GH4

Adobe is usually pretty fast at updating their codecs, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. At least over the last couple of years they have done real well in keeping up.

It was the hardware I was thinking of - whether you need that "brick" or just an atomos or so.

I'm still on PPCS6 which I bought a couple of years ago (for an arm and two legs) not the Cloud version; so I'm stuck as far as new codecs go.

And yet they said nothing about the stills quality.

They briefly said the sensor was better in low light than the GH3, it was very interesting to hear an unofficial opinion as to the sensors native resolution, which the rep thought was 800iso, which is the same as the Blkackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. I have seen some still photo comparison on DSLR Lounge and the GH4 were sharper and had less noise. I have preordered one to give real time 4K a try.

I don't understand this "native resolution" of 800iso. Is that insinuating that 800iso is "better" than a lower iso and therefore is to be used where possible?

Yep! Every sensor has a light sensitivity that has been selected to give the performance that the engineers and or marketing people want, i.e. 11 to 12 stops of dynamic range, good lowlight performance etc. To achieve this a sensor who has a native iso of 800 is going to achieve the designed dynamic range at 800, adjusting the iso or asa (your choice), up is only lifting up the shadow detail at the expense of clipping highlights, the reverse is true select a lower iso and the highlights are good but shadows crushed. They achieve these different iso's with software after the image has been shot but not before being written to the memory card, by sliding the gray scale up or down. I shoot with my BMPCC at 800 and have a variable ND filter to dial in the correct exposure. Nikon did this on the D300 sensor minimum was 200 but they offered a lower setting equal to 100 and 50 iso all done by software. The Canon 5D MK2 sensor has the best noise performance using iso 160 and in multiples of 160, the whole number iso's (100 etc) were software manipulated.

The 800iso surprises me. For low light shooting this is a great "starting point" but for sunny days outdoors it's a nightmare ;-)

I shoot at 50th sec at 160iso (optimum for my camera and frame rate)
In sunny conditions I need an ND (otherwise I'm shooting at around F22 ) - and so use a .9 ND
It has no colour cast and loses 3 stops - means I can shoot at a round F9 or 10.
So I have an optimum aperture and ISO for my Canon.

At 800iso I will end up at around F20 which is no where near the best aperture for most lenses.
I could use a "thicker" ND - but after .9 they tend to start introducing colour casts.

Am I missing something?

My C300 native ISO is 800. As far as getting the best dynamic range it is supposed to be set to 800 or better.
Outdoor I use the built in ND filters. (Or screw on ND filters on the GH4)
If its set lower than 800 you lose about 1 stop of range. Maybe its the same for the GH4

What "strength" are the built-in NDs on the C300?
How many stops can you lose?

For screw-in filters one would need 4, 5 or 6 stop filters or, as you say, lose DR.

I know Lee have just brought out the "6 stop Little Stopper" (not screw-in) which has a blue cast (similar to the 10 stop big stopper) - Just love my no colour cast screw-in, 3 stop B+W ND.

It has 2, 4,and 6 stops of ND light reduction.