florisvaneck
Active member
There is plenty of native TM-700 footage here:
http://hdcam.web-pda.info/
http://hdcam.web-pda.info/
What do you want to know about the new GH2?
- Thread starter AKED
- Start date
d1rockwild
Well-known member
Did you already go, Aked? I'd like to know if Panasonic has any insight on other manufacturers making AF lenses for m43. I suppose Sigma, voigtlander and Noktor would be the ones to ask, but perhaps Panasonic has something to say about it as well.
My GH2 report from the photokina
My GH2 report from the photokina
I have been at the Photokina today.
I was about 3 1/2 hours at the Panasonic GH2 stand trying to get most of the questions answered, that you all have asked.
I asked 4 salesmen there, 1 superviser and 2 product managers ans still some questions are not fully answered.
There was a lot of try and error in trying to answer the sometimes very specific questions, but they and I did what we could to get the answers together.
The very disappointing things in the beginning:
I had no chance to film footage with my own SD card, because they said it is a pre-series model and these may still change a few things in the final GH2.
Also, there was no chance to hook a GH2 to a HDMI monitor. All GH2 were connected with a cable to the counters and no HDMI monitor nearby.
Ok, but here for the questions and answers to the best of my knowledge and with no guarantee:
Sound level control:
Manual control possible before recording in 3 or 4 steps.
No change of the levels during filming possible.
You can watch the sound meters on the screen during the filming though.
Audio in:
is only mic in. You can not switch it to line in.
Earphone jack:
There is no earphone jack at the GH2.
Sound goes over HDMI during recording.
No sound via USB during recording.
HDMI out:
I was told, that HDMI out is the full quality with no dropped frames, no darker image or anything. According to them the HDMI output is debpending on your HD selection for filming. If you select 24p, HDMI out is 24p. If you select 720/50p it is 50p and if you select 1080/50i, it is 50i.
NOBODY could tell me, if the color sampling is 4:2:2: or 4:2:0. Sorry
When you record with HDMI out, the LCD screen still has a picture.
You can have the menus on HDMI out but you can also switch them off.
Firmware (3D):
The GH2 will come with 3D firmware. If firmware is coming as an update, nobody could tell.
Low bandwith banding:
Fixed pattern noise seems to be gone.
I made some very dark pictures with 12800 ISO and 4000 shutter and of course there was noise then, but I compared it to my GH13 that I had with me and I could NOT see the fixed pattern noise that I saw I the GH13.
I am not sure how far you can use the ISO. But the noise looked very good and very low.
PAL Version in 1080 24 or 25 frames
Sorry, no 25fps possible or planned right now. Only true 24fps, which was requested when there were wishes for a GH2. I never saw a request for 25fps..
Follow focus also in video mode via touchscreen:
Well, did not work in most models and nobody could make it work . But in the end I did find 2 models where it worked and it looked good to me. The GH2s on the Photokina were of course all pre series models and not all of them had all features working already. The product managers said, that this will definitively be working in the final GH2.
Codec B-Frames:
Nobody could tell me anything about B-frames. I left the question to be answered by engineers to be send to me via email, but I am not sure, if this will happen.
Tele Crop variabel:
No, tele crop is fixed.
40 FPS Burst:
Well, good news: The LCD screen is NOT black during the 40 fps burst. You can see it happen. Works for 1 second only.
NTSC and PAL:
There will still be 2 models, one PAL and one NTSC.
29:59 limit:
The 29:59 limit for PAL models will still be there.
Low Light:
There is no mentioning of the minimum lux needed by the GH2.
Recording, the picture:
The picture looke3d very clear with very tittle to no noise as far as I could see.
Aliasing, I did not see any during test filming. I filmed check shirts and horizontal lines and they looked good.
Skew, Rolling Shutter is present, when you pan the GH2 heavily, but I think less than in the GH1.
Flashlight: yes, the CMOS problem with flash is still there. A flash in the video was when I filmed about 1/4th of a picture.
Mud: I could not see any, but there was not enough detailed scenery to find out for sure.
ISO during Video:
The max ISO during video was 3200.
Manual focus mode:
no focus assist during recording.
But you can see in manual focus mode now, where you are.
They have a line from wide on the left side top tele on the right and oyou canm see, where you are in manual focussing.
Slowmo and tme laps:
slowmo (80%) and time laps (200% and 300 %) are recorded.
But they work in cinema 24fps only.
So, that was it.
I hope it answered a few of your questions.
If you have furthermore questions I will try the best I can to answer them.
As a summary it looks like a great camera and i am pretty sure, that I will get one of them this year still.
One more thing:
I discussed the GH2 wishes and so on with a product manager, why Panasonic is not responding and discussing with the users.
He made some good comments.
First it would be extremly man power intensive.
Second: With wich of the hundrets of models they shall start and where shall they end?
Also, when discussion what can be implemented, the are offereing the next features to other competing companies and they sure do not want that.
To sum that up. Panasonic is listening for the wishes of the customers. But intentionally not communicating these wishes in forums.
