GH3 GoPro or 12-35mm F2.8 lens with GH3?

M

mpgxsvcd

Veteran
I have been shooting with my GH2 and GoPro Hero3 Black simultaneously for a few weeks now and I am getting the GH3 in two weeks. I bought the 35-100mm F2.8 lens last week and I wanted to get the 12-35mm F2.8 lens as well. However, I just couldn't afford both lenses.

Instead I decided to get the GoPro Hero 3 Black which shoots excellent 2.7K @ 30 FPS video and covers ultra wide angle(Something like 7mm-28mm Full Frame). I mount my GoPro on the Hotshoe of the GH2 and film simultaneously with both. Also the GoPro has a handy remote that I control with my left hand and then I control the GH2 with my right hand.

Here is a video that shows footage from both. NOTE: This was the first video I shot with the GoPro so I didn't know what its limitations were. It should be very obvious which shots were with the GoPro. However, I must say that the GoPro fared much better in outdoor shown below the first video.

The 2.7K @ 30 FPS mode is my favorite. However, the 1080p @ 60 FPS medium angle of view is very good as well. Can you tell what clips were taken with what camera and what resolution and frame rate they were?


 
Thanks for posting the clips. I like the way you did the slo-mo highlights but honestly the GH2 footage is so much better than the GoPro footage that I don't think you can reasonably intercut them.
 
noirist said:
Thanks for posting the clips. I like the way you did the slo-mo highlights but honestly the GH2 footage is so much better than the GoPro footage that I don't think you can reasonably intercut them.
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I honestly am not positive about that yet. The GoPro footage is so different that it is hard to judge.

None of these clips were color corrected at all. I simply edited them together without modifying them. I think with some time and the right tools you could make them look very similar.

Also having controlled lighting would go a long way to helping make the footage look more similar.
 
Yes you would definitely need to color-correct the heck out of the gopro clips, hope it doesn't fall apart, and stay away from the resolution-robbing FOVs to stand a chance. The slo-mo from the GH2 looks good though. The Panasonic 7-14mm f4 and Olympus 12mm f2 are great lenses, so why wouldn't you just switch lenses on the GH2 to get the wide angle shots you need?
 
noirist said:
Yes you would definitely need to color-correct the heck out of the gopro clips, hope it doesn't fall apart, and stay away from the resolution-robbing FOVs to stand a chance. The slo-mo from the GH2 looks good though. The Panasonic 7-14mm f4 and Olympus 12mm f2 are great lenses, so why wouldn't you just switch lenses on the GH2 to get the wide angle shots you need?
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Almost all of my videos are in extremely poorly lit climbing gyms. Therefore, I need as fast of focal ratios as I can get. The 7-14mm just won’t cut it in these gyms. I tried the 14-45mm and it will just underexpose even at ISO 3200. These two videos were in much better lighting. I am shooting a comp in the darkest gym(Our home gym) on Saturday. It will be interesting to see if the GoPro works at all in that gym.

The F2.8 of the GoPro isn’t great. I really need the F1.4 of the 25mm. The 12mm F2.0 lens would be good. However, that is still twice as much as the GoPro and I lose the ability to shoot both wide and tight simultaneously.

I am not suggesting this is an ideal solution by any means. However, it does offer a novel way to shoot wide angle for not much money($400) and still be able to shoot longer focal lengths at the same time.
 
The GoPro is f2.8 on a much smaller sensor, which is optically equivalent to a much slower lens on the larger GH2 sensor. So you will get better low light performance with the 12mm f2.0 or even the 7-14mm f4 on the GH2. You can also try slower shutter speeds and give up the slo-mo to improve low light performance. Personally I got the 12mm f2.0 to shoot low light wide angle indoors and have been very happy with the results.
 
noirist said:
The GoPro is f2.8 on a much smaller sensor, which is optically equivalent to a much slower lens on the larger GH2 sensor. So you will get better low light performance with the 12mm f2.0 or even the 7-14mm f4 on the GH2. You can also try slower shutter speeds and give up the slo-mo to improve low light performance. Personally I got the 12mm f2.0 to shoot low light wide angle indoors and have been very happy with the results.
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What is cool about the GoPro is Protune. That mode works like the I.Dynamic mode in the GH2 except it actually works in the GoPro.

If you shoot in non-Protune mode on the GoPro it will clip the highlights and shadows dramatically. You can clearly see that in some of the BMX clips I shot. However, if you throw it into Pro-Tune it will boost the shadows and slightly pull down the highlights.

Pro-Tune is perfect for indoor shots. It gives you a very flat image without too much noise penalty. It really is a cool feature. I hope the GH3 high dynamic range modes work this way. It is also consistent. It is always applied with the same magnitude.

My goal this weekend will be to shoot 1080p @ 30 FPS, 720p @ 60 FPS with the GH2 and then 2.7K @ 30 FPS and 1080p @ 60 FPS footage with the GoPro and make it so that the only difference appears to be the field of view.
 
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