Panasonic Removable Lens Four Thirds HD AVCHD Camera

Clips are looking good so far. Even the Motion JPEG stuff looks darn good, and quite a bit better than the D90's M-JPEG in my opinion. The aliasing mystery is the only thing hanging over the GH1, and it seems like it is not too bad if there is a little bit of it from time to time. Certainly much better than having to deal with a D90.

Late said:
I think this is the old version of this lens. You'd probably be better off getting the new version, which supports contrast focusing making it's AF compatible with micro 4/3. It also has rounded aperture blades.
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I'm not as worried about the AF, but if the bokeh looks weird that would turn me off. How different will the bokeh look? As long as it is not a diamond shaped bokeh like the HV20 has. This customer sample shot from Amazon has a nice circular bokeh. I guess they probably used the new one, although it doesn't specify which version.

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If there is no major difference in the bokeh and the price is substantially cheaper I don't mind. From looking on B&H and Amazon, it seems like it is only about a hundred dollars more, so yeah, probably worth it for the newer one.

Barry_Green said:
Wait until you see the 720p. It'll knock your socks off. You won't believe that 720p can look that good, but it does.

Has anyone yet considered that unlike the D90 or 5D, this little cam will do slow-mo overcranking? 720/60p, drop it in your 24p timeline... heh heh...
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It really is starting to feel like the GH1 is an HMC150 crammed into the body of a digital stills camera.

Barry, the footage you said you saw at NAB, was that the promo of the Japanese women on the beach with GH1's? It plays on the flat screen monitor in this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMjH2MCxXwc

I'm wondering if that promo video was shot with GH1's, or if they used a higher end cam.

Finster said:
Well, you've definitely got your nay-sayers. A guy over on ProLost had this to say ...

"These little Rebel cams are not GAME changers... They are more like first and ten at the 45 yard line.... a good start. For one, you are shooting some Decent fps (24) and decent DOF ... finally... with a major tradeoff in 8bit compressed original footage ... so your stuff better look good to start with ... RED has actually changed this game ... as I suspect none of these other players would have dipped into this game if not for them taking all the risks. But more and more I wonder how fast everyone will get bored of trees and leaves footage or people "looking for something" films."
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Has this guy seen Crank 2 yet? Sure it may not be as good as 35mm or a Red One, but it looked great on the big screen. I agree that the GH1 is not the end all be all, and that we'll have better stuff that evolves from this tech, but for some of us who will be going straight to DVD, Blu-ray, and the web the GH1 will probably be good enough.

I can't afford a Red One right now. Even if I could, I think it would be overkill for 99% of what I'll be shooting over the next year, maybe two. Not all of us need the most expensive decked out camera to make a good piece of cinema or television or whatever. Sure Red changed the game for a higher end segment of the market, but at the lower end (HV20 - HVX200) range of the market, the GH1 is a big deal.

stephenvv said:
No doubt. It will be interesting to see how the various still image controls impact video esp codec encoding etc. I suspect there may be much better settings for video than anything posted yet especially since this is from the consumer division. Dialing down sharpness, finding good gamma curves etc. may much improve the image yet.
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I think you're right. Eventually when someone (probably Panasonic if I had to bet, although Canon is rumored to be working on one for 2010) releases a dedicated 4/3rds or APS-C prosumer HD video camera, I think we'll start to be at a point where this tech has reached a crossroads where it can start to overtake and eventually replace the whole 3 1/3 Chip mentality that is still dominant in this segment of the market. Although, the HDMI out options haven't been confirmed yet on the GH1, so who knows if this cam has even more potential for better image quality?
 
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Bokeh -- Will only come down to what lens you're using at this point. The sensor is large enough, whatever else is the glass' responsibility.

If you want great bokeh you're gonna have to start looking through photography forums for lenses that produce your type of bokeh through all apertures, not just wide open.

I think Panasonic might just have everyone beat, and mostly because there's only UP from where they are. They have THE most versatile mount option on the GH-1, that's already a killer cake topping. More like the edible candles on a well-iced cake.
 
Thanks for the link Late. Both look good. The thing is, I just don't think I'll use auto focus much if ever. I really hate using it. I'm a manual control freak. I'll have to look around and see if I can find the first version for a really cheap price, otherwise the newer one will probably be worth it.
 
haha i am! lol, so it's coming in june then, at 1500?

forgive me, im so new to this DSLR video mode.

I just held the D90 for the first ime yesterday in store and experienced the jello in my hands, but the image was very nice ( on the lcd screen )

Still don't understand workflow on PC for CS3 to remove stair stepping, correct noise and alter the frame rate from 24p to 23.976 ( for audio syncing???? )

Once i wrap my head around all of these feats then ill try to fully understand.
 
Finster said:
Well, you've definitely got your nay-sayers. A guy over on ProLost had this to say ...

