Panasonic Removable Lens Four Thirds HD AVCHD Camera

I still don't know why Panasonic didn't launch this thing without having a cinematographer do something with it.


Part of this debate will continue to draw comparison to the 5DMkII. There's no way around that. And so far, to my major disappointment, nothing from this camera is proving to have the same mojo that the 5D has. Sure it has the manual controls and 24p, but the noise is looking awful so far, I've seen random banding issues, more jello than the 5D, and it looks like there's no pull down flags on the files (get all cozy with JES deinterlacer).
 
I used Edius 5 for Barry's sample, piece of cake. So far there is basically no noise issue whatsoever and the jello is also very minimal. It is looking very very good. I am not comparing it to the Mark2 because I am not debating whether to buy that camera against the GH1. Whoever is, then have to make a choice. Not me.
 
Finster said:
Forgive my Four Thirds ignorance, but I'm trying to find lenses on B&H that will work with the GH-1.

Is it safe to assume that any Four Thirds Panasonic lens will work, like this 25mm f/1.4?

OR what about a Sigma Four Thirds that's designed for Olympus digital cameras???
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The GH1 is a MICRO 4/3rds. You'll need the adapter that Panasonic makes to use regular 4/3rds. Olympus, Sigma, Panasonic make 4/3rds but some auto features might not work. Panasonic came out with a micro 7-14mm along with the GH1.There are adapters for regular 35m lenses too.
 
why isn't there any native support for avchd on a windows or mac? i thought vlc player would play it just fine. i think cs4 allows you to.
 
holyzoo said:
I still don't know why Panasonic didn't launch this thing without having a cinematographer do something with it.


Part of this debate will continue to draw comparison to the 5DMkII. There's no way around that. And so far, to my major disappointment, nothing from this camera is proving to have the same mojo that the 5D has. Sure it has the manual controls and 24p, but the noise is looking awful so far, I've seen random banding issues, more jello than the 5D, and it looks like there's no pull down flags on the files (get all cozy with JES deinterlacer).
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You answered your own discrepancy. The first stuff from the MKii was NOT PLEASANT. Nowhere NEAR. I'm surprised that NOBODY remembers the really gross looking footage that popped up.

It really wasn't until US hands grabbed it and Vincent that it turned into anything. and even in VINCENT'S footage there was some really bad color stuff going on.

I agree, it's a REALLY stupid mistake on panasonic's part to not have had someone worth a damned shooting something. All of these samples, aside from Barry's (Which at least shows the camera locked down, tells us what ISO it was at etc etc), are really terrible.

But seeing Barry's on my 42" Sammy output from my PS3 was enough for me.
 
mico said:
The GH1 is a MICRO 4/3rds. You'll need the adapter that Panasonic makes to use regular 4/3rds. Olympus, Sigma, Panasonic make 4/3rds but some auto features might not work. Panasonic came out with a micro 7-14mm along with the GH1.There are adapters for regular 35m lenses too.
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Thanks Mico. I assume this is the adapter you're talking about?

So this adapter can only take Panasonic 4/3rds, right?

Or could I slap a Olympus or Sigma on there, too (but I might lose some of the auto features)?
 
Finster said:
Thanks Mico. I assume this is the adapter you're talking about?

So this adapter can only take Panasonic 4/3rds, right?

Or could I slap a Olympus or Sigma on there, too (but I might lose some of the auto features)?
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Thats the one. Not having first hand experience with these lenses I think all 4/3rds lenses will work with the adapter but some auto features might not. The Olympus 14-35mm Zeiko is an unbelievable f2.0 all through the range and the lens I would get but its over 2 grand. So I would go to a Photo shop and check out that the auto features work or call up Olympus and Panasonic to find out before you start investing. You do realize that game changers come every 4 months now right?

I would wait a bit to see some more footage because I know you were going Canon a few posts ago. I did a comparison with my EX1 and the Barry footage and I'll just say that I would wait for footage to come out that shows the cam in a better light.
 
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mico said:
You do realize that game changers come every 4 months now right?

I would wait a bit to see some more footage because I know you were going Canon a few posts ago. I did a comparison with my EX1 and the Barry footage and I'll just say that I would wait for footage to come out that shows the cam in a better light.
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Yep, that's the ongoing internal debate!!! But honestly I'm just getting all my ducks in a line ... adding all of these items to my B&H Wish List - a Canon Wish List and a Panasonic Wish List! But I won't commit to one or the other for at least another 2-3 weeks.

Thanks again.
 
So would we be able to hook this up to an io express and record Pro Res to a laptop. Would it also record the native 24p and remove the extra frames? Thanks
 
The 5DM2 was the gamechanger. The GH-1 just looked to be as good for less than 1/2 the price. It seems to have its own issues though.

Than 5DM2's issues, which remain, deal with control. People shooting in a rather static setup get good images. If the lighting shifts during the shoot then strange things happen.

