GH2 Panasonic GH2 vs Canon 60

Get some 3 or 4 extra batteries at least if that's a worry to you.

Zxander34 said:
I went with the GH2 for the following reasons:
-Full HDMI Out
-Lack of Moire
-The hacked footage is unbelievable!
-FD canon glass
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I still need to experiment my GH2 with some good monitor. Anyone have experience with the Marshalls? What about the DP6s? Are both a good pair for the GH2? Do they really improve focusing?

Hack footage is amazing indeed. GH2 @ Sage 88Mb/s patch: http://unidadezero.com/pub/img/gsk/AnaMoura.png
 
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RatLabProductions said:
What does Magic Lantern add? (I am not familiar with it as I have only used stock Cannons for work).

I find the grass roots hack community support was a major encouragement for me to purchase the GH2. The fact that so many features left out by Panasonic are now unlocked to the public is amazing to me.
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The hack community of the GH2 is pretty great, but its no where near Canon's CHDK group or the Magic Lantern software suite specifically designed for DSLRs.

The whole story is here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?248171-Magic-Lantern-Firmware

Basically brings a whole new menu of functions normally reserved for a video-oriented camera, such as live histograms, exposure zebras, focus peaking, full audio control with live monitoring (headphones plugged into the A/V jack while filming), custom crop marks, as well as ISO hacks and enhanced bitrate.

Unlike the firmware hacks that are available for the GH series (which require a reflash to change), Magic Lantern is an interface enhancement, and actually offers menus that can be turned on and off in camera, as well as what is displayed on screen (shoot with one picture profile, but preview it in another- useful for grading versus exposing, etc).

My personal "not-sure-how-I-can-live-without" features are magic zoom (displays a magnified area of the screen in real time for accurate focus pulling), logging (each recording has an accompanying log file, so you'll never need to guess what you shot with), and my new favorite is a video overlay, in which you can have a faded image appear over the live view when composing your shot (useful if the camera moved since the last shot, or if you want to get someone starting in the same position as the last shot, etc).

I'm sure I can use the GH2 to get some great footage as well, but man those features are hard to leave behind!
 
M. Gilden said:
I'm sure I can use the GH2 to get some great footage as well, but man those features are hard to leave behind!
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Interesting. Thanks for the magic lantern link.

You really don't have to leave many of them behind. Zebras, audio level control, live monitoring, histograms, focus peeking, ISO hack, advanced bitrate are all available on the GH2 also.

The more you learn about the GH2 the more you might just realize your not missing much if anything and gaining a lot of other things as well.
 
RatLabProductions said:
Interesting. Thanks for the magic lantern link.

You really don't have to leave many of them behind. Zebras, audio level control, live monitoring, histograms, focus peeking, ISO hack, advanced bitrate are all available on the GH2 also.

The more you learn about the GH2 the more you might just realize your not missing much if anything and gaining a lot of other things as well.
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ISO Hack and bitrate I'm aware of, but the audio and monitoring comes as a bit of a surprise. I thought it only lets you set arbitrary numbers that are still affected by AGC? When I say manual audio, I mean adjusting the absolute analog and digital gains in +db values for precision (that don't change or get "limited" during recording). The GH2 supports audio monitoring?? During filming? with headphones???
I kept trying to find out if that was the case, and all signs pointed to no. But I thought I had heard that before. Are you sure? How does that work?


I was also not aware that it allowed for exposure zebras and histograms while shooting. I thought it was only before you hit record. This is the first I've heard of any of that.

(btw- I spoke to a1ex, one of the lead devs on Magic Lantern, and he sort of mentioned that if there was enough demand he would not be opposed to creating something for the GH2)
 
M. Gilden said:
ISO Hack and bitrate I'm aware of, but the audio and monitoring comes as a bit of a surprise. I thought it only lets you set arbitrary numbers that are still affected by AGC? When I say manual audio, I mean adjusting the absolute analog and digital gains in +db values for precision (that don't change or get "limited" during recording). The GH2 supports audio monitoring?? During filming? with headphones???
I kept trying to find out if that was the case, and all signs pointed to no. But I thought I had heard that before. Are you sure? How does that work?


I was also not aware that it allowed for exposure zebras and histograms while shooting. I thought it was only before you hit record. This is the first I've heard of any of that.

(btw- I spoke to a1ex, one of the lead devs on Magic Lantern, and he sort of mentioned that if there was enough demand he would not be opposed to creating something for the GH2)
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With audio levels I thought you meant visual monitoring seeing as you mentioned going through the AV plug for headphones (I assumed you were referring to seperate things). On the GH2 I have read of people monitoring audio through the HDMI with a breakout box for pluggin in headphones. I haven't looked into it more so I wish I could give you more details.

The zebras stay on during recording but I honestly couldn't answer the histogram as I never like to have a less cluttered screen when shooting and am not working on stuff that acurate to warrant a histogram to take up a portion of the screen.

You are right about audio level control. You can't set exact DB but I haven't had an issue as I can watch the levels on screen to tell if it is getting blown out and clipped.
 
But can you go in such high bitrates in Canon as with GH2 (with intra frame recording) ?
We can go up to 224 MBps now and have span files too.
I think you cant go so high with canon and you cant have footage over 12 minutes....

