Hows the noise on your GH2

Got my GH2 two days ago. I also own a 550D and a 5D. The noise of the GH2 might be better if you come from a GH1. But if you compare the noise with the really nice blacks of the Canons, the the GH2 seems lightyears behind. Unusable to me. Such a bummer since the overall sharpness is better on the GH2. What might even increase the noise is the low bitrate (24Mbs) compared to the 44Mbs of the Canons.

I prefer on shooting with the Canons.
 
ulisses said:
If canon is better why people like the panasonics for dslr ?
Price ?
Image ?
Features ?
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For me, and a lot of Panny users: 1) can shoot clips longer than 12 mins., 2) no overheating issues, 3) articulating lcd, 4) lightweight, won't break my neck when it's hanging off it, 5) can use old manual lenses from all sorts of lensmakers.

Still, if I could afford another camera, I'd gladly get a Canon because they too can do some things better than the Panny's.
 
Murph100 said:
Is there a general consensus about this setting ? It would be great to know what the best one would be, at least then I couldn't blame the camera :)
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I chose those settings because I wanted a profile that would look okay out of the camera without needing CC. If you want a setting that is more friendly to grading, I'm sure there is another setting better suited for that. But I have to hand over the GH2 to my friend today, so I won't be able to conduct any more tests : (
 
htinla said:
I used the GH2 with these settings: Standard, -2, -2, -1, -2
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Isn't noise reduction taking more effect on +2? But to be honest, I don't see much different between -2 and +2 on 1250 iso or 2000 iso. I am very dissapointed by the quality of low light and noise of the GH2.
 
Neveraholiday said:
Got my GH2 two days ago. I also own a 550D and a 5D. The noise of the GH2 might be better if you come from a GH1. But if you compare the noise with the really nice blacks of the Canons, the the GH2 seems lightyears behind. Unusable to me. Such a bummer since the overall sharpness is better on the GH2. What might even increase the noise is the low bitrate (24Mbs) compared to the 44Mbs of the Canons.

I prefer on shooting with the Canons.
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well I would like to know what ISO you are shooting at that you are getting disappointing noise levels.
 
Is there a way to set or limit the iso in movie mode? I shot a dimly lit theater scene with my GH2/14-42mm kit lens and the iso was on auto and the noise rendered the picture useless. I see people shooting night-time movies with a fixed iso on Vimeo, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I'm not sure the 20mm 1.7 pancake is wide enough for my shooting but man, the 1.7 arpeture sure sounds like a lovely thiong right now.
 
rigs said:
My GH2 seems to have more noise and grain at iso 160 - 800 than my GH13 at iso 100 to 640.
I have done some tests and filmed a bunch of stuff with the 2 cameras since Dec 3 and Im not to impressed with the GH2 noise / grain results. I love the ETC but it even seems to add a bit more noise compared to the standard mode.

I have set the both cameras to fully manual, Film mode Nostalgic contrast -2, sharpness -2, saturation-2, noise red +1. No IR and both running at 24p. All my shots have good lighting and exposure and used several lens options.

So far I'm impressed with the features of the GH2 just not the performance. I have not noticed any banding issues, but I am let down by how much noise the GH2 generates compared to my GH13. So much so that I'm thinking of returning it, and perhaps try another one if I can or wait till another batch in spring 2011.

Straight up how do others feel about the noise and grain levels they see on their GH2
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Sad to say I will be returning my GH2 on Tuesday. Perhaps I may be lucky enough to exchange it for a better one, but I don't have much hope with the current short supply. The version I have just does not cut it as far as aceptable low level noise in the blacks and greys. And it is even worse all around in ETC mode. I had high hopes for the GH2 and originally thought it performed well, until I had a chance to shoot several scenes and enviroments. It just doesnt hold up to my GH1 in terms of noise from 160-640. The GH1 seems to be one stop better.
 
VidE said:
Is there a way to set or limit the iso in movie mode? I shot a dimly lit theater scene with my GH2/14-42mm kit lens and the iso was on auto and the noise rendered the picture useless. I see people shooting night-time movies with a fixed iso on Vimeo, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I'm not sure the 20mm 1.7 pancake is wide enough for my shooting but man, the 1.7 arpeture sure sounds like a lovely thiong right now.
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Don't shoot on auto....

in Creative Movie mode on the top dial, go to the menu and set movie exposure to M.
 
So far for me GH2 seems to be far less noisy. Both cameras love proper exposure though, underexposed areas get quite noisy, but GH2 seems to be much less for me, and the noise is much more organic...maybe a little faster and aggressive though.
 
Ben_B, thanks for the tip, although I'm not utterly stupid. (Just slightly). I was using "Manual Movie" but then doing something else, I think I was trying to lock the shutter to 60 and using Shutter Priority to do that. Maybe? I'm not quite sure how the P S A M, etc. modes interact with the video settings yet. But I'm getting there.
 
You need to set S in the menu not the top dial. Hitting video record in any other setting other than creative movie mode on the dial results in full auto video (at least it was this way on the GH1.) Anyway as far as I can tell with mine if you set the creative movie exposure mode to S you should have shutter priority. It will then let you set ISO to auto or a fixed ISO before you start recording.
 
ajcourtney said:
well I would like to know what ISO you are shooting at that you are getting disappointing noise levels.
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I shot everything from 800 to 3200 in a pretty low light situation. The noise in the darks and in fine patterns is a bit less on 800, but it is still high. From higher than 800 it is unusable to me. Something that also worries me is, that I can't fully lock the exposure in manual mode. I set iso, aperture and shutterspeed manually. And still the camera does some auto adjustments, when I move from bright to dark and vice versa. Maybe that is the key, that there is some kind of auto gain?
 
Neveraholiday said:
I shot everything from 800 to 3200 in a pretty low light situation. The noise in the darks and in fine patterns is a bit less on 800, but it is still high. From higher than 800 it is unusable to me. Something that also worries me is, that I can't fully lock the exposure in manual mode. I set iso, aperture and shutterspeed manually. And still the camera does some auto adjustments, when I move from bright to dark and vice versa. Maybe that is the key, that there is some kind of auto gain?
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Make sure you have the I.DYNAMIC (Intelligent dynamic range) set to off. it will adjusted contrast and exposure automatically when there is a big difference in brightness between the background and subject. Also make sure to shut off the I.RESOLUTION (Intelligent Resolution) it is used to add sharpness or detail and can add some artifacts. Set your LCD Mode to Mode 1 for brightness, Auto LCD mode will cause the brightness level to change on the screen.
 
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Neveraholiday said:
I shot everything from 800 to 3200 in a pretty low light situation. The noise in the darks and in fine patterns is a bit less on 800, but it is still high.
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Thanks for the reply! Then it appears as if the GH2 exhibits FPN just like the Canons (which I find distracting even at low ISOs 100-400) in lieu of the macroblocks exhibited by the GH1. If you don't find any macroblocking in the GH2 footage, then I consider this an improvement since the macroblocking in underexposed areas even with low ISOs on the GH1 was just plain ugly.
 
rigs said:
I tried all the film modes some are better than others, I think they just alter the curves and hide some of the noise with darker contrasts and blacks. I like the settings I use on the GH13 it offers more range for cc in post. I'm just on the fence on the quality of the GH2 compared to it.
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Sell it. Buy another brand of camera or something that will make you happy.
 
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