If it had manual control I would have bought one. But if it had manual control they would be sold out for the next year.
 
DavidNJ said:
The 5DM2 was the gamechanger. The GH-1 just looked to be as good for less than 1/2 the price. It seems to have its own issues though
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Manual control and 1080 24P are not what I would call issues. I certainly don't nitpick the way you do either when it comes to image. Really, I think the GH1 is more of a game changer for giving 24P and manual controls in an interchangeable body at $1500 dollars. But that's my individual two cents...
 
Kholi said:

HOLY CRAP

This was a BAD CLIP!!?!

It looks absolutely awesome.
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Well, it was the best of the bunch, but I'm certainly not happy with the cinematography, the lighting, or -- well, anything else about it. But yeah, it was at least sharp.

It doesn't hold half a candle to the demo footage that Adam and I saw.
 
Kholi said:
If this is just milling around getting some shots then I'm beyond sold.
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I literally had the camera for no more than five minutes, and I'd never seen a G1 or GH1 before. It took me 10 of my 300 seconds to figure out how to even put it in movie mode. Then I squandered a couple of minutes trying to find out how to get the thing to focus and white balance, there's a little wheel that says "MF/AFS/AFC" or something like that; it had some cool autofocus functions like automatic face detection. The manual focus was cool because when you touch the focus ring it jumps to a super-hyper-magnified focus assist automatically.

I was racing the clock, and very frustrated at the inability to have enough time to give it a fair shake, I know how much you guys have been looking forward to actual footage. I mean, that shot might have been handheld, or it might have been my "fake" tripod, which is when I was balancing it on the edge of one of the monitors on the show floor to try to stabilize it at all.

So, yeah, I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing.
 
Arrik said:
Barry do your remember how zoomed in this shot was (relatively)?
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Absolutley 100%, full zoom on the 14-140 zoom.

It's not shakey footage but there is some kind of minor shake to it.
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I didn't have a tripod, so (as in the prior post) this was either handheld, or balanced on the edge of a monitor (on a knife edge, basically, because the monitor wasn't flat). So there's no yaw, but there is noticeable tilt up and down.

Definitely not any defect in the imaging system, that was one step up from handheld and yes, the image effect you're talking about is definitely there.

We then tried to get it on a tripod, Hal and I took an HMC150 off the set and pulled its plate off and put the GH1 onto the tripod, but we barely got it mounted before a panasonic rep came over and yelled at us about "what do you think you're doing?" so we had to pull it off and go back to handheld...
 
Barry_Green said:
I literally had the camera for no more than five minutes, and I'd never seen a G1 or GH1 before. It took me 10 of my 300 seconds to figure out how to even put it in movie mode. Then I squandered a couple of minutes trying to find out how to get the thing to focus and white balance, there's a little wheel that says "MF/AFS/AFC" or something like that; it had some cool autofocus functions like automatic face detection. The manual focus was cool because when you touch the focus ring it jumps to a super-hyper-magnified focus assist automatically.

I was racing the clock, and very frustrated at the inability to have enough time to give it a fair shake, I know how much you guys have been looking forward to actual footage. I mean, that shot might have been handheld, or it might have been my "fake" tripod, which is when I was balancing it on the edge of one of the monitors on the show floor to try to stabilize it at all.

So, yeah, I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing.
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Yeah I mean I know you aren't happy with it! Lol. But it's just sample footage, I didn't expect it to be a Macgregor short, you know what I mean?

But if that's just you trying to figure it out, then it's pretty much a good bet. Like EVERY single camera that comes out, there's the process that you taught me:

1) Can't wait for this camera!
2) What the hell is this noise?
3) Did you see what what's his name did! Holy Crap Let's revisit this!
4) Yeah, it's just a camera.

lOl

We're at stage 2 now, 3 comes next week.

Thanks for sharing, man.
 
holyzoo said:
I still don't know why Panasonic didn't launch this thing without having a cinematographer do something with it.
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Mainly because it's sold by the consumer division, not the professional division. I guarantee you the professional division would have made that happen.

With that said, I was told by a phenomenal shooter that Panasonic was getting him one this coming Monday, so -- your wishes should be granted soon.
 
Car3o said:
why isn't there any native support for avchd on a windows or mac? i thought vlc player would play it just fine. i think cs4 allows you to.
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Native AVCHD is all over the Windows system. Premiere Pro CS4, Pinnacle Studio 12, Nero, EDIUS Neo, EDIUS Pro, Vegas, they all support it, and many other programs do too.
 
Barry_Green said:
Native AVCHD is all over the Windows system. Premiere Pro CS4, Pinnacle Studio 12, Nero, EDIUS Neo, EDIUS Pro, Vegas, they all support it, and many other programs do too.
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I'm getting REALLY tired of Final Cut, by the way. I'm ready to move over to Premiere for SEVERAL reasons.
 
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