GH2 Panasonic GH3 short film - Philip Bloom

I love all the arm chair pros out there. No wonder people are hesitant to share their work online when people start calling a well respected colourist and cinematographers work 'Average Student work'.

This furvor over a camera based on compressed web video and leaked specks is hilarious. Why not just wait a day till the camera is released and we start to see real tests before we see the conspiracy theories and FUD.
 
I wasn't overly impressed by Bloom's / Logan's video itself... just interested in examining any GH3 footage really... I also saw the Nikon D600 video, which was very well made, well produced and edited. But, the footage coming from the D600 does nothing for me. It honestly looks like regular video, from any camera for that matter. Anyone else feeling that? The detail, DR, everything looks like your absolute standard run of the mill DSLR... not a bad thing, but it doesn't stand out at all. Then looking at it from a cinematic stand point; it just really doesn't have that vibe, which Panny and Canon DSLRs do pretty well I think.
 
L1N3ARX said:
I wasn't overly impressed by Bloom's / Logan's video itself... just interested in examining any GH3 footage really... I also saw the Nikon D600 video, which was very well made, well produced and edited. But, the footage coming from the D600 does nothing for me. It honestly looks like regular video, from any camera for that matter. Anyone else feeling that? The detail, DR, everything looks like your absolute standard run of the mill DSLR... not a bad thing, but it doesn't stand out at all. Then looking at it from a cinematic stand point; it just really doesn't have that vibe, which Panny and Canon DSLRs do pretty well I think.
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I'd say the opposite - the alleged "run of the mill DSLR" look, at least with full frame, is distinctly cinematic. That's why it has been so immensely popular. The D600 video also looks like it was shot largely in 30p, which gives it that extra smoothness (and perhaps more video-like nature). But I found the detail and color richness on those shots while driving and in the wilderness to be downright stunning - and I'm not talking about the time-lapses.

Again - I'm not comparing the cameras. I'm comparing the demo videos. If this were a blind test, I'd be far more excited about what I am seeing from CHASING THE LIGHT than GENESIS. The latter just looks like a typical car commercial, in both aesthetic and narrative. And judging from the feedback here and elsewhere, I'm not alone in that interpretation; I think Panny could have commissioned a more compelling demonstration.

That being said, the GH2 is an absolute steal at around $650. But now that we're in the $1300 range for the GH3, these entry-level full frame cameras aren't too far of a leap. Decisions, decisions...and an exciting time to be in the market!
 
I have big problem choosing between the two promo video. I would say they are miles better that what we have seen from Sony and Canon c100 was not impressive at all from my memory (It seems like a long time ago). But the problem between those two is that they treat things very differently. One is about wilderness and the story had a lot of emotion because it was the experience of those two adventurers. The gh3 one was closer to a narrative, but you felt very disconnected because the story and acting was so cheap. No criticism for Bruce logan, because from the last experience we have seen from DP doing stories like Nikon d800, Canon 1dc, where not that impressive and that is not there specialty.

What really strikes in the d600 movie is the dynamic range, resolution seems ok, but I would still have some reserve on Aliasing. I feel the image a little brittle lacking what I would call thickness. If Nikon could do a native 4k to 2 k sensor camera it would be very very good. Now with some mosaic filter and external recorder it could be much much better. I found a lot of shot very cinematic like the car ones along the desert etc.

Now the gh3 video was very good but sometime very inconsistent because some shot where very soft and some very crisp (don't like this word). I cannot truly judge the DR. The image seems solid not brittle. One thing we also have to get use to is that the sensor being 4/3 and not multi aspect the crop ratio is now more like 2.1 than the gh2 1.86, so we are now really smaller than apsc/super 35.
 
I really don't care for the color. Seems Panasonic will continue to stick with their color palette rather than something brighter and more saturated like Canon or Nikon or Olympus. Other than that, the footage looks great.
 
I can't figure out why people like Canon Video color... it's always so unpleasant to my eyes.

Only camera in this range (And heck, sub Alexa honestly) putting out the kind of color that looks "right" is the Magic Cam... just about every one of these things needs post work to look decent.
 
Kholi said:
I can't figure out why people like Canon Video color... it's always so unpleasant to my eyes.
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Guess it depends on what you like. :) Canon color reminds me of Fuji Velvia. Which honestly is not a people film, but definitely dreamy. Had I the choice between Canon and Nikon color for video, I would go Nikon. But my last pick out of everyone would be Panasonic. Panasonic color just looks kind of muddy to me.

I recently had to match some Nikion DSLR footage to my GH1. Decided I would go the other way around and match the GH1 to the Nikon, even though I had less shots from the Nikon, but I liked the color better. I got close, but there was still something missing from the Panny footage that just wasn't "popping" like the Nikon footage.
 
noise+moire should have been fixed, hope it has, looks like it hasn't.
Big issue: smaller sensor=jumped the shark. Hope they have not downsized the multi-sensor, looks like they have, hope they haven't.
I'm sure we will know more soon, but disappointed so far.
Realistically, maybe we should be looking at 2K anyway, if they aren't going to seriously tackle the basic sensor issues.

NB: I'm a big fan of PB, but what was needed was simply to shoot part of this vid with the GH2, and ask us to say where the cuts were.
 
I have to say.....the 1080p download available now looks very very nice. The night shots are clean. The only noise I've seen so far is when the uniformed officer held up his gun. But I wish they shown us this version the first time around becaus we would not have seen so much hate floating around. what I want to see is a real test of the dynamic range. The detail is definitely on par with the hacked GH-2. The rolling shutter is much more minimized. That train shot says it all. I was expecting much more of a skew when it was going by so fast. But to me it's like how the Red One looked (not tlaking about any of the n ewer Reds). Let's face it...skew will be seen in just about every CMOS camera. That does not bother me at all. The only problems I've seen so far in this footage is there were some scenes that were more sharp than otherrs. I think that may be a lens issue. But the sharp (or detailed) scenes looked great.

EDIT: I still can't believe how much some folks put down the cinematographer's work on this or even the choice of story. It's so much better than looking at shrubs, grass, and even scenic mountanous views (IMO). Grant it...I did like the Nikon 600 video....but am more interested in narrative shots like this. It shows me that a serious movie can be shot with camera. It's as if you can't please everyone....oh yeah.....you can't.
 
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Wouldn't the choice of a Sony non-multi-aspect sensor and larger crop factor play a part in lessening some of the GH3's performance even with the higher stock bitrates? It may have an inherently softer image due to this (one step forward, two steps back??). Probably Panasonic didn't want to sabotage their new m43 video camera that gets a new Panasonic sensor. Look at the images comparing the GH2 and the GH3 side by side. It looks like the GH3 has a smaller sensor.
 
Well, we will know more real soon, but assuming they outsourced the sensor to save some money or deal with production issues, that sensor would have to work harder to make up for the missing real estate. But of course, M4/3 already has shown that you can do a good job with a slightly smaller sensor. So we will see. If they kill off the wide-angle on the still photos I will be seriously annoyed, but whatever. A lot of these choices are made by accountants, which is why the GH2 has a crappy battery--there's just a whole lot of difference between a small battery and a small sensor.
@Ian-T I was wondering about the sharpness issue being the lens, but then I figured, PB must have some good glass to choose from. But maybe it is as simple as that.
 
Kholi said:
I can't figure out why people like Canon Video color... it's always so unpleasant to my eyes.
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You mean that great Canon color that makes people look like they have jaundice because too many Canon shooters don't know how to correctly set their goddamn white balance or correct skin tones in post?
 
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