June 23, 2025
Christmas and my birthday come early this year!
I have made many fine improvements on my videos in the last while, but I know exactly where I was hitting the wall… and the addition of some new toys are going to make all the difference in my future videos!
Let’s start off with the star of the show and then some supporting members of the new cast.
Boasting a huge increase in resolution, improved dynamic range and far superior autofocus… the Panasonic Lumix GH7 with 12-60 lens:
I also picked up the Panasonic DMWXLR2 for it’s incredible ability to capture 32-bit float audio and 2 XLR mics with 48v phantom power and stereo mic inputs
The one thing that I did NOT want to depend on when shooting at home was the battery life, so I picked up the DMWDCC18 dummy battery with USB-C connector:
…to power this battery I picked up two 45 watt fast chargers for the price of one with cables:
But what about if I wanted to take the GH7 out? I did not want to be limited to the recording times of the small factory battery, so I purchased the following… a SmallRig V-mount battery and a matching dummy battery with D-TAP connector:
Finally, because I want to record at the highest levels of quality possible, I purchase a fast external 2TB SSD, the SANDISK 2TB Extreme Pro model:
Yesterday evening I was reading online and someone mentioned that they were using Pocketwizard transceivers to turn on/off the video… I was like “what, is that a thing with these cameras???” That would be a great idea, so after some fast research, I found the necessary cable from Pocketwizard themselves and ordered 2 of them. Why 2? Well, wouldn’t it be super convenient to be able to turn on or off both the GH5s and GH7 at the same time with a press of a button wihtout needing to leave my chair?
Before ordering them, I made sure that I did not have a set of these cables already, and I did not. They are TRRS and 2.5mm on one side and TRS and 3.5mm on the other, At least I caught them while on sale.
And whatabout the actual PW transceivers? Oh, I had more than enough of those from my photography days, so I pulled 3 out of temporary retirement (one to act as the transmitter and two to act as the receivers). I tested them and they all work just fine and are ready to be placed in service for that part of my process once they arrive in a week or two. PW make some of the finest and most reliable transceivers on the market for camera and flash triggers!
Addendum: June 24
Things are starting to come in! The two 45 watt chargers came in yesterday:
…but the rest seems delayed… GH7, XLR2 and DCC18 dummy battery to arrive within the next 2-3 days and the rest perhaps by June 28 (4-ish days), as Amazon has now twice pushed the delivery dates on me.
More to come as things come in over the next week or so… I am VERY excited to start making more videos using this new setup!
Addendum June 26
It’s here!
That Amazon 3rd party courier finally arrived… damn, what a crappy company! All that is missing is the cable from PocketWizard, but there is no urgency for that. BTW, that V-mount battery… what a GREAT addition!
So, the only things missing are the PocketWizard cables and the DCC-18, but becuase I have the DCC-18 to D-TAP cable, I can still use the V-mount battery. Looking forward for those last 2 things to come in, though they are not stopping me from starting the learning phase.
Addendum June 27
The DMW-DCC18 came in and I just hopped to the store and picked it up… only thing left to wait for now is the PW cables.
I did some minor playing yesterday and though the internal 5.8k MOV format V-log file is nice, it does NOT compare to the 12-bit BRAW, so today it was all about a fast update of all the firmware, and the damn thing is now giving me 5.8k v-log BRAW files, and the quality is SWEET. A few quick tests and it works perfectly! What makes it nice is that the Video Assist makes it all look so damn fine, so it stays on the GH7 and the GH5s… well we see how close I can match it for B-roll shots, and perhaps in time I will get a smaller 5″ video assist to make the setup perfect.
The BRAW footage is super impressive and eliminates all my limitations and adds so much quality, and then some. I noticed that even with BRAW, the system is struggling a good amount more than before, but that’s life now with files of this size. I’d need to win a lottery to give me a computer that can easily handle this level… lol
Addendum: June 28
Well, I heard that a lot of people had a ton of grief using the DMW-DCCW18 dummy battery as they had issues trying to find a proper power adapter and cable. I am happy to say that my Amazon solution was 45w and plenty strong enough to power the camera even when sending info to an external recorder at it’s highest quality settings. I guess it pays to read a little before spending the money!
I found out a little more about the XLR adapter and there are limitations, it seems. When recording to an SSD or internal SD or CF card, you have the full 32-bit float option, but when recording to an external recorder, the max it can send to the recorder is 24-bit/96Hz, which is still a LOT, just has no protection for blasts of overly loud sounds (no 32-bit float option… why??). In my case, I’ve always learned to set my gain levels properly, so I have no concerns, besides the unit does have an integrated limiter built in, though I don’t like using them much. If I so wished, I could also just continue to use my external recorders and just use the XLR2 or camera mic for scratch audio.
The BRAW V-Log files, though, are of amazing quality, I love it, but due to their increased size I have to take special considerations when creating my projects with green screens, all with the goal of maximizing my quality output and try not to go so complex that it takes 1 week per 1 minute of video to rip the file. There may be alternatives out there… time and testing will tell.
Fun, fun, fun!
Lots of experimentation to come so I can learn how to best leverage this new camera!