Blackout
Veteran
I do believe Barry shot a chart somewhere and on the chart the GH1 got a little more resolution than the 7D with a lot less aliasing and moire. What was it around 650 actual chart lines? This sort of a battle has raged over and over again throughout history of cameras... a lot of people.. including myself, were upset at the low resolution chips of the hvx200 when it came out.. cause it was doing weird stuff to make up the resolution... green pixel shift.. ect... then the DVCPRO format was only actually 960x720 pixels and doing weird scaling... still the images looked pretty good.. yet somewhat too soft if you were going to blow up to film for a release.. The hpx170 and 200a seemed to have a little more apparent resolution, but they still never shot a real 1920 x 1080 raster image.. so many people sang the high praises of the Sony EX1 and EX3 when it came out as being the first real prosumer HD camera that shot full raster HD, but it has it's own issues too. Every camera does....and everyone will kind of align their soul with what they bought of course.... I was going MAD going back and forth between the GH1 & the 7D.. silly insane mad.
I think the GH1 does shoot and store a 1920 x 1080 raster image, but it only physically resolves around 650 lines of TRUE resolution and then 'makes up' the rest which SOUNDS horrible technically on paper but it LOOKS pretty damn good in actual pictures - if not in fact amazing for the price it costs. The GH1 many times LOOKS better than some PRO cameras costing many thousands of dollars more that technically resolve more lines of resolution but lack a the ability to change to so many lenses or the magical bigger chip closer to actual 35mm size look that everyone is searching for - or what is referred to as the Panasonic 'mojo'. but they have other pro features that people in the field need.
On paper - technically, the EX1 is a better camera, but visually, it's a taster's choice... also.. at the time I couldn't really afford nor did I want to spend $6500.00 on the EX1, then another $4000 for a letus ultimate than another couple grand for the lenses and mounts. To get that film like mojo on the EX1 or EX3 you kind of HAVE to do that... it is just a sharp tv video camera out of the box it doesn't look very filmic with it's stock lens and almost everyone using it for pro narrative work is using it with lens adapters.
The GH1 alone costs less than HALF the price of a good adapter WITH the KIT lens.
I think my shots with the GH1 blow away what I was able to shoot with a HPX200a and an adapter as far as detail, sharpness, resolution and just overall 'the look', and I find it can be very competitive with what can be achieved on an ex1 / ex3 with that expensive $10,000+ combo. But obviously there are real world trade offs that you learn to work around. It took me a good while to get really great shots on the GH1 (oh and it took the ptool hack from tester13 too) but I am blown away by it now. The value is incredible of quality of picture to $ ratio.. if ya really want to get geeky with something that means something and translates into your production in a very real way.
I projected some of my GH1.3 footage directly from the camera onto a huge screen with a 10,000 lumens dlp projector, and I sat about two screen lengths away and I watched in total awe.... it really looked 'like a movie' and that's what I was looking for and it delivered. I have been looking for something that could do that for that price for a loooooooooooooooooooooong time and obviously many other creatives have as well or it wouldn't be so popular.
Sure, there is no 'one tool fits all' for movie making but when people have a small budget and big dreams and they want the best possible look for their buck... the gh1 with the hack is pretty dang hard to be right now. I dare say nothing beats it right now in terms of value and visual bang for buck.
I think the GH1 does shoot and store a 1920 x 1080 raster image, but it only physically resolves around 650 lines of TRUE resolution and then 'makes up' the rest which SOUNDS horrible technically on paper but it LOOKS pretty damn good in actual pictures - if not in fact amazing for the price it costs. The GH1 many times LOOKS better than some PRO cameras costing many thousands of dollars more that technically resolve more lines of resolution but lack a the ability to change to so many lenses or the magical bigger chip closer to actual 35mm size look that everyone is searching for - or what is referred to as the Panasonic 'mojo'. but they have other pro features that people in the field need.
On paper - technically, the EX1 is a better camera, but visually, it's a taster's choice... also.. at the time I couldn't really afford nor did I want to spend $6500.00 on the EX1, then another $4000 for a letus ultimate than another couple grand for the lenses and mounts. To get that film like mojo on the EX1 or EX3 you kind of HAVE to do that... it is just a sharp tv video camera out of the box it doesn't look very filmic with it's stock lens and almost everyone using it for pro narrative work is using it with lens adapters.
The GH1 alone costs less than HALF the price of a good adapter WITH the KIT lens.
I think my shots with the GH1 blow away what I was able to shoot with a HPX200a and an adapter as far as detail, sharpness, resolution and just overall 'the look', and I find it can be very competitive with what can be achieved on an ex1 / ex3 with that expensive $10,000+ combo. But obviously there are real world trade offs that you learn to work around. It took me a good while to get really great shots on the GH1 (oh and it took the ptool hack from tester13 too) but I am blown away by it now. The value is incredible of quality of picture to $ ratio.. if ya really want to get geeky with something that means something and translates into your production in a very real way.
I projected some of my GH1.3 footage directly from the camera onto a huge screen with a 10,000 lumens dlp projector, and I sat about two screen lengths away and I watched in total awe.... it really looked 'like a movie' and that's what I was looking for and it delivered. I have been looking for something that could do that for that price for a loooooooooooooooooooooong time and obviously many other creatives have as well or it wouldn't be so popular.
Sure, there is no 'one tool fits all' for movie making but when people have a small budget and big dreams and they want the best possible look for their buck... the gh1 with the hack is pretty dang hard to be right now. I dare say nothing beats it right now in terms of value and visual bang for buck.
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