GH2 Tests (with a gh13 perspective)

hunter richards said:
I just want everyone to know this wasn't a "how can I discredit the GH13" test, but instead a "is the Gh2 anywhere near as good as my gh13" test.

In fact it was a personal out of the box test for me I never intended on sharing, but after looking at the footage- I thought a lot of people would appreciate seeing it too.

I also knew people would say some negative stuff and try to discredit what I did (I dont care) please do your own testing, but if you have an opinion, bring your own footage to the table.

For everyone else, I hope this very small look at the gh2 helped you see that it is a camera worth owning (just like the gh13 is!)

I shouldnt, but Im uploading the .mts panning videos right now. Ill link to them in about an hour when they are finished uploading.
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Excellent, many thanks, your test is very interesting to say the least and easily the most informative for existing GH13 users. The GH2 is the real deal and a very significant upgrade:Drogar-Happy(DBG):
 
Thanks Hunter!

Could you please tell us more about the Japanese version? Could you elaborate about the menu syatem, eg is it pretty much the same as the gh1, and any other info about it. And could you please tell me the voltage on the charger? Is it rated for worldwide use? eg. 110-240V etc?

THANK YOU

PS I look forward to a "Completely pointless" GH2 test from you soon ;) Your last one convinced me to buy the gh13.
 
lol, hope I can make something not "completely pointless" this time. The japanese menus are easy, I bought a japanese gh1 when they first came out and its the same, some things are in japanese text- but most have english icons or pictures (everything printed on the body is in english of course). Power is the same as US (though I think the charger is pretty much universal)
 
By the way, if you look at the .mts file size, note that the gh13 file is 2x the size of the gh2 file for the same amount of time. hmmmmm.....
 
Thanks for the MTS

Thanks for the MTS

Thank you Hunter,

I played a bit with the GH2 file and I can say I am impressed by the level of detail in the frame compared to what I get from the 7D. The amount of usable information is at least twice as good. It looks and feels fantastic.

The Good:
1) Codec seems very strong it never broke even analyzing frame by frame, the compression is very strong.
2) Applied a bit of NeatVideo magic to it and it cleans up pretty well, you still get the artifacts around very fine detail even after NR like the tall weed grass but it is very fine and on movement hard to notice.
3) Sound appears to be very clean, seems the camera's audio processing is extremely good.
4) I can't see Moire. that's a great plus!
5) Beats the GH1 hands down and to my eye the GH13 still is a bit worse with the banding and noise so the GH2 is a nice leap forward.

The Bad:
1) Rolling shutter, I know the whip pans make it more evident but it seems slightly worse than the 7D, so it sure needs a stable support system. Rolling shutter cleanup plugins can also help.

2) Aliasing on the rooftiles 16 second mark, far from ideal, it is very distracting so we still have to deal with that.

3) Noise in the shadows... even when the shadows are not very dark low light areas get this muddled appearance of macroblocks and color blotches that dance all over, see the tree bases and building corners in the dark. Neatvideo cleans them up but very little detail is retained.
4) You still need to transcode for editing, my i7 Machine just can't work with this fast enough to be a pleasant experience.

5) Overly noisy image, I am guessing NR was turned down to very low here, it's daylight after all, it should be much much cleaner.

6) Looks way more videoey than the Canons, maybe its the sharpness and I am too into my line skipping 7D that I start to like it. This can probably be tweaked to look less like a handycam.


Hunter, hope you recover soon, thanks a lot for these files and tests!

Almost ready to order it, still on the fence!
 
Is a Hack still Needed?

Is a Hack still Needed?

Excellent MTS...

With the Gh2 shining so brightly, is a hack still relevant to the desires of hdslr users?

I guess it could possibly solve your live feed issues, but beyond that, you seem pretty content with the Gh2 Out of Box.

I donated to the fund because I saw mud in the GH2 preview footage, but you didn't get any mud? I have also heard tell of individuals getting stable footage at higher than 44mbps from their GH13... Does that level the playing field or is that so much geek bravado?

Sensor size. I guess DPreview could answer this, but has the sensor the same dimensions as the Gh1?

N-E-Ways, bravo on the review, I am really green to dvxuser but excited to hear so many passionate opinions on this subject.
 
lol i couldnt help it. when u said first snow after looking at the streetlight, i was like "double snow all the way" Wahahahahahaha u sounded just like him. great test though, this thread confirms that im buying this camera
 
That first snow clip is quite impressive. Thanks Hunter, very cool of you to post useful test clips.

Come out here and let's test that HDMI thing, dangit! I'm dying to see how the nanoflash works with it. ;-)
 
Isaac_Brody said:
ISO 2500 looks ridiculously clean and usable. That's something you can't do with the GH1(3).
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Actually, according to DxOMark's tests, ISO 2500 on the GH2 is pretty close to ISO 1600 on the GH1:

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/en/Camera-Sensor/Compare-sensors/%28appareil1%29/677|0/%28appareil2%29/630|0/%28onglet%29/0/%28brand%29/Panasonic/%28brand2%29/Panasonic

But in practice, I wouldn't shoot at ISO 1600 on the GH1 and expect to get clean video. ISO 400 is where I prefer to draw the line.
 
kainekainekaine said:
Just downloaded your snow video, it has the same horizontal line discussed in this forum and that is shown on this video http://vimeo.com/17281822. Its in the exact same place as 1/60th shown on that video in your video. Its very difficult to see in your video but its there. Seems to be in both Japan and USA versions of the camera. Wonder if Panasonic know about it and if there is a simple firmware fix for it or it will need to be sent in? More information for people interested in this thread http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?230484-GH2-Blue-horizontal-banding. Also wonder if the af100 will have it. If they have the same sensior tech and it doesent have it maybe its a simple firmware fix. The user memphishills confirms that this problem also occurs when recording via hdmi. http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...ntal-banding&p=2175089&viewfull=1#post2175089
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I looked at Hunters snow MTS file at 1920x1080 on my pc and I dont see any horizontal line, I do see a fair amount of noise and a not to sharp of an image. I guess I need more practice at pixel peeping.
 
rigs said:
I looked at Hunters snow MTS file at 1920x1080 on my pc and I dont see any horizontal line, I do see a fair amount of noise and a not to sharp of an image. I guess I need more practice at pixel peeping.
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I actually didnt spot it on viewing the mts clip initially which is good and I dont think anyone else did.
 
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