GH3 GH3 Footage from photographyblog

I definitely haven't seen any GH3 footage yet that indicates any improvements over the GH2. Genesis included. It seems clear they will be very similar for image quality unless there is some new firmware that includes some special mode that improves dynamic range beyond what we have seen... Probably going to be holding on to my GH2 which I am always amazed by.

Hard to imagine why there would be moire or line skipping in the GH3 when it is so well controlled in the GH2. That'd be a bit of a disappointment... Even if someone made a 3rd party OLPF for the GH3 to compensate for moire due to bad scaling or line skipping, it would still be functionally inferior to having a camera that just didnt skip and scaled properly from a full/high resolution image to begin with like the GH2 does. Not to mention if such a filter existed, the GH3+OLPF combo would probably cost at least 2-3x as much as a GH2 without necessary any improvement in quality and it would certainly be a pain to have to remove the OLPF every time you wanted to take a still image...
 
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I'm still wondering what all this extended dynamic range talk is about. Those blown out light sources on the wall and in the ceiling aren't showing any improvement over the gh2 dr wise.
 
It still amazes me (although it shouldn't) when "people in the know" make decisions and cast aspersions about a pre-production camera that is in the hands of some bloggers while viewing the results on Vimeo.

What emotionally stressed lives you must lead.

Although I agree, Panasonic is doing itself a disservice in this case, and really should wait until the firmware is finalized. But i for one will not make emotionally charged decisions based on this or any other tests. I'll do my own, thank you very much. And if it's not up to snuff, back it goes. End of story.
 
nyvz said:
I definitely haven't seen any GH3 footage yet that indicates any improvements over the GH2. Genesis included.
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The high ISO noise and dynamic range of the GH3 in Mr. Bloom's "Genesis" look way better than the GH2, but these gains are useless if aliasing and moire are not under control.

The bottom line for me is that the GH3 must produce a clean image, that is at least as good as the GH2
 
stoneinapond said:
It still amazes me (although it shouldn't) when "people in the know" make decisions and cast aspersions about a pre-production camera that is in the hands of some bloggers while viewing the results on Vimeo.

What emotionally stressed lives you must lead.

Although I agree, Panasonic is doing itself a disservice in this case, and really should wait until the firmware is finalized. But i for one will not make emotionally charged decisions based on this or any other tests. I'll do my own, thank you very much. And if it's not up to snuff, back it goes. End of story.
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+ 1
 
I think I'm going to do the same thing I did with the GH2. One day, hopefully not to far in the future, I'm going to spot a random clip that's totally going to change my perspective on the camera. I mocked the GH2 when I first saw the footage, and didn't think twice about it, until one day more than a year later after the hack was produced...I viewed a short hacked GH2 clip done with just the right lens... mind blown; I was sold immediately.

I think that's what's gonna do it for most people. The camera might underwhelm for a little bit, the hack will come out, patches will begin their inevitable development, the best lenses / settings combinations for the GH3 will emerge... and BAM, the awesome footage will start trickling in and everyone will jump on the bandwagon including me. By that time, I feel I'll have invested heavily in a BMC setup though.
 
Don't you think Bloom would have mentioned it in his review if he noticed it? He said it was a huge improvement over the GH2. I believe his words over some low end tests done by someone no one has even heard of before.
 
swanny said:
Don't you think Bloom would have mentioned it in his review if he noticed it?
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Not necessarily. He was using an early pre-production unit that is not 100% representative of what the final product will be. It seems likely that he would withhold any public critisisms of the image until after he gets hold of a finished unit.
 
I think I'm going to do the same thing I did with the GH2. One day, hopefully not to far in the future, I'm going to spot a random clip that's totally going to change my perspective on the camera. I mocked the GH2 when I first saw the footage, and didn't think twice about it, until one day more than a year later after the hack was produced...I viewed a short hacked GH2 clip done with just the right lens... mind blown; I was sold immediately.

I think that's what's gonna do it for most people. The camera might underwhelm for a little bit, the hack will come out, patches will begin their inevitable development, the best lenses / settings combinations for the GH3 will emerge... and BAM, the awesome footage will start trickling in and everyone will jump on the bandwagon including me. By that time, I feel I'll have invested heavily in a BMC setup though.
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But that is what always happens. Nothing new there. That is why all the hoopla about a horribly shot example is pointless. When the GH3 and excellent footage starts coming out I can assure a lot of folk are going to want one. A lot of them.
 
