The Panasonic G1HD | GH-1 Video Mode : A Real Video Mode

Hi guys. Long time lurker on this thread.

I just downloaded Philip Bloom's great little Austin piece. The MP4 QT. (Thanks Liza)

Keeping in mind this only a $1500 camera, so I'm not a hater, I have to say there is stair step aliasing ALL THROUGH THIS. The worst is on the white super 8 camera at 1:29 into the clip. That's not a wide shot either.

Its so prevalent on hard diagonal edges and circles, hell even lines in faces, that one can see this aliasing even in the Vimeo version, on the super 8 camera shot I mentioned.

This very much makes me think the GH1 might be a 720p video camera in reality, and its just scaling to create a fake 1080p. My gut says this is possible. Panasonic does this, as we know with the HVX.

I'm a documentary editor of 10 years and I have my own FCP HD edit suite here. I work with RED and Sony F-900 clips a lot so I'm a little prejudiced.

I do like things about this camera, though. I would love to have it for documenting home life and vacations. In fact, I may buy it just for that. But the aliasing is real in the 1080p Philip Bloom made, and its obvious to me.
 
I tried the anti-alias filter on it in fcp. It hides it a bit but also softens the image. But it was probably a bit too sharp for my liking anyway. that with a bit of added noise hides the compression artifacts and makes it look more filmic.

When they do make a pro 4/3 camera it will probably be too big for my liking.

If you can't make good films with this then you can't make good films.
 
I believe that the the stills version of this camera-- the G1-- does adjustments to the image to correct for barrel distortion in camera, while shooting stills.

If the Aliasing is happening only with certain focal lengths, then its quite possible the video version of the camera is doing the same thing, and the aliasing is an artifact of that adjustment process.

maybe it can be turned off

Oi Kholi I said "A" beer
 
Isn't that called Scarlet? ;)

Well technically yes, but, the Scarlet was announced quite a while ago. I'm thinking of something else in the near future from Panasonic, Sony, Canon, or even Nikon. New gear comes out so much faster than it did two or three years ago it can sometimes be a bit dizzying for me. In the long run, good for us all though. I'd rather have too many choices than hardly any at all. Remember the good old days when it was either a DVX or an XL-2? That was it unless you wanted a PD-150 which didn't have 24p.

This very much makes me think the GH1 might be a 720p video camera in reality, and its just scaling to create a fake 1080p. My gut says this is possible. Panasonic does this, as we know with the HVX.

If that is the case, it is sorta disappointing but a $1,500 720p hybrid still/motion camera with interchangeable lenses and 60p for slo-mo is still a pretty good deal.

In other news....... the GH1 has now invaded the screenwriting section of the forum. :Drogar-Shock(DBG):

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=169844
 
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Hi guys. Long time lurker on this thread.

I just downloaded Philip Bloom's great little Austin piece. The MP4 QT. (Thanks Liza)

Keeping in mind this only a $1500 camera, so I'm not a hater, I have to say there is stair step aliasing ALL THROUGH THIS. The worst is on the white super 8 camera at 1:29 into the clip. That's not a wide shot either.

Its so prevalent on hard diagonal edges and circles, hell even lines in faces, that one can see this aliasing even in the Vimeo version, on the super 8 camera shot I mentioned.

This very much makes me think the GH1 might be a 720p video camera in reality, and its just scaling to create a fake 1080p. My gut says this is possible. Panasonic does this, as we know with the HVX.

I'm a documentary editor of 10 years and I have my own FCP HD edit suite here. I work with RED and Sony F-900 clips a lot so I'm a little prejudiced.

I do like things about this camera, though. I would love to have it for documenting home life and vacations. In fact, I may buy it just for that. But the aliasing is real in the 1080p Philip Bloom made, and its obvious to me.

If that's the case then Lee and Matt can fix it

Liza how can I d/l phils footy?
 
Just took a look at them. First, that's a great still from a $1500 video camera. I do see the issue at the edges but the larger file is almost unnoticeable at 100%. It's so much better than my HV30 stills - night and day really.

It's also all over the vehicles, arches, etc. I guess maybe it's just not as apparent as I'm seeing it. But I can't help but notice it. =(

If that's the worst artifact you've found, I'm actually more impressed now. But based on the fact I see none of it Phil's footage, we do need to figure out if it's lens, firmware, codec etc.

It's the worst I've found, personally. The codec breaking under fast motion is less an issue because you can just use 720/60 for that. MJPEG is even more resilient than that if you're okay with 30P.

It does really look like a scaling artifact, though that makes no sense

Exactly. Makes NO sense at all until you think about the idea that the camera is in fact scaling an image down to fit the 1080 or 720. And both the 1080 and 720 have it.

well, i see something vertically on the windows frame, but nothing horizontally
and definitely not a enough for me to see unless i was looking extremely close.

