I am Enamored

D

Dan_Kanes

Carbonite Member
If all you have is less than 10,000 dollars to spend on a camera, you need it today, and you want a cinematic picture there is absolutely only one camera I can recommend at this time:

GH-2

Canon has been Pimp Slapped back to the stone ages by the image quality of the GH2.

Three Things:

Detail - wow - I can make videos with Detail in them now without getting out the Red MX?
Skin Tone - wow - I can get realistic Skin Tones in all races of people without wanting to gouge my own eyes out?
Usability - Wow - I can use a flip out LCD, or an EVF, and have client monitoring at the same time?

The battery life on this thing is great - I just need to be able to buy a 2nd one in the US.
The picture is amazing considering it currently records at half the bitrate of the canon.
The funfactor and usability is off the charts.

I'm actually interested in shooting small-camera films again. Thanks Panasonic!
 
Dan_Kanes said:
The picture is amazing considering it currently records at half the bitrate of the canon.
Click to expand...
Don't get caught up in bitrate, bitrate means nothing unless you're comparing identical codecs, and in these cases, you aren't. The Canons use a much more simplified codec, and as such the only way to get usable images from it is to throw massive bitrates at the situation. The GH2 uses a more sophisticated implementation of the codec, and therefore (likely) outperforms the Canons, even at half the bitrate.
 
+1 -- Am absolutely loving the GH2!! I have a feeling my poor GH13 is quickly going to start feeling like the odd-man-out. Going to have to plan a few 2 camera shoots just to make it feel needed. Oh wait...my AF100 will be here soon. :)
 
AF-100 for sdi out fx shots..
gh2 for lock down not crazy detailed motion.

GH13 for very intense detailed motion. All will cut together perfectly.

That's my KFC special recipe, and the chicken's tasting good.
 
My GH2 is spending Christmas at the local Post Office, along with the other undeliverable items (I wasn't home at the time). At least it has some company until Monday morning.

(Thanks to mickee13 for Kenmore link - nice people)
 
Just wanted to join in on the circle jerk.

I love this camera so much. It's so unbelievably small, so tight and well-constructed, thought-out buttons/controls, great stills, amazing video. I bought the GH1 and used it for a week or so before I sold it to pre-order my GH2 (about two months ago) - I really, really liked a lot about the GH1, but the GH2 fixes everything (inside and outside) that I didn't like. I've been building it up in my head for 2 months as I checked, daily, this site, 43rumors.com, and the status of my three pre-orders, and this camera still delivered. I've been using 7D's, HVX-200's, HPX-300's, and Sony EX-3's in the interim, but this is all I feel like shooting on for now.
 
I always get caught up in how good the camera is when I talk to customers about it, because I will be comparing it to the 60D or something, and be like: oh and it has this, and this, and this, oh and that, and this. So many little features Panasonic threw in, its killing everything in the market on the video front.
 
It's been about a week since the last post in this thread, I was wondering how everyone is feeling now? I have practically lived on this board for the last couple of weeks getting info on the GH2 and i plan on buying one this month. I have read just about every thread on the GH2 here and I know that some people have experienced problems, issues, deficiencies and other things. I believe some people had too high expectations regarding some of the "issues". So overall how's everyone feeling about the Cam? I've seen some amazing footage and I hope it keeps coming. This board has officially influenced me towards picking up a GH2 instead of the 60D I had planned for. The Last Cam i bought was an HVX and I've only begun to dabble in DSLR. I've done 4 Shoots with a friends 60D but the things that have sold me on the GH2 are decent HDMI out for Monitoring with my SMallHD DP1, no 12 minute time limit, on screen level meters, EVF, AC Adapter (not supplied), Fast Auto Focus (although I never use it right now) and finally all the lenses I get for it will work well for my AF100 when I make that purchase.
 
Well, just to bump the thread....

I've had my GH2 for about a week now and all I can say is "wow"...

I can honestly say that I haven't picked up my T2i since I got the GH2. Great things about this cam are:

Flip out LCD - Makes odd angles a breeze. I'm even working on a good way to attach either my clone LCDVF or my Hoodman Loupe.

Low Light - Everyone says the canons are superior, but I can't agree based on my experiences... I did a low light ISO test the other night down at the River Walk in San Antonio and was amazed at the performance all the way to ISO3200.

Ergonomics - It's a wee little thing! Even with my big hands it is still comfortable to use. Button placement seems to be more intuitive that the T2i to me and I am already finding that I can get around without having to "look" at the buttons. Something that I never really felt comfortable with on the T2i.

Lens - Using the 14-140 and the 20mm pancake and love both lenses. The zoom is a little slow but is still a great lens for all around video. I'm waiting on a FD to MFT adapter so that I can use a Canon 50mm 1.4 FD that I just got.

Conversely, I'm a little bummed about the availability of batteries or an AC adapter. I'd like to use the camera for some paid work, but without the availability of external power it's kind of a moot point for now.

I DO want to try the magic lantern firmware hack for the T2i to see how much of a difference it makes using that camera, but it's still not going to make up for the flip LCD and a few of the other bells and whistles that the GH2 provides...

Just my .02 cents.....

Tony
 
I have both a 60d and a GH2 and there are things I like about both.

On the 60d side:
Pro's
Well constructed body
the actual focal length I get from lenses
lens selection/price
Good button layout
Good size for my hands
better menu layout

Con's
Not as good of an image
aliasing

for the GH2
Pro's
the video image is superior
ETC mode is very cool
EVF is nice
image stabilization on the kit lens works really well

Con's
The body is too small and too light weight. It seems very poorly made in comparison
The buttons are too small and the dial is very poorly placed, facing you instead of on top
Menu's are not as clear and as simple
Lens selection is very small(and pricey) unless you go with vintage manual lenses.


My conclusion is that neither camera is perfect. I'll probably never use the gh2 for still shots simply because of lens selection and ergonomics. I find myself using the 60d very little on single camera video shots because of the superior video image of the GH2.
 
I see many folks say that Canons are superior in the stills area vs the GH-X's. Is it because of what Furinox mentioned, lens selection, or something else? If so, would something like the upcoming berger(sp) mount change that?
 
My feeling is that it has to do with sensor size. I could be wrong, but I also don't think the adapter will have much to do with it other than the usual improvemnets you get from potentially better glass.
 
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