GH2 Philip Coltart's : RED Epic verus Panasonic GH2 Comparison

Lee Saxon said:
Most absurd thing ever to be done by anyone ever
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Well, that was an enlightening post.

I disagree. With most content ending up on the web and mobile devices, I'd say that it is a very valid test.

I suppose you think that this one was "absurd" too:

 
More trees and leaves? Well, some knives too. If you are going to do a test between these cams show people, cars, (no pets either please!), some real life movement. Thanks for the effort nonetheless!
 
kyle.presley said:
Great, now can we see a 4K side-by-side?
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Yeah, i'd be real impressed to watch the 4k test online. Like, it's totally worth it.

It's not like 95% of all the stuff I'll watch in the next few years will be 1080p. Can't wait for my 4k monitor and my new internet connection plan for 250gig of brandwith an 3gig second speed to kick in next week.
 
mcgeedigital said:
Well, that was an enlightening post.

I disagree. With most content ending up on the web and mobile devices, I'd say that it is a very valid test.
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What does the delivery venue have to do with anything? Higher resolution is wayyyyyyyyyyy down the list of reasons to shoot Epic rather than a GH2.

What's absurd though is not how apples-to-oranges this comparison is (though it is completely pointless), it's how wrong his conclusions are. This guy is talking about how he's not impressed with Epic's sharpness in a comparison with the GH2's 1080p. No. Epic footage beats the snot out of full resolution stills from my GH2.

mcgeedigital said:
I suppose you think that this one was "absurd" too:
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"36 MB/s RAW 4K footage or hyper-compressed white-balance-baked-in 1080p footage, which is better for compositing?" ?

I do, actually.
 
Uhh oh. Sounds like the RED fan boys are coming out. This test is interesting for what it is. Obviously, there are other aspects that could be fully appreciated with the original footage.
 
Honestly I don't see even the average sharp-eyed viewer being able to spot the difference between RED Epic and GH2-176 GOP1 -if the product is a professionally produced drama or documentary. (Not including mega-million dollar shoots obviously)

If great lenses and great audio recorders are used, and pro lighting is done, all finished off with pro color grading, then I think the output of the sensors is "starting" to become a non-issue.

In 5-years we'll all have GH2 quality video on our iPhones.
I personally can't wait for that day because then we can all get back to discussing more important creative issues - instead of fussing with soon to be obsolete data compression methods.
 
Firstly, almost 90% of us here dont own a RED, much less, shoot very often with a RED. However, considering a GH2 cost around the same as RED lens does. I like the "idea" of this test.
People choose the RED for many reason...too obvious to state, it is a professional proven feature film camera after all.
BUT! the 90% of us here, are good with 1080p and usually distribute to internet and DVD anyhow. So i can see the validity of giving the RED a handicap. How many times I hear people stating the RED shoots at 5k... when everything they produce will be reduced to 2k at the end of the day.
With a hacked GH2 offering such high quality in a versatile, cheap package... its interesting to see how blurred the lines are becoming for an affordable "professional" quality camera.

I liken this test to that of cars. The RED being a high performance, expensive, luxurious, and powerful Mercedes with all the bells and whistles (id say a Porsche, but thats such a 1 trick pony).
And the GH2 being somewhat of a "sleeper" Subaru WRX... with Vitiality's Turbo charged patches.

P.S. The test was done using a modest level patch on the GH2 (32Mb... when there are 176Mbs working patches out), and the results are very impressive at that lower level... So keep that in mind when hating the validity of the test.
Also I think the iPhone will be at RED's level in 5 years...
 
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He was testing a crop of the epic sensor to 1080(in post), to the native 1080 of GH2 to be clear. In that regards it's done right, but who would not scale the 5k down to 1080 for a 1080 delivery. We didn't test the HVX compared to the dvx by taking a sd crop out of it and putting that up against each other(and that is a considerably smaller difference in container size as opposed to the GH2vEpic). But to each their own and this seems to be what he was testing...

Though the comment about a 4k test may seem strange, it makes sense, not on the internet though. If you are going to bring epic down to the gh2 level(through cropping), have another test where you bring gh2 up to the epics level. This could be accomplished at the very least with stills(from motion) and on a larger scale by running them both through a 4k projector.

Or even a crop like was done to the epic but to the GH2 to bring it to the 1080 crop of it's own 5k blowup(...confusing much....) compared to the Epic's 1080 crop, as I believe that would represent the center 1080 of both if they were shown in 5k...very rough guesstimate could be wrong...why 5k well that is the container 4k is the delivery...that might not make sense, mrah...

by the way I have a gh1 and love it, would love to get a gh2 but at this point the gh1 suits me fine and I have bills to pay so I will have to wait on the upgrade.

Peace!
 
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Lets be careful with the name calling. Its ok to discuss things and have differing opinions - until people get emotional about it.

This guy shot his test from his perspective - and his results are what they are.

Im going to suggest, as it appears to me that the files from the Epic used in this test are taken from prores proxies pushed into a rec.709 workspace. Many people would need to work this way if they had an epic in their hand from tomorrow, and Id say based on the turnaround required in his business (the testers that is) thats where he may need to be. (This is some speculation based on assumption). BUT, this is far from the workflow needed to get the best Epic results. (Please also consider that Ive never shot anything Epic and am basing this on experience shooting on Red One).
 
Interesting test. I think it really shows if you are going to Vimeo for delivery that the GH2 and Epic very close. ( assuming that you are shooting subjects without a huge deference in lighting )

If we are talking about feature film work I would think the Epic would destroy the GH2, but I have never used a Epic.
 
S. Matthews said:
He was testing a crop of the epic sensor to 1080(in post), to the native 1080 of GH2 to be clear. In that regards it's done right, but who would not scale the 5k down to 1080 for a 1080 delivery. We didn't test the HVX compared to the dvx by taking a sd crop out of it and putting that up against each other(and that is a considerably smaller difference in container size as opposed to the GH2vEpic). But to each their own and this seems to be what he was testing...!
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Well, I DON'T think the EPIC will be primarily used as a steady-shot event camera... but for those who use such, the ability to crop for reframing... even inventing camera moves and zooms in post.. is very important!
 
Don't get me wrong it will be very useful being able to crop and stabilize, though as some fear could lead to some lazy framing(a 1080 crop of a 5k frame is a rather large one). It's just that comparing a crop/magnification of the epic sensor to the native res of GH2 does not make an apt comparison for how each will look in 1080 distribution land, whether it be for web or television. Though that was not the point of his test, I would just like it to be clear to people what they are looking at.
 
Right, no disagreement. But... the unattended second-event-cam is the laziest framing you can get; being able to pull haldway decent 1080p out of a 5k frame is a beautiful thing. Could possible get away without even the first camera... for a DVD final product, which most events are, the possibilities are amazing!

But, like I say, I really don't think the EPIC will ever really be used for this. Just dreaming.
 
Just goes to show anyone can shoot a high end camera badly and dumb it down enough to look like an $800 consumer camera.

Let see someone shoot some seriously challenging footage like this with a GH2.

 
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