You may start seeing it as you record with the camera and look at the footage constantly. Then again, I think I may be much more worried about wides than everyone else so, different strokes.

Because it's only affecting 50mm or wider I suspected that it was the extra data in a wide shot that is either pushing the encoder or codec to far. I just ran a test on my D90. The same scene @ 28mm runs at 20Mbps and @ 90mm it's 14Mbps.

Can you shoot some wide stuff on the L lower bit-rate settings. And have a look at the fps rate of your SH wide shots to determine if the codec is being maxed out.

Maybe the encoder/debayer is not coping with that amount of data coming in? It's not really my area of expertise, feel free to jump in anytime Matt.

It's in all of the footage. I thought it might not be in the MJPEG but it's there.

That was my reaction, too. I practically breathed a sigh of relief when I viewed those two photos!

You're hardcore Kholi. Glad you're the one performing all these initial tests. How 'bout if I mail you an iTunes gift card for all your hard work!!! :laugh:

LoL. No iTunes gift card needed. I may be a bit worried about the wide stuff because I love wides to death.

n506588165_1405019_2882192.jpg


Tokina 11-16mm @ 11

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Tokina 11-16 @ about 13mm

I can't help it. I love it in narrative work as well. =(

But if it's pleasing to you guys then that's all that matters really. The 720p does look a bit better, guess because it's smaller.

most noticeable on the SUV wheel and the diagonal car window frame bit (whatever that's called)

And the tires, the blind shade, the building windows.

I'm glad you guys pointed that out because I couldn't see a thing with my 20/15 vision.

Kholi, where do you have sharpening set? Is it off?

I have to say...the picture is beautiful looking. I don't have any problems with this image. (But I am coming from an HV20 with its own aliasing issues that can be much worse than this). I just wonder what it looks like when in motion.

Sharpening has been dialed down to 0, so has noise Reduction. I'm on a semi-custom curve based on the setting that seemed to exhibit the most range in daylit scenarios and night.

There's also extra glass in front of the lens, a Hoya HMC Polarizer. You'll have to judge it in motion. No worries, my first actual footage will show plenty of ALiasing because I am not about to avoid wides just to skimp over it.

That's not too bad at all, especially when we consider that things will only get better from here on out over the next couple years with these types of hybrid cameras. I probably wouldn't have noticed the aliasing if I wasn't actively searching for it. On an HD LCD or Plasma I doubt it would be that big of a deal. Although, if it gets worse with camera movement and changes during movement then I could see that being more of a serious problem.

And if your audience is so bored that they're looking for jaggies you've lost the battle by then anyways. It is a different medium, but if any of you have played Grand Theft Auto IV or Halo 3, you no doubt have witnessed jaggy armageddon. I don't think I've seen more aliasing in my life, and that didn't stop people from enjoying those games.

Plus, aren't there anti-aliasing plug-ins for the various NLE's?

I rarely ever disagree with you, and I'm not disagreeing with you here. It's a start, so i'm not really complaining, just a bit disheartened.
 
I've got a feeling that those of us that are coming from DV or HDV will be pretty content with the GH1, sans wacky AVC-HD workflows and no external monitoring options.

It is going to be those that are used to P2, Redcode, AVC Intra, XD-CAM HD, etc... that will be less impressed with the 17 mbps AVC-HD of the GH1. This is totally understandable since once you get used to a better codec or format, it is hard to go back. I would never want to go back to regular old DV now that I'm used to what my Canon HDV stuff can produce.

That's really it. I'm definitely used to the larger stuff and I'm still impressed by the GH-1. I'm just being caught by surprise, that's all. When I actually USE the camera I am pretty sure Ill be over it. That's always the one thing that makes the real difference.

I am excited about the GH1, but I too hope the not too distant future brings some more robust offerings. With P2 cards now costing half price, I'm hoping for a P2 based prosumer camera body with a m4/3 sensor and maybe AVC Intra 50/100 from Pany, or Canon's fabled APS-C sensor XL-H1 replacement using the robust codec/format from the 5D mk2. Then of course there is Scarlet as well.

I almost wonder how long the GH1 will even be so popular. The new stuff comes out so quickly that by the time I can even get a GH1 in my hands something bigger and better might already have been announced.

Again, I can't even begin to disagree with you.


Weird, the aliasing is there but it's not too bad. I wonder why it would only be on the wide? Other than the fact that the wide is distorting straight lines in a way that accentuates the aliasing?

I have NO idea. it baffles the hell out of me. I hope that a change of glass can even begin to recitfy this. Because hope is okay to have!


Hi guys. Long time lurker on this thread.

I just downloaded Philip Bloom's great little Austin piece. The MP4 QT. (Thanks Liza)

Keeping in mind this only a $1500 camera, so I'm not a hater, I have to say there is stair step aliasing ALL THROUGH THIS. The worst is on the white super 8 camera at 1:29 into the clip. That's not a wide shot either.

