Should I switch to Gh2?

antcuc

I primarily use a t3i for shooting and only rent lenses. It's hard to escape the plethora of news and discussions on the gh2 and it always has me wondering if I should switch.

Are there any canon owners here who have switched or decided not to switch? What were your reasons for doing so.

I primarily shoot commercials, music videos, and web series destined for web.

Thanks in advance for your time.

kdurk

switched from t3i to gh2. gh2 sooo much better for video. i can shoot video so much easier with gh2, smaller and in general my video just looks better when compared to t3i footage. gh2 is easier to operate and focus than t3i. like canon better for straight up photography. just my 2cents.

fatpig

+1 on the audio part. especially great for use with pluraleyes in post :) automatic sync- and if you need to, camera audio can be used very nicely. :)

antcuc

Ah great advice everyone thank you very much!

BlueBomberTurbo

GH2 has the best audio from a non-dedicated recording device I've heard. Nice full range, not tinny and compressed sounding like just about everything else out there. Not sure about the mic input quality, but the onboard stereo mics are great for general ambient sound. I don't even need to use a separate mic for auto racing events.

rockroadpix

I'm fairly certain that GH2 audio is better than 5DMkII audio. I could be wrong. When I was researching getting a dslr, (way back when) the GH1 had better sound processing in cam than any that were out there.

kurolaw

I owned a 5d Mark II and decided to sell it to switch to a gh2. I never regreted it not a even a second. The gh2 is just great when it comes to post, and the moire/alliasing problem is almost non-existent.

The only problem is audio but its worth it. You can even use your old canon glass(i only use old glass(don't like the look of most new lenses).

Alfi666

@bwhitz:

Got your point... I'm using Panny lenses (14-140 and 14-42 and 20/1.7)... I will try with same Canon lens I'm using on Canons just to check if there is some noticable difference. I've seen intercut footage between Canons and GH2 but all were using Canon lenses.. and there was not such huge color difference. Nevertheless, I liked the Canon lenses because of their autofocus - thats the reason I like GH2 in the first place... so putting Canon lenses is a bit useless for me (I could then use 600D instead)

bwhitz

@Alfi666

I recon this might be a personal preference, but IMHO the colors on GH2 are simply wrong.

Which lenses are you using on the GH2? Remember... the GH2 is ALL about lens choice. Allot of the "canon look" people like is really just from canon lenses. If you were trying to inter-cut a canon DSLR with a canon lens with a GH2/Panny lens, then forget about it. It just won't work. Got to match the lenses.

IMO, when I first saw GH2 footage I thought the colors and look was pretty bad myself. But then I saw material shot with Nikkors and other lenses and was hooked. IMO, it's Panasonic's lenses that are off, not the GH2. I think they are absolutely abysmal.

If you're trying to get the GH2 to look like a canon DSLR... start by shooting with canon class. Then use 'nostalgic' or 'vibrant' color profile settings... they look pretty close to me.

hedrox

one thing that should be also considered when you are comparing the iso performance on the gh2 vs. canons is that the panny´s liveMos senzors have different sensitivity to the light.. I have edited 4music videos that were filmed on 7D and I would say that the iso performance is really poor (we are talking about video not stills) everything above iso 800 is problematic.. also I´ve had 7D+50mm f1.8 stoped to f2 and gh1+helios 55mm f2 and the gh1 was at iso 800, 7D was at iso 1250, (sure the T-stop maybe wasn´t equal but it has been proven also by andrew read (EOSHD) that iso 160(GH2) is like iso 400 on the 5DmII , look at C300 the "superior" iso 20 000 is eqv. to iso 6400on canon dslrs , I hate when people do such tests and comparing, the last one was from dave dugdale when he was comparing the D800 and 5Dm3.. he set the cameras to iso 6400.. the D800 had maybe 1-2EV brighter footage compared to 5D and he said that the 5D is clear winner ... same thing with philip bloom on his christmas shoothout C300 at 3200iso was totally underexposed compared to other cameras at 3200 and nobody says nothing about it.. are those people blind? canon´s iso rating is not equal to panasonic´s and sony´s!
also you should consider that in what situation canon is.. if they want for a 4k dslr that shoots 4:2:2 8bit 15K you know what will you probably get for 1-2k from them ..

goanna

@antcuc

everyone here is pro-gh2

Nope. Not us. Nobody here like that. Nup.

antcuc

Thank you for your input guys. @bwhitz I was afraid the green tint and low light performance would be a problem with me but I'm glad you're not having that problem.

