Why buy a 35mm adapter at this point? Panasonic G1HD

R

rustes

Active member
:violin::violin::violin:IMO: 35mm adapter is wasteful when you can buy a Panasonic G1HD. Plus, this will bring more video dslr into the market in waves, full manual control dslr producing 1080p video that beats footage from sony ex1 and up. Some quoting that footage matches 'RED' footage.

What's your opinion or argument of spending $1500-$3000 on a 35mm adapter instead of $1600 for the G1HD?
 
i would like to know this also. instead of spending 2000-3000 on adapter and rails and other stuff i can just get the 5d or the g1hd for alot less and get good results. although i do want DOF for my hmc150. i just cant decide right now, even though i need an adapter right away. i have seen some amazing footage from the 5d so maybe i should try to hold off until the g1hd comes out and see how that goes.

anyone here that knows alot more on the subject please shine in. i have been to the 5d section and have read that long thread about its video pro's and con's.

thanks
Ninos
 
Doesn't the GH1 have a small sensor though? Not a 35mm sized one, which is what the DOF adapters are for. The smaller the sensor the wider the dof. It may be an slr, but it doesn't have a 35mm sensor as far as I know so I think that would mean it wouldn't get 35mm dof?
 
And beautiful bokeh to boot.... :)

But yeah rustes...adapters are becoming like the dinasour (at least soon).
 
Another thing to keep in mind is form factor. If I showed up with a little G1HD to a shoot, I know some clients who would seriously question my abilities no matter what kind of footage the camera produced. It's sad but true that many clients initially determine your worth simply by what they perceive in the equipment you bring to set.

If you are shooting footage just for yourself and don't have to worry about client perception, then these little cameras coming out may be a good choice if they can compete with the manual controls of a full fledged, purpose made video camera.

Time will tell.
 
here's why....

it's still a dslr. the form factor kinda sucks. i wouldn't have a problem shooting with it but some of my clients probably would. if you are charging thousands of dollars, clients want to see big gear, not a camera that looks like something they have at home. then there's no pro audio inputs. avc-hd is a low bit rate consumer format. etc. etc.

don't get me wrong. i am definitely buying one of these first chance i get. however, i will still use real video cams with 35mm adapters, 2/3" cams, red, etc.

the gh1 is not the end of video cams or even 35mm adapters. although it will make a dent.
 
There's a craze for the GH1 and DSLR video right now, and I'm certainly very interested. But my first purchase this summer when I pay off some bills is a 35mm adapter. It all comes down to what I'm using it for. I shoot indie shorts and features here in LA and of course, I don't edit my own material, the editor the producer/director chooses does that.

1) Timecode. I could be wrong but I don't believe the Canon 5D or GH1 has a preset time code.

2) No HD SDI out or component RGB out. I can't tell you how many times even on an HVX200 that we lost one of the color channels and had to spend time to get it back. The best monitor connection is a single HD-SDI out cable. My feeling is that the HDMI out, even if it were live which it's not on the GH1, would be pretty wanky and get loose. You have a whole crew who needs to see the image: director, scripty, sometimes producer, etc.

3) XLR Connectors for audio. Very stable connection. Again, having mini 1/8" adapters and crap mean loose connections, i.e. lost time on the set. I'm not an audio guy, but I think its also not as good audio having a mini jack plug in.

My own use for the GH1 or 5D would be for personal use: music videos I may direct, little shorts, docs, and vignettes. Home video too. But for those shoots where I'm working for someone else, I would look pretty silly showing up with a tiny tiny GH1.

Thus the 35mm adapter is still very relevent. I predict late this 2009, when the Scarlets start to get rolled out, and Panasonic/Canon may release a large sensor video camera under 10K, then redrock, letus, shoot35, brevis may have a tough time selling their adapters.
 
if you already have a cam setup and work flow you're comfortable with, a 35mm adapter is a decent choice.

Also, by the time 35mm adapters go extinct, so will the current crop of hybrid dslrs, panny included.. why? Because hi-rez cams like the scarlet are on the horizon and the next big thing will be hi resolution + these large sensors. so right now, choose you're poison and start filming... next year it'll be another ball game.
 
No XLR mic inputs, lower bitrate than an HMC150, no native 24p (it records 24p to 1080i), no built waveform monitor...

You still would have to buy a rail system, if you want to attach a follow focus or mattebox, which many folks do. This means that you have to take the rail system out of the equation when factoring price, which put the most popular adapters either at around the same price (G35, M2e) or cheaper (LEX, SGBlade, Brevis). However, I would then have to invest in all sorts of audio equipment to actually hear anything that probably doesn't sound like poo with a G1HD

Does it have the sensor overheating issues that other DSLR's that record video have, which basically limit you to recording no more than 10 minutes at a time?

Comparing it to Red is pointless, as the best this camera can do is 24p recorded to 1080i AVCHD at 17Mbps... given the choice between that and Red RAW and a camera with a PL mount, I'll take the latter. They serve completely different purposes.

Look, it's awesome that this camera can record video. The fact that apparently it has better manual controls than the 5D is great. But it's not a video camera. It wasn't designed with that as it's primary purpose. I'm sure you can get ridiculously awesome images out of it, but like the other DSLR's that record video, you're going to have to come up with all kinds of workaround for things. For most people, that simply isn't practical.

[EDIT: I posted at the same time as the three folks before me, who all make some very valid (though some of the same) points]
 
Its funny question, where we can find some filmic examples of G1HD ?
All i could find are some plants,animals zoom tests
 
bwwd said:
Its funny question, where we can find some filmic examples of G1HD ?
All i could find are some plants,animals zoom tests
Click to expand...

My guess is because it's relatively new, so there hasn't been much of an opportunity to produce that sort of example yet.
 
Only night shots look filmic on this one, white hands and skin in daylight arent so filmic.I hope it has exposure settings and manual adjust in video mode.I never worked with digital camera with video mode.
 
Well the GH1 is shooting 4:2:0 and, while it's not impossible to do a good job grading this, if the compression introduces artifacts like some people are seeing processing the image in post may prove limited.

Really, it's still too early to tell though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top