Seems like some of you have an agenda, or your minds are made up without anything solid to base it on other than some test footage you seem to pick and choose from to make your case. Bloom talks a lot about the improvements he noticed. He also mentions the marks on the sensor. I see no way you can claim he would simply withhold his observations about moire and aliasing, but not about anything else. You seem to take the amateur video at face value and discount the footage shot by the pros? Maybe I'm missing something?

Time will tell how the GH3 performs.
 
What agenda? To express disappointment perhaps?

I've already seen more moire from this camera than I've seen in almost 2 years from the gh2. What has pro vs amateur got to do with anything?

http://vimeo.com/49944730#

Look at the fella's shirt at 1:02

I personally have a hard time spending $1300 for 1080 50/60p, knowing that moire is a part of the deal.
 
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nyvz said:
I definitely haven't seen any GH3 footage yet that indicates any improvements over the GH2. Genesis included. ...
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I humbly disagree, as I find "Genesis" better than anything I've seen from a GH2. It actually looks a lot like a baby Red, high resolution and slighty odd skin tones.

I do think Shane Hurlbut's "The Ticket" shot on the the EOS-1D C has much nicer colors (along with a better story, directing, composiition and sound). But that camera is ten times the cost of a GH3.
 
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I think I can live with a little bit of the moire. Compared to similar, but more expensive cameras, I think we just lucked out on the GH2. As long as the GH3 isn't as bad as Canon's HDSLR offerings as far as moire goes, I think I'll be happy. Honestly, the main selling point for me is the wifi monitoring. And the .mov recording is also a good plus since it should make workflow and review/ playback easier.


Also, an added plus is that I can fit the GH2 & the GH3 in my camera bag. So right now, if I wanted to do a two camera shoot, I'd have to take my GH2 backpack camera bag, plus my V1U (ENG cam) in its bulky Petrol bag, then deal with workflow since I'm still trucking on with FCP7 (I'm going to have to force myself onto Premiere). So if I'm one-man-banding it, which is almost everything that I do, it's not worth it to do two cams. But with these two little cameras in the same bag, I just need to take an extra dinky tripod in and I'm golden. Having a second angle would help a ton for shoots that are an interview with just one person. Right now, I have to get a bunch of various b-roll of the person in a short amount of time, and even then I have to edit in a 720p timeline so that I can digitally zoom in a shot to not really be a jump cut in the interview.

See here for example (Standard disclaimer: Even though it's plain to see watching the video, please don't post any specific names of people or organizations involved in the video. I don't want any of my forum posts appearing in related Google searches. Thank you.)


This actually came up with one of my weekly clients today. He is on camera for the videos and there is one shirt that he sometimes wears that has vertical pinstripes. My old HD ENG camera (Sony V1U) handled this or a similar shirt terribly and I told him that he shouldn't wear it. So now, shooting on the GH2, whenever he wears the shirt, his employee that works on the project with us will say something like-- ah, he wore the shirt again. And each time, I say-- well this camera can handle it, so it's all good. But I told them today about the new camera and that it might not do as well with it. So I told him come January or so, he might have to stop wearing the shirt. So we got a laugh out of it. On the screen on the camera, it's practically glowing with moire, but I always know that practically none of that will show up in full resolution.

Attached is a 100% screencap of the ProRes LT transcoded video. There's a slight bit of moire where his shirt folds, but otherwise it looks pretty good. Note that this is mostly an internal project, so the emphasis is on getting them done efficiently and not on having a perfect image. Cropped for privacy.

Edit: it isn't posting at full resolution, which creates more moire. Any way to link to a full res of a forum attachment? I don't really care enough to use a random image posting service and I'm not going to post it from my FTP.

gh2_moire_still.jpg
 
I realize some of you may think these cameras are close to finished but keep in mind they are at firmware 0.4. That is 0.4 not 1.0 which would be the final firmware. I would like to expect a lot can change from 0.4 to 1.0. Just a gut feeling there but as a developer I usually see pretty drastic changes from a version 0.4 and a version 1.0 of an app I am working on. Not to say if the firmware can change the moire or not but it is something to think about. I would never in a million years judge any hardware or software based on a 0.4 release. We are now seeing reports of a camera with a 0.5 version of the firmware so yes it really is moving along that slow.

Also keep in mind that while the camera may be coming out soon, nobody can slap together a camera and hand it off to testers that quickly without a manufacturing process in place. These 0.4 models may have been worked on nine months ago for all we know. It may take that long to get a hand made prototype to a stage where they feel comfortable letting people man handle them. So what I am trying to say is that in the lab they may already have firmware version 0.9 but not in a model people can play with and use in a finished body. The models out there may be much older prototypes that have been polished to look finished so people could see them and play with them a little bit. I highly doubt those cameras and the version 0.4 firmware was just finished.
 
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