I love my GH1!

RieniO

RieniO

Well-known member
Two weeks ago I had my first production shoots using the GH1. As usual I hardly prepared myself, apart from charging the batteries. Some people need to feel the breath of a deadline blowing in the back of their necks to get going and I am one of them. If there were no deadlines I would be drinking beer in my bed all the time probably.

Anyway, I also brought my MacBookPro with FCS to the set.

Everything went like a dream. Shooting video with the GH1 is much easier than I thought, I was using a Tokina 11-16 wide angle lens which has huge DOF so I didn't have to do much focusing. I was recording audio with a remote Zoom recorder with two XLR mikes attached. After each shoot I copied the content of the SD cards (private folders) to the desktop of the MacBookPro, and used FCS log and transfer for converting to ProRes422.

The material looks amazing on the Book screen. For me it's a dream come true, because from the day I've started shooting video (somewhere in 1991) I always found that video looks horrible.

I do need to improve my work flow though, like linking video to audio somehow to make the manual synchronization a bit easier (for example I now have 42 30 minute video-clips and 6 4 hour audio-clips lol!), I need a bit longer lens, more like 16-50, and I need to get a follow focus system for the camera so that I can focus when the camera is in difficult positions and I need to get a rig for hand held operation. I am now looking at the Red Rock Captain Stubling. These first shoots I did from a dolly most of the time but I want the freedom of handheld working.

DSLR video filming in combination with FCS is fantastic. I must say that I use a PAL version shooting FHD at 25fps so I don't have to go through the pull-down removal routine.

I am considering purchasing a second GH1 for multi-camera shooting.

Info about the "dolly" I used and definitely would use again:

http://tallyns.blogspot.com/2008/10/studio-titan-side-kicks.html

I may post more details about shooting with this Studio Titan Side Kick in the hardware forum later.

Anyway... anyone not happy with his PAL GH1, mail me, maybe we can make a deal.
 
Hi, I have a question. So, with the NSTC version 24p, I would have to remove pulldown before editing and you don't have to with the PAL version?
 
RieniO said:
I do need to improve my work flow though, like linking video to audio somehow to make the manual synchronization a bit easier (for example I now have 42 30 minute video-clips and 6 4 hour audio-clips lol!),
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Pluraleyes - a must have for synching dslr audio. It even helps to MultiClip your footage. Try the Trial version for 30 days and I bet you'll end up buying it.
 
Martti, I am hopefully correct that when shooting FHD, we don't need to do the pulldown removal? I wouldn't want to discover I've been doing things wrongly in two years from now after thousands of hours of editing :-)

How does it work in the PAL version? Shot at 25fps and stored as 25fps?
 
It's 25 fps within a 50i stream so if you just output at 25 fps when transcoding it's all good. Pulldown removal is mainly a NTSC problem of unevenly distributed frames over fields. Once upon a time long ago movies shown on PAL networks were scanned 24 to 25 but nowadays with few exceptions they are speeded up slightly to have a even distribution of frames over fields. Most movies benefit from that speed up on the small screen anyway :evil:

Glad you love your camera btw - I do too. No dice on buying mine, you can pry it out of my cold dead hands. :beer:
 
I can't look at my old normal camcorder footage anymore without getting a headache, it hurts my eyes lol. The GH1 footage looks so clean, so beautiful. No it's not perfect but the quality/price ratio is amazing, then in addition to that the option to swap lenses which is totally new to me, and again, editing in FCP is so easy too.

And Martti, thanks for the confirmation. I was really worrying about this pulldown thing before I imported my first footage into my Apple. Then I decided to read on the web what this pulldown really is about and then I figured it's an NTSC thing.
 
I concur. Its the first camera that I've ever owned where I feel like keeping it on my person wherever I go. I love its size its stealth-ness AND ease of use. Looking forward to the next generation version. I'll buy that one as well AND keep my current GH1.
 
Martti, do you know the process of transferring the GH1 1080p footage to a DVD or Film? Because that's where I'm aiming and don't really know much. I could make a separate thread on this subject, you think?
 
RieniO said:
I just purchased my second GH1, new, 799 euros for body only, with Tokina 16-50 @ www.kamera-express.nl
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Wow interesting. Thats the first time I've seen a non-japanese body only GH1 on sale at a store in a western country. I knew this would happen.
I wonder when they will start selling these stateside. I bet it drops just before christmas.
 
J Davis said:
Wow interesting.
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Indeed, and as a comparison a body-only 7D at the same webstore is € 1319,00 so there's the real price difference between the two.

GH1 is whole lotta video camera for the money. I'm almost pulling the trigger on a second body too!

:love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4: :2vrolijk_08: :love4:
 
rundavids said:
Hi RieniO, have you tried the 1080p mode and do you know if the image and motion is good, or not?
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I only use the FHD mode and I guess that's 1080p? It's 25fps, quality is fantastic and for DVD just import it into FCP, edit, and then do your DVD authoring. I don't know about film/cinema, I guess you just need to slow down your 25fps to 24fps but you better ask that to the cinema experts, I do DVD and web streaming only.
 
anyone know anywhere else in europe selling body only?
i had a look at the dutch site but i have to say, my dutch is a bit weak!
i'm in spain and nobody seems to be offering just the body here
 
Why is your Dutch weak, didn't you pay enough attention at school? :-)

Anyway I can help you or anybody else out with ordering if you like, Dutch is my native language. I could place the order for you and you do the bank transfer (IBAN/ BIC). They charge 15 euro for shipping to any country within Europe I think.
 
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