GH2 God i love my gh2...

ethan cooper said:
I ran across some of my old HVX footage last night and I forgot how much I loved the 422. It lacked in resolution, was noisy as hell but oh that beautiful 422.
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You are right there! It was lovely and it produced some stunning images but it did have that caveat. It was super noisy and expensive. I also can't believe I shot for 3 years with 4 gig cards and a p2store. I was like an octopus trying to shoot those live events like that. Man, it was such a ton of work to media manage, but IT was the first of it's kind and the 60p was awesome.


I did take a huge loss though when I sold the whole kit. I think I got maybe 40 percent of my investment back. I know that if I sold my HMC150, I'd probably end up getting about 70 percent of my investment back and it didn't cost me 10K....


All in all, I'm just a happy man with what I've got and if I got an Alexa then I'd be happy with that one too. I've seen countless people with nicer camera not have a friggin clue... and there are fan boys out there that hide behind one or another, but I'm very fickle too. If somethings better that I can afford then I'll jump on that. As much as I hate Sony cameras, I was really excited and interested in the FS100. I still am, but we'll have to see if Santa is good to me this year or not!
 
Justyn said:
I've seen countless people with nicer camera not have a friggin clue... and there are fan boys out there that hide behind one or another, but I'm very fickle too. If somethings better that I can afford then I'll jump on that. As much as I hate Sony cameras, I was really excited and interested in the FS100. I still am, but we'll have to see if Santa is good to me this year or not!
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You hit the nail on the head. Last year a local wedding video company (much larger than my mom n pop business) saw my display at a wedding show. 1 month later, they bought a fleet of HMC150s. I think they were pissed that a young married couple would come in and swoop up all their potential new customers. Ha! Their work looks exactly the same, just in 16:9 now. They can buy new cameras but they can't buy my family.

Bottom line, everyone needs to stop nerding out on gear and just go out there and produce something awesome. I love my GH2s but if I am not on my A-game, then the camera will never makeup for my lack of talent or enthusiasm!
 
John Caballero said:
The GH2 is a fantastic little machine. With the hack is superb. It's got that Panasonic mojo.
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Dunno about 'mojo' (whatever that is) - but it's certainly got the Panasonic noise.

Lot's of noise, oodles of noise, enough chroma noise to keep an addict satisfied for years!

My GH1's are better - and that's not just tossing out a statement for the sake of it, they actually are.

*What* on earth is the point of high bit rates, low GOP, removal of iso constraints in video, etc, when every effort is crippled by that horrible M4/3 sensor?

I've tried stock firmware, I've tried hacked firmware, I've tried every 'film mode' setting combination in the book - all to no avail. There is *always* shed loads of noise at moderately high iso's

The last time I saw blue & red chroma noise was when I shot stills - but, hey presto, PAnasonic have managed to introduce the colourful catastrophe into video mode.

Yes - I know about the very high ISO samples courtesy of the latest P-tools - all shot in black & white, and all riddled with noise that gets affectionately refered to as 'grain'

Well, it ain't grain - it's noise. Period.

Add 'banding' to the liberal chroma noise, and it all adds up to a camera that cannot perform adequately in anything other than full daylight.

Can Panasonic fix it? - possibly, but the 4/3 system has had 10 years to get its act togther, and it's still way behind APSC in noise terms, so the odds are not terribly good.
 
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Framerate said:
Dunno about 'mojo' (whatever that is) - but it's certainly got the Panasonic noise.

Lot's of noise, oodles of noise, enough chroma noise to keep an addict satisfied for years!

My GH1's are better - and that's not just tossing out a statement for the sake of it, they actually are.

*What* on earth is the point of high bit rates, low GOP, removal of iso constraints in video, etc, when every effort is crippled by that horrible M4/3 sensor?

I've tried stock firmware, I've tried hacked firmware, I've tried every 'film mode' setting combination in the book - all to no avail. There is *always* shed loads of noise at moderately high iso's

The last time I saw blue & red chroma noise was when I shot stills - but, hey presto, PAnasonic have managed to introduce the colourful catastrophe into video mode.

Yes - I know about the very high ISO samples courtesy of the latest P-tools - all shot in black & white, and all riddled with noise that gets affectionately refered to as 'grain'

Well, it ain't grain - it's noise. Period.

Add 'banding' to the liberal chroma noise, and it all adds up to a camera that cannot perform adequately in anything other than full daylight.

Can Panasonic fix it? - possibly, but the 4/3 system has had 10 years to get its act togther, and it's still way behind APSC in noise terms, so the odds are not terribly good.
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a little over the top there dont you think? watch this http://vimeo.com/32563119 and try to tell me which high iso shots where ruined by "shed" loads of noise.
 
