GH3 Can you help me set up what I need for a new GH3. Need Adapter advice.

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Deer Film

Well-known member
I am pre-ordering for a New GH3 and would love some help what I need to buy for accessories.
I have a Nikon D80 with a few lens, what lens converter or adapter is recommended to use with Nikon DSLR type lenses.
And I also have my dad's old Nikon F camera with lens, what converter/adapter would you recommend?

For flash, I have a Nikon SB 600 flash, can I use this (I doubt it), if not what is recommended.

There are a lot of adapters out there. Different price ranges and companies. I just want a something that is recommended and won't loose image quality, but also not pay a fortune on.

Do a lot of you use adapters. Any cons to it. I am just excited in the fact I could bring new life to some of my dad's old F series lenses.

For memory card, what card should I go with. I use a Transcend class 10, 32 gb with my HMC150 and D80.

I read in posts that the GH1 and GH2 was more geared toward Video then photos. This was compared to Nikon and Canon. Is this changed with the GH3 ? I hope to use this for both.

I am buying just the body, no kit lens. Is there a good all around lens you recommend. Maybe something like 18 to 200mm. If I have a lens like this for my Nikon d80, and I use an adapter, is there even a need to just buy a panasonic lens or other lens that just fits the GH3, or do you loose quality when you use an adapter or lenses that where made for Nikon or Canon. If I don't loose image quality, then I would just by lenses for my Nikon DSLR and then use the adapter for the GH3 to save money and one set of lenses. Would it matter if my shooting is geared toward video or photo? Hopefully I can do both with my Nikon Lenses.

I was one of the first to buy the Panasonic Ac130 video cameras, and had problems and had to return it. I hope it was a fluke. From all the reviews here, I am pre-ordering this camera. If there is a reason to hold off, let me know. But with the GH1 and GH2 being such a hit, I hope the GH3 will continue. I will use this camera for family and work type videos.

I assume the battery is the same as the GH2? If I order an additional one.

Thank you for your help. And I am sure others will be interested in your comments.
 
- The battery has changed since the GH2.
- The lens adapters generally do not have glass, so you want to pay more attention to things like whether they will focus to infinity properly. If you are using a lens that has manual aperture control and will not be using aperture control from your adapter, you can use cheap things like Fotodiox well (and I have been for over a year).
- The GH3 has 12-bit as opposed to 14-bit color in RAW stills which is a disadvantage relative to most Canons and Nikons. They can do stills well enough to handle various kinds of professional work (I often use them for portraits and concert photography).
- The question about an "all-around" lens is very loaded. It depends on your needs in terms of size, stabilizing and aperture.
- There are many positive early indications about the GH3 but also some negatives vs. the GH2 (like no longer having a multi-aspect-ratio sensor) and there is a chance it will suffer from more moire than the GH2. It remains to be seen.

Good luck.
 
Oh, and do yourself a favor and get a SanDisk 64GB 95MB/s. There is no reason to spend over $1,000 on a new camera and then try to save a hundred dollars on a memory card when a faster one will give you more breathing room.

The Transcend cards often do well, but if the GH3 gets hacked, then the Transcend cards will not be able to keep up with the higher bitrates you might be using the same way that the SanDisk 64GB 95MB/s should be able to (and on the GH2 consistently is).

If you want to save money, others on this site have mention specific Patriot cards (you can find the recent thread somewhere in this forum) which should outperform the Transcend's but be slower than the above SanDisk (at a fraction of the price). Note: I have no experience with Patriot cards, so I cannot guarantee anything about them. I only pass along what others have mentioned.
 
Per Lichtman said:
Oh, and do yourself a favor and get a SanDisk 64GB 95MB/s. There is no reason to spend over $1,000 on a new camera and then try to save a hundred dollars on a memory card when a faster one will give you more breathing room.

The Transcend cards often do well, but if the GH3 gets hacked, then the Transcend cards will not be able to keep up with the higher bitrates you might be using the same way that the SanDisk 64GB 95MB/s should be able to (and on the GH2 consistently is).

If you want to save money, others on this site have mention specific Patriot cards (you can find the recent thread somewhere in this forum) which should outperform the Transcend's but be slower than the above SanDisk (at a fraction of the price). Note: I have no experience with Patriot cards, so I cannot guarantee anything about them. I only pass along what others have mentioned.
Click to expand...
I understand your thought process here. However, Panasonic is certifying the GH3 with “ANY” class 10 card at very high bit rates. It is not like the GH2 where we made it suddenly use 10x the bit rate when it was designed for class 6 cards.

Even if we up the bit rate to something like 2x(140 mb/sec) in the GH3 it is likely that any class 10 card will work with the GH3 unlike the GH2 where they would all fail because the codec and camera are designed for higher bit rates right from the start.

I am not saying that a 96 mb/sec will not be necessary. However, I am saying that buying a $30-$40 card now and waiting to see if a $150 card is really necessary in the future might be a prudent thing to do.
 
Deer Film said:
I am pre-ordering for a New GH3 and would love some help what I need to buy for accessories.
I have a Nikon D80 with a few lens, what lens converter or adapter is recommended to use with Nikon DSLR type lenses.
And I also have my dad's old Nikon F camera with lens, what converter/adapter would you recommend?

