Sounds like a great upgrade.

Now we need a Technicolor Cinastyle profile for the GH2.
As I was reviewing the clips and comparing with the Canon 7D I now see what a difference the picture style makes.
I also utilized the slow shutter speed at 1/8 sec, which made for some interesting looking vid

What I found most amazing was the sharpness of all the lenses but especially the 7 - 14mm. Even the corners were intact.

Another feature that I am thrilled with is the interaction with the manual focus through the touch screen. From the moment you turn the dial the image enlarges to preview focus. This is a super way to cut to the chase, I found this very helpful.

Originally Posted by Marc Muench Sounds like a great upgrade. Now we need a Technicolor Cinastyle profile for the GH2. As I was reviewing the clips and comparing with the Canon 7D I now see what a difference the picture style makes. I also utilized the slow shutter speed at 1/8 sec, which made for some interesting looking vid What I found most amazing was the sharpness of all the lenses but especially the 7 - 14mm. Even the corners were intact. Another feature that I am thrilled with is the interaction with the manual focus through the touch screen. From the moment you turn the dial the image enlarges to preview focus. This is a super way to cut to the chase, I found this very helpful.

A "Technicolor Cinestyle" for the GH2 would be nice, but it's unlikely that it's ever going to happen. Vitaliy - the genius behind all hacks - has been looking into it according to his own worlds, but he said it's very complex. In the meantime, we have to work with what's built into the firmware. Most filmmakers seem to be happy with either

SMOOTH -2 -2 -2 0 or
for more shadow detail
NOSTALGIC -2 -2 -2 0

By the way, focus speed seems to be faster now with the new firmware.
And I agree with the sharpness. Impressive for lenses that are so small and relatively inexpensive - compared to the "Canon big guns". But I think as long as you're using Panasonic lenses on a Panasonic body, the GH2 seems to be performing a lot of lens corrections in camera on the fly - even in film mode. I guess that's really the most impressive part of this - stills are one thing, but doing these corrections 24 or 30 times per second... Not bad.

--- Markus ---

Marc (or any other GH2 user out there - are there any other GH2 users on dgrin?)

First a new patch recommendation: here's a brand new Driftwood patch - Quantum X v2
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/d...x-v2-rocket/p1
for the new PTools 3.64D http://www.gh1-hack.info/wiki/PToolSoftware
and the 1.1 firmware.

People are raving about it as the "best of the best" and it supposedly works on Sandisc 30mb/s cards.


Patches aside, I have one GH2 operational question that you (Marc, or anyone with a GH2) might be able to answer.

Since you also own the special "HD" Panasonic 14-140mm zoom -
did you get continuous autofocus to work in creative movie mode?
I know, most people are using manual focus, but automatic autofocus can be nice in some cases.
I have not been able to activate it. It works amazingly well in totally automatic iA mode when shooting video,
but as soon as I switch to creative movie mode I can't get it autofocus without me pressing down the shutter release button
(and I do have "continuous autofocus" enabled in the crative movie mode menu). Maybe you have more luck than I do.

Thanks,
Markus

Originally Posted by THX1965 Since you also own the special "HD" Panasonic 14-140mm zoom - did you get continuous autofocus to work in creative movie mode?

I asked Panasonic and they told me that in the creative movie mode menu two things have to be set:

A) "continuous autofocus" to "on"
B) "PRE AF" to "on" (mine was set to "off" - that's why it didn't work)

And then on the focus mode dial on the camera,
AFS switches to autofocus activated by the half-pressed shutter button,
AFC to fully automatic / conintuous and
AFM to manual - as it should.

Works really well now and I think it can be quite useful in certain situations.

Good to know Marcus,

I have been using manual focus thus far but will try your discoveries. What has completely blown me away is how well this camera does Time-lapses.
NO as in "0" flicker

My first attempt, I noticed flicker over the course of a sunrise. Camera settings were Aperture priority with evaluative metering and fixed ISO with manual focus. What I noticed in more detailed view through LR was that the only flicker was from the change in white balance during the time the clouds turned pink.

I then went out last night and shot a sunset with a manual white balance set, and voila, No flicker and very very accurate metering straight into the sun. I will post the TL here once rendered.

I must admit that this camera produces great still images for the $ and size. My gripe is only because I am so used to working with Pro DSLRs which operate at a descent speed. Everything on the GH2 is small and slow compared.

BTW, have not read anywhere if more than 1 patch can be loaded at a time?

Originally Posted by Marc Muench What has completely blown me away is how well this camera does Time-lapses. NO as in "0" flicker [.....] I will post the TL here once rendered. BTW, have not read anywhere if more than 1 patch can be loaded at a time?

Thank you so much for the update, Marc.

Please do share one of your GH2 time-lapses. Despite all my posts about those patches, I haven't really had a whole lot of time to spend with it. I have a shoot coming up this Sunday - day one of a short documentary - I am very much looking forward to that.

My 13-year-old daughter was the first one to use it to shoot a short movie for a school project - I did not put any hack on it and set it to full iA for her. It's way more important to worry about story flow, composition of shots and performance, than wrestling with technical issues to get the last bit of quality out of the camera. In the end, if an audience connects with a movie emotionally, it doesn't even matter if a shot is out of focus or not, as long as the shot means something. - But that aside, I was blown away how great this camera performed even on iA. Well, I guess they don't call it "intelligent Automatic" for nothing... Way beyond any point-and-shoot. (I am starting to sound like a Panasonic sales rep...)

