What's the Mbps rate for the GH1?

[jimbee]

I'm not a GH1 owner, but I am considering it. My big question is, what is its Megabits per second rate? If the codec is AVCHD, does that mean the rate would be 17 Mbps?

And if that is right, how does it compare to the Nikon D90? Or to the Canon 5DII? Or the Sony XDCams? Or the supposedly upcoming Red Scarlet?

I'm going on the theory that the camera that records the highest amount of information might produce an image that is either the best, the most accurate, or the best to use for color grading.

If I am wrong about that, though, then I guess I just have to buy all these cameras and compare them . . . uh, wait, I got laid off my job in May and I can't afford to do that.

So any advice is much appreciated!

Jim

[Ben_B]

They're not really that comparable.

Don't measurebate. Go out and look at footage and see what you like the most.

The codec of the GH1 is a weak point in many respects, but in my opinion it pales in comparision with the benefits derived from having a large image sensor and interchangeable lenses.

[Barry_Green]

AVCHD has many different bitrates. In the GH1, it ranges from 9 to 13 to 17 megabits (IIRC).

However, as Ben says, you can't compare bitrates against bitrates. It just doesn't work that way. The HMC150's 17mbps codec will blow away the GH1's 17mbps codec -- and they're both AVCHD!

The HMC150's 24mbps codec is easily a match for Sony XDCAM HD's 35mbps or XDCAM EX's 35mbps. But those are both MPEG-2, and the HMC150 is MPEG-4, so again, it's not a fair fight, and the more advanced codec squeezes more out of its megabits than the older MPEG-2 does.

And Red, well, that's another kettle of fish entirely. Red uses a wavelet codec, not MPEG-anything. And it ranges from 42 megabits up to 220 megabits. But Red's codec is encoding 2k, 3k, 4k, even 5k footage, versus the 1080 footage from these other cameras. And the Scarlet isn't on the market, so it can't be evaluated against any of the others.

The Canon 5D Mark II probably has the most robust codec implementation of the group you listed, being about 40mbps h.264, IIRC. And the Nikon D90 has about the worst codec implementation of all those listed here, being about 14mbps of MJPG. For that matter, the GH1 also has MJPG, using photo-jpeg, at something like 30mbps or so.

So -- as Ben said -- you can't compare megabits and come to any reasonable conclusions unless everything else is exactly the same. And it never is. So just look at the footage.