GH2 Considering "upgrading" from 2x GH1s to a single GH2. Advice please!

Lucas Adamson

Lucas Adamson

Well-known member
I have 2x GH1s, both hacked with LPowell's Peak Reliability 75Mbps hack. I use a full set of the faster, better Canon FDs, and I love the combination.

My reasons for wanting to go GH2, in order of importance to me, are:

1. A larger, external monitor will help hugely with critical focussing.

2. The GH1 looks amazing at ISO 100 up to ISO 400 and is quite tollerable at ISO 800, but for really low light, it has to be the GH2.

3. Cleaner 4:2:2 output via HDMI? Is this a possibility? I am unsure what the deal is regarding HDMI output to a Nano-flash. (RAW is something I dream of in a video camera - I will upgrade to an AF100 type camera as soon as they are outputting at that kind of level - I love the level of manipulation RAW gives my still images.)

4. Higher bitrate, and a more efficient encoder might improve the detail in darker areas of the scenes (not that I've had massive issues on GH13 except at high ISOs in super low light.)

My alternative thought to this upgrade is to keep the GH1s and buy some nice big LED light panels and stop shooting in low light, but it doesn't resolve the monitoring issue.

Your advice is greatly appreciated...
 
I upgraded to a GH2 from a GH1 and I gained nothing...buying lights is a good idea.
IMHO the only significant reason to upgrade to a GH2 (unless you're doing projects with budgets over $5k and you need uncompressed for green screen) is for the external monitor. The problem is that I havne't used an external monitor with it yet.. I even shot a short film and a $6k promo video and still used only the LCD...
I haven't noticed any significant difference in low light, yes there's some, but low light is low light...

What I'm saying is don't buy it just cause you'll finally BE ABLE to use and external monitor for focussing.... Buy it if you are ACTUALLY GOING TO USE use an external monitor for focussing in which case it will likely be worth it. (But now you'll have to drop more cash on the monitor too.) So are you currently missing your focus on a lot of shots? If so, upgrade...(though it sounds like youre 2nd cam can be a safety wide shot...) Do you want to hire a helper to pull focus for your next gig? Do you need an external monitor for crew to see the shot? If you're a one man band and gonna stay that way, maybe not upgrade..
 
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I see you are located in Bristol, a town in PAListan, so bear in mind that the 1080p mode on GH2 only shoots at 24 fps. This has kept me from getting one and stay with my hacked GH1 as I absolutely positively need 25 fps for broadcast work.
 
multicam is a godsend. i kept both my gh1's and just added a gh2. I shoot 720 most the time so 25p isn't top on the order luckily. The gh2 is a nice upgrade and as mentioned if you are missing critical focus then maybe it is the right choice to upgrade just for the monitoring
 
Are they your only cameras? If so and you're doing paid work with them, then I'd say just add more lights or buy the GH2 as an extra camera if you can afford it. At some point a camera can and will fail on you.
 
Only you can know your shooting style and needs, is the bonus of hitting focus on one cam going to outweigh the coverage of two cams?
 
Well yes it's true that only I know my shooting style, and it really comes down to whether I need critical monitoring. I think the best thing is probably to sell one GH1 and put some dough in and have one of each. Many thanks folks. Decision made!
 
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