You aren't getting any clean large sensor images until you shoot 5K, f3 and slog, or Alexa.

Does anyone know of a clean image outside of those? I sure don't. Web the C300 is noisy but pleasantly so.

I wouldn't roll above 1000 IsO on a hacked Gh2 but I couldn't be convinced to shoot on another hacked GH1. It was not the same image at all as a hacked Gh2.
 
Ben Totman said:
a little over the top there dont you think? watch this http://vimeo.com/32563119 and try to tell me which high iso shots where ruined by "shed" loads of noise.
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Well, possibly a *little* over the top (for dramatic effect, you understand?) but it is a fact that my newly purchased GH2 is a huge let-down in the noise department.

It seems safe until iso 800 - after that, put in your earplugs and hold on tight, because the noise will blow you away.

It all (imo) relates to that nasty 4/3 sensor.

Long ago, when Panasonic were considering entering the DLSR digital market, they happened to chance upon a Magic Bean seller from Olympus Corporation.

This skilled charlatan somehow (perhaps by dark Japanese occult arts, or by the sheer force of his personality, who knows?) managed to persuade Panasonic to ally themselves to the 4/3 system.

After a brief experiment with Four Thirds, Panasonic were obviously astute enough to realise that here was horse that was never going to win - a horse, in fact, that had one leg amputated, and was presenting a truly pitiful spectacle several furlongs behind the front runners....

The fate of the person who signed the contract with Olympus Corporation is not recorded - but it is to be hoped that he was slowly boiled to death in a vat of oil, deep in the basement of Panasonic HQ

Being realists, Panasonic saw that they had been sold a three legged donkey, instead of a thoroughbred stallion - so (and all credit to them) they hit upon the idea of majoring on video modes, rather than still image IQ - which, quite obviously, was a lost cause.

So they introduced the GH1 - a true revolution in terms of affordability and features - but hampered by the 4/3 sensor.

Enter the GH2 - even more features, control, and usability - but *still* hamstrung by that perennially limping donkey, M4/3.....I feel rather sorry for the Panasonic design team - if only that unknown executive hadn't met the Olympus magic bean seller on the road to DSLR production!


They would (almost certainly) have invested in APSC - and would now (almost certainly) have a killer VDSLR product on the market.


As it is, they are obliged to scurry around in the Purgatory that is M4/3,- forever seeking ways to make that cursed sensor less noisy - or to turn base metal into gold, whichever solution proves easiest...
 
Man, I want some of what you're taking. Perhaps you'd be better served writing a thriller script about evil camera manufacturers and anonymous contract signers who manage to dupe a large percentage of the population with dastardly consequences. The dreaded NOISE. You can even include a super hero, the Fantastic Noise Cleaner who manages to swoop in and save the day. Only to find out in the final act that he works for Sony and has his own agenda.

That's a freebie - no credit required. :Drogar-Happy(DBG):
 
karapetkov said:
Why not both? :Drogar-Happy(DBG):
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For my purposes, a camera is a hunk of metal no different from any other hunk of metal. It's what it gives me that is awesome. There are gear-heads who love the technical bits of cameras and how they do this or that, just like there are gear-heads who love cars or guns or airplanes or whatever. But as far as I'm concerned a camera is a means to an end. If technology got rid of cameras and found a way to just look through someones eyeballs to see and record the image I'd still be doing what I do. I appreciate cameras for what they give me and know as much as I need to about their technology - we don't have eyeball cameras yet! - but it's nothing special in an of itself. Nikon? Canon? Panasonic? Who gives a flying flip.
 
Framerate said:
Dunno about 'mojo' (whatever that is) - but it's certainly got the Panasonic noise.

Lot's of noise, oodles of noise, enough chroma noise to keep an addict satisfied for years!

My GH1's are better - and that's not just tossing out a statement for the sake of it, they actually are.

*What* on earth is the point of high bit rates, low GOP, removal of iso constraints in video, etc, when every effort is crippled by that horrible M4/3 sensor?

I've tried stock firmware, I've tried hacked firmware, I've tried every 'film mode' setting combination in the book - all to no avail. There is *always* shed loads of noise at moderately high iso's

The last time I saw blue & red chroma noise was when I shot stills - but, hey presto, PAnasonic have managed to introduce the colourful catastrophe into video mode.

Yes - I know about the very high ISO samples courtesy of the latest P-tools - all shot in black & white, and all riddled with noise that gets affectionately refered to as 'grain'

Well, it ain't grain - it's noise. Period.

Add 'banding' to the liberal chroma noise, and it all adds up to a camera that cannot perform adequately in anything other than full daylight.

