Why I am not too worried about upgrading to the GH2 - behind the scenes

Blackout

Blackout

Veteran

Rehearsing some moves with the lead artist for the upcoming "In Luv With You" music video. As you can see the look is beautiful and the GH13 with my custom super secret ninja 52 mbit DP hack - with these hacks and settings the GH1 handles fine details and smoke particles that would smash other cameras - such as the ENTIRE canon line! The GH2 is ok, but really NOT a needed or 'better' upgrade because it is stuck at 24mbps which would have problems with this smoke detail I'm pretty sure.

Again, I'll be picking one up and doing exact same lighting side by side comparisons, but the client and everyone involved was BLOWN away by the quality out of the GH13s on this shoot. Remember that this is a youtube encode, so any noise / blocking you see if from that. The original is flawless. I may have to add just a tad of dithering to control some of the grey-scale banding, but that is my only concern.
 
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great footage , except for the annoying bloke on the right hogging the camera all the time ....... :)
 
Thx, and I'm sorry. I know I know. I'm not nearly as pretty as her... but she doesn't have a hat as good as mine either.
 
You never know if 24mbps is good enough for smoke until to try. Rate isn't full story. I was like you, always worry about numbers, but now I found ears and eyes are the way to judge video and audio.
 
Blackout, as you post more about "imma keep my gh13", I presume you wanna get gh2 more. You know... self-denial!!! I think you can take good video with unhacked GH1 or GH2.

What I like most about gh2 is the hdmi out. It helps focus better. But I don't like the current batch. I'm waiting for the future batch that fixes the horizontal banding issue.
 
....but it seems the horizontal "band" issue "sometimes" only show up in ISOs that the GH-1 can't do anyways. Outside of not showing up at all...in some cases the line stands out and in others...you really have to convince yourself that it's there. Not a big deal. But...YMMV.
 
stonebat said:
GH1's 800 is equivalent to GH2's 1250. I heard the banding occurs at 1250 or possibly below.
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I've been reading the same thing about the 800ISO being equivalent to GH-2's 1250. So, let's say that's true...there are already a number of high ISO videos (much higher than 1250) of the GH-2 online where this anomaly does not show up. That's why I say YMMV.
 
Most of good GH1 and GH2 clips were taken at low ISO. At low ISO, I see more value in GH13's high Mbps 720p60 mode. I have little kids. I gotta slow them down. Hehe.

YMMV. Exactly. Some people have compelling reasons to get GH2 asap. As a soccer dad, I don't. I can wait 3 months, 6 months, or a year. I got time. The rapid price drop has been the pattern for most of m43 products. Buy slowly. That's my strategy.
 
Some sound like they are dwelling in a dark cave for 24x7. I've used GH1(3) for a year. The best photo/video I made were taken at low ISO which implies good lighting condition or the use of ext light source. Since I sold GH13, I've been using my friend's 5d mark ii. He bought it because he was paranoid about low light performance. Guess what? Literally it's been collecting dusts on his desk. Now he doesn't mind me borrowing his for weeks. BTW I like GH13 more than 5Dii... because 5Dii doesn't support 720p60. I was disappointed that 24-70 2.8L couldn't perform well at ISO 3200 in low light. I bet GH2 with 20mm 1.7 or 50mm 1.4 can perform better at 3200.
 
Honestly, the compression is still an issue for me. I font know if the engineers fixed the weird mud but it looks like detail gets turned to mush.

Hacked GH1 seems to even survive being compressed again.

At least neither are as terrible as the canons...
 
In the defense of the MkIi though it's still a cheaper alternative than the GH1/2 when you have to start buying glass.

The fastest affordable wide I know of is the token 11-16/2.8 and thankfully you can shoot wide open with that on a GH1' the issue is that it emulates a 14 or 15 at the widest end. Which actually really isn't an issue I guess.

I do admire the MKIi for those reasons and if it came down to choice, it would be a Gh2 or MkIi for work.
 
11-16 is faster than 7-14, but I don't take wide angle video often. Such wide angle is primarily for photo to me. At f4 it's not terribly slow. I used to be a fan of shallow dof on photo... but I began seeing value in deep dof. As more people take shallow dof, it seems deep dof photo is getting more unique.

5Dii is really a special body. But m43 lenses are relatively smaller and lighter compared to non-m43 lenses + adapters. I've seen good videos done by using m43 lenses. The only manual focus lens I'm keeping is Nikkor 50mm 1.4 Ai-s. I'm trying to buy a fast B4 zoom lens. High price for m43 lenses are non-issue to me as I plan to buy them after price drop. Most of all the fact that I can use GH in hand-held for video for long hours is the biggest selling point. Somebody must pay me to carry 5Dii...
 
stonebat said:
11-16 is faster than 7-14, but I don't take wide angle video often. Such wide angle is primarily for photo to me. At f4 it's not terribly slow. I used to be a fan of shallow dof on photo... but I began seeing value in deep dof. As more people take shallow dof, it seems deep dof photo is getting more unique.

5Dii is really a special body. But m43 lenses are relatively smaller and lighter compared to non-m43 lenses + adapters. I've seen good videos done by using m43 lenses. The only manual focus lens I'm keeping is Nikkor 50mm 1.4 Ai-s. I'm trying to buy a fast B4 zoom lens. High price for m43 lenses are non-issue to me as I plan to buy them after price drop. Most of all the fact that I can use GH in hand-held for video for long hours is the biggest selling point. Somebody must pay me to carry 5Dii...
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It's not so much about shallow imagery versus being ready to shoot in underlit conditions. you can stop a faster lens down, but you can't fashion a slower lens faster.
 
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