GH1 I thought 2011 GH1 bodies have improved FPN?

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booggerg2

Well-known member
Isn't that the general consensus? I have a 2011 unit and the FPN looks pretty bad to me, then again I didn't have an older body to compare to
 
more like wives tale in my opinion. a handful were lucky enough to have a unit pre 2011 even that had lower than usual FPN but in general its pretty much the same ugliness around the board, some less ugly than others =)
 
The improved FPN GH is called a GH2. Why would Panasonic ship an improved GH1 when the priority for them is selling the new GH2?
It makes absolutely no sense.
 
that is to say, if you know the FPN is due only to sensor design.. I thought there was some theory that it was due to manufacturing quality..
 
I've had three. One from June 2009 and two from 2010 - one hackable and one not. The hackable 2010 had far less FPN than the other two... so seems to me that it's more the luck of the draw than just when they were made?
 
My previously unhackable GH1 (soon to be GH17) arrives in the mail today. Shortly thereafter I plan to do a side-by-side (literally) comparison of the FPN from a older-than-June 2010 body to a 2011 body. I can post that test here if you'd like.
 
I believe mine is a late 2009/2010(not sure) hackable (old hack) and people seem to think it is cleaner than others but I have never used other cameras to test it out, I could see it just being a myth.
 
This could be another interesting test for the "burn-in" theory as well. If your new gh1 has excessive banding(this is NOT FPN that people are seeing) then take a 'before' video and then let it run on AC power for a couple days with the AGC set to 1600 and a lens cap over the lens then take another video the same as the 'before' video and then compare. We have at least one video set that proves the burn-in works but need more.
 
I burnt in my older body for a few hours and it helped, and over the last few months the footage seems to be cleaner. I also use emery's settings which help dramatically.
 
booggerg2 said:
Isn't that the general consensus? I have a 2011 unit and the FPN looks pretty bad to me, then again I didn't have an older body to compare to
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Set your dial to S, shutter to 1/50, then turn iA on in the menu. You might like the low light results better.
 
MikalZ said:
Set your dial to S, shutter to 1/50, then turn iA on in the menu. You might like the low light results better.
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I'd leave iA off but turn ISO to auto, and engage exposure lock before shooting. Emery's settings are linked in my signature, they produce significantly less FPN on my GH1.
 
CColton said:
I'd leave iA off but turn ISO to auto, and engage exposure lock before shooting. Emery's settings are linked in my signature, they produce significantly less FPN on my GH1.
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I've had good luck with iA fixing fpn in low light, but I'll give your approach a try too.
 
Just did a quick test with my old vs. new GH1 bodies, and didn't see any appreciable difference in FPN.
 
Colton, I took a peak at your website. I didn't see very noticeable FPN in your video. So if you use Emery's settings, during what conditions do you see FPN?
 
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goodgoings said:
Colton, I took a peak at your website. I didn't see very noticeable FPN in your video. So if you use Emery's settings, during what conditions do you see FPN?
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Thanks for taking a look! So far, Emery's settings, combined with certain film mode settings, reduce FPN to acceptable at 1600 ISO on both my GH1 bodies. You can see some FPN at 1600 ISO but it looks much more like film grain than the horizontal lines that normally characterize GH1 noise. You also pretty much have to be looking for it, i.e. general viewers and clients may not notice it. Emery's settings also appear to have the unique ability of enabling 3200 ISO for video. However, at that high of ISO, you would need to use NeatVideo or another noise reduction plugin to get rid of the noise. That being said, being able to safely use a fast lens like the panny 20mm f1.7 at low shutter speeds at 1600 ISO opens up many low-light situations to the GH1. If you're interested, I can post some footage shot specifically with those settings.
 
booggerg2 said:
which film modes reduce noise?
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I've found Standard with Contrast +2 and Sharpness +2 and NR -2 to be the best low-light performance. Contrast hides some noise, Sharpness preserves detail at high ISO (but don't use it in normal light), and NR is useless as usual.
 
Colton, I used to have a GH1 with FPN at all ISO. Been thinking about trying another one since prices are so low. My first experience makes me worried. I remember FPN showed the most when shooting something white and flat like a refrigerator in very low light. Maybe you can try this with your 2011 model - some exposed properly and some under with Emery's setting on and off.
 
goodgoings said:
Colton, I used to have a GH1 with FPN at all ISO. Been thinking about trying another one since prices are so low. My first experience makes me worried. I remember FPN showed the most when shooting something white and flat like a refrigerator in very low light. Maybe you can try this with your 2011 model - some exposed properly and some under with Emery's setting on and off.
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Sure, I'll keep you posted.
 
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