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GH3 user reviews and opinions
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  • I made a little 'continuous autofocus' comparison with the GH2 and GH3.

  • @duckpark

    You sir/madam have no idea what you are talking about...... No idea.......

  • endotoxic's article sure had a lot of, "...but I have to perform more tests" verbage. If you're using that article to base your not purchasing the GH3, then you are kind of silly.

    I have a BMCC on order, but this little cam is making me think twice ... I'll be thrown out of my own house if I buy two cameras next year, not matter the price.

    @DutchAerial - nice test, the GH2 definitely did "hunt" more.

  • @rockroadpix, thanks. Sorry that it's kind of hard to follow but when you look at it a view times there is clearly a winner. This was an extreem test but when you use the GH3 with autofocus on walking people it does the job pretty wel which.

    @duckpark...you should go to a store, take it out for a test on the field and then come up with comments.

  • hmm...50fps is always going to have better auto focus than 25fps - be good to try both cameras at same frame rate

  • @ ade4all, I can give it a try but my point is that I got 1080p on the GH3 and it focusses beter then the GH2 on 1080p. Except for the file size why using 25fps and not 50fps?

  • my point was merely that auto focus will always work faster when theres more frames to focus to, so no surprises there - was wondering if gh3 has faster af than gh2 at 1080 25p? I guess you can record in 50p then conform to 25p for faster af, or do you want the 50p look?

  • @ade4all It doesn't matter at al. The GH3 focuses at 240fps. AF and recording framerate are unrelated.

  • @sohus, @ade4all

    GH3: 240fps: http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gh3/still_response.html

    GH2: 120fps: http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gh2/high_speed.html

    But it's not only about the speed, what makes the GH2 continuous autofocus unless, it's the hunting between the focus target. This is in less extreme situations not there anymore with the GH3 which makes filming a lot easier with the GH3. Finally we can use the Tracking AF function.

  • @sohus

    Thing to understand here is that it focuses using 240fps only with one (or few) lenses, as I remember. Plus, as soon as you go into record mode, it can use only actual fps.

  • I thought it autofocuses at twice the frame rate in recording mode (I think that was from the photokina interview with the German product manager), is this not accurate or misconstrued? So does that mean it autofocuses at 24x/sec or 48/sec at 24P? Thanks!

  • @jfilmmaker

    It is hard to tell, but I doubt about "twice the fps" claim.
    It was not the case with any previous camera and it'll mean that they could get 1080p120 from the sensor but somehow did not make it.

  • Perhaps he ment twice the framerate of the GH2. That was 120fps

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev , k-thx!...

    Still waiting for people's tests to come in for aliasing/no aliasing on manual lenses vs. m4/3 lenses. As in, is it safer to shoot with all manuals to avoid aliasing/extraneous moíre issues, or we can still be safe with certain AF lenses, like 25mm Panasonic Leica. Thanks all who research this.

  • Me too, the only one thing I want to know is how is GH3 with manuals lenses. Voigtländer / SRL Magic / Canon FD / Nikkor...

  • The next part in the GH3 Reviews, '7: GH3 Demobbed' will be up tomorrow that will include a look at Panasonic's DMW-MS2 stereo shotgun microphone (designed with the GH3 in mind) being employed in the feature. Here's a pic of actor Jim Whyte in the forthcoming film. Vimeo Nick Driftwood for previous articles.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-07 at 19.16.48.png
    2560 x 1440 - 4M
  • Can’t wait for the next part, thank you Nick. Will you write a bit about the DMW-MS2? I’m very interested in this microphone.

  • Ok, facts and my opinion about the GH3.

    The Body is solid built. A Card with 15 MB/sec is enough to be used at 50mbps and 72 mbps (=9 MByte/Second). But with 50 and 72 mbps your card-speed will be your smallest problem. The bigger Problem is, that on a 8 GB-Card only about 15 Min of Video can be taken, before it's full. In the Time Lapse-Function you set Start Time or "Start Now", you set time between shots (in Minutes and seconds, up to 99 min 59 seconds) and Total Count of Pictures. GH3 shows you the time of the last Picture. If Time between Shots is more than 5 Minutes, GH3 goes directly after each Shot in Sleep-Mode and wakes up around 30 Seconds before the next Shot. This even Works with electronic Shutter.

