GH3 Requests for firmware upgrades

keylight said:
Fix the BROKEN intervalometer!
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Uh, actually. . .have you tested this yourself?

I did this morning after watching the video over at timelapse.org

My methodology was a little different--I shot a denecke Tsc smart slate set to 30fps true, my results do not support the results I saw over at timelapse.org so it could be a QC issue with some individual cameras, or heck even different SD cards, or just the way he tested it. I'm still crunching the raw files but my jpegs were never more than 5 frames off and most of the time right-on-the-money, which seems acceptable unless you are doing scientific motion analysis stuff. So maybe, people expect a camera like the GH3 to come with a zero error intervalometer (which is virtually technically impossible at any price)? Seems a little unrealistic.

edit: No difference with RAW frames, I tried both shutters with both encodings.
 
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LyleGorch said:
Uh, actually. . .have you tested this yourself?

I did this morning after watching the video over at timelapse.org

My methodology was a little different--I shot a denecke Tsc smart slate set to 30fps true, my results do not support the results I saw over at timelapse.org so it could be a QC issue with some individual cameras, or heck even different SD cards, or just the way he tested it. I'm still crunching the raw files but my jpegs were never more than 5 frames off and most of the time right-on-the-money, which seems acceptable unless you are doing scientific motion analysis stuff. So maybe, people expect a camera like the GH3 to come with a zero error intervalometer (which is virtually technically impossible at any price)? Seems a little unrealistic.

edit: No difference with RAW frames, I tried both shutters with both encodings.
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Yeah, I have. I used a phone with a stopwatch app. I got a lot of variation in the times.

Edit: Looks like others are also reporting the problem now. May just be a batch of cameras?
 
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Maybe Panasonic needs to find some "can do" engineers to replace some of the 'can't do' engineers they currently have on staff.

stoneinapond said:
This from dpreview:

Uematsu spoke about how the market has reacted to the company's products: 'GH3 has been well recieved, especially for motion pictures. As you know we interviewed many people in the industry in Europe and North America, so it would offer what they needed - broadcasters needed bitrates above 50Mbps so we offer 50 and 72Mbps. In Europe they needed 25p, not 50i. And they're using GH3 - it's much smaller and lighter than a professional camcorder and doesn't need several people to operate it.'
However, he says, there is still one feature they're calling for. 'Focus peaking and zebra pattern. More than 90% of the requests we're getting are for these features. We haven't been able to offer it - because of the limits of resources and of the Venus Engine processor. Because it is not included in the Venus Engine, focus peaking is very hard to introduce - anything we added in software would be very different.'

Looks like someone just rained on this parade. :huh:
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keylight said:
Yeah, I have. I used a phone with a stopwatch app. I got a lot of variation in the times.

Edit: Looks like others are also reporting the problem now. May just be a batch of cameras?
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From a practical standpoint I just don't see how a 1/15 or even 1/8 of a second difference in trigger time would visually affect a timelapse sequence. The biggest issue with DSLR timelapse is flicker (which is entirely unrelated to intervalometer trigger times) in this department the GH3 doesn't seem any better or worse than much more expensive cameras from Nikon or Canon. There are definitely a lot of people putting the GH3 through its paces and it is very early in the product life, but also testing any intervalometer to 3 decimals of accuracy is not easy.
 
dustylense said:
You do realize the Gh3 is still manufactured and marketed to those who have ZERO idea nor care about 150 Mb/s, much less know what it means or does. It's a prosumer camera that has a video function. You know, that old couple getting off the ferry and the husband has a little Dslr with a kit lens dangling around his neck? I see them everywhere. Rebels T2i, little sony's, Nikon D5000, 4000, 3000, whatever.
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I haven't seen anything from Panasonic pushing the GH3 to the soccer-mom crowd: the GH3 is/was introduced and marketed from day one as a professional/semi-pro camera- a step or two above the Rebels and Dxxx's- more comparable to the 7D or D300. Everything coming from Panasonic's marketing materials and their shills/sponsored reviewers has been treating the camera as such. It's fair to expect pro/semi-pro features from a camera positioned as such.

This is also why comparing the GH3 to the GH2 isn't quite fair- they're the same product line in name, but are/were clearly aimed at different market segments- kinda like comparing the 50D to the 60D (which was a downmarket move, but still illustrates my point). Really, the GH3 should have been called something else, starting a new model line. Like the 7D, compared to the 50D.