He also said, that several features are still to come. He did not say if in a firmware upgrad or in a possible GH3, but the development continues and keep wishing. It may take a while but as we see in the GH2, many of the wishes have been fulfilled.
Greetings
My GH2 report from the photokina
I have been at the Photokina today.
I was about 3 1/2 hours at the Panasonic GH2 stand trying to get most of the questions answered, that you all have asked.
I asked 4 salesmen there, 1 superviser and 2 product managers ans still some questions are not fully answered.
There was a lot of try and error in trying to answer the sometimes very specific questions, but they and I did what we could to get the answers together.
The very disappointing things in the beginning:
I had no chance to film footage with my own SD card, because they said it is a pre-series model and these may still change a few things in the final GH2.
Also, there was no chance to hook a GH2 to a HDMI monitor. All GH2 were connected with a cable to the counters and no HDMI monitor nearby.
Ok, but here for the questions and answers to the best of my knowledge and with no guarantee:
Sound level control:
Manual control possible before recording in 3 or 4 steps.
No change of the levels during filming possible.
You can watch the sound meters on the screen during the filming though.
Audio in:
is only mic in. You can not switch it to line in.
Earphone jack:
There is no earphone jack at the GH2.
Sound goes over HDMI during recording.
No sound via USB during recording.
HDMI out:
I was told, that HDMI out is the full quality with no dropped frames, no darker image or anything. According to them the HDMI output is debpending on your HD selection for filming. If you select 24p, HDMI out is 24p. If you select 720/50p it is 50p and if you select 1080/50i, it is 50i.
NOBODY could tell me, if the color sampling is 4:2:2: or 4:2:0. Sorry
When you record with HDMI out, the LCD screen still has a picture.
You can have the menus on HDMI out but you can also switch them off.
Firmware (3D):
The GH2 will come with 3D firmware. If firmware is coming as an update, nobody could tell.
Low bandwith banding:
Fixed pattern noise seems to be gone.
I made some very dark pictures with 12800 ISO and 4000 shutter and of course there was noise then, but I compared it to my GH13 that I had with me and I could NOT see the fixed pattern noise that I saw I the GH13.
I am not sure how far you can use the ISO. But the noise looked very good and very low.
PAL Version in 1080 24 or 25 frames
Sorry, no 25fps possible or planned right now. Only true 24fps, which was requested when there were wishes for a GH2. I never saw a request for 25fps..
Follow focus also in video mode via touchscreen:
Well, did not work in most models and nobody could make it work . But in the end I did find 2 models where it worked and it looked good to me. The GH2s on the Photokina were of course all pre series models and not all of them had all features working already. The product managers said, that this will definitively be working in the final GH2.
Codec B-Frames:
Nobody could tell me anything about B-frames. I left the question to be answered by engineers to be send to me via email, but I am not sure, if this will happen.
Tele Crop variabel:
No, tele crop is fixed.
40 FPS Burst:
Well, good news: The LCD screen is NOT black during the 40 fps burst. You can see it happen. Works for 1 second only.
NTSC and PAL:
There will still be 2 models, one PAL and one NTSC.
29:59 limit:
The 29:59 limit for PAL models will still be there.
Low Light:
There is no mentioning of the minimum lux needed by the GH2.
Recording, the picture:
The picture looke3d very clear with very tittle to no noise as far as I could see.
Aliasing, I did not see any during test filming. I filmed check shirts and horizontal lines and they looked good.
Skew, Rolling Shutter is present, when you pan the GH2 heavily, but I think less than in the GH1.
Flashlight: yes, the CMOS problem with flash is still there. A flash in the video was when I filmed about 1/4th of a picture.
Mud: I could not see any, but there was not enough detailed scenery to find out for sure.
ISO during Video:
The max ISO during video was 3200.
Manual focus mode:
no focus assist during recording.
But you can see in manual focus mode now, where you are.
They have a line from wide on the left side top tele on the right and oyou canm see, where you are in manual focussing.
Slowmo and tme laps:
slowmo (80%) and time laps (200% and 300 %) are recorded.
But they work in cinema 24fps only.
So, that was it.
I hope it answered a few of your questions.
If you have furthermore questions I will try the best I can to answer them.
As a summary it looks like a great camera and i am pretty sure, that I will get one of them this year still.
One more thing:
I discussed the GH2 wishes and so on with a product manager, why Panasonic is not responding and discussing with the users.
He made some good comments.
First it would be extremly man power intensive.
Second: With wich of the hundrets of models they shall start and where shall they end?
Also, when discussion what can be implemented, the are offereing the next features to other competing companies and they sure do not want that.
To sum that up. Panasonic is listening for the wishes of the customers. But intentionally not communicating these wishes in forums.
He also said, that several features are still to come. He did not say if in a firmware upgrad or in a possible GH3, but the development continues and keep wishing. It may take a while but as we see in the GH2, many of the wishes have been fulfilled.
Greetings
Last edited:
I have heared in a discussion besides me at the GH2 stand, that Voigtländer will also build micro 4/3 lenses. But no guarantee.
PappasArts
Veteran
Excellent report. Thank you...