In GH2 we dont have focus peaking... its the only thing i miss so much !

Do you have CLEAN HDMI mirroring while you record footage ?
 
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Toxotis70, I'm not comparing spec-per-spec between the 2 cameras. There are plenty of things the GH2 is better at or offers that the Canons don't. My comment was just that Magic Lantern is something a seasoned Canon shooter will miss.

Meanwhile, the merits of higher bitrate recording are arguable at best, and the 12 min limit is actually tied to the 4GB filesize limit. Reducing the bitrate will create longer recording times, and raising the bitrate will create shorter. 12min is just an approximate number based on the stock bitrate, but one who is inclined to get around that can do so.

Magic Lantern can also automatically restart recording when the limit is reached, but it is not as seamless as the way Panasonic spans files.
 
M. Gilden said:
(btw- I spoke to a1ex, one of the lead devs on Magic Lantern, and he sort of mentioned that if there was enough demand he would not be opposed to creating something for the GH2)
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it'd be nice to have Magic Lantern on the GH2. Maybe we should start a movement to create a demand for it and that i dont know how
 
Dont forget overheating too.
With some canons (i know for sure 7D and 550D ) does overheat quick.
At least here in Greece with high ambient temps.
 
woodcarver said:
The Gh2 has many advantages, but I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the crop factor of the Gh2. I consider this a disadvantage. I love my nikon 50mm 1.4 lens on the Gh2, which I got for $40, but it's a 100mm on the GH2. Yes, wider glass exists but getting good deals on it isn't that easy. I know the Canons (save the 5D) have a crop factor as well but it isn't as significant. Got to take the good with the bad.
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The GH2 crop factor in 1080p mode is about 1.83 vs 1.60 for the 60D/7D Canon DSLRs and the 12mm F2.0 Olympus is sharper @ F2.0 than the 24mm F1.4L on the 5D MKII @ F5.6 .

5330314532_28b5d1b013_b.jpg

[h=2]Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 12 mm f/2.0 ED[/h] [h=3]Image resolution :[/h]3434_roz.jpg
[h=2]Canon EF 24 mm f/1.4L II USM[/h] [h=3]Image resolution :[/h]
3114_roz_1D.jpg

GH2 w/ SLR Magic 12mm f1.6 :

 
I would also love to see those features from Magic Lantern on the GH2.

When I was using my friend's T2i they were of great value.
 
joe1946 said:
The GH2 crop factor in 1080p mode is about 1.83 vs 1.60 for the 60D/7D Canon DSLRs and the 12mm F2.0 Olympus is sharper @ F2.0 than the 24mm F1.4L on the 5D MKII @ F5.6 .

View attachment 44579
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Actually, the Canons are 1.6 in photo mode, but I believe crop further by letterboxing in video mode (similar to the G1 diagram on the left does). I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but I think I heard someone say the video mode is about a 1.8x FOV, which puts it just a hair wider than the GH2's 1.83.

Zxander34 said:
I would also love to see those features from Magic Lantern on the GH2.

When I was using my friend's T2i they were of great value.
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You and me both. Anyone want to start an initiative? ;)
 
Me too !!!
How can we come in contact with the creator of ML ?

M. Gilden said:
Actually, the Canons are 1.6 in photo mode, but I believe crop further by letterboxing in video mode (similar to the G1 diagram on the left does). I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but I think I heard someone say the video mode is about a 1.8x FOV, which puts it just a hair wider than the GH2's 1.83.


You and me both. Anyone want to start an initiative? ;)
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woodcarver said:
The Gh2 has many advantages, but I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the crop factor of the Gh2. I consider this a disadvantage. I love my nikon 50mm 1.4 lens on the Gh2, which I got for $40, but it's a 100mm on the GH2. Yes, wider glass exists but getting good deals on it isn't that easy. I know the Canons (save the 5D) have a crop factor as well but it isn't as significant. Got to take the good with the bad.
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Good wide lenses aren't any cheaper with Canon EF mount, the selection is actually a little better for MFT mount since there are some lens lineups (like Canon FD and Leica M) that just won't work on the EF mount. I haven't really found a situation where I needed wider than the Tokina 11-16 except maybe the interior of small aircraft (which is pretty much a closet) maybe I could have used a 9 there but the 11 worked ok. Some people (like me) have a need for long focal lengths too, and I think the MFT sensor crop has some great advantages there.

Having worked with both the 60d and the Gh2, I think its hard to argue that the Gh2 isn't the superior video camera.
 
M. Gilden said:
Actually, the Canons are 1.6 in photo mode, but I believe crop further by letterboxing in video mode (similar to the G1 diagram on the left does). I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but I think I heard someone say the video mode is about a 1.8x FOV, which puts it just a hair wider than the GH2's 1.83.
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I'm glad you mentioned this because I've been trying to get this same message accross over and over. People quickly yell "crop factor" issue when it comes to the GH-2....but the fact is ...there is no issue. That issue comes into play when comparing to a 5Dll. But if the GH-2 has a crop factor issue....then so does the Canons (7D, 60D, T2i etc,) and all other APS-c cameras whos image is, like you suggested, " a hair wider." I do wish it had custom curves like my old 7D...but all the other plusses add up in a big way.
 
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