Jim Snow said:
Maybe Panasonic needs to find some "can do" engineers to replace some of the 'can't do' engineers they currently have on staff.
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Exactly. Maybe it's as simple as the marketing dept is being told, by an overly conservative (or just lackadaisical) engineering dept, that it just can't be done, when it really could be. Management won't lean on engineering to get it done until they understand that there is a serious consumer demand/expectation for these features- thus this thread.
 
LyleGorch said:
So maybe, people expect a camera like the GH3 to come with a zero error intervalometer (which is virtually technically impossible at any price)? Seems a little unrealistic.
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This graph is from the timelapse.org forums, comparing the MX2 intervalometer with the GH3 built in.

mx2-vs-gh3.jpg

Pretty big difference. Those times on the GH3 vary by as much as 1 second. At the very least, it shows that someone at Panasonic didn't do a very good job programming the intervalometer. Probably a lot of bloated inefficient code led to that kind of result. If so, just imagine what other things they might be able to do (peaking?) if they had better software people.

The GH3 is a fantastic camera for video, and I've been impressed with the stills too. Just not sure I'll be using it for timelapse without an external intervalometer....
 
1. Focus peaking
2 Zebras
3. Option to stop the screen from disappearing

All three are needed!
Please.
 
keylight said:
This graph is from the timelapse.org forums, comparing the MX2 intervalometer with the GH3 built in.

View attachment 66956

Pretty big difference. Those times on the GH3 vary by as much as 1 second. At the very least, it shows that someone at Panasonic didn't do a very good job programming the intervalometer. Probably a lot of bloated inefficient code led to that kind of result. If so, just imagine what other things they might be able to do (peaking?) if they had better software people.

The GH3 is a fantastic camera for video, and I've been impressed with the stills too. Just not sure I'll be using it for timelapse without an external intervalometer....
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I shot this 4 different ways, w/wo electronic shutter and RAW as well as jpeg, I'm satisfied that this is accurate enough for non scientific time lapse work. I think the guy at timelapse.org has either a bad camera or is using a flawed method. I absolutely trust Denecke smpte TC (this slate is less than 6 months old and was tested against my Ambient ACC501 TC master clock/tool recently).

This is almost a separate topic but people should investigate these things themselves. The GH3 is not perfect but is quite a good tool.
 
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I agree with the 'good enough for non scientific tests' sentiment. I have done a few timelapses with the internal clock and none of them looked off so I never gave it much thought. I do find that when shooting there is almost a double shutter release every so many but the majority seemed pretty on. I am just an amateur time lapse guy anyway so I'm not the most sensitive to its accuracy.
 
dustylense said:
I say "IF" you need all those things, you should buy a Sony F3 and attach an external recorder.
<snipped for brevity>
I haven't ran into a camera that doesn't have a quirk or two. It's part of why I've owned far too many cameras.
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Ha ha, good on you DL!
Refreshing that someone (you) has the where-with-all to clearly state what many of us are thinking when we read the negatives (that add nothing to the conversation).
Some folks might do well as "VP of suggestion box operations" (or start their own camera company), rather than investing in our enlightenment regarding the failure of Panasonic world-wide?
Still . . . to each their own or as they say, "opinions are like xxx." Just say'in.
Thanks for making my day.

+1
 
I think there are also some other issues with the software. For example when you push AF/AE lock the audio level disappears. Panasonic should certainly provide an update.
 
FYI.... Panny does appear to be responding. On another site there is a tweet that they are looking into the the intervalometer issue.
 
+1 on AGC on/off, common, even my old hv20 had proper audio control... How come top-of-the-line camera has AGC on all the time?
 
Jim Simon said:
I'd rather they got rid of AGC entirely and went back to their tried-and-true Limiter, which only kicks in to prevent clipping, but doesn't affect anything below 0 dBFS.
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How about an actual in-depth audio section:


  • Audio Source:
    • Internal
    • External
  • Automatic Gain Control:
    • On
    • Off
  • Audio Limiter:
    • On
    • Off
  • Display Audio Level:
    • On
    • Off
    • 10 seconds, then Off (how it currently is)
  • Audio Level Adjustment:
    • On
      • Control Input:
        • Screen
        • Control Dial (26)
        • Rear Dial (18)
        • Front Dial (32)
      • Levels Control:
        • Control L/R together
        • Control L/R Separately (25)
    • Off

Controlling levels via hardware dials, especially the Control Dial (with the Control Dial Button for switching between channels) would be incredible. You could also use the Control Dial Button to turn on levels if they are set to "10 seconds, then Off"


audio.jpg
 
too many here are forgetting that despite what Panasonic SAYS, the GH3 is targeting 'aspiring' sem-pros.
Too may here are semipros aspiring to be pros and the GH3 is not going to make them happy.
 
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