GH2 GH-2 Takes On the RED Scarlet, and Lives... :-)

The shadow difference is very substantial. It's enough to trick you into pushing your exposure a good stop and a half unnecessarily, yes, even during recording.

Hdmi monitoring is a must, and that should also be calibrated. Vote for TVlogic, but mostly because of the hd-sdi passthrough (waveform etc is great too) allows for two frames of reference for everything.
 
Very true indeed. Lets say 2k then. Blow up the GH2 to 2k and downscale Scarlet to 2k. For s's and g's let to a bit of reframing or maybe stabilizing. Perhaps a little tracking for some sky replacement. Lets work with power masks and really start to massage the image into exactly what we want in the color suite through secondary and tertiary color selection and modification.

The GH-2 is amazing in what it has been able to achieve through the hacks. No question. It really has no right to be in this test at all yet it is. The thing is though, I see this to be much akin to how the Canon DSLRs just look fab on say a closeup @85mm but fall apart the more you pull out. This particular shot isn't that complex, both in composition and what the camera has to render out form it's sensor and in post processing. Is the GH-2 enough of a camera for probably 90% of people here? I'd say so, but let's not confuse that with it being as good as a $15,000 digital cinema camera because it's just not. And if you don't know, can't see, or can't rationalize where that extra $14,000 goes that is perfectly OK but don't think for a second that others can't or don't need it. Different tools for different jobs and it's a wonderful thing.

Edit: This isn't directed at anyone particularly, just some thoughts I have.
Werd!!

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Kholi, are you overexposing or underexposing most of your shorts?

Now that I think about it, when I said underexposing is bad for this cam it was based on just usin the LCD. Let me do some time with using the TVlogic more. Its kinda power hungry and less stealthy, but I'm going to start using it more.
 
here is another one of those tests that i find generally misleading. more or less locked off (i applaud this one for having some kind of camera motion!)

regardless of resolution, dynamic range, detail or low noise, i really dont give two chits how a VIDEO camera performs locked off. my camera MOVES. not always bourne identity level of movement, but way more than about 97% of these side by side tests folks tend to drool AND FIGHT over.

one of the drawbacks to ALL "budget CMOS" cameras (which includes EVERY current DSLR) is jello and motion judder. it looks to me from the bit of quick motion, like the 10X price scarlet addresses movement better than the GH does. glad to say that doesnt surprise me : )

but it seems that everyone gets sooooo drunk on these zacuto/bloom type side by side, locked of DR/noise/color tests that they totally dismiss what happens to moving objects...
i think this kind of test is VERY msleading to the huge crop of young, unexperienced DSLR users.

but maybe im just stuck in the 1990's with my crazy notion that video cameras need to handle movement well.
 
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Misleading in what way? I've seen no one make any claim of how this is as good as that etc. (in that video). It's just a side by side comparison...locked down...with motion...during the day time. It is what it is. I don't think anyone is going to argue the fact that the Scarlet is superior in many ways.
 
Yeah, you have to look at them as small pieces in the puzzle.
I'm currently doing some very boring noise test scenes but once I have that piece of the puzzle, I'll move on to motion, color... etc, to find the best compromise settings.
You have to admit that the GH2 being able to hang with other $$$ cameras in SOME venues is pretty amazing.
 
@theDingo footage looks great, nice stuff!

Now that's one thing I can say Canon dslr's nailed, that lcd on a Canon 7d, 60d, etc is almost spot on perfect.
 
Kholi, are you overexposing or underexposing most of your shorts?

I've found that I can get away with underexposing by -1. You wouldn't realize it via the lcd but when hooked up through HDMI, it's pretty clear you can.
 
Myself I keep the shutter at 1/40 (24p), and then it's a soft interplay between aperture (2.8 or higher, usually, as I use the voigt 0.95) and the ISO (400-800)

I always try to get exposure or +1/3 ev.. but I'm not bummed out if it falls to -1 ev as I know, largely in thanks to the hack, that I can bring up the shadows quite nicely in post

Best I can tell you is to go out and test! Kholi gave me a lot of tools to make my own decisions that work for me :)
 
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