GH3 Strange Panasonic 12-35mm shakiness -- possible lemon? Any others see this?

Zephyrnoid said:
Interesting. I wonder if you'd care to list all your shooting parameters? I started a GH3 Facebook page In September '12 and I believe that once a gripe list with empirical baseline data is published there ( and here ) Panasonic will have to respond to this and other gripes as well.
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Thanks. That would be great if you could post it. The more attention we can get to this, the better the chance that Panasonic might respond. You might as well point people to the Vimeo links and to this thread itself.

https://vimeo.com/59358100/
https://vimeo.com/59441889

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...-shakiness-possible-lemon-Any-others-see-this

There's nothing fancy behind it. Put the lens on a tripod, angle it downward, and hit record. There is probably a 66% chance that your footage will be jittery to some extent. (I'm just going by my numbers. I spent two afternoons testing, and I'd say that about 2/3 of my shots were jittery.) It doesn't matter what ISO, aperture, focus distance, etc. Sometimes it'll be visible at 100%; other times you'll have to pixel peep at 200 or 300% to notice. Where moiré or sharpness are concerned, that's not a tolerable realm of error, in my opinion.

I found that the problem exists at all distances, but it will be more obvious if you set the lens out to 35mm and find a close subject, as shown in the examples on Vimeo.

I've thought about keeping this lens because it satisfies a niche that really needs to be filled. But then the voice of reason chimes in -- a $1200 lens that won't sit still on a tripod?? No thanks, no way. Not on principle. Not until there is a firmware fix or the equivalent.
 
Bern Caughey said:
A quick test on a GH3 shows my 12-35/2.8 exhibits the "swirling" issue, while the 35-100/2.8 behaves normal.

Tomorrow I'll test on a AF100, the other GH3, & perhaps a GH2.
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Yep, my copy too does this effect and the 35-100 is clean.

OR MAYBE... the earth is pulsing from it's inner core and the Lumix 12-35 is the only device with frequencies that can detect it's rumblings????? Gonna need a serious firmware update to fix that!
 
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dustylense said:
OR MAYBE... the earth is pulsing from it's inner core and the Lumix 12-35 is the only device with frequencies that can detect it's rumblings????? Gonna need a serious firmware update to fix that!
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That was my first thought. Or the lens creates its own vortex?
 
dan.carter said:
That was my first thought. Or the lens creates its own vortex?
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It's possible that some at Panasonic may in fact have Illuminati ties? :evil: Jan has been quite silent on these forums of late....I'm afraid to sleep next to my 12-35mm now. I keep hearing music scores from The Omen.
 
If people have the time, could you please post a video of your jitter / earthquake sample to either Vimeo or Youtube?

I've had experience with something like this in the past, and the more this issue gets out there and known, the greater the chances are that Panasonic will notice and issue a response.

Please use a descriptive title for your video such as "Panasonic LUMIX G X 12-35mm F2.8 ASPH problem: shakes on tripod even with image stabilization off (firmware v1.1)" so that there's a better chance that it will show up as a result on Google and other search engines. In the text description, please link to the top of this thread:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...shakiness-possible-lemon-Any-others-see-this/

... and to the Vimeo examples, or other examples that you see.

User Paul Willis on Vimeo has posted his example:

https://vimeo.com/59427065

Thank you to everyone here. This is a great forum.
 
I was thinking about getting this lens if the GH3 every gets back in stock. Guess I'll wait. Anyone try the 14-45?
 
Zim said:
I was thinking about getting this lens if the GH3 every gets back in stock. Guess I'll wait. Anyone try the 14-45?
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Hey Zim, there's plenty of discussion on the 14-45, see below. It's a very nice lens. Let's try to keep this topic about the 12-35mm. :)

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?240816-14-42mm-VS-14-45
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...etter-about-the-14-42-lens-say-over-the-14-45
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?248227-Panasonic-14-42mm-lens-or-14-45mm-lens
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...es-the-14-45mm-kit-lens-work-on-GH1-for-video
 
I will link from the from the fb gh3 page to here (better thread taxonomy would be helpful).
However. We need to ferret out probable cause better.
I note that the setup involves " pointing the camera down". Is this a relevant parameter?
 
Zephyrnoid said:
I note that the setup involves " pointing the camera down". Is this a relevant parameter?
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I have seen the issue on level shots, but it occurs much more frequently when the lens is pointed downward. Another user suggested that there are powered magnetic components that keep the lens elements in place -- and what with gravity being what it is -- this might make sense as having to do with the cause. Dunno. I'm no engineer.

In other words, yes -- although not limited to these circumstances, you will readily see this effect if the camera is titled downward, say 30 degrees or so.

More users are finding this problem in their footage. One Vimeo user claimed he didn't see it, but he just hadn't enlarged his footage, see below:

https://vimeo.com/59492932

Like I said, sometimes it's visible at 100%, other times only at 200 or 300%. Whether or not that's within tolerance is obviously up to the individual user. In my opinion no matter the circumstances, a securely locked down camera should deliver a totally static shot, otherwise it is faulty.
 
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43rumors have agreed to publish a short article on this issue in the hope of getting Panasonic's attention.
 
P13 said:
43rumors have agreed to publish a short article on this issue in the hope of getting Panasonic's attention.
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Excellent! I've linked the GH3 FB page to this thread. I'll do the same once the 43Rumors article is up, then contact my Panasonic Media Reps.
Power in Numbers !
 
Just to be sure, are all the people having issue pairing the lens with the GH3? If anyone who has the GH3 and still has a GH2, can you test to see if it's a lens or camera issue?
 
larrys said:
Here it is, this time uploaded correctly and you can download it as well.

Again, on my GH3, I shot this at exactly 45 degrees down, locked on tripod with O.I.S. turned off. I do not see any movement in the image and I looked at it at 300%.

I have really examined this now, and the Vimeo conversion looks better this time, since uploading correctly from FCP. I think my lens is perfect.

I forgot to say, I shot it twice. You will see a fade to black between the two takes.

Do you see anything here?
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Your test looks good, although it's a bit hard to tell.

Sorry to belabor this, but can you test on another subject, a different orientation, and with the lens farther out, like 35mm? I found that the jitters occur about 2/3 of the time. Sometimes the lens behaves perfectly.

Also, out of curiosity, what is the batch of your lens? Your serial number would be printed on the box and it would start with XT2.

Thanks for sharing.
 
On a slightly different note, I spent a couple of hours testing the 12-35mm lens handheld under some conditions set up to induce moiré. I shot handheld at various fabrics and patterns, and did the same with the 14-140mm lens.

It was incredibly easy to get moiré on the 12-35mm lens, whereas I hardly saw any moiré at all with the 14-140mm lens. I shot with a bare lens, no filters, with all picture profile settings at minimum.

I don't know if this is related to the jitter issue, but whether or not the GH3 exhibits more moiré than the GH2, I'm pretty convinced that some of the informal moiré tests that are floating around the web (that did not yield the most flattering results) are specific to the 12-35mm + GH3 combination. Take this with a grain of salt. If I have time later this week I'll edit together and upload one of the comparisons I did on this topic.
 
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