Just traded in 5DmkII for a GH2 - good decision????

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duncsharp

Member
have been shooting news with the 5d for the last 7 months or so, including stories in Burma and in Cairo very recently. I did enjoy my time with the 5d but as we all know there are a few things that make it quite impractical.

Have just sold my 5d and am waiting for delivery of my GH2, am in south africa at the moment so will get my hands on it when i fly back to the uk tomorrow night.

just wondering what I can look forward too compared to the 5D?

have read loads and only really hear good things apart from the 24p (annoying for me since i live in the uk) but to be honest will be shooting a reasonable amount 50i as that is the preferred format for sky news.
 
I've been using the 5d and now I don't take it out from the bag for shooting videos anymore. The gh2 is far superior IMO. I bet that you will not regret to have sold your canon.
As for the 50i, I've used it once but haven't tested it seriously. Usually I shoot at 24p.
 
I own both and I am rather disappointed by the GH2. I wouldnt change my 5D MKII beside all well known disadvantages. The 5D low light capabilities are much more better and the 24p of the GH2 is **** in PAL land. Yes, its nice to have a flip Monitor and a kind of autofocus (not really, and not for professional use) also the EVF is nice, yes and ...äh, yes its a nice video picture if you have strong light (but, OK its subjetive and only my personal opinion - I like the blacks and colours of the 5D MKII more)
Anyway, to own both is nice and luxury, but change my 5D MKII against the GH2? No, sorry about that.
Benn
 
Ups! I forgot, that the GH2 has a very confusing menü and the company (Panasonic) isnt able to deliver a battery right in time. That means, the customers are mostly equal for them. Canon in contrast to that, listened to their customers and made very important changes in the firmware, so that I have now 24 AND 25p in my camera.
Benn
 
At first I thought you had traded someone your 5D MKII for a GH2. That would have been a bad financial decision. Hopefully, you got a decent amount for the 5D. If your final transmission format is 1080i then the GH2 should do ok for that. However, I would have leaned towards a GH13 if you are shooting for PAL. The extra bit rate would help and the 1080p 25 FPS is encoded in 1080i on the GH13. That means you don't have to mess with any deinterlacing at all. Just transmit the 1080i format and the TVs will extract the native 1080p @ 25 FPS.

If there still is time to reconsider the GH2 purchase, I would do just that. If you can find a hackable PAL GH13 for a reasonable price that will give you the best quality in PAL territories. If you were in NTSC land then I would definitely say the GH2 is the better option.

What type of scenes are you going to be shooting? If you are shooting action then the true 1080i might be useful on the GH2. However, I would still shoot in the true 720p @ 50 FPS mode for action shots.
 
just my 5d body gave me enough money to buy the GH2 with 14-140mm lens.

my other lenses will cover m4/3 lenses for the gh2. I get your point about the bitrate, most of the stuff ill shoot will be news / run and gun stuff. As well as feature stories / lit interviews.

I think the GH2 ticks more boxes than the 5d, what i loose on the fast wide end with the gh2 i more than gain on the long end, especially with the ETC function!
 
Me and 5 collegues did the exact same.
But of course with a "Plan B"-
all of us either own D3s, Eos 1DsII or III as backup cameras for still.
To be honest, for magazine work the GH2 is fully sufficient,
BUT
since no one seems to talk about this-
the GH2 is super noisy in RAW.
At base ISO 160 the files already sport the same noise the 5DII has at 1600ISO ;(

What I did:
had the AA filter AND the IR cutfilter removed, resulting in an even sharper fullspectrum GH2
that is able to do Infrared HD, which is absolutely unique.

What prioves to be an amateur nightmare:
Panasonic left off a flash sync interface, so back to 60s hotshoe synching adapter.
A management decision I don´t understand at all.

Everyone talks about the GH2s great video capability (it´s the defacto level CANON has to reach in the future).
No one talks about the mediocre dynamic range and excessive noise.
 