"These little Rebel cams are not GAME changers... They are more like first and ten at the 45 yard line.... a good start. For one, you are shooting some Decent fps (24) and decent DOF ... finally... with a major tradeoff in 8bit compressed original footage ... so your stuff better look good to start with ... RED has actually changed this game
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Let me translate from RedSpeak(tm):

"OMG! Someone shipped a Scarlet for $1,500 instead of $7,000! This can't be, it must be herasy. I'm gonna have to say 10, no 45, Hail Jims."

I don't think we'll get better confirmation that this is, in fact, a game changer from the RED crowd.

Finally, we have a real digital video camera capable of cinematography at consumer prices. This is a first, in a big way. It is totally a game changer.

I don't even think that Nikon or Canon will wake up in the next year. And I wonder if Samsung realizes the potential they have with their NX-- if they'll do real video or just tack it on.
 
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hunter richards said:
Wow, That wide convention hall shot is full of detail, I wasnt expecting that much from the avchd codec at that bit rate.
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Right, expectations are holding over from the days of DV and HDV-- Bitrate is only one component of the quality of an H.264 video stream. Encoding method and the horsepower available at the time of encoding are important factors, along with the resolution of the source image, and the down-rezzing algorithm.

People keep looking for stair stepping. And we're not seeing it.

I believe the reason there is stair stepping in the 5D footage is because the camera grabs every other pixel to make and HD image from a high megapixel sensor.

I believe the GH1 is grabbing a 4k image and then dithering (or whatever algorithm they do) down to the 1920x1080 image and then compressing that.

The artifacts that look a little bit like stair stepping seem to be compression artifacts to me, rather than a result of the low resolution original image that we're used to seeing on the 5D mk II.

Or put another way, the GH1 is a 4k Camera wtih a convenient HD workflow.

It's better than the scarlet!
 
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LizaWitz said:
Or put another way, the GH1 is a 4k Camera wtih a convenient HD workflow.

It's better than the scarlet!
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I wouldn't take it that far. It certainly might be better than a scarlet for some applications, especially those with a very low budget (no access to software or more capable computing solutions for dealing with R3DRAW footage).

Keep in mind a Scarlet will output an actual 4K video with about a 3.2K effective resolution, versus a nearly 2K video from the GH-1. There's a pretty big difference there, though that difference may only matter to some. If you are "delivering" SD or web footage, the difference will be small. If you are doing a film out or showing it on a 2K or 4K projector, the difference will be noticeable. And, to be fair, higher quality footage ends up looking nicer than lower quality footage even when delivered at a lower quality - better in, better out. That's not to say that every film demands the absolute best in image quality - Crank 2, for example, will look perfectly good with the cameras it was shot with because they fit the needs of the film - high action, high mobility, and the need for many cameras for bullet-time rigs.

I think that the GH-1's capabilities at its pricepoint is very alluring. However, I don't think we should expect it to take over the roles of cameras costing twice (5D MkII, HX-A1) or three to four times (Scarlet) as much. It's another tool in the toolbox.
 
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MKii is a direct comparison to the GH-1. It's only got Full Frame FOV, nothing else. Although the if said the other way around, that's a different story.

MKii is not int he same league as an XH-A1 either. XH-A1 is a FULL MANUAL PROSUMER VIDEO CAMERA.

The D90, MKii and GH-1 are all in the same exact class.
 
Kholi said:
MKii is a direct comparison to the GH-1. It's only got Full Frame FOV, nothing else. Although the if said the other way around, that's a different story.

MKii is not int he same league as an XH-A1 either. XH-A1 is a FULL MANUAL PROSUMER VIDEO CAMERA.

The D90, MKii and GH-1 are all in the same exact class.
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I suppose that's true. I was thinking price-wise, though, in which I feel it is not really in line with cameras like the 5d MkII and XH-A1 after the necessary lenses and accessories are taken into account. $1500 for a "complete package" is a wonderful thing.

The fact the the GH-1 does offer so many of the features and capabilities of cameras at higher prices is what makes it so appealing, disregarding whether or not the camera is consumer, prosumer, or professional.
 
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Nektonic said:
I'm not as worried about the AF, but if the bokeh looks weird that would turn me off. How different will the bokeh look? As long as it is not a diamond shaped bokeh like the HV20 has. This customer sample shot from Amazon has a nice circular bokeh. I guess they probably used the new one, although it doesn't specify which version.

98e1c060ada095eb73150210.L.jpg


If there is no major difference in the bokeh and the price is substantially cheaper I don't mind. From looking on B&H and Amazon, it seems like it is only about a hundred dollars more, so yeah, probably worth it for the newer one.
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It's already mentioned before, but bokeh is a characteristic of the lens.

As evidenced by this, there are some really cute bokeh tricks you can use...

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