gh3 or d7100? Have you made this decision?

homestar_kevin

homestar_kevin

Well-known member
I've been going back and forth between these two for a little while now, and just figured I'd field the question and see if anyone else debated this.

I'm due for a DSLR upgrade. It will mainly be used to video, but the stills side is pretty important to me as well.

I have a lot of nikkor lenses, but I don't really consider that a benefit for the Nikon so much. I only have one Nikon mount lens with autofocus, that said it would be nice for stills. I'm a big fan of flexibility and like that I could put anything on the gh3.

I love the look of both of these cameras and am really just going back and forth over which one would work for me best.

I've only used Canon DSLR's until now, so both would come with a learning curve.

I know everyone's situation is different, as are the uses for the camera, and I'm not looking for anyone to make the decision for me, just trying to gauge if anyone made this specific decision, and what factored in it for you. Also how you feel about it now.

They're both fantastic cameras, and the gh3 being $200 off at B&H through tomorrow has made me lean that way. Just not decisively enough to pull the trigger.
 
They both look great, so I don't think you can go wrong with either choice.

Pros for the GH3
- 1080HD 50 Mbps H.264 recording
- Can adjust electronic camera aperture and ISO while filming
- Same lenses fit the new Blackmagic Pocket Cine Camera ( nice to have for high dynamic range and RAW video recording )
- Can use pretty much any camera lens ever made with the right adapter
- Clip length is only limited by your memory card size and camera power
- Compact system format, especially when you compare the size of the 35-100mm f/2.8 lens to the size of a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens


Pros for the D7100
- 24 Mpx Still photos
- Higher dynamic range with still photos ( not sure how the video compares, I've shot video with the Nikon 5200 which had a similar look to the GH3 )
- Nikon lens line ( also easier to rent lenses )


If my business was slanted more towards still photos then the D7100 would be the no-brainer, otherwise for me the GH3 is hard to beat when shooting video.
 
In video mode, I've measured way less than 10 stops on the GH3 and way more than 11 on the Nikons. It's a huge difference, a side-by-side test should show it.
Yet it is true that I'm much better at configuring a Nikon for maximum DR than I am with a GH3.

Regarding the original question, I'd go for the Nikon, but that's because I don't like the panasonic look (the GH2 looks pretty bad to me in most cases -super sharp and detailed but not sexy at all-, the GH3 is better but I still prefer the Nikon image).
 
Samuel H said:
In video mode, I've measured way less than 10 stops on the GH3 and way more than 11 on the Nikons. It's a huge difference, a side-by-side test should show it.
Click to expand...

I shot some corporate interviews last week with my GH3 and a D5200, and the footage doesn't look that different. The two cameras have a slightly different color response ( the Nikon seemed more sensitive to red ), but the overall look of the footage was very close.

For fun I also shot some footage with my GH2 with the FlowMotion ver 2.02 patch, and the footage had a contrastier look but was noticeably sharper than both the GH3 and D5200. ( I could clearly see finer details in the image the GH2 recorded )
 
One or two thing to add in favor of the D7100 is the low light which is much better and you can add an external recorder. It is also nearly much less prone to moire like the gh3. It might be a bit less suited for run and gun because no live histogram and the inability to change aperture when you are filming. Overall with its internal higher bitrate, 60 1080p and general video handling ergonomic, I would say the gh3 wins on general usability. But the Nikon D7100 wins on pure image quality, with its higher DR, low light, no moire/aliasing and the capability to film 220 mbit intra with an Ninja. I am conducting some test comparing the gh2 and D7100. I compared sharpness at first and the D7100 does look very close to the gh2.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?310503-Nikon-D7100-vs-Panasonic-gh2-sharpness
 
I've been leaning more towards the d7100 because of threads like yours Daniel. I might buy it and give it a shot.

I've never used a Nikon DSLR and would need some time to play, but I've loved the footage coming out of the 5200 and 7100.

Does anyone know how well the 7100 work with the hyperdecks?


Both are fantastic upgrades, just have to figure out which one is right for me.

Honestly, I'm leaning Nikon.


I'll just be so happy to have a freaking headphone jack.
 
Is it still the case that you can't change the aperture in Video mode on the 7100? You need to switch to stills mode every time you want to make an aperture change.

This made the 7100 a non starter when deciding my 7D replacement. I went with the GH3 and its great.

For video, the GH3+Speedbooster+Nikon glass is my choice.
 
Hi Kevin, I am happy that my test are useful to you. The more that I look at it, the more I think that the D7100 might be a hidden gem in the dslr video. From some of the first video or test I saw, I knew that it had no moire/aliasing, great DR and low light. My only unknown was the resolution of the hd video of the D7100. That is why I did the test http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?310503-Nikon-D7100-vs-Panasonic-gh2-sharpness to see how it compared to my gh2. As can be seen it is very very close to the highest resolution dslr to date, when many even myself had difficulty saying which is which. So what we have is true hd resolution camera (gh2), with very good DR (Nikon forte) and low light (Rivals 5dmark3 to 6400 iso) For $ 1200 and the best is yet to come if some test are conclusive?
 

This test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFsvEAiWr_8 is very encouraging and could be the icing on the cake for the D7100. The author is very positive about hdmi out of the D7100. You can clearly see how much the noise is tighter and fine compared to the internal codec (same experience with hither bitrate gh2 footage) and that the deep shadows are much better. So we could dig deeper and thus even better DR. The op of the film even states that the FPN is much better on the Ninja footage. These are the reason I chose to buy a Ninja than a blackmagic pocket camera.

