GF1 or GH1 - Which should I choose

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dreamspy

Member
Hi there

I've had the GH1 for some months now. I recently bought the GF1 just to get the 20mm lens, and was planning to sell the GF1 body.

But after trying the GF1 I must say that I like the compactness and the feeling of the GF1 better than my GH1.

I'm tempted to sell my GH1 instead and keep the GF1. But I'm wondering about few things:

How well does the manual video mode work in a hacked GF1?

How does the video quality of a hacked GF1 compare to a hacked GH1?

I've heard that the video quality of the GF1 is not as good as the GH1. But is there a big difference? I looked at some videos at vimeo and to be honest, I couldn't see much difference. But maybe the GH1 is better in lowlight videos, I'm just guessing here....

regards
Frímann
 
A hacked GH1 is capable of better video than a hacked GF1, all things being equal. 1080p vs. 720p, for starters. The GH1 also has a better sensor, with much better low light performance than the GF1.

That said..

I love my hacked GF1. Though I have a couple of GH2s on order, I prefer the classic rangefinder form factor to the DSLR body style, which to my eyes is the black-jeans-and-white-Nikes of camera shapes. And I agree with you, the GF1's feel is superior to the GH1. The GF1 I have was made in Japan and is tough as nails. Feels like a solid ingot. The Chinese-made GH1 feels cheap, and its build quality doesn't inspire confidence. My GF1's gotten banged around and it's never let me down.

I also agree that the hacked GF1 is capable of amazing looking footage if shot within its limitations. But mano a mano, a hacked GH1 shoots better looking video.
 
"black-jeans-and-white-Nikes of camera shapes"

^ Laughed my ass off at this.

I love being able to throw the GF1 + 20mm in my messenger bag and roll out, I never do that with my a700, so I don't get the shot.

I do wish the GF1 video community was a little more organized, it seems like we have to pick through GH1 stuff to figure out what the best firmware/setting combos are.

I currently use Ipowell's fast motion hack, and have not had any freezing or dropped frames, I'm very happy.

Shave, what do you do for sound? I just got a Zoom H1 and have been playing with mounting it on top of the camera, seems to work ok, although eventually I want to get a Rode Pro and record INTO the H1 instead of WITH the H1.
 
I use the same Zoom H1 you have, except I don't use a shotgun with it -- I either use its internal X-Y stereo mics or I plug a lav straight into the H1's powered mic input. Either way I sync later in FCP using the GF1's recorded audio as the guide track.

The H1 is small and light enough to mount right onto the GF1 with a cheap hot shoe mount, but I'm not entirely happy with this arrangement because it picks up all the mechanical noise of the camera when you focus, tap it, etc. Whenever I can, I mount it to its own little mini-tripod and position it as close to the subject as possible, just out of frame, to eliminate handling noise pickup. I'm also experimenting with several camera-mounted alternatives including a tiny X-Y mic capsule array with a decoupled mount. But really, this is gilding the lily -- even with the occasional bit of handling noise, the $99 Zoom on a $3 hot shoe mount is an insanely great audio recorder for DSLR.
 
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