Its so prevalent on hard diagonal edges and circles, hell even lines in faces, that one can see this aliasing even in the Vimeo version, on the super 8 camera shot I mentioned.

This very much makes me think the GH1 might be a 720p video camera in reality, and its just scaling to create a fake 1080p. My gut says this is possible. Panasonic does this, as we know with the HVX.

I'm a documentary editor of 10 years and I have my own FCP HD edit suite here. I work with RED and Sony F-900 clips a lot so I'm a little prejudiced.

I do like things about this camera, though. I would love to have it for documenting home life and vacations. In fact, I may buy it just for that. But the aliasing is real in the 1080p Philip Bloom made, and its obvious to me.

To be fair, the 1080 resolves more detail than the 720 for SURE. I did several tests with greenery myself and it absolutely does resolve more detail in 1080. That doesn't mean you're wrong, but I'd like to point that out.

Another thing I'd like to point out is that it definitely murders the D90 on Detail Acquisition. Trees don't look like mush.

I tried the anti-alias filter on it in fcp. It hides it a bit but also softens the image. But it was probably a bit too sharp for my liking anyway. that with a bit of added noise hides the compression artifacts and makes it look more filmic.

When they do make a pro 4/3 camera it will probably be too big for my liking.

If you can't make good films with this then you can't make good films.

If Aliasing is an issue and de-aliasing is the solution, then maybe using a higher sharpening setting in camera then dealiasing will balance it out. Good thought, Squig.
 
I rarely ever disagree with you, and I'm not disagreeing with you here. It's a start, so i'm not really complaining, just a bit disheartened.

I hear ya. It is so close, but then the darn aliasing. It is always something. The cam that gets all their ducks in order can't be too much farther off. I just hope I don't have to sell some internal organs on the Black Market to afford it (I'm looking at you Canon). GH1 is still tempting me though, even if I can't use it for every single shot. There is still plenty of time to wait and see what you, Hunter, and Mr. Bloom capture for us to see prior to this thing hitting the States.

If anything, until then we could start contacting Panasonic and see about them fixing this, or will it go unanswered like the Nikon and Canon firmware requests?

That's really it. I'm definitely used to the larger stuff and I'm still impressed by the GH-1. I'm just being caught by surprise, that's all. When I actually USE the camera I am pretty sure Ill be over it. That's always the one thing that makes the real difference.

Plus, unless we are distributing on Blu-ray or doing theatrical presentation, I'm gonna take a stab at guessing the aliasing will be reduced well enough for DVD and web distribution. That is how 95% of the people who will be viewing anything I produce over the next year or so will see it.

Although, I'm definitely ready to move on from HDV hopefully by next year. I mean with P2 going down considerably in price, why not? And Canon's new higher-end mpeg4 codec seems to fit on CF and SDHC cards. I can't argue with that.
 
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Kholi,

Thanks for the info. I now think my theory is incorrect. If you see some aliasing still occurring in 720p, and you can verify more detail in 1080 shot, then I withdraw my idea.

But I still think it is from SOME kind of scaling or moving of pixels. Maybe what Liza said. Maybe its what you said and it comes from DOWN-scaling from the native chip. I have seen bad downscaling before for sure.
 
But I still think it is from SOME kind of scaling or moving of pixels. Maybe what Liza said. Maybe its what you said and it comes from DOWN-scaling from the native chip. I have seen bad downscaling before for sure.

Wasn't this one of the initial worries that people were pondering about after the GH1 was announced?

It makes sense that it could be some sort of scaling issue since both the 1080 and 720 is coming off a higher res sensor/signal, but the weird thing is Kholi is getting it mostly on wides and not so much on middle range or telephoto zoom settings.
 
Okay, here's a bit of wild speculation.

Remember how Panasonic isn't working with Leica on their current lenses, because Leica didn't agree with their reliance on post-processing to correct lens abberations? And remember how people had to jump through all sorts of hoops to view the actual photos the G1 recorded in RAW, because by default, there's a lot of processing applied behind-the-scenes to correct things like pincushion effects?

Well, you can't really sneak in that same sort of correction with video, there would have to be recompression and it would take time and further degrade the image. But perhaps they can do it in-camera - not nearly same quality as something that has the full processing power of your PC, but "good enough" by Panasonic's standards.

If it was correcting barrel distortion in-camera, it would make sense that artifacts from this process show up the most in wide angle shots.

So maybe it *is* the lens. The only way to be sure is to test some manual focus lenses.
 
Bloom's video shows aliasing at medium focal lengths. It reminds me of the kind of aliasing in interlace.

But I would still use this camera. Its small size is perfect for so many things in life (think repelling down a cliff). And a no brainer as a family camera.
 
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