GH1 Is the GH1 still worth buying?

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GanEdenVideo

Carbonite Member
I see on ebay that they have come down in price considerably, even with a 14-140mm lens kit. Is it still worth getting an unhacked one and hacking it?

Can you provide links for these hacks and what are the differences, as there seems to be a few different ones.

PS please be gentle, I've read a lot of posts made by rude people, no need for it. Thanks
 
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GH1 is a great cam, depends on the price. 14-140 a good lens, but not my fave. I paid I think $650 for my GH2, I would look for a GH1 body in the 250 range, that is a lot of camera for $250.
Rigs hack is maybe the best one I used for super high bitrate, and lpowell's are legendary.
 
Yes, it is a good low cost body that allows using all of the best cinematic lenses. It will not provide GH2 level performance, especially in low light. 14-140 has rather poor light gathering power. GH1 has noisy red and blue channels and that makes filming in low light a challenge. I deliberately tried to make a small short film in low light and using blue hues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtwOrH5_SM

Sharpest low cost legacy lenses are Minolta MD 28 f2.8, 35 f2.8 and 35-70 f3.5 Macro zoom. All resemble modern lenses even at full aperture in terms of sharpness and contrast. Other low cost performers are the Yashica ML series and many Tokina and Vivitar lenses. Most cinematic low cost lens is the Russian Helios 44-2 58 mm (Zeiss Biotar copy), but it is not the easiest one to use. I've compiled a short list of lenses I've tested on the GH1 and GH2 and found useful: http://www.fourseasonshd.com/cgi-bin/csvsearch.pl?db=db1&tp=tp17&search=whattoget
 
Like others have said, if you can pick one up cheap, absolutely! I have a GH2 and I shoot primarily on that now, but the GH1 is still very much in the game. I keep mine for backup and a second camera. As far as low light goes, if you pair it with a good lens and be careful how you shoot you can still get really good results. Here's a low light video I shot with my two GH1's last summer:

(The rear drummer shots are the stock 14-42 Lumix lens. The handheld shots are a Canon FD 135mm 2.5)



http://vimeo.com/32953598
 
As the owner of 2 gh1's, a gh2 and a gf2 I'd say definitely.
The general image quality is very comparable. Yes - the super high bitrate hacks are amazing but at a cost (expensive cards and lots of storage)
For most uses and most people the hacked GH1 provides indistinguishable quality.

The one big difference is at low light. I get banding with both my GH1's in low light.

So it's all down to how much you have to spend and what you're using it for.

I'd certainly say you're better off with a GH1 and a good selection of lenses than a GH2 with only one lens.
If you can afford a GH2 and lots of lenses - great.
If you can afford a GH2 and GH1 (backup and B-camera) even better!
 
HDMI monitoring is the biggest advantage to me of the GH2 over the GH1, along with lowlight as others have mentioned. In well lit conditions they both look very similar, ie great.

But those 2 differences are huge to some people (like myself), not so to others. If they're not important to you, get a bargain GH1. I personally sold 2 and now have 2 gh2s and would never go back.
 
ErikTande said:
Like others have said, if you can pick one up cheap, absolutely! I have a GH2 and I shoot primarily on that now, but the GH1 is still very much in the game. I keep mine for backup and a second camera. As far as low light goes, if you pair it with a good lens and be careful how you shoot you can still get really good results. Here's a low light video I shot with my two GH1's last summer:

(The rear drummer shots are the stock 14-42 Lumix lens. The handheld shots are a Canon FD 135mm 2.5)



http://vimeo.com/32953598
Click to expand...

With the FD 135 lens, how far away were you from the band/stage?
 
Is outside at 2:45 AM low light enough ??? How about shot from a block and a half away ???

GH1 with Rokinon 85mm. F1.4 was too overexposed, had to stop down to f2.8! The only visual editing was a slight adjustment in placement in the frame. Everything else you see was SOOC.

 
The GH1 is still an amazing camera. Yes it has a few limitations compared to a GH2 but it is still a solid camera and if you shoot with it right will give you some killer footage for a camera at that price point. I bought my GH1 with the 14-42 lens for $375.00 and I can tell you it is the best $375.00 I have ever spent. I find myself using it more then my Panasonic HMC40. As long as you don't have to go above IOS800 you should be fine in low light. Figure out a way to use faster glass like the 20mm f1.7 so you don't have to raise the ISO to 1600 or for heavens sake use some lights. Professional looking productions use lights. No way around that and if you want good looking footage I don't care what camera you use. Use some darn lights. We have a Red and a Red Epic at work and we would never shoot with it without using some type of lights.
 
GanEdenVideo said:
With the FD 135 lens, how far away were you from the band/stage?
Click to expand...

Pretty far most of the time. I was moving all around the venue, sometimes on the side of stage, sometimes from the back. 135mm is actually 270mm on a GH1/2, so yeah, it was shooting through a very long lens.
 
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The GH1 is def. still worth buying, especially if you're just starting out with DSLRs. Depending on your budget, the cheaper price tag of the GH1 will allow you to invest more into your lenses and audio equipment.
 
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