GH1 still holds up?

[Eidmantas]

Hello,

I've been doing a lot of shooting when I was younger, though with crappy cameras, and at that time the budget for a normal HDSLR was not something that I had. Now I've see a lot of GH1 (used ones w/o the Kit lens) for 300 pounds and so on, does it still hold up? Is there something better for that price?

Thanks.

[brudney]

It's still a great camera! Put on some nice old glass (fd, nikon, rokkor or whatever), be sure not to underexpose to much and you can shoot awesome looking stuff. The only reason I switched from GH1 to GH2 was some really serious banding I was getting from it (try to get possibly the newest model you can to minimize the risk). Other than that I loved that cam!

[ConnerWilsonMedia]

I use a GH1 at the moment, with an old Albinar 28mm f2.8 lens. The image's are great from this cam! Especially with hacked firmware, you can achieve some really nice footage. Good luck

[Blackout]

I consider it the first HD camera for a reasonable price to come close to the look of film (with custom hacks) that allows lens selection. I won't sell mine because for slow mo in daylight I find it better than the GH2. In all other areas a hacked GH2 is a miracle camera.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Hello,

I've been doing a lot of shooting when I was younger, though with crappy cameras, and at that time the budget for a normal HDSLR was not something that I had. Now I've see a lot of GH1 (used ones w/o the Kit lens) for 300 pounds and so on, does it still hold up? Is there something better for that price?

Thanks.

I still use my GH-1. I've not upgraded to the GH-2, and at this point I'll probably wait till the GH-3 comes out and see what is 'better'... or 'worsened'... But then there's the Wife who needs to upgrade her Nikons and so I may be buying the D800 for her and either get a GH-2 on ebay when the GH-3 comes out and every one starts dumping their GH-2s, or get several GH-1s...

I've not done the hack because I never want to have a 'problem', although these days it seems the hacks are stable... it is just a bit unsettling to me to have my only camera in a potential unstable state. (Sure the factory firmware has problems too...).

Had I bought 2 GH-1s I'd probably hacked one of them.

[greymog]

I still use the max latitude patch with FD's. I have a 24 a 50 and a 200. Managing well so far I like CS5 for it cause I've been dragging and dropping since ...

[radicalkat]

My thoughts on the GH1. I've had one for over a year and have shot one short film with it. Mine is hacked. I like it in many ways. It's an inexpensive way to get great shallow DOF shots. Quality to cost ratio is high. However, the fixed pattern noise has been a challenge to deal with. It requires much greater control over lighting situations and often necessitates the use of fast lenses. I've used Nikon lenses with an adaptor (but lose autofocus as a result).

When I shot my short, one of my crew had just purchased a Nikon D7000 (he's a semi profesional photographer). He brought it to the shoot and we shot some of the movie with it as backup. Reviewing the footage revealed that the Nikon video had much greater detail. I could make out individual hairs of stubble on the actor's face. With my GH1 (hacked with 100mbps max latitude patch), the stubble was sort of blurred out. I was very surprised by this considering the the raves the hacked GH1 had received for it's image detail.

Given these considerations, if I had to do it again, I might have bought a different camera. The GH2 does not have the fixed pattern noise problem. I'm not sure if the image would show the detail blur that I experience with my GH1.

The again, for the price...

Just my 2 cents

-Adam

[roxics]

I have one of the newer GH1 cameras that were released. New as in January of 2011. It still has quite a bit of FPN in lower light. But it's something you work around. To be honest I haven't shot anything professionally or any indie films with it in that kind of lighting so it hasn't been a problem. But I have shot portraits and product photos for clients with the camera and it it held up really well. I have also shot a couple of interviews for clients with the camera and it works beautifully. But these were well lit.

I too am holding out to see what the GH3 is all about before either jumping into that or a discounted GH2.

[Eidmantas]

I'm still wondering about this, I'm searching something for about 300-400 pounds (via ebay.co.uk let's say). GH1 or 550D seems to be the choices, but sometimes I will need the stills. but the 550d seems to be inferior in the sharpness quality.

[DanielRutter]

I'm upgrading to a GH2 in about a week or two, and I've been using my GH1 for over 12 months. I too was new to the DSLR world, wanted to give it a go and see what the rage was all about. When I first started shooting with the GH1, the noise in the shadows and darker parts of the image bugged me, I felt ripped off with that camera. I discovered the hack and patches soon after and tried a few different ones. Right now I use the 40mbps hack which seems to hold up pretty good in the darker shadows compared to factory firmware.

A GH1 and some older glass and adapters (Pentax, Canon FD and old Nikon primes) will whet your whistle in Photo and video. The GH1 takes pretty damn good photos in the right light, it's my primary shooter right now for any photo jobs I pull in. Check out This Link for examples. Just about all of my photos on there are taken with the GH1. It might only be a 12 megapixel sensor compared to the 550D's 18mp, but do you really need megapixels for beginner photography?