For flash, I have a Nikon SB 600 flash, can I use this (I doubt it), if not what is recommended.

There are a lot of adapters out there. Different price ranges and companies. I just want a something that is recommended and won't loose image quality, but also not pay a fortune on.

Do a lot of you use adapters. Any cons to it. I am just excited in the fact I could bring new life to some of my dad's old F series lenses.

For memory card, what card should I go with. I use a Transcend class 10, 32 gb with my HMC150 and D80.

I read in posts that the GH1 and GH2 was more geared toward Video then photos. This was compared to Nikon and Canon. Is this changed with the GH3 ? I hope to use this for both.

I am buying just the body, no kit lens. Is there a good all around lens you recommend. Maybe something like 18 to 200mm. If I have a lens like this for my Nikon d80, and I use an adapter, is there even a need to just buy a panasonic lens or other lens that just fits the GH3, or do you loose quality when you use an adapter or lenses that where made for Nikon or Canon. If I don't loose image quality, then I would just by lenses for my Nikon DSLR and then use the adapter for the GH3 to save money and one set of lenses. Would it matter if my shooting is geared toward video or photo? Hopefully I can do both with my Nikon Lenses.

I was one of the first to buy the Panasonic Ac130 video cameras, and had problems and had to return it. I hope it was a fluke. From all the reviews here, I am pre-ordering this camera. If there is a reason to hold off, let me know. But with the GH1 and GH2 being such a hit, I hope the GH3 will continue. I will use this camera for family and work type videos.

I assume the battery is the same as the GH2? If I order an additional one.

Thank you for your help. And I am sure others will be interested in your comments.
Click to expand...

Some of the questions you ask indicate that you have never used an m4/3s camera before? If that is correct then you might want to take a really hard look at why you are buying the GH3. It is a substantial amount of money to spend on a camera that it appears you will be learning on.

I am just saying that because the GH3 has really been designed for very specific purposes. Its video side is built to satisfy the film community that tends to take image quality to the extreme. If you are not using it in that manner then something like the GH2 or E-M5(With built in IS for manual focus lenses) might be a better and less expensive option.

However, if you really think that you must have things like the wifi, extra dynamic range, and 1080p @ 60 FPS then the GH3 might be a good option.

Have you ever shot stills and movies with a manual focus lens before? If not then seriously consider getting m4/3s lenses for their excellent AF with the GH3. I shot MF for home and work movies for the longest time. However, once the GH2 firmware fixed the AF issues I sold all of my MF lenses and only use AF for movies and stills now.
 
If you do shoots where you hand the SD card over to the client at the end of the day, then a good quality inexpensive card like a Transcend is more than good enough. It's much the same thought that urged videographers in the far-off days of tape to roll $2.50 Sony PRR's instead of $25 "Master Quality Premium Preferred Ultra HDV" stock.
 
Thank you Per Lichtman. It seems many like the Fotodiox adapter is well liked, so I will search on Amazon to find one for the F series Nikon lense. I am looking forward to using this camera for some of my work and just plain having fun with.
 
They go for about 179.00$, is there any other brand cheaper? Otherwise these look pretty well made and what I am looking for. Thank you.
 
Awesome, thanks.
So I assume you use Nikon lenses on your GH2. Can you tell me how the autofocus was , and how is the quality. Just curious to see some shots with the same lens from a Nikon camera and the GH2. But would love to see any footage you have. Thanks again, I think I will go with that adapter you mentioned.
 
Good to know about autofocus and adapters. Thanks. Should not be a problem. I am just happy to bring new life into some old lens.
 
Per Lichtman said:
-
- There are many positive early indications about the GH3 but also some negatives vs. the GH2 (like no longer having a multi-aspect-ratio sensor) and there is a chance it will suffer from more moire than the GH2. It remains to be seen.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

I am trying to find out more information of the multi-aspect sensor and moire you talked about.
Could you be kind to explain what the multi-aspect sensor was and why it will not be a part of the GH3. Also about the problem of more moire. How bad was it and what leads you to believe it will be worse?
Thank you for your time on this.
 
@Deer Film You're in luck, there's a thread on this right now. :)
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...ensor-explanation&p=1986215033#post1986215033

As far as the moire - some of the test footage so far as exhibiting noticeable moire. Usually moire was minor on the GH2 (much better than most other DSLRs up until the 5DMkIII and still better than many new ones).

There is a chance that there will be less moire by the time of launch or that it is only an issue with certain lenses. You can see some of the footage that bothers people here.
http://www.personal-view.com/photokina/coverage/gh3-videos
 
ive used the rayqual m4/3 to nikon adapter pretty extensively and i was always quite happy with it.
http://checkout.cameraquest.com/ada...for-nikon-g-lenses-without-aperture-rings.htm

one of the biggest drawbacks to the GH line or m4/3 in general is there really isnt a wealth of really good looking native glass. and by "native" i mean made FOR m4/3 and thus having all the modern IS, AF type features. there are some decent options - the ones ive liked most have been the variety of olympus offerings. but still NONE of them really knocked my socks off.

in my experience, with the GH line, if you really want the best looking image, you're going to have to go with manual glass. be that the voigtlander stuff or more affordably, adapted vintage glass.
 
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