GH1 - 720p AVCHD or 720p MJPEG

P

pmk396

Well-known member
Just looking for some advice; which format is better to shoot with on the GH1 when using 720p, the AVCHD format or the MJPEG format. My understanding is that the 720 AVCHD is at 50fps (PAL) and the 720 MJPEG is at 30 fps. I'm guessing from the fps, that I'd probably be better to shoot in MJPEG format in this case. Am I right?
 
that would depend entirely on what your intent is
Click to expand...
+1

Personally, I use 720p30 MJPEG almost exclusively on my GH1, because:

1) I like to shoot nature scenes with lots of rapidly changing detail--rivers & streams & waterfalls, fast-moving animals, foliage blowing in the wind, etc--and since MJPEG is an intraframe codec it will never "break" and create "mud" in the image like an interframe codec.

2) I often use video as an ultra-fast continuous shooting mode, then just grab the frame(s) that capture the moment. 30 shots/second gives you 10x more chances to capture the action, than 3 shots/second of still photos...if you don't mind the lower resolution. Most of my photos end up on the web or sent via email or projected at XGA resolution, so 1MP is just fine.

3) I love that I can pull the memory card and drop the videos on ANY computer, even grandma's 10-year-old relic with integrated graphics, for immediate playback and frame-level editing.

The downsides? MJPEG files are larger than AVCHD (2x larger in an unhacked camera), and they are limited to 2GB on the GH1 (which is just ridiculous...there is no reason the camera could not create another file automatically when it hits the 2GB limit...but it doesn't). Oh, and the unhacked AVCHD files can be burned directly to bluray disc for playback on bluray players, if that matters to you..

If your GH1 is hackable: According to various testers in this forum, you can hack it to the same bitrate as you would have from shooting highest-quality JPEG stills at 30 frames/second. I have been meaning to test this hack for a while; will do so in the next week and post my own results.

Are you sure your camera does 720p30 MJPEG, not 720p25? If so, another consideration is that 720p30 does not map to PAL frequencies, if you want to play your footage on a PAL-only television.

Hope this helps.

J

p.s. Forgot to mention...audio is another consideration. The GH1 records 16Khz uncompressed audio for MJPEG, and 48Khz AC3-compressed audio for AVCHD. Both 16-bit. If this matters to you, the auto gain control of the GH1 probably also matters, and you'll be using an external audio recorder. But still, it's another difference to consider.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top