@Alfi666 That's an interesting point about the color. I'll have to do further research to see if it's a dealbreaker for me. But I figure with the larger latitude the hack bitrate offers one should easily be able to get the color to a good point? I may have to just get my hands on a gh2 to do my own tests.

@dhallowell and @icp Thanks for your input. I don't use magic lantern much and use a smallHD dp6 for focus peak and false color so that won't be a problem.

Seems like basically everyone here is pro-gh2, now I understand why the plethora of gh2 discussion even exists. I'm going to stop wasting my time and get my hands on a gh2 asap. I can't wait, thank you everyone!

icp

I've been (and I still) a Canon profesional user for the last 3 years. I've shoot with the 5D Mark II and the 550D/t2i, mostly promos, events, studio, documentary & live stuff. I'm not a tech or DOP, so I speak from a filmmaker/editor/colorist(poor) point of view. I bought the GH2 as a personal camera two months ago, I hacked it with the Orion patch and bought some vintage lenses and make my first cheap kit (Rokkor, Vivitar, Canon FD). Now I'm sold. Make the switch, you won't be disappointed.

Pros:

Picture quality from this little camera is unbelievable (and for this price!). I like it more than the 5D video footage, it's sharper and the increased bitrate let's you keep a lot more details.
Smaller sensor, so bigger dof, but it's a good thing: focusing on moving subjects it's easier. And it's still shallow enough to be filmic.
Large choice of cheap/vintage lenses that you can use.

Cons:

Magic Lantern is a huge improvement to the Canon firmware. It helps a lot (peaking focus, false colours, etc...). I miss it a lot. If you use it on a daily basis you'll miss it too. GH2 hacks it's different, it doesn't add menus and the stuff the Magic lantern have, so keep that in mind.
Audio: Canon onboard recording is uncompressed wav. On the GH2 is compressed AC3. Usually I use an external recorder, but on situations where I need to attach directly a mic to the camera, I prefer wav to compressed format. You can increase the AC3 bitrate with ptool, but you can't playback recordings on camera.

Alfi666

GH2 and Canons have their pros and cons... owning two GH2's, 550d and 600d I think I can compare...

I love the image coming from Canons... not the resolution, but the colors and overall look. GH2 has incredible resolution and 1080p really looks how it should, but the colors are nowhere near the Canons. I recon this might be a personal preference, but IMHO the colors on GH2 are simply wrong.

Cutting the Canons and GH2's in multicam sometimes really hurts as I can't get the GH2 colors close enough to my liking. This is trouble especially in good light.. in low light, all colors seems different and there is not that much color information anyway, so the intercut isn't that bad.

IMHO, GH2's are good when used alone.. in such case, no one will care.

dhallowell

I have a 60d and a gh2...and like these things about each: -The gh2 footage, with the right glass (like the voigtlander 25/0.95) is very amazing. -being able to shoot video with the viewfinder is huge for me. I do have an LCD magnifier, but don' always want or need it...viewfinder grab works great in many cases. Of course no mirror slr will offer that -The 60d excels for stills. Wouldn't want to be without it. -Magic lantern is great on the 60D...I haven't figured out all the good things to do with it

In short, this is feeling Iike the best of both worlds. So...maybe the question is not whether to switch...but, rather, to ADD a gh2 to your kit.

brianluce

always amazes me how people can over look the terrible electronic artifacts of the Canons. Moire and aliasing are deal breakers to my eyes. Not crazy about the soft image either.

bwhitz

@mrbill

my 60D blows my GH2 away in low light.

Well the 7D is a better low-light performer than the 60D, and my GH2 is much cleaner than my 7D. So I don't know what area you are seeing the 60D "blow it out of the water" in...? I feel comfortable going up to 2500 on the GH2 when needed, but anything above 1250 on the 7D is garbage.

ISO1600 on the GH2 looks like ISO640 on the 7D noise wise.

RRRR

Wow, Id like to see that green tent in my footage sometimes!

Seriously though; I became interested in dslrs for video when mkII / 7d / 550 (t2i?) entered the market. I was instantly sold on the possibilities with such a camera. I shot some stuff with all of them (did not own any of them), but was particularly annoyed with the moiré and soft looking footage (shot often side by side with a canon xh a1, and the dslrs were really poor in comparison; despite more dynamic range and better glass). Opening the files was a dissapointment in relation to what I saw in the frame and I found them "completely useless" for nature / scenery shots.. I started to look around as to why the footage was like it was, possible fixes and eventually; looking for alternatives.

