GH2 GH2: Color banding

[FrameFarmMedia]

Definitely agreeing with you. I'd rather spend the extra money building around the Gh2 as a base with a view into the future as far as moving the accessories to another "brain". I do have more optimism for the Magic Cam than I should, but until that cam's out the price-to-performance (in IQ department) is GH2 territory.

It's a shame that I think A) Panasonic broadcast is going to abandon 4/3 altogether and move to S35 or larger, and B) the GH3 will be a marginal improvement over the GH2, with little to no gains in the departments that matter. Specifically, Dynamic Range and Lowlight Performance.

I agree with your forcast of the future. Although I do like M43 as a sesnor size but don't find a ton of size difference between the oversized m43 of gh2 vs s35. To me the things that make a bigger difference are codec, Dynamic range, colour info etc and I agree we won't see much improvement on the low end. I think each camera maker has realized that the race to the bottom isn't good for anyones bottom line.

The GH2 is/has served me very well now as I venture into the low levels of cinematography (make my day job money as a line producer/editor) and if I can make enough $$ upgrade down the road. There is a sense of freedom to be able to generate my own content to produce/edit and not rely on others when the budget isn't there.

 

[Zephyrnoid]

DI think the HV20-30-40 were GREAT cameras, but the GH2 FAR surpasses them now. The world of lenses is a beautiful thing.

I can't wait to get my GH3 with new constant aperture zooms. Who knows, they may not even need hacks.
In the meantime I am so loving my fully paid off $900 HV20. No banding and it even streams 8Bit 4:2:2 via HDMI !
Oh and it does have a zooom lens

 

[PaPa]

If the camera shoots 8 bit, they will all exhibit the exact same issue. The lower the noise, the more visible it becomes. Don't shoot bellow 400 ISO, add a little grain in post, and hack the camera. Voila. Noise in 8 bit cameras is your friend. Noise is not the same thing as macro blocking. The more macro blocking, the more visible that gradient will become ( hence hacking the camera to turn those blocks into information/noise ).

Regardless of what you shoot with, if you intend your release for the web, you will be hard pressed the find any camera delivering gradient friendly images via web video. Also, each monitor will give more or less of this depending on the quality.

 

[Elmer_Lang]

I suppose I should start a new thread, but hope someone here will provide info to these questions:

Can't say I'm into 24fps film look but if I still want best quality from the GH2, what mode should I choose and how much less quality do the other modes provide? Is the 720p60 as good as 1080p24; can't be, right? And seems like I hear the 1080i is no good.

Also, I work with FCP. Is there a soup to nuts how to transfer footage to use in FCP? (Just watched a Creative Cow vid but doesn’t say which plugin is right for GH2. ALso read a few threads, head starting to explode. )

I also have PP CS5.5. Maybe I should bite the bullet and learn it, but would still like to know the FCP workflow.

Arg!

 

[DPStewart]

PP CS5.5 for sure!
I have both too...and honestly the general layouts and functions are so similar I could bounce from one to the other with only a casual refresher on a few functions.
My understanding is that one of the key designers of FCP also was a key designer of PP - hence the similarities.
CS5.5 does the best native handling of AVCHD files I have heard of anywhere yet - and the Mercury Engine just rocks - makes everything so much faster.

If you don't dig 24P then 30P will probably be your game - unless you're shooting a lot of sports and such in which case 1080i might be what you're looking for.
I once did a large piece for Special Olympics and 30P captured all the action really smoothly while avoiding an overly "video" look.
I think the 1080i looks extremely good - for 1080i. If you want the "News broadcast" style of sharpness it is right on.

The 720P on the GH2 is surprisingly good - like so good it makes your decisions more difficult!
Fortunately or UNfortunately the GH2's different modes will each give different looks depending on what you're shooting. Once you get to know them all you'll LOVE that....but it does make start-up a bit more bumpy.
I would suggest the first thing you try is doing a quick shoot of your type of scene in 1080-30P then right away the same shot with 1080i, then the same with the 720P. that should quickly allow you to get to know the major differences and which you will 'generally' prefer. 1 minute of each should be enough to get the idea.

~Cheers

 

[Elmer_Lang]

Thanks DPStewart and everybody for the info!