I am getting an Atomos Ninja in place of an Hyperdeck. At first I thought about getting the hyperdeck but the ninja is so much sleeker and the price difference is much closer than you might first think between 340 to 700. When you have to add an external power source and use strictly ssd and buy an external monitor to review your footage if you don't have one, the prices are much closer than it looks at the start. The ninja also does pull down for 24p footage internally. You have a report of the D7100 and Hyperdeck here http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?305085-Nikon-D7100-with-Blackmagic-Hyperdeck-Shuttle-2 . People also says that the footage is sharper when recording from the hdmi out.
 
All my nikon lenses have aperture rings, so it's really a non issue for me.

The only real red flag I see at all for the d7100 is the FPN, but even in the footage I've viewed it really doesn't seem to be a big concern.

Any comment on the FPN guys?

Is it that big an issue, or just one of the few ones at all, so it's shared as such?
 
homestar_kevin said:
All my nikon lenses have aperture rings, so it's really a non issue for me.

The only real red flag I see at all for the d7100 is the FPN, but even in the footage I've viewed it really doesn't seem to be a big concern.

Any comment on the FPN guys?

Is it that big an issue, or just one of the few ones at all, so it's shared as such?
Click to expand...

My personal experience shooting with the D7100 internal codec first and HDMI out to Pro Res 422 is that the FPN - which I think would be better described as horizontal banding - is there in the severely underexposed areas but it can be minimized using lower ISO (100, 200 and 400) and precise white balance. And if you use a smart denoising software like Tonalizer it becomes almost invisible. The DR of this camera is fantastic and, as you mentioned, if you use lenses with an aperture ring setting exposure is easy.
 
Welp, this little guy followed me back from my lunch break today.

Pretty excited to stop thinking about all this and just see first hand if it's the camera for me.

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That said, this is my first Nikon DSLR. I'll be reading the manual, but it's a big one! Any settings of menu items I need to enable/disable/ be aware of right out of the gate? or just standard stuff?


Also, I don't fully get the AI/non ai stuff. I have some non AI lenses. These will need to be AI converted to use on the d7100 correct? They actually change the mount/aperture ring physically in this conversion, so it's not just a matter of the lens metering correctly or anything like that, but is actually a physical lens mounting issue?
 

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I just posted this in another thread, but thought it was appropriate to post it here as well.

Sorry for the repost, but here's my thoughts after my first d7100 outing.


Ok, I bought the d7100 on Thursday, and shot a wedding with it yesterday. A friend was my second shooter and used a MkII. I'll post some similar screen grabs later from our footage if you guys are interested.

The 7100 was awesome. I'm really liking the images I got out of this camera. I'm coming from t2i land, and the upgrade is definitely noticeable.

My biggest gripes with the camera as of right now are.

No exposure meter on screen while using live view at all. I really liked using this and even the stock Canon firmware has this.

The aperture ring on my tokina 28-70 2.6-8 cannot be used manually. I believe all Nikkor AF lenses with aperture rings and autofocus, the aperture can only be controlled from the body. So you set the aperture on the ring to 22, and change the values via the camera. This sucks for live view video because now even though my lens has a aperture ring, it's useless because its controlled through the camera.

On my AIS primes, the ring works as it should.

And the aperture complaint being that you cannot change it while in live view or shooting video. You have to exit live view, change the aperture from the viewfinder, and re-enter live view to start recording again, with no exposure meter.


That said, it wasn't that big of a deal to me. I shot a very low key wedding yesterday and used the d7100. It was my first real/full day with the camera, and the aperture thing wasn't as big of a deal as I expected it to be. It was an inconvenience, yes, but wasn't really a deal breaker.

I do really miss the exposure meter though!!!

I've never had a Nikon DSLR before, so if I'm just doing something wrong in the settings, someone please tell me. But I have been looking into the issues, and I don't think there's anything I can do?
 
I don't have my camera or any AIs lenses with me so I can't try this myself right now, but what if you set the aperture ring to the widest position (2.8 or whatever max aperture your lens offers) and then out it on the camera? If I recall the make up of the aperture mechanism properly, wouldn't that put the in lens aperture tab beyond the reach of the in body auto-aperture mechanism? Again, I wish I could check this myself before offering it here, but I figured I'd put it out there as an idea you can try quickly.
If I'm wrong, well.. then we both learned something new. :)
 
homestar_kelvin,

to use the aperture ring on manual lenses on a d7100 in Live view video mode.

1) Go to "MENU"
2) Next, Go to "CUSTOM SETTING MENU"
3) Go to "F-Controls" Click the "OK" button.
4) Choose "F5-CUSTOMIZE COMMAND DIALS" click "OK"
5) Select "Aperture setting" click "OK"
6) Then select "Aperture Ring" click "OK"
7) Then press either the "Shutter" button half way or press "Menu" until you are back where you started.


This should solve your problem
 
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Figured I'd post in this thread rather than make a separate one, but can we talk about external recorders with the d7100 and 5200?

I don't think I'll be buying one this year, but I'd just like to get my head around the options.

I forget where I've seen all the posts on this subject, but I know there are some pitfalls/complications right?

Ninja 1, 2, hyperdeck, other models, etc. What works, what won't work?
 
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