Hunter Hampton
Carbonite Member
(EDIT: added .mts links for the dual panning shots)
Ive been testing the GH2 along side my gh13 for about a week now, ive unfortunately been sick but ive managed to do a few basic tests and found some interesting things in comparison to the hacked gh1 ( native 1080/24p 44mbps hack). I absolutely loved my gh13 and even just shot a national ad campaign on it (will post that soon!) but how would my new gh2 compare?
Ill jump right into it, this isnt made to be pretty- just practical:
(Note: My workflow for sharing the images below are; FCP log and transfer to prores 422 HQ and then I make .png screen captures and then export them as jpeg 95% quality)
GH2 1080/24p codec vs GH13 codec (44mbs 1080/24p hack)
This was extremely surprising for me, I put both the gh2 and the gh13 hacked (44mbps) on top of one another using the same scene file (smooth -2, -2, 0, -2), same f stop (5.6), same WB (daylight), same high shutter (1/800 if I recall)- and panned around like a maniac in my back yard.
See the results for yourself, this are two grabs from the same moment in time from a fast pan (trying to get some mud):
GH2 MTS can be downloaded here, password is "lumix" (I was sick so dont make fun of my sniffing!):
http://vimeo.com/17383713
GH1 MTS can be downloaded here, password is "lumix" (note how this mts is 2x the size of the gh13 mts!):
http://vimeo.com/17385698
IS that a shocker? It shocked me. I was thinking the opposite was going to happen. (before you think I made a huge mistake like I did at first, Yes the gh1 really does have the 44mbs hack enabled Ive triple checked! I used the max 44mbs suggested values in Ptool)
This makes me believe the gh2 has a new and better encoder than the gh1. Interesting.
Static scene (same settings):
You can see how the Gh2 looks resolving more detail, (note: The gh1 has a 20mm pancake on and the gh2 has a 14-42 lens on zoomed to 20mm, both are at 5.6 and focused on the house)
To get rid of the lens variable (even though the 20mm is sharper and on the gh13), I went inside and shot a barcode with the same lens on each (50mm fd 1.4 lens at f2.8)
Here are 1:1 .png crops from each (same scene files, exposure and white balance):
GH2:
GH13 (44mbs hack):
After I saw that the Gh2 codec held up so well and that it resolved more detail than the gh13, I wanted to try dialing in the scene file for the camera. I was used to having my gh13 set-up as:
Smooth
-2 contrast
-2 sharpness
0 saturation
-2 NR
So thats what I shot the GH2 out of the box, but after doings some more testing I found that the Gh2's noise reduction actually make a huge difference (where as it really didnt do much on the gh1)
GH2 underexposure, smooth settings as above (-2 noise reduction) 1:1 crop:
Now with NR at 0 instead (exact same exposure):
Makes a big difference! Almost looks like a blue/red noise veil has been lifted.
Now I am preferring to use this as a scene file on the gh2:
Smooth
-2 contrast
-2 sharpness
0 saturation
0 NR
HIGH Iso tests:
I didnt bring my gh13 into this as I knew it shows fixed pattern noise and banding at iso's 800+, so I just wanted to see if I could break my gh2 on high iso's.
GH2 iso 1600 1080/24p grab (noise reduction -2, smooth) 1/60th:
GH2 iso 3200!!! 1080/24p grab (noise reduction -2) 1/60th:
GH2 iso 3200!!! extreme low light outside (noise reduction -2) 1/60th:
Holy crap! I was freaking out when I saw that as I was literally trying to find the cameras breaking point (the prores looks even better in motion). This makes me wish it allowed you to shoot higher than 3200 in video mode as I feel it could even be usable to 6400. This camera can certainly do low-light as good as other. Go panasonic!
And lastly, HDMI out;
I was super excited to hear about hdmi out while recording as it hurt me using the gh13 on set as most of the time SOMEONE else wants to see the image too. Well the GH2 solves that, the hdmi out is nice and clear- perfect for sending to an hd monitor or video village.
Here is a possible catch though for those hoping to record the hdmi out, everything I have tried this week- I can only get the gh2 to send 1080i out (once you start recording you get some sort of 24p pulldown inside of 1080i). What does this mean? Well the 1080i is less sharp than the avchd recorded image and shows "stair stepping" from the interlaced signal (I tried on two hdtv's and see the same thing)
This is non-conclusive and if/when I get access to an hdmi recorder Ill test again, but from everything I can tell- if you wanted to record 1080/24p to a recorder, you would be losing some resolution.
That is a bummer, but dont let that make your write the GH2 off... the built in codec as you can see holds up really well and the image is super sharp on the hdmi out, great for monitoring focus or maybe even live broadcast if you like 1080i (and you can still see the lcd or evf while recording, which is amazing on a dslr).
So in conclusion, for those hoping to get an ultra cheap dslr that can send out a perfect 1080/24p signal for uncompressed recording... as far as I can tell, You may have to wait for another dslr.
But for the rest of us; what more can you really expect from this $900 wonder camera?
