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Panasonic GH4 Disassembly and Full-Spectrum Conversion
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***DISCLAIMER*** Disassembly of your camera will void the manufacturer warranty and expose you to dangerous electrolytic capacitors that can hold lethal charges even without a battery. You also risk permanent damage to your camera. Do so at your own risk.
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I will show a fairly detailed breakdown of the Panasonic GH4. At least this more detailed than what I could find at the time of writing this, so hopefully this will be of great help to other GH4 owners or those interested in the innards of a mirrorless camera. I have been wanting to convert my camera to full-spectrum to experiment with the creative aspects of IR photography as well as get more details out of my astrophotography. Conversion services do exist but are expensive so I decided that with my tech skills, I will just do it myself. This way, the money I save on the conversion will be put towards quality filters. I chose to purchase my full-spectrum sensor filter from Kolari Vision because it was less expensive than the competitors and appeared to be of the same quality or better.
3. figure(3), Right side, 5 total screws, SD screws need to be removed too
4. figure(4), Front side, 2 total screws (no idea if these were necessary)
5. figure(5), Back side, 5 total screws, The thumb knob comes off with E5.
6. figure(6), Once up to step5, the back can be carefully pull away being mindful of connected ribbon cables. RB1 and RB2 are still connected to the back piece so carefully remove those first but be sure to remove from the main body end, NOT the back piece end, so I think that is RB7 and RB2 actually, leave RB1 alone. The pink/white wires circled at top is the dangerous flash capacitor. There are actually two of them in the GH4. Be mindful of that area or be safe and discharge it with an appropriate resistor. Once everything is disconnected, carefully remove the PCB noting that there are some latched plastic areas around the upper right battery contacts. Carefully inspect the area and you will find them and see what I mean. You cant just pull the PCB out, you must gently detach the latched areas and then the PCB will come out smoothly.
7. figure(7), Once the nasty PCB with all the ribbon cables is out of the way, there is only one screw to take care of here but again be mindful of the two latches on the side area before pulling this part away. The metal is also very soft and malleable so be careful not to bend or break it.
8. figure(8), I'm not entirely sure if this step was necessary to get to the sensor, but I carefully removed the screw in the battery compartment and moved that whole part out of the way.
9. figure(9), What you're looking at is the back of the camera sensor module. Unscrew the 3 screws with the springs on them being mindful not to let the springs fall out and get lost.
10. figure(10), We've now made it to removing the camera sensor on the Panasonic GH4!!! YAY!
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**At this point it is worth noting one possible fault with full-spectrum conversion on the GH4. Some mirrorless/DSLR cameras, including the GH4, have an internal IR shutter "diagnostic" LED. This IR is usually over 800nm and has little effect on the sensor, however in long exposure like with DSO AP this may pose significant light leak onto the sensor. I have not been able to locate where this LED is in the GH4, usually around the sensor/shutter frame area. If I find it I will point it out in a later photo.
To begin, I'll describe in roughly ten steps how to break down the panasonic GH4 to the sensor and install/replace the internal filter. I will not go through reassembly as that is simply following the steps in reverse. You'll notice I carefully labeled and organized all the screws and pieces over this poor-mans paper bench. Ideally I would have used those vitamin/pill containers that have the days of the month, and label the pieces according to the days and keep them organized that way. Also forgive my terrible writing on the pictures as I was doing this on my phone fairly quickly. Clearly this is NOT a tutorial, so there may be incompleteness. This description is for educational purposes only, again, Proceed at your own risk.
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(figures below)
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figure(1), Starting with the bottom, 7 total screws. Keep the battery hatch with the two B3 screws
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figure(2), Left side, 3 total screws plus another in the headphone jack I later removed
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Starting with the bottom, 7 total screws.
Left side, 3 total screws plus another in the headphone jack I later removed
Back side, 5 total screws, The thumb knob comes off with E5
Right side, 5 total screws, SD screws need to be removed too
Front side, 2 total screws (no idea if these were necessary)
Once up to step5, the back can be carefully pulled away being mindful of connected ribbon cables. More details in description above^^
one screw here and two latches on the right side before pulling this part away
The Micro Four Thirds Sensor
3 sensor assembly screws
Don't kill yourself
during this part
Have a question or like what you see? Let me know below!