yesterday, so not that cold.

Timtim, I'm fairly sure there is a temperature link to this problem. Couple of week back I tested it again and again in the workshop and all was well but as soon as we got on-site where it was around freezing I just couldn't get anything out of it, then back in-doors it worked on the third power up...
 


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