Video shure, but how is the GH1 for pro-quality stills?

G

GavinGear

Active member
Hello all- I like the idea of using a GH1 for video- love the AF option if needed, love the articulated LCD (even if it is 1/2 pixel count of high end DSLRs), love the SD card slot- but what about stills?

Is the GH1 a good camera for studio quality product shots (with multiple strobes), portraits, etC?

What would it's limitations be for those uses? I know adapters are needed for non-Micro 4/3 leses, ... I know you don't have the same list of available accessories (and accessories can be more expensive), but what about the camera itself?

Anyone using a GH1 for pro-quality stills?

I'd love to hear all of your thougts and experiences (I know this is a film/video forum, but we're talking hybrids here right?) :)

Thanks.
 
It's certainly more limited in terms of still functionality than say, a high end Canon or Nikon DSLR, but I think the image quality that the camera delivers is good enough for pro quality stills. If you've already got the camera, I'd say go ahead and use it.

However, if I were buying a camera for the purpose of doing pro still photography, I'd go with a more traditional high-end DSLR. The form factor, overall feel, ruggedness, and available accessories on say, a 5D or 1D Canon, or a Nikon D700 or D3 make them better choices if you were specifically choosing a camera for this job - it's not *just* about image quality when it comes to pro DSLRs and pro applications, it's both usability and "what you're used to," that matter so much - it's why Canon and Nikon can have such similar offerings, and yet some people are just "Nikon people" and some people are just "Canon people," when you get into the realm of pro still photography a lot of it is sort of intangible and comes down to preference.

It sounds like, however, that you may just be starting out in pro still photography. If that's the case and you're sort of a "blank slate" in terms of favoring one brand over another, this might not make a whole lot of sense - but pros spend a *lot* of time with their cameras, and they really become part of you after a while, they start to fit you like a glove and you can operate them on a very high level very quickly.

A GH1 might not be a bad starter camera if you want to do both stills and video - you should be able to learn a lot about doing stills with it and I don't think the camera will hold you back, do it for a while, and if you start making good money with it, after you've gotten a good feel for the GH1, go to a camera store and check out the high end Canon and Nikon offerings, at that point, once you start to have a good feel for still photography, you'll either love or hate the way they feel and operate, and if you love either a high end Canon or Nikon, after handling it, the GH1 will feel like a toy in comparison (not saying the GH1 is, I have one, love it and use it for video and stills), but if you're truly serious about professional still photography, there is just no comparison between the way a top of the line Nikon or Canon feels in your hand - they're big, solid, sturdy, and just....well, very, very different from a GH1.

Even a 7D would be better for stills - it's a great feeling camera - and if video is secondary, then a 7D might be better - but I think if video is your primary need the GH1, even with its limitations in the codec is an easier camera to use for video, in my opinion it feels more like a video camera wrapped into a DSLR form factor than a DSLR with video tacked on, which is how the Canons feel. I think of it as a movie camera first and a still camera second - not nearly enough can be said about the articulated LCD and the mount which can take virtually any lens ever produced, no recording time limit, weight, etc.
 
Studio portraits with strobes at high f-stops? It would be great. However so would a Canon G10 - lots of light, low iso, small aperature is hard to screw up.

The real shortcoming is wide shots due to the sensor size.

Overall I will be sticking with my Nikon D300s for still work, particularly architecture/real estate shots. I would also stick with my Nikon for low light shots. The GH1 does well, but not as well.
 
It really does depend on the kind of studio work you are doing, but if you are doing it with people who are paying to have studio portraits done, you're going to look very, very amateur if you tried to use something like a G10. I'm not saying you couldn't get good pictures, a pro could, but its not a pro camera (neither is the GH1) and I think you'd get real tired, real quick using something that limited - for vacations, a G10 would be great, but as a studio camera where I'm getting paid to take pictures? No way, I wouldn't even be tremendously comfortable with a GH1 in that regard, but I'd' choose it in a heartbeat over a Canon G10. You never know what your client is going to be looking for and you will limit yourself BIG TIME with a G10 - at least with a GH1 you can get a number of good primes and have some additional flexibility, you're stuck with a consumer grade 5x slow zoom with the G10 and depending on what the client wants, you may be called upon for shots with shallow DOF, etc., not to mention the fact that again, you'd come across as a real amateur.
 
thisisapocalypse said:
It really does depend on the kind of studio work you are doing, but if you are doing it with people who are paying to have studio portraits done, you're going to look very, very amateur if you tried to use something like a G10. I'm not saying you couldn't get good pictures, a pro could, but its not a pro camera (neither is the GH1) and I think you'd get real tired, real quick using something that limited - for vacations, a G10 would be great, but as a studio camera where I'm getting paid to take pictures? No way, I wouldn't even be tremendously comfortable with a GH1 in that regard, but I'd' choose it in a heartbeat over a Canon G10
Click to expand...

