Used GH13 or New GH1?

roxics

roxics

Veteran
New GH1 $350
Used GH13 $550 (on average)

Already own a GH1, looking to buy a second camera for wedding video work and night club shoots.
Every once in a while I may use these to shoot a short film for my own personal reasons. But money is tight at the moment. $200 is a big enough difference to help me get into another lens or glidecam.

Am I or my clients going to see the difference?
How well will the footage match up between hacked and unhacked?
 
Unhacked GH1's produce pretty decent results when locked down on a tripod filming an uncomplicated scene without much motion. Image quality suffers noticeably when panning or filming densely detailed scenery. The stock GH1 is well-suited for shooting static interviews in a well-lit studio with a plain backdrop.
 
An unhacked GH1 doesn't suck, but its no hacked version either. The biggest difference is the potential data rate between the two cams. I had a hacked one and several unhackable. I bought the unhackables because of price, my audience and what we were going to shoot. In a thread this past weekend it was when I posted the data rates, and REALLY saw the hacked one hit double what the unhackable did. That sent the difference "home" for me. You can unhack your hacked one and match them perfectly, when you need a pair of cams. Someday MAYBE there MIGHT be a hack for the unhackables. But in the mean time you would have one great cam and one that doesn't suck. Not so bad, I think.
 
wgzn said:
not a good one of either.
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What I really meant was that $200 was the better part of a 14mm f2.5 or 20mm f1.7

lpowell said:
Unhacked GH1's produce pretty decent results when locked down on a tripod filming an uncomplicated scene without much motion. Image quality suffers noticeably when panning or filming densely detailed scenery. The stock GH1 is well-suited for shooting static interviews in a well-lit studio with a plain backdrop.
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I agree to a certain extent. I've noticed the codec breakup when shooting a landscape of the woods. But in every other scenario I haven't been able to tell the difference which is why I question the used GH13 altogether.


brunerww said:
Mike -- If your margins are high enough, another option might be a 4 day GH2 rental from LensRentals.com for $118 (shipping included) until you earn enough money to buy a second body? You and your clients would definitely see the difference.
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Not a bad idea for projects where I have some lead time. As it stands I could afford a GH2 body right now. You just can't find them anywhere.
 
my local vendor "houston camera exchange" seems to have a pretty steady supply of GH2s. i bought mine there a month ago and they had a half a dozen or so.
i was in again last tuesday and they were selling the last of another batch. they may have more by now... $1499 for the body and 14-140 lens

http://hcehouston.com/

they do a lot of phone orders. give em a call. and tell them youre from dvxuser
 
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