GH2 Still Photography with the GH-2 Can't Touch Canon / Nikon

[john flores]

I just had my first story published using the GH1/GH2 as still cameras - http://www.roadrunner.travel/magazine/read/january-february-2012/page/50. Some photos:


Shout out to Worth Harley Davidson by john m flores, on Flickr


Pigs are flying. Now what? by john m flores, on Flickr


100 degrees in the shade by john m flores, on Flickr

The GH cameras are better than expected and better than some are willing to admit.

Take any two photographers - one with a GH2 and the other with a dSLR (Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc..) - and there'll be a greater difference between the photographers than the cameras they are holding.

 

[Leto Woundedknee]

Slow response

Slow response

Hello,

Sorry for my English, I'm french and was reading this conversation about the GH-2 vs Canon or Nikon. I don't have the GH-2 since a long time, and bought it to shoot documentaries. But I also have to take pictures with it for a book. Honnestly, for the video with the new firmwire 25P used most of the time with the Nokton 0.95 I can't wait to see the result. But, what I've seen is very promessing. The fact the sensor is smaller than in a 5D makes the GH2 easyier to point and shoot, the focus is not easy to do but you can have it, with a 5D it's really tricky.
But for still photography, maybe I don't know how to use the GH2 the best way, but I do everything to shoot as fast as possible, only using the "M" mode. I tried everything, in vain : the GH2 makes the picture from the moment AFTER !!!!! Always !!!!! You see the face smilling, you clic, too bad, the picture you will get as nothing to do with what you had in your frame. You can't use it to make picture. The worst thing is that you don't have the exact frame in the LFD or the screen, the screen is 16/9 but you shoot in 4/3. You discover your picture after... It's too hard for me to explain the differences between the picture you think you are taking and the result, but it's not acurate, it's not fast at all !!!!! Even with the faster SD card you can get, you will always make the picture from the moment after !!!! For me, (except to make movies) the GH2 will go straight to the trash.

If you go for a GH2 do it for the video, you won't be able to get good shots of your own childs unless you have the ability to see the futur... and what is going to happen in 1/10eme of a second. Thanks for reading, and I do insist, if you want make movies the GH2 is a very good camera, limited but good.

 

[tommyp]

Hello,

Sorry for my English, I'm french and was reading this conversation about the GH-2 vs Canon or Nikon. I don't have the GH-2 since a long time, and bought it to shoot documentaries. But I also have to take pictures with it for a book. Honnestly, for the video with the new firmwire 25P used most of the time with the Nokton 0.95 I can't wait to see the result. But, what I've seen is very promessing. The fact the sensor is smaller than in a 5D makes the GH2 easyier to point and shoot, the focus is not easy to do but you can have it, with a 5D it's really tricky.
But for still photography, maybe I don't know how to use the GH2 the best way, but I do everything to shoot as fast as possible, only using the "M" mode. I tried everything, in vain : the GH2 makes the picture from the moment AFTER !!!!! Always !!!!! You see the face smilling, you clic, too bad, the picture you will get as nothing to do with what you had in your frame. You can't use it to make picture. The worst thing is that you don't have the exact frame in the LFD or the screen, the screen is 16/9 but you shoot in 4/3. You discover your picture after... It's too hard for me to explain the differences between the picture you think you are taking and the result, but it's not acurate, it's not fast at all !!!!! Even with the faster SD card you can get, you will always make the picture from the moment after !!!! For me, (except to make movies) the GH2 will go straight to the trash.

If you go for a GH2 do it for the video, you won't be able to get good shots of your own childs unless you have the ability to see the futur... and what is going to happen in 1/10eme of a second. Thanks for reading, and I do insist, if you want make movies the GH2 is a very good camera, limited but good.

Never really had that delay that I recognized. I went back to shooting nikon mostly for stills though.

 

[Ian-T]

I just had my first story published using the GH1/GH2 as still cameras - http://www.roadrunner.travel/magazine/read/january-february-2012/page/50. Some photos:


Shout out to Worth Harley Davidson by john m flores, on Flickr


Pigs are flying. Now what? by john m flores, on Flickr


100 degrees in the shade by john m flores, on Flickr

The GH cameras are better than expected and better than some are willing to admit.

Take any two photographers - one with a GH2 and the other with a dSLR (Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc..) - and there'll be a greater difference between the photographers than the cameras they are holding.

Some good looking shots there. And great point.

 

[Murph100]

I originally thought the GH2 would also be able to double up as a handy little stills camera, and I've gotten some great results from it BUT its a noisy little git, even at 160 ISO.

I recently bought a Sony Nex 5N, really just for the purpose of shooting time-lapses due to the larger sensor, and the stills from that absolutely blows the GH2 away. Its actually on a par with any APS-C Canon/Nikon, while still being incredibly small. I also bought the Sony EVF and WOW ... what a viewfinder !

So now I keep the GH2 solely for video and the Nex 5N for stills & time-lapse and thanks to the various adapters, I can use the same lenses on both.

 

[TheDingo]

I originally thought the GH2 would also be able to double up as a handy little stills camera

Have you tried shooting in RAW format with your GH-2 ?

I absolutely hated the photos from my GH-2 until I bought Adobe LightRoom and started to ONLY shoot in RAW format. ( the GH-2 Jpeg engine isn't very good )

 

[DPStewart]

Have you tried shooting in RAW format with your GH-2 ?