I'd pick anything with interchangeable lenses, over fixed lens...

The Wife and I have been using Fuji S2-5 series cameras for years. Unfortunately Fuji has vacated the 'pro/simipro' market. But I have never had an issue with their sensor that they put into Nikon bodies. In fact I prefer their sensor+processing over the Nikon...

The Wife was reluctant to sign on to digital... I 'saw' the light in about 1982-3... after the Hunt Brothers attempted to buy the 'silver market', and film prices shot up... and didn't come bac down... and at a time when I was working in image processing via digitizing sensors... couldn't afford the $500K hardware to get a measely 512x512 image... monochrome image... But the experimental stuff I did showed it was just a matter of time before silver would disappear... ok... maybe more than a few years...

Anway, the Wife hasn't picked up the Hasselblad in about 4 years...

As for the GH1, I think I've inadvertently shot one still... ok, maybe two... but I didn't buy the camera for its still qualities...

If I have time I may do a test between my Fuji S3 or S5 and the GH1...
 
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Hi,

i just started with still photography because with the Gh1 I have a great camera now.

however, you can´t shoot tethered (or at least not yet) to a laptop, as I had to find out.

If you have a hidef lcd for the gh1 to check your clips after recording, you can simply hit the play button and see the stills on screen then.

but the saving to disc and previewing the stills in an application can´t be done.


besides that I have no complain at all.
 

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j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
The Wife and I have been using Fuji S2-5 series cameras for years. Unfortunately Fuji has vacated the 'pro/simipro' market. But I have never had an issue with their sensor that they put into Nikon bodies. In fact I prefer their sensor+processing over the Nikon...
Click to expand...

I've used the Fuji S3 and I'm with you - that's a great series of cameras, as you mentioned, it's too bad that they really aren't pushing that part of the market as those were very cool cameras, especially for studio/portrait work with one sensor for chroma and one for luminance - a pre-owned S3 or better would be a very good studio camera for someone just getting started.

I'm totally with you, interchangable lenses a must.

If you are someone who is not used to pro photography - one thing you'll find out quickly is that pros take a *lot* of photos, and that's one of the reasons that the gear needs to be so substantial, fast, and responsive - this is where the GH1 would give you difficulty...when you're taking so many pictures, the feel is just so important, the way the shutter feels on your finger, the way the grip feels, all of this is really compounded exponentially in importance when you use a camera for pro work...because you're going to use it so much. The little things that separate pro cams from consumer cams which might not seem like such a big deal really start to show themselves when doing pro work.
 
And then there is the EVF as opposed to seeing directly what the lens sees.

As others have said before, if professional picture work is your thing, then look elsewhere. But the combination of outstanding video, and very decent photography, makes the GH1 hard to beat.
 
iHartVideo said:
Studio portraits with strobes at high f-stops? It would be great. (...) lots of light, low iso, small aperature is hard to screw up.
Click to expand...

In addition to input, don't forget to consider output. For viewing on a computer monitor or printed at 8x10 (or smaller) the GH1 should be fine. Printing out poster size, maybe not.

Mark
 
GavinGear said:
Is the GH1 a good camera for studio quality product shots (with multiple strobes), portraits, etC?
Click to expand...

You did not tell us your budget and how large you want to print. For product photography and portraits, it seems that you would want to have the best dynamic range and resolution possible. This makes a full frame camera a very important tool, especially if you need to crop and/or print at poster size.
 
I'm using my GH1 to shoot products for this website: http://www.imagewest.tv/
Not much of my photography is on the site yet, but I bet you can't tell which ones were shot on it vs. the ones from a Nikon or Canon.
Given, this is for web work where "size matters not".
But I'm using it for modeling pics too:
22752_249307647471_568952471_3236479_5905288_n.jpg
22752_246215427471_568952471_3223470_6300233_n.jpg
 
//I WAS WRONG:

Earlier I stated the disadvantage of not being able to shoot tethered to a pc.

well that seems outdated, as I found a comment on the GH1 vimeo channel with this link:
Link

I haven´t checked it out but the feature list gets my hopes up high.

//END OF WRONG

Damn! Doesn´t work, only browsing, but no triggering etc...

sorry...
 
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