GF2 sensor is slightly smaller.. Could be really good paired with a b4 2/3" ENG with doubler lens.

Ebacherville

I noticed something tonight, I have this C mount lens that almost covered the entire GH2 sensor, had slight edge vignetting in the corners.. I put it on my GF2 and no vignetting... I double checked this.. The GF2 seems to have a slightly smaller sensor area.. In my quest for lenses, I have been tempted to get a old b4 ENG 2/3 lens with a doubler and the adapter to micro 4/3 , but have always been turned off by the edge distorsion in the corners with some of these lenses. It has always been a bit to much in the corners.. but if the GF2 has a slightly smaller area, this may be absolutely perfect for the 2/3 ENG lens.. especially if we get manual video controls.

ENG cameras are going to be 60i footage for broadcast anyway, we already have bitrate hacks that make the GF2 put out really nice quality 1080, if the sensor is a bit smaller, we eliminate or lessen the edge corner distortion of the ENG lens doubler..

So, if your lucky with ebay for about $700 - $900 total you get a used 2/3" ENG lens with doubler, constant F from 16-300mm (lens dependent, most are 8-140mm range), a GF2 body, and the b4 lens adapter, add a LCDVF and a cowboy studio sholder rig, rig up power to the zoom on the ENG lens and you have a full HD ENG camera, and I bet would hold up well or beat out the lower end ENG style cameras on the market like Pani's low priced ENG style camcorders ($2500 range). Still lacking integrated sound with XLR ect, but segregated sound isn't a big deal.

Most of these used ENG lenses are from SD cameras, but are very high quality lenses.. new they went new for 7k+ each... There are a few really nice samples online of these lenses on GHx bodies.. Some have the corner distortion others don't.. If we figure out manual controls on the GF line we could have a great ENG replacement on our hands with this combo... for next to nothing dollar wise.. smaller physical size and weight too.. And not to mention the lens can be swapped to primes for those special shots that require loads of bokeh or super low light etc. This small sensor size difference got me pretty excited about the little GF2 and GF3 camera line.

Any one have direct experiance with the B4 lenses on GH or GF cameras..

Can any one confirm the GF2 and GF3 sensor is indeed, a bit smaller?

Vitaliy_Kiselev

It is all in reverse.

GH2 sensor is larger :-) Same as GH1.

For all other cameras it is same size.

KeithLommel

@Ebacherville: Yes, the multi-aspect GH1 and GH2 sensor is slightly larger than other m4/3 sensors (such as GF2 and GF3). It's a bit wider than regular m4/3 so that it can do 16:9 natively, rather than cropping from 4:3 as with GF2. The effect is that wide lenses behave a little wider on GH2, and these sensors are more likely to vignette on third party lenses designed with a smaller image circle, as you have discovered.

Ralph_B

@Ebacherville This is a very interesting discovery. I have some C-mount lenses that don't fill the GH2 frame, but I would really like to know if they could with the GF2/3. Could you post some frame grabs of your lens on both cameras, so I could see how much difference you're talking about? Thanks.

Ebacherville

Attached are the two video stills.. same conditions, same lens, and same tripod and location, wanted a white wall to really show the vignette..

Ralph_B

Thanks, that's helpful.

Tomaso

Here are two not so good images showing sensor size for GH2/GH1 compared to the rest og G cameras:

Ebacherville

Thanks Tomaso, that explains it nicely .

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