I absolutely hated the photos from my GH-2 until I bought Adobe LightRoom and started to ONLY shoot in RAW format. ( the GH-2 Jpeg engine isn't very good )

Yeah...weird to say, but the JPEG engine on the GH2 stinks. Really ruins it. RAW however, is a totally different story. Radically better IQ. And NOT noisy. Just a bit cumbersome to get used to the workflow.

 

[berylium]

Having sold my Canon t2i for peanuts.... ( a wonderful stills camera...) I tried stills on the Gh2.

Meh. Noisy even at low iso's... like the guy above said. Revelled in seller's remorse for an hour or so.

Tried shooting Raw with Gh2, but photoshop won't read it.... what the...

Well... now I have an excuse to run out and buy another camera.... he heh.

Maybe I"m in a sour mood. I've been buying up Canon FD's for my beloved Gh2, but the last 4 lenses were bust.

How could I miss the fungus on the 100mm 2.8? What? The 35mm f2 won't focus to infinity?? (now that I noticed the polarizer on the lens was dented in two places... maybe it was dropped...). The 24mm 2.8 has a busted breech mount that won't mount. The 50mm Fl 1.4 will not change aperture.

That was a sobering experience.

 

[Kevin Lee]

Tried shooting Raw with Gh2, but photoshop won't read it.... what the...

What version of photoshop are you using? Both lightroom and photoshop are reading my RAW photos just fine.

 

[TheDingo]

Tried shooting Raw with Gh2, but photoshop won't read it.... what the...

Your Photoshop must be an older version. ( I'm not sure what version added the GH-2 RAW compatibility, but my Photoshop CS3 won't read GH-2 RAW either, which was my excuse to buy LightRoom 3 )

 

[gonzo_entertainment]

Indeed all and having to shoot with a 5D and it's overheating and limited record times are a major PITA. I want a workhorse of a camera and the 5D and 7D aren't that at all. In the types of shooting situations I do, I have to crank out content and the canons will always find a way to slow things down.... and or shut down and then poof I'm waiting for a camera and that's unacceptable. So, given the quality of the GH2, I"m so happy and content....

That's just complete BS as far as overheating. I have shot several live events with the 5D, recording until it hit the file size limit, restarting, repeating that over and over and never once have I experienced overheating. The record time limit is certainly a draw back for event shooting, but there's no need to fabricate stuff.

 

[TheDingo]

Do a Google search on "Canon overheating" and you might just find a few people that seem to think there is a problem with both the 5D MK2 and 7D bodies. ( I never had any overheating problems with my Canon 60D during the few months that I owned it )

 

[gonzo_entertainment]

Indeed all and having to shoot with a 5D and it's overheating and limited record times are a major PITA. I want a workhorse of a camera and the 5D and 7D aren't that at all. In the types of shooting situations I do, I have to crank out content and the canons will always find a way to slow things down.... and or shut down and then poof I'm waiting for a camera and that's unacceptable. So, given the quality of the GH2, I"m so happy and content....

Do a Google search on "Canon overheating" and you might just find a few people that seem to think there is a problem with both the 5D MK2 and 7D bodies. ( I never had any overheating problems with my Canon 60D during the few months that I owned it )

I'm convinced it's a myth at least as far as the 5D goes. I can't vouch for the 7D because I've only used one once, although it was the same thing a live event, running non-stop except to restart after max file size reached, and in 3 plus hours of doing that drill it never once overheated.

 

[ATL Media Group]

I'm convinced it's a myth at least as far as the 5D goes. I can't vouch for the 7D because I've only used one once, although it was the same thing a live event, running non-stop except to restart after max file size reached, and in 3 plus hours of doing that drill it never once overheated.

You don't need to vouch for the 7D.. heh..
<a href="http://vimeo.com/9924959" target="_blank">

 

[Tim Joy]

I think it depends on the ambient temp. I was in a HOT theater with the 7D and got overheating a few times.

 

[Gary Huff]

I'm convinced it's a myth at least as far as the 5D goes.

No way is it a myth. Though I haven't used a 5D, it makes no sense that both the T2i and the 7D overheat while the 5D does not. The 60D, which was the fourth down the line, seems to have alleviated that issue because I've never had it overheat on me.

 

[Jester2138]

I owned a 7D for a year and it drove me nuts with constant overheating. I could barely shoot for five minute sometimes. After I'd been shooting for an hour or so, even intermittently, it would start cutting out after a minute or two. Towards the end of that year, I'd have to hit record twice for every new shot because after the first press, it would run for only five seconds and then stop - but the second press would have it going for a few minutes just fine.

But even besides that, I just generally hated that camera. Canon is going to have to do something pretty amazing to ever lure me back from M4/3.

 

[Cosimo Bullo]

Our 5d has paid for itself many, many times over. Tons of hours, sometimes in 100 degree weather (CA central valley). The camera has never overheated.

(that said, we're shooting now almost exclusively with our GH2s and driftwood Seaquake)

 

[tommyp]

One of my students just got back from Sudan. He was over there for a few weeks shooting a doc for his capstone project. I asked him how it went and he said he had a lot of overheating issues with the 7d. When he shoots here in VT it is not an issue but i hear it is a lot warmer in Africa.

 

[Gary Huff]

I've heard with the 5D that the overheating icon doesn't show up until the camera's about to seriously fail on you due to overheating, and that you could have image issues with overheating before the icon ever shows up. If that's true, that might explain a lot.