Of the many good things mentioned; one biggie is HDMI out being clean, that's great news...
Pappas
http://www.pbase.com/Arrfilms
http://www.PappasArts.com
omnikron
Well-known member
excuse the newbie question.. I've been doing a lot of reading but maybe not on the right pages. I have dialup too, so it's slow. So if anyone knows of a good place to point me, please share a link.
I'm trying to find out a beginner's guide to understanding lens formats, especially this 4/3 and m4/3 stuff that is relating to the AF100 and the GH1/GH2... for example, the Canon 5DmII is a full-frame sensor? But this is a 4/3 sensor? There's 1/3" CMOS/CCD sensors, 1/2", 2/3", etc... So, I'm confused... because are we talking a different lens mounting system too or only the CMOS/CCD size and thus the focal length?
I'm trying to find out a beginner's guide to understanding lens formats, especially this 4/3 and m4/3 stuff that is relating to the AF100 and the GH1/GH2... for example, the Canon 5DmII is a full-frame sensor? But this is a 4/3 sensor? There's 1/3" CMOS/CCD sensors, 1/2", 2/3", etc... So, I'm confused... because are we talking a different lens mounting system too or only the CMOS/CCD size and thus the focal length?
BitMaestro
Well-known member
Thanks for checking on all of that! One question re: the above--any chance they could change the line to a numeric readout for greater accuracy?
Yeah, I know, I should go buy an AF100 for that - Mark
John Godden
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure there are some TM700 mts files linked in the Vimeo TM700 group.
BTW: Love the TM700 ~~~~~~~ :thumbsup:. The OIS is amazing and even the stills are quite good. The ONLY thing lacking from a B camera perspective is the deep DOF from the small sensor. For my purposes that isn't really an issue but it could be for someone looking for a filmic output.
cheers
JohnG
Martti Ekstrand
Veteran
Thanks for the report, very thorough - good job!
Well, why would we PAL users request it? It's there in GH1 so no reason to assume it would be removed. To bad, this makes GH2 a no-buy for me. I do need 1080 25p for my work, my clients have seen it from GH1 and simply just expects it now.
Well, why would we PAL users request it? It's there in GH1 so no reason to assume it would be removed. To bad, this makes GH2 a no-buy for me. I do need 1080 25p for my work, my clients have seen it from GH1 and simply just expects it now.
Vitaliy Kiselev
Carbonite Member
I can tell you this. Keep pushing them.
This is firmware fix. Not very hard.
Just do not suggest replacing of 24p to 25p.
Let them add this as separate mode.
No click sound at the beginning or end.
Is only takes these 40 pictures for 1 second and you hear a very silent but noticeable "rrrrrt" when the electronic shutter is being used.
You can take pictures during filming (see below) and that is completely silent.
Additional info to the GH2, that I forgot yesterday:
Now new is, that the silver button is only for stills (also in movie mode as far as I remember) and the red button, that moved up on the camera behind the still button, is only for video.
But the result is, that you can take still pictures while you are filming. There is no clicking sound during the picture taking and the video continues.
Great feature I think.
Also a talked about the rather low bps rates compared to the hacked rates and the production manager said, that Panasonic has to watch the compatibility chain to the TV sets. You shall be able to put the SD card fro the camcorder into the Panasonic TV and it shall just work.
The Camcorder TM700 record in 1080/50p if you want and uses 28 bps then.
Already this cannot be reviewed on Panasonic TV sets.
So the will stay rather conservative with their bit rates to keep everything compatible and consumer friendly compared to us "freaks", who just want to get the best out of the cameras.
No. It has been asked why not only a elecrtonic shutter can be used and the product manager said, that the electronic shutter is not as precise as the mechanic shutter and that, when you use the fastest shutter speed which is 1/16000s in the GH2 if I remember right, a very precise shutter is needed.
They even go back from electronic shutters in cheaper cameras to mechanical shutter. I just do not remember the model he mentioned.
Don't know. I only saw 2 icons at the end of the line and the focus point movent up and down depending where you turned it.
Yes, I saw this too. I made some pictures.
I will post them soon.
Wow, I am positively amazed:
One sales manager from Panasonic at the Photokina, to whom I talked to yesterday, just called me now and told me officially, that the GH2 has B-frames.
And he said that it is the first camera G-series Camera, that has the b-frames implemented in the codec. Also the G2 does not have B-fames.
i told you, Panasonic is listening.
One sales manager from Panasonic at the Photokina, to whom I talked to yesterday, just called me now and told me officially, that the GH2 has B-frames.
And he said that it is the first camera G-series Camera, that has the b-frames implemented in the codec. Also the G2 does not have B-fames.
i told you, Panasonic is listening.
Francesco Dal Bosco
Active member
I like very much this camera but I can't buy it because lacking of 25p. I really don't understand this choice.
Why not keep pushing them to enable 1080p50 instead? Surely that would solve the 25p issue as well and it would be just as easy to fix.
kainekainekaine
Well-known member
Anyone know if 720p 60p mode has b-frames? Will this mode be mud free?
Last edited: