Selling EX1 + Letus kit for GH2?

Z

zokta

New member
Hey folks,

A little background:
I acquired an EX1 and Letus kit a few years ago and fell in love with the image quality. I've used it on and off for a while, but haven't touched it in a LONG time. I've played with the 5DMkii and 7D and love that I can get beautiful images out of a smaller package, but hate the recording limit. Now I read about the GH2, how the image quality is comparable to the 7D, the articulating LCD, HDMI out (without killing the viewfinder), and no recording limit and I'm thinking of ridding myself of the EX1 in favor of the GH2. I don't mind having to carry an extra bit of equipment for audio (and I hear that the audio quality from a ZOOM H4N is better than what you get out of the EX1 anyway).

To recap: I have an EX1 + Letus kit that I don't use much. I want to sell it for a GH2. What would you do in this case? Thoughts, opinions, criticisms all welcomed. Thanks a lot!
 
I shot a concert in summer of 2009 with 4 EX1 and one HVX200 (bad match). I would do it now on GH2s.
I did interviews with people where I only had the one shot to get the statement. EX1!
I shot a documentation of a project in Shanghai, where the A cam was a EX1. I would now use a GH2.
 
Well I'd say that the EX1 is still a robust workhorse and in some cases might be a nice hammer to have.... and in certain instances you'll be able to do things that you can't with a GH2... Like do a slow zoom push in at a concert, etc. I'd say to only sell it if you get a good amount of cash from the sale....

I'm personally not selling my HMC150 even though I'll have the GH2 and the AF100... Sometimes a CCD camera will be idea and it doesn't suffer from skew or rolling shutter, etc... and it has a pretty nice servo zoom.
 
Thanks for the opinions, guys. As I mentioned before, I haven't shot anything in a long time with it, and I'd consider myself an enthusiast, rather than someone who makes money from the equipment (although I wouldn't mind doing some work for pay). Using a traditional video camera makes sense for shooting things like concerts, weddings, etc. but I haven't found myself having to shoot those kinds of events (nor do I see myself doing them anytime in the future).

aemonk:
Thanks for that input. It's a huge pain to lug around 20+ lbs of camera gear, when you can get the same look from something that's a fraction of the weight. What scenarios do you see yourself struggling with if you choose to use the GH2 over an EX1?

Justyn:
Yeah, I know the EX1 is an awesome piece of equipment, but I'm afraid I haven't tapped into its true potential. I really do feel bad that I haven't used it much and would like to get rid of it and replace it with something else. In reality, it seems much easier to go out and shoot with something smaller than a 7D, than it is to lug around something as large as an EX1.

It probably sounds like I've made up my mind on my decision, but I guess it's just the pack rat in me that wants to hold on to the EX1 "just in case". Thanks for your replies!
 
Some 'professionals' would argue with me on this. But I have had both the GH1.3, the HVXs, and the EXI and shot on the EX3... and the GH13 just blows anything you can get out of the EX1 / letus combo out of the water for SO much less money and SO much better quality imho. It just kicks the things ass in value AND image. The ex1 always has and always will look 'videoy' and 'blue' to me no matter how you tweak the god damn thing I don't like the way it handles highlights and I don't like its codec. Now I haven't gotten my GH2 yet, only tinkered with one that I had in my hands for 4 hours so I can't fully speak on it but it appears to be improved in EVERY way except the still what I consider too low 24mbit codec. We shall see, but my vote is yes. I plan to shoot on all three, the hacked GH1, the GH2, and the af-100. It is quite obvious that the af-100 is going to become "the camera" that everyone and every school and everyone involved in any sort of professional production situation below a million dollars is going to be using.
 
zokta said:
aemonk:
Thanks for that input. It's a huge pain to lug around 20+ lbs of camera gear, when you can get the same look from something that's a fraction of the weight. What scenarios do you see yourself struggling with if you choose to use the GH2 over an EX1?
Click to expand...

Its all about unreliable production gear. I have a pretty expensive Transcend SDXC 64GB card inside my GH2. Today this card was rejected twice by the GH2. Could be due to low power since the battery was almost finished. Those unexpected issues are a real pain when working under pressure. They tend to occur more often with consumer gear and Panasonic has built the GH2 to give average consumers the best possible plug'n'play experience. Just look at how the menu is designed, you can't even speak of a prosumer target group. It has a microsoft style being over simplified issue that makes it very unintuitive. I'm just glad though that they don't try to go the "Apple one button" road :)
 
aemonk said:
Its all about unreliable production gear. I have a pretty expensive Transcend SDXC 64GB card inside my GH2. Today this card was rejected twice by the GH2. Could be due to low power since the battery was almost finished. Those unexpected issues are a real pain when working under pressure. They tend to occur more often with consumer gear and Panasonic has built the GH2 to give average consumers the best possible plug'n'play experience. Just look at how the menu is designed, you can't even speak of a prosumer target group. It has a microsoft style being over simplified issue that makes it very unintuitive. I'm just glad though that they don't try to go the "Apple one button" road :)
Click to expand...

I had more problems with the SxS cards in my one year of shooting with them than I've had with GH1 and SD cards. I use class 4 Transcend and a class 6 16GB Sandisk cards. SxS cards gave some warnings and needed to be "fixed". I've never lost footage with either SxS or SD.
 
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