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Hi mpgxsvcd
When I log and transfer my GH13 1080i footage through FCP 7 or play it via VLC player it looks progressive NO interlaced COMBING but when I do the the same with my Canon HG21 video camera it shows the COMBING - is this because of what you say in your post?
Cheers
Paul
 
Frankly I'd be concerned about shooting in 50i because of the 17 mbps codec. I've done a fair amount of news work with the GH1 both before and after the hack and the pre-hack 17 mbps codec was a problem especially with movement or under-exposed parts of a shot. Things fell apart. Especially for TV as opposed to web delivery, I'd be concerned.

That said, I haven't been following along closely enough to know if the 17 mbps codec on the GH2 is better than the one on the GH1, but I kind of doubt it.
 
@Gene Hack
it not right, that no one pointed out, that the GH2 is very grainy already at low ISO values. Look through the posts and you will see it. Its the most important disantvantage beside the lack of 25p
(of course only for PAL user).
25p is changeable with a firmware update, the noise I am afraid not, and if you come from a 5D MKII
you will be very disappointed (like me). There are many low light situations for run and gun guys you can simply forget with the GH2
Benn
 
gene hack - me too !! I´ve been researching this but to no avail - where did you have the filters removed , and show us some ir video samples...please - how does it affect exposure ? etc ? thanks
 
The base ISO is now fullspectrum 400ASA.
But Fullspectrum is a dirty signal, borderblurry due to different focus points of the different spectrums.

With an IR72 filter,(can be had in 52mm for chap @ Ebay) the sensitivity is a great 80ASA
With an IR cutfilter to provide normal visual spectrum again (BG39 Schott/ Helipan,B&G around 60$) it´s again 160ASA.

The conversion was done by a friend of mine, ex Canon Service technician.
I always do that to all my cams.
In the age of AMAZE demosaicing algorythms, anti aliasing is no longer a topic, and it does not affect video.

I didn´t want to wait for the ever announced (and never delivered) limited edition IR Panasonic GH2.
Plus I am limited to IR only and I don´t want to be spoon feeded by a company which charges an obscene 100bucks for batteries :)

PS weather in Germany is currently grey, don´t expect any sample until march.
 
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"What I did:
had the AA filter AND the IR cutfilter removed, no I have a even sharper fullspectrum GH2
that is able to do Infrared HD, which is absolutely unique."

I dont understand anything - can I do it in my bathroom??Benn
 
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IMO, Unless your 5D was in bad condition, I think you made a bad choice, I just checked prices and a used 5D goes between $2000 and $2300 compared to $1500 for the GH2.
 
Yeah, Gene. I'm with greeches. Would love the option to modify for infared. Tell us about the filter removal!
Opps. You already did. Never mind.
 
Now that we've had the GH2 for nearly two months, I can say for sure I want and will keep both. The ability to shoot sharp wide angle stuff without fear of aliasing has helped me sleep at night. I LOVE the GH2 with the Tokina 11-16. That said, for portrait work, I still feel the 5d looks better with our zeiss glass, using the full lens. In fact, after a lot of testing, they seem about even in low light, with a slight advantage going to the 5d. We're using cinema outside when nothing is clipping. Smooth inside, or when we're clipping outside.
 
GioCanales said:
IMO, Unless your 5D was in bad condition, I think you made a bad choice, I just checked prices and a used 5D goes between $2000 and $2300 compared to $1500 for the GH2.
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sorry - Didnt make it that clear, havnt not actually swapped the 5D for a GH2, have found a buyer for the 5D who would give me around £1250 for it, havnt sold it yet but have bought the GH2 from amazon. I would love to keep both so am going to keep my options reasonably open
 
Cosimo Bullo said:
Now that we've had the GH2 for nearly two months, I can say for sure I want and will keep both. The ability to shoot sharp wide angle stuff without fear of aliasing has helped me sleep at night. I LOVE the GH2 with the Tokina 11-16. That said, for portrait work, I still feel the 5d looks better with our zeiss glass, using the full lens. In fact, after a lot of testing, they seem about even in low light, with a slight advantage going to the 5d. We're using cinema outside when nothing is clipping. Smooth inside, or when we're clipping outside.
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could you please tell me what adaptor you are useing with the tokina, i have a tamron 10-24mm which i used with my previous canon T2i,or can you only use the tokina because it has lens aperture control unlike my lens.
 
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