GH1 First impressions and footage

However the crop factor is more inline with super35 which is for the most part, all films are lensed too.

People call it a crop factor, yet those that shoot 35mm film or even Red, don't refer to their format as cropped.

Funny how things can get so crazy with all this.
That's what I've been saying all along.
 
Thank you, I'm glad I'm not alone on this. I love large format, hell my dad handed me my first 120 at 5yrs old. However different tools for different projects..

What gets me is people start wanting more than the very films/filmakers had used on films that got those same people to want to make films or docs etc in the first place. What, that ""cropped "" look ain't good anymore.. Lol

Poor Kubrick had no idea he was " Cropped". :-(.... ====> for Kubrick............

Lmfao. SERIOUSLY man. I'm not shooting Jason and the Argonauts. Wtf do I want Full Frame/Vistavision for?

It only makes my lens selection that much more narrow. Sure, the lowlight performance looks STELLAR but whatever, the technology will catch up to that with smaller sensors.

Look at the Rebel TSI, that sucker looks great in lowlight as well. It's just a matter of time before the other manufacturers catch up to Canon's prowess.

I was really happy when I looked at the 14mm end of of the GH-1 and saw that it LOOKED like 14mm. FOV is not an issue with this camera.

I can't WAIT to friggin' slap the TOkina 11-16/2.8 on this sucker. EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
 
From Philips blog post he says "17Mbps makes grading almost impossible" (as I recall). Can someone explain to me why this is?

The color space in encoded video is what it is, but it would be the same color space at 24Mbps or 48Mbps. The bitrate and compression can result in artifacts, that's true, but I don't see how it would make grading impossible. The artifacts are going to be more significant at a lower bitrate, all other things being equal, but I don't see how that would affect grading.

When you import, you can import into a 4:4:4 color space or whatever....

I haven't done a lot of grading, so I am probably missing something....
 
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It's not impossible. A colorist would probably respond "Whoo boy, you're really pushing it!" but they would never tell you it's impossible.

It's a matter of finding a process that compliments the post workflow as far as correction and grades go. Learning from one of my partners, you can do pretty much anything if your image originates cleanly and you export uncompressed for your grade.

Just dragging a ProRes clip over to Magic Bullet will probably yield unflattering results.

Also, you'll have to just learn how to work with the camera's limitations. If you think that your look is going to be so out there that the image will crack, then get close to that look in camera and tweak later on.

It's a good thing, too many people relying on the Power of Post Processing and not defining their look before hand.
 
My guess is that grading exaggerates the artifacts or draws attention to faults in such a way that you can't tweak as much as you might normally. My guess is that playing with levels you're more apt to blow stuff out more quickly or lose detail quickly. But since I don't have the cam, I don't know.
 
While no one is saying it, at least not often, Panasonic appears to have traded some resolution in the upper mid spatial frequencies for low noise. The images I've seen so far have VERY low noise (no noise at all?) However, to do that, by my estimation, and I welcome more experienced eyes to provide a better insight, they sacrificed a lot of the contrast above what I estimate to be around 180-200lp/ph. Again, by my estimation, the Canon holds a very high contrast to double that frequency. The EX1 is about the same as the GH1, but drops off more gradually. However, again my perception, the EX1 is noisier.

I tend to examine the pictures in lab mode, and the colors in lab mode are very, very smooth. However, in RGB there appear to be some artifacts, such as the banding in red and blue that have been observed.
 
David, not so technically speaking, you may be right. But also remember that custom color profiles aren't being tweaked in the footage that you've seen. Hunter might have, I think the others are still pointing and shooting at this moment.

However, totally agree with the EX-1 comment because like I said, this camera really sings like an EX-1 with interchangeable glass and much better jello control. So, if that's what it is, then I'm okay with that!
 
How will you control the aperture? I really want one of those lenses but I wasn't sure exactly how it will work with the GH1.


...... I forgot about that. Lmfao. I'll probably just shove something between the tab to keep it wide open. No biggie.

Then control exposure with NDs, ISO and Shutter.
 
...... I forgot about that. Lmfao. I'll probably just shove something between the tab to keep it wide open. No biggie.

Then control exposure with NDs, ISO and Shutter.

Since I have neither lens I'm wondering if it's better to pay more for the much slower but slightly wider lumix 7-14 or just go for the Tokina and deal with the workarounds? Hmm, decisions decisions. :undecided
 
Since I have neither lens I'm wondering if it's better to pay more for the much slower but slightly wider lumix 7-14 or just go for the Tokina and deal with the workarounds? Hmm, decisions decisions. :undecided

I dunno, man.

That'll be a tough decision.

Vario = Wider, Newer, Auto Features (Focus, etc), Specifically for the Lumix but slower, perhaps of lower optical grade (who knows? I'm not calling it definitive, just wondering)

Tokina = Faster, Half the Price, Good Reputation @ 4K Video even.

