Panasonic G6 topic, GH2 replacement camera

Vitaliy_Kiselev

http://www.bestmirrorlesscamerareviews.com/2013/12/20/spending-the-week-with-the-panasonic-lumix-g6-first-impressions/

Vesku

Thanks for link.

Again another review which has not tested video capabilities. I wonder how hard is it to test video because almost nobody in the world does it properly??? Like shooting simple comparable charts with tripod.

anraku

Hi, just to share this last work made with panasonic G6! I think it is a very good cheap tool...easy to use. Thanks for wachting

DanPV

A blog post explaining why he kept his G6 and sold his GX7 http://cameraergonomics.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-kept-g6-and-sold-gx7-why.html

Main reason was that he found the G6 to be much more comfortable to use. I agree with him, that is part of the reason I replaced my GH2 with a G6.

DanPV

5DmkIII vs G6

Adam_Mercier

I had at least 5 freezes on my G6 since I got it in november. The firmware is 1.0 so I may need to upgrade... Whe I say freeze the camera just goes dead with the green led still on, and I need to remove the battery to get it alive on next reboot. By the way I tested the 50D raw against the G6 and the canon takes a good hit, especially in sharpness, but the G6 does very well in color rendition too!

trafficarte

Looks like the Canon has a ton of moiré on the video comparison shots, at 3:23 and 3.38 there're a lot of artifacts on the glasshouse.

DanPV

Another blog post by Kirk Tuck praising the G6:

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/12/another-look-at-panasonic-g6-walking-on.html

Other posts about the G6 on his blog:

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-first-blush-review-of-panasonic-g6.html

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-first-good-shake-out-walk-with.html

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-graying-of-traditional-photography.html

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/11/kirks-krazy-kameras-of-year-what-i-like.html

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-five-cam-slam.html

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/12/happy-to-share-that-my-favorite-camera.html

and finally this:

"I'm being silly this year and doing silly awards for cameras I think brought cool stuff to the table. I've already made a plug for my favorite economy priced camera, the Panasonic G6 but it's only going to appeal to the kind of practical people who make their own coffee at home and drive no nonsense cars for ten years at a time. It's a sensible choice."

http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-vsl-five-star-award-of-year-goes-to.html

Mr. Tuck must have been talking about me here - I drive a 93 Ford F-150 and only drink coffee that I make at home. Must be why I love the G6 so much!

kurth

Ok....92 ford here and homebrewer ( starbucks are for tourists ) . And a bit of a luddite. Still running fcp 5 on a g5 ppc...living in the wild jungles of central america....robbed internet wifi...etc etc. I'd been using toast 9 to convert my gh1 mts files, but for some reason it spits the g6 avchd out . So I went on a safari looking for a solution. VoltaicHD worked like a charm but they want your computer where the program is running connected to the internet. So I've downloaded about 30 trials and freebees. Streamclip worked great for the mp4. Actually fcp and imovie digest mp4 but they ran a bit rough. Streamclip fixed that at a premium large file price. The avc files were more of a challenge. But I found kigo video converter ppc that converted them into mp4 and then used streamclip to convert them to mov. They look as good as voltaichd but at a small time and file size hit. I'd prefer voltaichd but it appears shedworx , regardless they say they'll work out a solution for people not connected, haven't returned my email reminding them of such. If anyone else knows of a solution for ppc users , I'd love to hear it. Or why toast 9 stopped digesting the g6 variety of avc ? I did find another storebought program that does a good job called iorgsoft. I might give them a try if they'll sell the program with a normal serial number without drawing blood. Otherwise I'm back to loving my new g6. And back to watching the gh3 price drop ...since it shoots mov natively . Also interestingly , I found an article by eoshd about a rewrapping app called mts converter I believe. The program installed but also just spit the files out w/o doing anything, even though it said it was for ppc 10.4.11 systems. I guess they didn't check .

valdi99

Guys - how is focus tracking working on G6? Reliable enough for moving birds, mammals, wildlife? It is called AFF in G6 manual, I presume.

DanPV

Does anybody know if the ISO bug present on the GH2 has been fixed on the G6? Here is a thread discussing the problem on the GH2:

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/1280/gh2-iso-noise-bug-at-320-640-and-1250/p1

I don't notice a problem with the G6 but I am a noob at this and just would like to hear your opinions.