Can Panasonic fix it? - possibly, but the 4/3 system has had 10 years to get its act togther, and it's still way behind APSC in noise terms, so the odds are not terribly good.
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You do know that there is an ISO bug right? The bug being noisy images at certain ISO's (whether day or night). And with this bug there is a workaround. Check out personal view and see what I'm talking about.
 
Ian-T said:
You do know that there is an ISO bug right? The bug being noisy images at certain ISO's (whether day or night). And with this bug there is a workaround. Check out personal view and see what I'm talking about.
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Can you link us to that page? I am still trying to figure out if I'm doing it right.
 
Wassup Kholi!! Here's the link:

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/1280

So far it's just ISO 320, 640 and 1250 where the problems were observed. The issue is when most of us shoot we tend to scroll up to the next higher ISO to get a better or brighter shot. On most cameras this isn't a problem. But on the GH-2 it seems when you scroll up to any one of these three ISOs the noise is more pronounced. So, the trick is, for example, when needing to shoot ISO 640 you must first scroll to ISO 800 and then back to ISO 640. It definitely works. In that link a user tested all of the ISOs and found ISO 320 to be noisy as sin. I always found it odd that at times I would get noisy images at that ISO (though it's traditionally one of the cleanest ISO's in Canon and Panasonic cams) and at times get the expected "clean" image.

So really it's a simple fix. But it is annoying because if you are not paying attention then you can get some unexpected noise in what should otherwise be a clean image. Anyways...noise or no noise this camera image potential is fantabulous.

Oh...and don't be afraid to go over ISO 1000. The hack allows it to hold the detail especially when you clean with something like "Neat Video." Personally I like to sometimes go up to ISO 1600 for the stuff I shoot.
 
Ian-T said:
Wassup Kholi!! Here's the link:

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/1280

So far it's just ISO 320, 640 and 1250 where the problems were observed. The issue is when most of us shoot we tend to scroll up to the next higher ISO to get a better or brighter shot. On most cameras this isn't a problem. But on the GH-2 it seems when you scroll up to any one of these three ISOs the noise is more pronounced. So, the trick is, for example, when needing to shoot ISO 640 you must first scroll to ISO 800 and then back to ISO 640. It definitely works. In that link a user tested all of the ISOs and found ISO 320 to be noisy as sin. I always found it odd that at times I would get noisy images at that ISO (though it's traditionally one of the cleanest ISO's in Canon and Panasonic cams) and at times get the expected "clean" image.

So really it's a simple fix. But it is annoying because if you are not paying attention then you can get some unexpected noise in what should otherwise be a clean image. Anyways...noise or no noise this camera image potential is fantabulous.
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Awesome, thanks. I have been doing it right. Right now, though, I am only shooting 400ISO. Hesitant to go any lower, as well, because it seems like that's where the banding begins to show up.

Still need to do more tests with 800 and 1000.

Maybe 320 is the right one, though. Gonna check soon.
 
Snazzy Flapper said:
Yeah, I pity all of those fools who shoot mega-budget features on such unreliable pieces of crap from RED! Oh, wait.. What?
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I think maybe you might have misunderstood his statement. Then again, I believe just like Kholi, Perry also owns a Red.

EDIT: But whatever his opinion.....I don't think anyone of us GH-2 owners would ever turn down a Red if handed one. :)
 
Ian-T said:
I think maybe you might have misunderstood his statement. Then again, I believe just like Kholi, Perry also owns a Red.

EDIT: But whatever his opinion.....I don't think anyone of us GH-2 owners would ever turn down a Red if handed one. :)
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Kholi doesn't own more than a set of Diopters, anymore! =D

I do shoot a lot of RED, though. And, I can rely on RED MX when I need to shoot. Epic may be a different story, but it didn't fail me. Typically you'd have a DIT and a strong cart anyway, so it's no big deal.

Epic/RED is a different sort of production environment, although you can shoot minimal it just isn't preferred. Another reason to love some GH-2 hack.
 
Ian-T said:
Purpose built cinema cameras like the F3, Red, AF100, and FS100 are better at making images than a cam like the GH-2 BUT it doesn't necessarily mean their images look better.

....marinate on that for a while. :)
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Well played sir. Well played indeed.
 
Manu4Vendetta said:
¿GH2 isnt serious camera for film, GH2 haven't cinematic look, GH2 its for home video, GH2 isnt a professional gear and blablabla?


http://vimeo.com/33025136


Now we can close the post.
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'


You'd think that would finally be it wouldn't you? I agree the images look fantastic. But some pixel peeper out there is going to find something, resolution, color space, banding, HD widgets or hoopa-joops...whatever to complain about. Somehow people miss that it's the total combination of images, sound and story that really make something worth watching...or not. But yeah, I'm ready to send people to some links when they start harshing on the GH2. And I'm ready to shoot my own stuff. Curse you Fed-Ex for making me wait.
 
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