GH3 How is the GH3 for web streaming?

roxics

roxics

Veteran
I've owned a GH1, 2 and now 4. Skipped the 3. I was Canon 60D shooter during those years.

My work is looking for a camera or two we can do some live web streaming with. Which is totally new to me. I've been checking out a couple cheap ($220) Canon R800 camcorders, but all the video I'm seeing online looks like mush. So I'm falling back on what I know, sort of.
While I would love to push them up to a GH4 or 5 I just don't think they'll want to spend that kind of money plus glass.

I noticed the GH3 goes for about $350 used these days. I really don't know anything about it though.
Does it have clean HDMI out?
How is the battery life?
Is there a record time limit on it?
Does it use the same batteries as the GH4?

It seems to me like it's a GH4 that does everything but 4K, which... begrudgingly is fine. I'm new at this company and they own Canon 6Ds which they've been perfectly happy with. So I think I'm going to be stuck with 1080p here.
 
Also, how it color matching between the GH3 and 4? In case I decide to use my own camera in the mix.
 
There is very little reason to stream anything in the USA at greater than 1080, and you may need to drop down to 720 when you really start looking at bandwidth for upload and at what the consumer can reliably stream. At 720 you will need a really good encoder and at least 6mbps upload, would be better to have 12+mbps and let the stream have a higher max bit rate.

What do you need for lenses?

What are you planning to use for an encoder?

What do you plan to use for a switcher (if more than a single camera)?

How many people on the set at one time?

How big is the set?

In short you may be going for "too much" camera for this task. Also can't the 6d give you clean HDMI output and run for hours while not recording?

I've used the HDMI output from my GH2 a couple of times, but at 1080/60i the quality isn't what I would want to stream, the interlacing never really looks right.
 
The GH3 does have a clean HDMI output. If I remember correctly though it doesn't always output the exact frame rate over HDMI that it is set to record to internally. So often when set to record 1080p30 it would output 1080p60 over HDMI (by doubling the frames). This may or may not be an issue depending on what capture device or streaming encoder you are using and what frame rates it accepts. I believe if you set the camera to record AVCHD internally, it will output 1080i.

There was no recording time limit for North American models of the GH3, models sold in the European market did have a 30 minute time limit.

Batteries are the same in the GH3, GH4, and GH5/GH5s. Battery life should be pretty good, comparable to the GH4.

In terms of color matching, the GH3 used a different sensor (16 MP) than the GH4 (20 MP), so the look is not identical between them. You might be able to tweak the colors to get them somewhat similar, but it may be tough to match them exactly. Multi-camera live productions typically try to use the same model of camera whenever possible, since they don't have the luxury of doing more sophisticated color matching in post.
 
I would skip the GH3 for HDMI output. While clean it was a non standard HDMI output. A GH4 would be a better choice since it has a proper broadcast standard HDMI output. Depending on your streaming hardware the ability to use 16-235 color could be a a huge advantage to the GH4 since thats the broadcast standard for a lot of video equipment like switchers, monitors and recorders.

The GH4 also provides an extremely clean UHD to HD down conversion via the HDMI port vs the pixel binned HD of the GH1, GH2 and GH3. Not a huge deal and if you need to stream higher than 30p you will have to use that pixel binned form of HD anyway.

I really upgraded from the GH3 to the GH4 mainly because I couldn't stand the horrible HDMI output of the GH3. Worked fine for a monitor to help with focus but thats about it
 
Oh for sure, there are better cameras out there than a G80!

But for the OP who is considering a GH3, I'd suggest spending just a teeny bit more for the G80 instead, as he'd get a lot more (IBIS, focus peaking, 4K, etc) for that small extra cost vs going with the GH3.
 
Something else worth considering about the GH3. The EVF in it was a step or two backwards from that of the GH2. They designed it smaller and a lot of folks had some degree of difficulty "seeing" properly through it. I had two GH3s and did OK with their EVFs but it took plenty of concentration to see focus, you had to get your eye exactly in the groove. Things improved a bit after cataract surgery but it still was less than ideal.

The EVF in the GH4 was a HUGE improvement.
 
Bruce Foreman said:
Something else worth considering about the GH3. The EVF in it was a step or two backwards from that of the GH2. They designed it smaller and a lot of folks had some degree of difficulty "seeing" properly through it. I had two GH3s and did OK with their EVFs but it took plenty of concentration to see focus, you had to get your eye exactly in the groove. Things improved a bit after cataract surgery but it still was less than ideal.

The EVF in the GH4 was a HUGE improvement.
Click to expand...

Seems like you wouldn't need a high quality EVF for streaming.

Wouldn't a G7 make more sense then a GH4. You aren't going to need the advantages a GH4 gives (96fps, 10bit out, vlog)
 
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