GH2 Stills quality - GH2, GH3, GH4

I

izoneguy

Veteran
So, anyone that has had a GH2 and used it for stills shooting…..
Did you get a GH3 and was the quality of stills better?
And the early pre-users of GH4? Any word or samples of still quality?

I have a GH2 with the 7-14 lens and tried using it for stills but
felt that my Nikon's gave me better quality.

Today I had a shoot and used the GH2 and 7-14 because I needed
something wider but I am still not happy with the quality.
I am shooting on tripod, 160 ISO, shooting RAW but
it is still not as clean as the Nikons.

In the stills I have seen from the GH4 it is hard to judge the quality
from the web.
 
Yes, GH3 stills in low-light are MUCH better than what the GH2 produces, and the GH4 should be significantly better than the GH3 for a couple of reasons...

- Less noise at higher ISO settings
- Better dynamic range
- Better image controls
- Better image processing that greatly reduces the fine "yellow grain" that shows up in certain colors with the GH2/GH3

I will definitely buy the GH4 this summer, and am very curious to see how well it compares with the Olympus OM-D EM-1 when it comes to still-photos.
 
Honestly, the GH2 was never a power-house stills camera. I bought it and used it entirely for video.

That said -- a year or so ago I bought a Metz flash for it and used it for professional portraits for various characters around Washington, DC (with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8) -- and everyone, including some picky PR people, loved them.

You must shoot RAW. The jpegs from the GH2 are damn weak -- especially when compared to Nikon or Canon anything. Next, know the optimum iris settings for your lens. Diffraction sets in as early as f/5.6 on these micro-four-thirds lenses. Finally, Panasonic engineers eventually admitted the "native" ISO for the GH2 is 200. So, if you're shooting jpeg (I don't know how ISO settings effect RAW images on the GH2) -- in theory, 160 will be noisier than 200.

Also, I'd be suspicious of that 7-14mm lens.

The GH3 is an incremental improvement over the GH2 -- but -- if you know what you're doing and are somewhat experienced with Photoshop -- you can indeed do pro stills work with the GH2. It's a different kind of image than that of a Nikon or Canon -- but it can be made to work.
 
I had the GH2 for a year before I upgraded to a GH3. Massive difference in still photo quality. Don't know how it compares to other Nikon and Canon offerings, though, but I'm very happy with it.

And, yes, by all means shoot only in RAW. The JPEGs are very weak, especially on the GH2.
 
I have the GX7 and it is MUCH better than the GH2 in low light, cleaner and more detailed all around.

Don't forget folks to close to max F:7.1 or even 5.6 with Micro 4/3s for maximun sharpness.
 
TheDingo said:
I will definitely buy the GH4 this summer, and am very curious to see how well it compares with the Olympus OM-D EM-1 when it comes to still-photos.
Click to expand...

I would expect the GH4 to compare favorably. Olympus has just been almost legendary with the IQ of their JPEGs, I was literally blown over with the JPEGs out of the Pen E-PL1 I bought to try out m4/3. I had been shooting with Canon 7D, T2i, T3i, and 60Ds


Andrew Gupta said:
Honestly, the GH2 was never a power-house stills camera.


You must shoot RAW. The jpegs from the GH2 are damn weak --

The GH3 is an incremental improvement over the GH2 -- but -- if you know what you're doing and are somewhat experienced with Photoshop -- you can indeed do pro stills work with the GH2. It's a different kind of image than that of a Nikon or Canon -- but it can be made to work.
Click to expand...

Actually the "fix" is really easy and can be fast. Using the levels command in PhotoShop (Elements, too) or the free program Fast Stone Image Viewer (www.faststone.org) to "strengthen" the dark tones (and mid tones if necessary) works wonders. Average time for me on a GH2 JPEG doing this was about 7 seconds and I could make the image POP with vibrant colors.

I've shot stills with both Panasonic (GH2, GX1, GH3 and now GX7) and Olympus cameras (Pen E-PL1, E-P3, and OMD E-M5) and I can get a similar look with any of them.
 
nice information here, The GH4 looks very similar to the GH3, aping the appearance of a DSLR, only slightly smaller. But GH2 and GH3 were both lauded for their hackability and great video quality in small packages, and it's likely that the GH4 will receive similar praise from budding videographers. Best tread
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