TOUGH
 
Nope, not sounding or looking good so far for me anyway. Granted, much of the footage looked a lot better than the D90 footage does as far as noise and resolution goes but I still see some of the same problems with flickering and rolling shutter, not to the same degree but it's still there. The color grading thing shocks me as I can really push my D90 footage a good deal. My current project involved moonlight shots and everything was lit with daylight fixtures gelled with full CTB. The footage came out looking very aquamarine blue and a touch green, as well as a little dark. With just some standard FCP color correction tweaks, I brightened the image up to a good level and pulled a lot of the blue back and recovered my reds for fleshtone, but I lost the moonlight look, so I added a second grade and reintroduced the blue cast over everything and it looked almost exactly like the naturally magical moonlight look we saw on set. Some image noise was introduced with both grades but it was very slight and went away with a simple noise reduction pass. I would hate to lose the ability to do that just for the sake of more resolution. Granted, this may not be the case with the GH1's footage, but this is the first project that has tasked my D90 footage so much and I've been stunned at how nicely it has handeled itself in the post color correction process.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm saying this as a current D90 owner and all I'm saying is that the GH1 so far isn't giving me enough reason to switch from the D90. The GH1's a terrific camera by comparison to anything else out there at its price point and I do agree that it kills off a lot of the low end prosumer and 35mm adapter combos, especially with the option to use practically any lens with some low cost adapters.
 
Granted, much of the footage looked a lot better than the D90 footage does as far as noise and resolution goes but I still see some of the same problems with flickering and rolling shutter

I'm not sure what people are talking about when they say Flickering. Are you speaking about Fluo and Sodium Vapor lights? Yeah, no getting around that with this camera so far.

As far as Rolling Shutter artifacts, if we're talking about Jello, the D90 is more like the first iteration of CMOS while the GH-1 looks to bring Jello to the end of its run. It's there, but you have to microscope it to find it, even at telephoto end.

The color grading thing shocks me as I can really push my D90 footage a good deal. My current project involved moonlight shots and everything was lit with daylight fixtures gelled with full CTB. The footage came out looking very aquamarine blue and a touch green, as well as a little dark. With just some standard FCP color correction tweaks, I brightened the image up to a good level and pulled a lot of the blue back and recovered my reds for fleshtone, but I lost the moonlight look, so I added a second grade and reintroduced the blue cast over everything and it looked almost exactly like the naturally magical moonlight look we saw on set. Some image noise was introduced with both grades but it was very slight and went away with a simple noise reduction pass. I would hate to lose the ability to do that just for the sake of more resolution. Granted, this may not be the case with the GH1's footage, but this is the first project that has tasked my D90 footage so much and I've been stunned at how nicely it has handeled itself in the post color correction process.
The GH-1 stomps the D90 on all fronts. INcluding this one. Until you've actually graded GH-1 footage yourself, you probably won't know and that's a given.

It's just better on all ends aside from Aliasing. Then again, the D90 is ALL aliasing until fixed by Lee's and Mattias' plug-in.


Now, don't get me wrong, I'm saying this as a current D90 owner and all I'm saying is that the GH1 so far isn't giving me enough reason to switch from the D90. The GH1's a terrific camera by comparison to anything else out there at its price point and I do agree that it kills off a lot of the low end prosumer and 35mm adapter combos, especially with the option to use practically any lens with some low cost adapters.
As a former D90 owner, the GH-1 destroys the D90. I'm not trying to sell YOU on a GH-1, but everything you posted is speculation, not factual.

I've had both in my hands at the same time. There is no contest, and I doubt there will be ven with manual controls.
 
So, I just watched Philip's night shots while taking a break from coloring a feature. You can color his footage. All you have to do is look at it to tell there is plenty of color data. Is it going to have the range of other cameras? No, of course not.

But lots of coloring can be done to that footage. Also - it looks way better than the Ex3 footage I am currently coloring.
 
Nope, not sounding or looking good so far for me anyway.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm saying this as a current D90 owner and all I'm saying is that the GH1 so far isn't giving me enough reason to switch from the D90.

Dude you have to have the visual acuity of Hellen Keller to compare the D90 favorably with the GH1. Watching D90 footage is like a pov shot for an epileptic or gelatenous alien life form. WTF!?

EDIT: Not to mention the manual controls, autofocus badassness, audio in, adaptable to any lens system because of the short focal flange... I think I just j--zed my pants :shocked:
 
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heavily graded films/shorts/videos are bad taste...music videos i can see going overboard with. other than that, it's redundant and looks amateurish
 
Well, perhaps my statements are wrong and a tade premature, they were simply based on many of the things being said on this board and many others, that was most likely the problem. Thanks for the clarification. However, I'm still not too happy with the footage shown so far, need to see some more before I make a final conclusion.

Also, Johnny, my vision is fine and the D90 isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
 
Dude you have to have the visual acuity of Hellen Keller to compare the D90 favorably with the GH1. Watching D90 footage is like a pov shot for an epileptic or gelatenous alien life form. WTF!?

EDIT: Not to mention the manual controls, autofocus badassness, audio in, adaptable to any lens system because of the short focal flange... I think I just j--zed my pants :shocked:

Glad to see the Hellen Keller analogies are still going strong haha :)
 
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