GH3 EOSHD reviews the pre-production firmware GH3

soarprod

soarprod

Veteran
http://www.eoshd.com/content/9170/panasonic-gh3-real-world-test-pre-production-firmware

Summary

The Panasonic GH3 is a 90% successful update to the Panasonic GH2. Here’s a provisional list of significant pros and cons relative to the GH2.

Better stills
Better colour and dynamic range
Better high ISO performance
Same insane resolution in video mode
Best ever codec on a consumer camera
Uncompressed HDMI
OLED EVF and LCD
Weather proof
Battery grip and massively improved battery life
Improved handling
Like all cameras, it isn’t perfect. If you’re worried about the moire issues in video mode it helps to remember what the GH3 does better than the GH2. It is a long list.

This is where the GH3 can be improved -

A stronger anti-aliasing filter
720/120p super slow mo mode
Technicolor CineStyle
Focus peaking
One-touch to activate punch-in manual focus assist
More assignable options to Fn4 button
 
I would love it if they could get peaking into the final firmware but overall this looks like a nice successor to the GH2 for those with realistic expectations in the sub $1.5K camera market. A lot of bang for the buck with the GH3.
 
aethericwave said:
Looks like most of the knocks are addressable in firmware updates.

I wonder about the HDMI, if it can be made 4:2:2...
Click to expand...

Panasonic said it was 4:2:0 but in the articles EOSHD wrote 4:2:2. I'm guessing that is probably a mistake as I would tend to believe Panasonic when they said it was a hardware limitation but of course some Canon reps had said the same thing about the 5DIII and look at what they are now offering in a firmware update so who knows.
 
If there is a discrepancy between what EOSHD says and what somebody else says, you can count on EOSHD being the wrong one ;)
 
I'm finding it more and more difficult to decide what to spend my money on. I'm already quite well invested in GH2s and MFT glass but I do want to go 4K and the $4000 Red One is very tempting as a low price point for entry.... buy good glass with PL mounts and I can always move up to another system later. I don't need to have all cameras be the same, so holding on to my EX1 still makes sense for ENG work and the GH3 for low-profile but I just don't have enough money to keep supporting this crazy camera market!
 
If you can't decide between a gh3 or a $4000 Red One because of financial considerations, then you REALLY can't afford good PL glass.
 
nothing said:
If you can't decide between a gh3 or a $4000 Red One because of financial considerations, then you REALLY can't afford good PL glass.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that you will be spending almost the same amount again in accesories/media to get the R1 into a functional package for a shoot.
 
Who said I couldn't decide between a GH3 or a Red One? I want the C300... I want the F55... I want almost all the new cameras. =P No, I probably can't afford to go spend a ton of money out the door but choosing to go with one system is a commitment and you can spend money chasing any system out there. There's just a lot of choices. I love it.
 
omnikron said:
Who said I couldn't decide between a GH3 or a Red One? I want the C300... I want the F55... I want almost all the new cameras. =P No, I probably can't afford to go spend a ton of money out the door but choosing to go with one system is a commitment and you can spend money chasing any system out there. There's just a lot of choices. I love it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. But let's be honest - the GH3 and the RED ONE are by and large for different purposes. The GH3 is a great cam for tons of situations; it's light, nimble, inconspicuous and straightforward. The RED ONE, meanwhile, is a cinema camera for use whenever quality is paramount. Even with the crazy discount, you're looking to spend nearly 8x the amount of the GH3 to get into the RED system (assuming that you're already in MFT and don't have PL glass or RED accessories).
 
Kholi said:
Still trying to shoot flat with dslrs aye?
Click to expand...


Exactly, Shoot the best you can in camera and hope that if you want to push it more in post that it doesn't fall apart...... Ultimately though the LAST thing I would be doing is shooting flat in a dslr camera. If anything I would shoot neutral if you did not want very vibrant colors in your image.
 
If there is a discrepancy between what EOSHD says and what somebody else says, you can count on EOSHD being the wrong one ;)
Click to expand...

Well said. I'll rather wait for real reviews from legitimate reviewers on a production camera.
 