And you're right - one patch only at a time. What you can do is put a different patch on a second SD card and load that in the field (if you have a full spare battery as well).

Looking foward to seeing a few sample shots and time-lapse videos!

Markus

"Driftwood" is one of the best creators of specialized patches for the GH2. He's just updated one - Quantum X Rocket RC (which is a variable bitrate patch) - and released a brand new one - Quantum X Orion (which is a constant high bitrate patch).

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/d...nched-today/p1

Here's a little side by side I briefly did in my backyard today - a simple resolution test between my Canon 60D and my new GH2. It's shocking how badly the Canon fares in that department.

Canon 60D: 17-55mm 2.8 / Tiffen IR ND 1.2, 1/50, f 5.6, ISO 160, CineStyle, 1080p 24fps
GH2: 14-140mm Panasonic HD lens, Tiffen IR ND 1.2, 1/50, f 5.6, ISO 160 Smooth (-2, -2, -2, 0), 1080p 24fps - the GH2 was using a very end patch called "Quantum X Rocket v3"

Below are the screengrabs. The sky in the 60D image looks shockingly bad...

The banding in the sky on the 60D is just horrendous, eh?

The first scene has the flicker caused by the Auto white balance, and then only occurs while the clouds turn pink. I used manual focus, Aperture priority and average metering.

The vid scenes were all shot with the Quantum X patch

The last scene/TL of the pier was shot with all same settings as the first but I set my WB to 5500K.
I also applied a poor mans dolly move :) with 4900 pixels of resolution there is much wiggle room.

Stunning, Marc!

The total absense of flickering without any post processing is fantastic. (Is that due to the fact that we're not dealing with an actual mirror here?) And the live-action scene looks as crisp as your timelapse shots. What ISO did you use with the sunset QuantumX shot? It's looks very clean.

I did a brief ISO noise test (lense cap on, boosted mids to the extreme in FCP later to make noise visible) and the result was shocking: ISO 320 was the worst - looks like a bug in the system
Clean ones were: 160, 200, 400, 640, 800, 1250

Screengrabs are crops at 100%, here's a little taste:

Originally Posted by THX1965 Stunning, Marc! The total absense of flickering without any post processing is fantastic. (Is that due to the fact that we're not dealing with an actual mirror here?) And the live-action scene looks as crisp as your timelapse shots. What ISO did you use with the sunset QuantumX shot? It's looks very clean.

I have always thought flicker was caused by the diaphragm closing in ever so slightly different diameters. But, it certainly could be the absence of a mechanism like the mirror. I do think it could be more the smaller diameter lenses being far more accurate! But thats a guess!

I will test my camera at all ISOs as well, just so I don't ever rely on that stinky 320 ISO.
I shot the scenes with 160 ISO.

Originally Posted by Marc Muench I have always thought flicker was caused by the diaphragm closing in ever so slightly different diameters.

You are of course right. Flickering doesn't have anything to do with having a mirror or not.

The amazing GH2 Quantum patches are getting updated and fine-tuned by Nick Driftwood almost on a daily basis. Pretty incredible.

I just read this interesting announcement by him on http://www.personal-view.com/talks/d...;-pictoris-/p1

We seem to have much more cinematic control over sharpness with his Quantum patches now!

TIP: You can now experiment with sharpening back on (0 to +2 in camera) for Quantum settings.: 27/02/2012

As you are all aware now, Quantum settings enjoy the AVC-Intra matrix standard along with scaled
AVC Intra p/b variations made by myself. This helps soften up skies etc... this should give you a nice
opportunity now to mess around with in camera picture profiles/sharpening filters - for example
Nostalgic picture profile (like all profiles on stock settings in-camera you can use upto four settings
to control contrast, sharpening, saturation and noise reduction - many people have been using -2,-2,-2,-2
because the Panasonic matrix is overtly sharp). So try giving the second setting - for Sharpeness -
an adjustment upwards (e.g. -2 upto +2), now that you have more headroom control with the AVC-Intra
smoother matrix. Let me know how you get on. Nick

Still loving my GH2 for vids and TL. Thanks again Marcus, for the updated info on the patches.

I was having a conversation with Pathfinder (over a beer) and another photog about the phenom of no flicker and Pathfinder mentioned that he thought the GH2 is taking the data from the sensor by so called flash charging it for the determined length and amount. This made more sense than anything else. So that means the lens stays open and there is no curtain or mirror. If you think about it this is also how it gives such a high deff preview in the view finder!
There is no flicker since nothing is moving and the charge can be perfectly duplicated as a numeric command, quite ingenious!

Thanks for that enlightenment Pathfinder :)

More reason to believe in the little GH2 here

Originally Posted by Marc Muench More reason to believe in the little GH2 here

That was neat!

We still dig the GH2 for our video work, even though the D800 is nice and all.

Watching all of the video relating to the test I too chose the GH2 from the pack of results which looked like digital video. Of those results which looked like a more filmic source, I chose the ARRI Alexa, although I didn't like their approach to lighting (not the fault of the camera). Also filmic the Sony cameras were very good, and then the Canon C300 extremely close behind them. I was oddly not that impressed by the RED results.

The GH2 did have some aliasing going on, both in the window/background and in the blouse of the lady with yellow pants. I did not see the moire issues on the GH2, except for maybe a fleeting glimpse at one point. I felt that the GH2 was the closest to how I would have lit the scene as it was very well distributed throughout the scene, while most of the others' lighting lost a lot of luminance in the area near the couch.

I viewed this with a NEC EA231WMi monitor at full-HD resolution.