DanPV

ISO comparison between G6 and GH2

valdi99

That video shows how useless is focus peaking on G6...

Qadri

That's a very valid point but I think you should add in your title "how useless is focus peaking on G6 is for faces" or portraits.

I recently recorded a video and the subject had a plain shirt on and the only way I was able to tell that the focus peaking was on him was because he had a pen in his pocket that turned blue. Nothing else was blue. So I used focus assist (magnification on desired spot on the LCD) just to check the face was also in focus and it seemed fine.

I was shooting with a Pentax 25mm f/1.4 c-mount in a room with fairly dull lighting but feared shooting with aperture wide open may have the body in focus but not the face (as focusing is very narrow when stopped down on fast lenses) so to be on the safe side I shot the video at around f1.8/1.9. Thankfully it turned out okay (and was also correctly exposed).

I wonder if it maintains focus of body and face at f/1.4?

I have noticed that focus peaking sometimes shows on hair and I think ears.

yak

Focus peaking works but you need a very sharp image and low iso, eyebrows and or eye lashes usually become blue. Natural -5 accross de board is not ideal for focus peaking.

MarcioK

And with legacy lenses it is even worse (if the G6 peaking works like the GX7's), since most of the legacy lenses are softer than the newer ones. I have a NEX F3 and the Sony's peaking is more present (but could not be so accurate). It needs some edges with contrast to show - hence the mention of @Qadri about hair and ears (if the background is from a different color).

If you need critical focus, focus assist is the way.

Mckinise

I have been able to use Focus peaking with eyes. I have gotten it pretty much every time I have needed it. Then again I use plenty of light and I make sure I have an eye light.

valdi99

@Qadri - yes, that's true it fails mostly on faces, but aren't people/faces 90% of what we shoot..? I can live without it, but I wonder more how the focus tracking feature works on G6 in movie mode. Anybody tested it?

jdluu23

@svart @c3hammer "I have live view when recording for 30 seconds, then the screen changes to a lower brightness and the overlays of exposure and such disappear. After a minute it goes blank. I don't believe this is something you can change and something many folks have complained about."

Can someone please clarify this again? Does this issue occur with the LVF, the rear lcd screen or both?

Are changes in exposure are not reflected on the lcd during video recording and that the lcd will go blank after a minute of recording? How is one supposed to work in situations that require long takes or changes in lighting if image will see on screen will neither reflect the changes and shut off after a certain time?

My only concerns would be with the rear lcd display.

I've just ordered a g6 a few days ago (after testing a gh3 for a few weeks), but if how I'm interpreting this is true, this may be a deal breaker for me.

Thanks

valdi99

@jdluu23 - hmm... that would be a disaster! I also consider buying G6 (as 2nd cam to GH2) and hope it was only result of Economy function (while enabled, during wifi connection) caused screen to dim and then go blank. Anyway, I am confused: does the LifeView stays on G6 LCD constantly when recording a movie? Or it goes blank after 1 minute? Does it happen only while streaming over wifi or even when you shoot with wifi turned off?

Qadri

@valdi99 - I was talking about video mode. @yak - what do you mean by needing a really sharp image to get focus peaking on eyebrows or eyelashes? I thought I had a very sharp face and iso was 160.

svart

@jdluu23 @valdi99

Read ALL of what I said again.. This only happens when someone is viewing the live stream via wifi at the same time someone is using the camera too. If you are NOT using wifi to view then the screen never turns off.

yak

@Qadri I meant very sharp lenses like pana's or oly's and contrast and sharpness at 0. Meaning that you are right it's useless if you want to shoot flat.

jdluu23

@svart

Thanks for the clarification. I thought you were addressing two different issues in regards to lack of live view during recording and lack of live view via wifi.

valdi99

@svart: so - correct me if I am wrong - when G6 is streaming lifeview over wifi and is left unattended/not touched but is recording a movie while you watch the screen over wifi - the LCD screen on G6 never goes blank, as well as your Android tablet or smartpone? I am asking twice as I've been told it goes always dim after 30 seconds and blank after another 30 seconds. And one more question - does it depend on weather Economy mode is on or off?

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