John Caballero said:
Well said. I'll rather wait for real reviews from legitimate reviewers on a production camera.
Click to expand...

oh I see, so I guess Andrew spending the day testing the gh3 and having dinner with Takahiro Oyama of Panasonic Europe and Michiharu Uematsu of Panasonic Japan ​ is not legitimate enough for you :).
 
strancali said:
...having dinner with Takahiro Oyama of Panasonic Europe and Michiharu Uematsu of Panasonic Japan ​ is not legitimate enough for you...
Click to expand...

That actually makes him a less legitimate reviewer - in fact it calls into question his impartiality in a major way.

The fact is that he has shown himself to not be knowledgeable in nor experienced with cinema cameras and has been willing to post nearly anything to gain more hits for his blog. His professional experience in camera work was exactly nil before he started blogging about it, yet that has never stopped him from posting authoritatively on the subject - often with laughable errors and misstatements.

No, he is not legitimate at all. I find it amazing that people give him any credence.
 
Last edited:
The evidence is mounting that the GH3 video uses line skipping, which inevitably results in moire and a significant loss of measured resolution. That's not something that can be fixed in firmware, by adding a stronger OLPF, or by providing a super-high bitrate codec. It's the sad consequence of marketing-style decision making. They took the one feature that made the GH1 and GH2 a success, and removed it from the GH3 so they could compete against the OM-D in stills (similar sensor) and in video (better codec). But by making the GH3 more similar to the OM-D, they lost the one market advantage that the GH1/2 had versus all other still cameras, including those with larger sensors. Now someone looking for the best stills will pick a camera with a larger sensor (APS-C or full frame). Someone looking for good stills in a small form factor will pick the OM-D for the 5-axis IBIS or the RX100 for best sensor/size ratio. Someone looking for the best video will pick a camcorder. And someone looking for a stills camera with the best video will be presented with a list of very similar choices and no clear winner.
 
nothing said:
That actually makes him a less legitimate reviewer - in fact it calls into question his impartiality in a major way.

The fact is that he has shown himself to not be knowledgeable in nor experienced with cinema cameras and has been willing to post nearly anything to gain more hits for his blog. His professional experience in camera work was exactly nil before he started blogging about it, yet that has never stopped him from posting authoritatively on the subject - often with laughable errors and misstatements.

No, he is not legitimate at all. I find it amazing that people give him any credence at all.
Click to expand...

Aww, come on - at least he's asking actual people who work at places like Panasonic and Canon the questions I want them to be asked more often! He has a passionate opinion about things and is sometimes wrong, sometimes right on the money.

I really wish there were more guys like him pestering Canon and Panasonic about stuff like moire, compression, 10-bit, hacking, etc... instead of a bunch of reviewers working for camera magazines who just ask some polite questions that don't really hit hard at the real things that need improving.

Sure, he may know little about the professional camera operating world. But a lot of the professional camera operating world does not know the technical specifics about why there are quality issues with DSLRs. And very few of those people manage to actually go and have a chat to the guys who make the cameras - and report back to us in blog-based format. To me, it is interesting that he got the Panasonic guys talking about global shutter and 120fps 720p... it was interesting when he got the Canon guys to chat about the 1DC - even if not 100% accurate, the gist is there - the 1D C and 1D X are veerrrryy similar not just externally but internally as well. It tells you what the manufacturers are thinking and is a fun look into where they plan to move in the future.

Anyway... you've worked on a bunch of stuff and am obviously a pro. I would love it if you went and chatted to the manufacturers and actively pestered them and gave feedback - then started a blog and reported everything back to us. It's a lot of work so obviously we can't demand that from you. But still, if you started a blog and just wrote your thoughts, it would be pretty poor form for us to criticize you if you got something wrong. Blogs are often done out of the goodness of your own heart! I doubt EOSHD.com is a gigantic money-making enterprise. Maybe he gets some gear but it's hardly like the dude's getting rich. And he is providing interesting chat, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, sometimes genuine new info. Always fun. So yeah... I'm not sure why there is so much hate towards Andrew on this site?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
I see it the same way as many people here. Andrew is asking questions which are really interesting, and he gets to the right people to speak to. He shares it. Great! I like to read his blogs, even if there are some errors here and there. So what? As long as I can put it into the right perspective for myself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top