Hence, I stumbled upon the gh1 and the difference was mind-blowing. Not to mention how much cheaper it was; plus I didn´t have to fork out a fortune for decent glass; having basically the whole history of optics to choose from.

Last autumn I got the gh2. Sold the gh1. Now I have two gh2´s. I wish for better stills capabilities, although I can´t complain TOO much. (I hope the gh3 will compare to the om-d – it would make it the perfect wilderness companion) It´s such a great deal for anyone who wishes to shoot video seriously. A bit of a learning curve, granted (especially if you´ve only shot with canons previously) - but way more functional / practical than any of the above Canons for video. Haven´t tried the newer ones with articulated screens since video looks like "shit" anyway. Functionality seems to have improved, but it doesn´t mend the footage.

balazer

Please stop rambling on about things which you do not know.

The GH2 can set white balance from a white card. When more things are in focus, it's greater depth of field, not less. Depth of field is a function of resolution and the lens. It is useless to compare the depths of fields of two different cameras if you don't say something about what lenses you are using. For the same resolution, the same focus distance, the same angle of view, and the same aperture diameter, different formats will have the same depth of field. For the same resolution, the same focus distance, and the same lens, the smaller format has less depth of field. For the same resolution, the same focus distance, the same angle of view, and the same f-number, the smaller format has greater depth of field.

filmsource

i own a canon t2i and a gh2 ill say this theres some problems with the gh2 for me. when u hit record the video changes to a green tent. and it throws you off the canons are easyer to work with. the rollling shutter on the gh2 is better. and the alising is better. the canons are easyer to use. the gh2 doenst have the option to use a white card or grey card to set your whitebalance. the gh2 hasnt given me a better image yet then my canon t2i. the gh2 has less depth of field. i like it myself it gives you more room to be in focus. the gh2 does make more things in focus. it is sharper. im kind of just typing whats coming in my head.

peternap

I got in this late but I was a hard core Canon user. I had a MkII and a 7D. Loved them, had a bunch of L glass and was happy with the Video on 7D even without a hack. I always felt the 5D was a little soft and sold it.

I bought one GH2, used it, then hacked it. Information was hard to sift through especially for someone coming from still work mostly, to video. I bought a second one when I realized the potential.

This place was horrible until I got the feel for it. It was like trying to use twitter as a tutorial.

After a while, I learned the board and things improved. I started buying glass and realized I could get as good or better glass for a fraction of the cost. I finally sold the 7D and all my Canon lenses.

For a still camera, I'd take Canon or Nikon. For video, there's simply nothing better out there for less than 4 times the money than the GH2, despite my dislike for customer service.

Cameras come and cameras go. The GH2 will be overshadowed by something one day, maybe this fall although I doubt it, but the GH2 has set a mighty high bar for the other camera companies to cross.

antcuc

Wow thanks everyone for chiming in! I really appreciate everyone's input into this topic it's been worlds of help. Im going to do some more research before "making the switch" but the information here is definitely pointing me in the right direction.

matthewcarr

@mrbill I like the GH2 in B&W on high ISO.

Another issue with learning the GH2 and any camera for that matter is all the conflicting excess information out there. At some point you can't research any further and just need to test for yourself. Many debates are over things that make negligible differences. If your content is good nobody cares if your custom white balance has 2 notches less red.

mrbill

@deshondixon - my 60D blows my GH2 away in low light. Sadly, that means I'm also stuck with a soft, aliased, moiree ridden image as well.

DeShonDixon

@matthewcarr Ahahahahaha I swear I said the same thing when I first got the GH2!! I thought it was a piece of trash and thought people lied to me about it until I started shooting with the camera!! It blew my mind away!!

matthewcarr

@antcuc If you can work through the learning curve required to adjust to the GH2 it is definitely worth the switch. Especially since you are not invested in Canon glass.

I used Canon for a long time and most recently owned a 5D MK2. Going from that to a GH2 is more of a debate because of the full frame censor, still image quality and build.

When I first pulled the tiny plastic GH2 out of the box I said "I fucked up..." But I got past that, shot some tests, played with it in post and said "Hey, I didn't fuck up!"

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