What exposure tools does the GH2 has?

[Thomas Church]

Does it have zebras, waveform, histogram, any of it?

I'm on the fence between an AF100 or a GH2 with two lenses, an audio recorder and a mixer.

I think I'm gonna go with the GH2 because either cameras will probably get sold really fast.

How can we know if the image is clipping on the GH2's video mode?

[ghosttv]

It don't have zebras but it does have something comparable to tell you that you are over exposed. 2 problems is that its buried deep in menu and I don't think you can assign a button to it. Seconf thing it so anoying! Clipped areas blink like christmas tree. It has histogram in menus. I don't thin it have histo.

[Barry_Green]

It has a histogram, it has a little exposure meter at the bottom, and it has the blinking overexposure thing which is sort of like zebras. I haven't figured out at what IRE level they start blinking, but I'll suss that out pretty soon.

[Peter J. DeCrescenzo]

The GH2 has a REC HIGHLIGHT feature which can be enabled during preview & recording. It causes overexposed areas of the frame to blink black/white. It's not adjustable in any way, but useful nontheless. Unfortunately, as GhostTV says, REC HIGHLIGHT is buried in the MOTION PICTURE menu and can't be assigned to a function button.

The GH2 (& GH1) also have a HIGHLIGHT feature which can be enabled for playback only. It's otherwise identical to REC HIGHLIGHT.

The GH2 & GH1 also have a HISTOGRAM feature in the CUSTOM which can be enabled for preview & recording. Also can't be assigned to a function button.

Oh, yeah, and as Barry mentions, there's the exposure meter a the bottom of the LCD/EVF.

These features are described briefly in the DMC-GH2 user manual:
http://dlc.panasonic-europe-service.com/EUDocs/default.aspx

[Barry_Green]

Okay, just tested -- the HIGHLIGHT feature (which is sort of like a zebra) shows up only on stuff that is absolutely clipped at 100 IRE. There is no grace period, there is no room for error. If you see that flashing white, you're losing image detail. It's a hard sharp clip at 100 IRE and that warning is a warning that you have definitely lost detail and clipped.

As such, I'd leave it on at all times. Seems like a great addition to the GH2.

[Ben_B]

Okay, just tested -- the HIGHLIGHT feature (which is sort of like a zebra) shows up only on stuff that is absolutely clipped at 100 IRE. There is no grace period, there is no room for error. If you see that flashing white, you're losing image detail. It's a hard sharp clip at 100 IRE and that warning is a warning that you have definitely lost detail and clipped.

As such, I'd leave it on at all times. Seems like a great addition to the GH2.

Wish it was mappable to a function button but currently isn't. I trigger Zebra on and off all the time when using it so I can actually see what I'm doing. I bet it goes off on the HDMI out though and stays on the LCD...that could be nice..one screen for adjustments one purely for composition, focus, etc.

Have you noticed focus assist is disabled while outputting HDMI even when not recording? Frustrating.

[Mike@AF]

Okay, just tested -- the HIGHLIGHT feature (which is sort of like a zebra) shows up only on stuff that is absolutely clipped at 100 IRE. There is no grace period, there is no room for error. If you see that flashing white, you're losing image detail. It's a hard sharp clip at 100 IRE and that warning is a warning that you have definitely lost detail and clipped.

As such, I'd leave it on at all times. Seems like a great addition to the GH2.

Thanks for doing that test Barry. Very helpful.