    I fotographed my self this morning between 6 and 08:30 as i was sleeping... Electronic Shutter is very good, but is limited to 1 Second Shutter-Time and to ISO 1'600 and it has Rolling Shutter. In Movie-Mode you can select Frame rate, but first you select your Format (AVCHD, MOV, MP4). If you want 1280x720p25 you first have to choose MP4, because only this Format support this Framerate and Size. 72mbps with ALL-INTRA you can only use at 25p in HD and Full-HD. Thi Video-Mode goes up to ISO 6400 which is more than GH2 (Stock) and less than GH2 (Hacked). In Photomode it goes to 12'800, with "Extendend ISO On" to 25'600. I believe to 12'800 is "real" ISO, and 25'600 is "software-Push".

    I don't understand why Videos does not go to 12'800. But 6'400 is OK. I have to change my Habbits from the GH2, because some things changed. Now it has a level (gauge?), which can be helpfull. In Trains it even shows me if the train breaks or speeding up. The ON/OFF-Thing and the AUtofocus and the dials are harder to move than on GH2. It has a few of "Fun-Functions", for example "Multi-Exposure" or the Miniature-Effect. It is bigger than GH2, but after 1 hour it's normal to hold GH3, i only feel the difference, when i take GH2. The Record-Button reacts more quicly than on GH2. But it also stops 1-2 Seconds BEFORE you stop the Recording. (Example: If you want to Record 5 Seconds of Video, you have to stop at 6 or 7 Seconds, then you have 5 Seconds recorded). I hope this helps somepeople.

  • Couple of questions from a new user:

    1. Has anyone else noticed that the exposure darkens upon half press and record? I think the GH2 did the same thing but please remind me.
    2. Has everyone settled on the 50Mb MOV codec? I was reading that the All-I codecs introduced some weird artifacts?
  • I got it a couple of days ago but couldn't use it because of urgent work for a client. So I went out to try the beast this afternoon. Overall I am pretty pleased with it. A few things seems weird but I can't comment on them yet because it may be my lack of knowledge of the camera (info disapearing after 10 sec while recording??). The body is indeed much better. It's a bit bigger than GH2, but in my opinion it's for the best and an improvement. The Wifi function seems to be quite good and im already excited as to what a hack could achieve to give further control (monitoring while recording would be the most obvious one but there are lots of other things!) I like the menus, the quality of the screen, the position of buttons. So I shot some animals this afternoon, I am uploading a small video right now on vimeo. I used Voigtlander 25mm and Nikkor 85mm. I only had the time to put the shots together and do a real quick color correction (but i am uploading first an untouched version), so I didn't really inspected the quality of the shots. Looks good for now. :) I'll put the video here once it's finished uploading.

  • i too like the feel of this camera, improved features and capability of new the codec. there is one thing im curious to hear from others about: after viewing at 100% several frame grabs from clips where low iso values used @ 1080 with both all-i @ 72 and avchd @ 50 - i dont like the look of the pixel structure as much as the gh2 (with or w/o patches), which looks almost as organic as film grain. this was most evident in out of focus areas - for lensing i used a zeiss 50mm 1.4 ze planar t plus adapter and older nikon 50mm 1.4 (tried both at various apertures). the gh3 grabs, up close, exhibit blockier, digital video-like pixel characteristics.

    is anyone else seeing this? do any links exists to detailed gh3 sensor specs?

    will try to post examples later. im not complaining, i do like the clarity of the gh3 image...this is merely an observation that relates to the imaging characteristics of the new vs old sensor.

  • here are the few shots I managed to do this afternoon. I didnt have much time but I'll make some other tests tomorrow.

    I used rec mode 24p, 72mbps all-i. Standard mode (-4, -3, -3, -3). Shot with Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 for close-ups and Nikkor 85mm f1.8. Except the shot at 01:14 which is with Ex. Tele mode. (with Nikkor 85mm)

  • My 2 cents....

    link for ipad users, visit my page: https://vimeo.com/pilpop

    please read the description on vimeo for more details or download the video for 1080p.

  • @tenjin The disappearing info after 10 seconds is bugging the hell out of me too. If anyone here have any contacts with people at Panasonic, please tell them what a useless and annoying "feature" this is.

  • @AndersM and @tenjin I got my GH3 yesterday and the disappearing info after 10 seconds is bugging me too. I´m suprised nobody mentioned this earlier or am I missing a setting?

    Also not being able to use the ex.tele mode in 50p-mode bugs me a lot.

    And why can´t you turn the recording off in wifi-mode? This makes no sence to me. Should have been a choice in a setting if somebody wants it that way.