GH2 Tests (with a gh13 perspective)

Canon - I assume that their next generation will kick some butt. They made a mint on the 5D mark 11 and they want a big piece of this burgeoning market. When they enter - I will pay attention.
 
joe1946 said:
NOTES ON IMAGE QUALITY VERUS 5D MARK II and GH1

Image quality is subjective. Compared to the hacked GH1, 44Mbit is no match for 24mbit on a proper AVCHD encoder. The hacked GH1 looks pale and low contrast in comparison, it doesn't handle wide highly detailed shots as well, nor does it live up to claims of being better than the GH2 on fast motion / whip pans. It's also less saturated, especially at ISO 1600 and it has more banding. Some more so than others.

I have not noticed a single hint of mud on the GH2 since I got it and all the nit pickers uploading still shots from the GH2 with big arrows pointing at mud have not helped me notice it either. If it is there, then it's something only idiots notice!

The GH2 *is* better than the hacked GH1 in every way. Period.

http://www.eoshd.com/content/465-Canon-60D-versus-Panasonic-GH2-Full-Review-Part-2
Click to expand...

You're walking on dangerous ground here. First you say image quality is subjective, then you say the GH2 *is* better in every way. Period. Those two statements are incompatible with each other in the first place and incompatible with what many people have found in posted footage so far.

While SOME aspects of the avchd encoder on the GH2 were improved, some were left exactly the same, and bitrate DOES matter... no matter how advanced the encoder is, it's got to throw out detail at some point in order to get the picture into 24mbit and that's exactly what it's doing. By your words, they could run at 1 mbit cause the encoders just THAT advanced. Simply untrue. Every encoder can be stressed somewhat when it reaches its limits and there's no where else to store data within that bitrate.

Download this clip.. another stunning shoot by Gunther:

http://vimeo.com/17487494

Now I daresay that you may have light mud issues on many of these shots with a gh2... especiallly the wavy water scenes and wide crowd scenes... but I won't know for certain until I have my OWN GH2 in my filthy bloody hat infested hands.

Many of the posts here where people show footage comparing cameras - they have the GH13 set to under 40 mbits... I say the jobless D settings 52mbit on class 10 transcend cards is a lot better and 99% reliable even with 24pn checked - which then give the codec even MORE quality.
 
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Yes *joe 1946*...dont be using Andrew reids quotations as a indication of quality. that guy does not know "objective" only "hyperbole" If you beleive in his shortsighted ramblings...good luck to you.

His articles are laughable in their sheer blindness & bias. I dont go on his site anymore...hes a close contender to that scarletwhore guy.

Now
Heres a good test
http://vimeo.com/17491529

Shows that both GH1 & GH2 are BOTH great cameras GH2 has improved dynamics...but pretty close call on both image wise.
Use your camera right and you get the best out of them. ;-)
Heres a crazy thought....
Is it wrong to want both? Is it wrong in NOT wanting to chuck the GH1 in the trash?
People need to calm down and just agree that both GH1 & GH2 have their stregnths and weaknesses.
 
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mimirsan said:
Yes *joe 1946*...dont be using Andrew reids quotations as a indication of quality. that guy does not know "objective" only "hyperbole" If you beleive in his shortsighted ramblings...good luck to you.

His articles are laughable in their sheer blindness & bias. I dont go on his site anymore...hes a close contender to that scarletwhore guy.

Now
Heres a good test
http://vimeo.com/17491529

Shows that both GH1 & GH2 are BOTH great cameras GH2 has improved dynamics...but pretty close call on both image wise.
Use your camera right and you get the best out of them. ;-)
Heres a crazy thought....
Is it wrong to want both? Is it wrong in NOT wanting to chuck the GH1 in the trash?
People need to calm down and just agree that both GH1 & GH2 have their stregnths and weaknesses.
Click to expand...

Yes, I downloaded that clip and did some A-B testing. They are very close. If I had a GH1 I would keep it.
And also get a GH2....if I did not have a GH1 - I would get a GH2. If owners of a GH1 really want a GH2
instead and cannot afford to have both - their are plenty of eager buyers on ebay.
I have ordered a GH2. I still shoot video with an HVX200 and rent RED from time to time.
I also have a Nikon D200 which I use for Panorama work. I have a Canon T2i and have been
less than impressed with it's video quality. I have used it as a B-cam for some shoots.
Everytime I entertain the thought of using the T2i only on a video shoot, I usually fall back
to using the HVX200 for several reasons. The T2i can make beautiful video on certain subject matter.
But the aliasing and moire are too unpredictable for me to use the T2i as the only camera.
Now the GH2 may change that. We will see.
 
Like I posted on Vimeo I agree with some others , the GH2 looks a little sharper and with more DR on my Samsung T260 HD 26" monitor playing the 455mb video file. I will test my 50mm F1.4 and 85mm F1.4 @3200iso with my GH2 when I get it later this week if I get it on Thursday like Panasonic CS told me.
 
GH2 is a little sharper... but it looks a little too edged enhanced for me.. I would dial down sharpness just a tad... it also gets aliasing just as badly if not worse on some of that posted footage. Have fun with it. I won't be getting mine till I come back from Sundance.
 
Blackout said:
Hey Emanuel I tried to PM you about that short "Brand New Day" it is still looking for a festival to premiere in, your PM box is flooded I can't write you there and the director asked me about you. Any chance you can place that somewhere? PM me or call me or whatever.

- Blackout
Click to expand...
OK Michael, I'll be looking for what it is possible to do (E. :-)
 
Ian-T said:
If what they did with HDV was any indication then I bet they would end up with the best 24MBps AVCHD implementation ever. Of course it will be late in the game as usual.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately or maybe not, they're traditionally a photo camera company. Oddly, 5D Mark II is a standard for music videos (and not only) worldwide.
 
My two cents; with the original test of this thread, the results were strange. With the "static" test, it looked as though two different picture styles were used in terms of color, so it may be a picture style thing, but I noticed that in just a few areas the Gh13 picked up better detail (the dark red house, for instance), while the GH2 overall looked "sharper" in terms of looking more realistic, giving better detail everywhere. Sadly, both screen shots looked very bad, I'd almost say Canon does better than that, and when I downloaded them and make the screenshots smaller, they both looked realistic at 640P-ish (and still would require a bit of smoothing, those screenshots were pixelated looking as crap.) and I'd say they both were resolving around the same resolution (640P ish). The Gh2 may have had more a 720P direction, but I doubt it.

I'm wondering if those screenshots would have looked better if saved to PNG. files? Screenshots seem to look horrible saved to JPEG.

Anyway yeah, I would almost say I have Canon screenshots that put these GH shots to shame, but I sure wouldn't bet money on that. One thing that I keep seeing is that no matter what camera it is, digital technology never seems to record at it's full resolution, and if you always have to down-rez to get realistic results, it almost strikes me that a "smooth" look would be a better product. But also, getting rid of moire/aliasing is probably the best step, in which the GH's do better. I'm honestly not sure yet, I've been wanting to trade up to a Gh2 so badly, but from what it seems, I almost don't think it'd get that much better footage than what I'm getting now...
 
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