Lumix G7 for Streaming

[Mr Technician]

About 8 months ago I started streaming the service of my local church to its Facebook page using a cheap camera to prove the concept. I ran the camera feed to an Intensity Pro capture card and then ran this into OBS. The video quality I was getting was quite horrible so I am looking for an upgrade. I also record a video series so I was thinking the Lumix G7 would do well for this dual purpose of shooting 4k video and streaming. Stills are completely irrelevant for my uses. My main questions are 1: Are there any concerns that Lumix G7 users can speak to that would be a problem? (I am aware of the split files every 4 gb). and 2: I need to zoom in on the pulpit from a balcony at least 100 feet away and I'm not sure what level of zoom the 14-42 mm kit lens is capable of. If a telephoto lens is needed, are there are cheap ones that would be recommended? Quality isn't a huge issue since I'm only going to be be streaming at 1080p and 720p.

[dizmo]

 

[Mr Technician]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

 

I've seen that.

[Mr Technician]

Can anyone speak to the question of the zoom with the kit lens?

[cc143]

1 hour ago, ThatFlashCat said:

Can anyone speak to the question of the zoom with the kit lens?

Knowing the focal and given the distance, the kit lens won't be enough, Honestly, you might be better off to use another camera and cut to it rather than zoom in, because depending on the FOV you'd want, there won't be many lenses that will give you that sort of thing at a reasonable price. 

 

To give you an idea: 

This was taken at 200mm (so 100mm on a G7) from about 1/3rd of the distance you are talking about. 

[Mr Technician]

11 hours ago, cc143 said:

Knowing the focal and given the distance, the kit lens won't be enough, Honestly, you might be better off to use another camera and cut to it rather than zoom in, because depending on the FOV you'd want, there won't be many lenses that will give you that sort of thing at a reasonable price. 

I found this bundle with an included 45-150mm lens: https://www.amazon.com/PANASONIC-14-42mm-45-150mm-Lenses-Bundle/dp/B072JNCNGJ/ref=sr_1_18?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1541808351&sr=1-18&keywords=lumix%2Bg7&th=1

 

That along with some digital zoom should do the job, I'd hope.

[cc143]

15 hours ago, ThatFlashCat said:

I found this bundle with an included 45-150mm lens: https://www.amazon.com/PANASONIC-14-42mm-45-150mm-Lenses-Bundle/dp/B072JNCNGJ/ref=sr_1_18?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1541808351&sr=1-18&keywords=lumix%2Bg7&th=1

 

That along with some digital zoom should do the job, I'd hope.

Why dont you just buy a second camera? like an action camera, cheap used gopro?

 

[Mr Technician]

2 minutes ago, cc143 said:

Why dont you just buy a second camera? like an action camera, cheap used gopro?

 

An action cam wouldn't work well for either application, though.

[cc143]

Just now, ThatFlashCat said:

An action cam wouldn't work well for either application, though.

It would if you fixed it on the balcony and just cut to it for that shot. I assume you don't need for it to record sound since it would be no different that using the A cam 100ft away. 

[Mr Technician]

7 hours ago, cc143 said:

It would if you fixed it on the balcony and just cut to it for that shot. I assume you don't need for it to record sound since it would be no different that using the A cam 100ft away. 

I'm only using a single shot throughout for simplicity's sake so it needs to be a tight angle, not like the shot a gopro would give.

[cc143]

4 hours ago, ThatFlashCat said:

I'm only using a single shot throughout for simplicity's sake so it needs to be a tight angle, not like the shot a gopro would give.

Yes I got that, what I'm saying is, don't, you will spend the same amount of money and have a better finished product if you just put a up and cut to it.