It works for me and im eager to shoot with it!
Ive been testing the GH2 along side my gh13 for about a week now, ive unfortunately been sick but ive managed to do a few basic tests and found some interesting things in comparison to the hacked gh1 ( native 1080/24p 44mbps hack). I absolutely loved my gh13 and even just shot a national ad campaign on it (will post that soon!) but how would my new gh2 compare?
Ill jump right into it, this isnt made to be pretty- just practical:
(Note: My workflow for sharing the images below are; FCP log and transfer to prores 422 HQ and then I make .png screen captures and then export them as jpeg 95% quality)
GH2 1080/24p codec vs GH13 codec (44mbs 1080/24p hack)
This was extremely surprising for me, I put both the gh2 and the gh13 hacked (44mbps) on top of one another using the same scene file (smooth -2, -2, 0, -2), same f stop (5.6), same WB (daylight), same high shutter (1/800 if I recall)- and panned around like a maniac in my back yard.
See the results for yourself, this are two grabs from the same moment in time from a fast pan (trying to get some mud):
GH2 MTS can be downloaded here, password is "lumix" (I was sick so dont make fun of my sniffing!):
http://vimeo.com/17383713
GH1 MTS can be downloaded here, password is "lumix" (note how this mts is 2x the size of the gh13 mts!):
http://vimeo.com/17385698
IS that a shocker? It shocked me. I was thinking the opposite was going to happen. (before you think I made a huge mistake like I did at first, Yes the gh1 really does have the 44mbs hack enabled Ive triple checked! I used the max 44mbs suggested values in Ptool)
This makes me believe the gh2 has a new and better encoder than the gh1. Interesting.
Static scene (same settings):
You can see how the Gh2 looks resolving more detail, (note: The gh1 has a 20mm pancake on and the gh2 has a 14-42 lens on zoomed to 20mm, both are at 5.6 and focused on the house)
To get rid of the lens variable (even though the 20mm is sharper and on the gh13), I went inside and shot a barcode with the same lens on each (50mm fd 1.4 lens at f2.8)
Here are 1:1 .png crops from each (same scene files, exposure and white balance):
GH2:
GH13 (44mbs hack):
After I saw that the Gh2 codec held up so well and that it resolved more detail than the gh13, I wanted to try dialing in the scene file for the camera. I was used to having my gh13 set-up as:
Smooth
-2 contrast
-2 sharpness
0 saturation
-2 NR
So thats what I shot the GH2 out of the box, but after doings some more testing I found that the Gh2's noise reduction actually make a huge difference (where as it really didnt do much on the gh1)
GH2 underexposure, smooth settings as above (-2 noise reduction) 1:1 crop:
Now with NR at 0 instead (exact same exposure):
Makes a big difference! Almost looks like a blue/red noise veil has been lifted.
Now I am preferring to use this as a scene file on the gh2:
Smooth
-2 contrast
-2 sharpness
0 saturation
0 NR
HIGH Iso tests:
I didnt bring my gh13 into this as I knew it shows fixed pattern noise and banding at iso's 800+, so I just wanted to see if I could break my gh2 on high iso's.
GH2 iso 1600 1080/24p grab (noise reduction -2, smooth) 1/60th:
GH2 iso 3200!!! 1080/24p grab (noise reduction -2) 1/60th:
GH2 iso 3200!!! extreme low light outside (noise reduction -2) 1/60th:
Holy crap! I was freaking out when I saw that as I was literally trying to find the cameras breaking point (the prores looks even better in motion). This makes me wish it allowed you to shoot higher than 3200 in video mode as I feel it could even be usable to 6400. This camera can certainly do low-light as good as other. Go panasonic!
And lastly, HDMI out;
I was super excited to hear about hdmi out while recording as it hurt me using the gh13 on set as most of the time SOMEONE else wants to see the image too. Well the GH2 solves that, the hdmi out is nice and clear- perfect for sending to an hd monitor or video village.
Here is a possible catch though for those hoping to record the hdmi out, everything I have tried this week- I can only get the gh2 to send 1080i out (once you start recording you get some sort of 24p pulldown inside of 1080i). What does this mean? Well the 1080i is less sharp than the avchd recorded image and shows "stair stepping" from the interlaced signal (I tried on two hdtv's and see the same thing)
This is non-conclusive and if/when I get access to an hdmi recorder Ill test again, but from everything I can tell- if you wanted to record 1080/24p to a recorder, you would be losing some resolution.
That is a bummer, but dont let that make your write the GH2 off... the built in codec as you can see holds up really well and the image is super sharp on the hdmi out, great for monitoring focus or maybe even live broadcast if you like 1080i (and you can still see the lcd or evf while recording, which is amazing on a dslr).
So in conclusion, for those hoping to get an ultra cheap dslr that can send out a perfect 1080/24p signal for uncompressed recording... as far as I can tell, You may have to wait for another dslr.
But for the rest of us; what more can you really expect from this $900 wonder camera?
It works for me and im eager to shoot with it!
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