Personal View site logo
Official Panasonic GH3 topic, series 3
  • 1137 Replies sorted by
  • I've not seen this video posted anywhere here:

    If one would like to summarize what is new in the Panasonic GH3 in comparison with GH2 and G5, what should be mentioned in the list? Here is my take on it:

    • New 16MP Live MOS sensor (the same as in Oly EM5/EPL5?) with three-core Venus 7 FHD engine (similar to one in the Panasonic G5?)

    • Extended ISO 125 & 25600 (up to 6400 for video; the GH2 allows max iso3200 for video)

    • MOV (H.264) 50 Mbps (IPB) & 72 Mbps (ALL-I); linear-PCM Audio

    • New “splash&dust proof” magnesium alloy body, new internal battery (540 CIPA frames vs 330) + new battery grip

    • Five custom Fn buttons (versus three) and a second control dial; Touchpad-AF control (as in G5?)

    • +/-5EV control of exposure compensation

    • profile settings (contrast, saturation, sharpness and noise reduction) on a scale of -5 to +5 (against of -2 to +2 on the GH2)

    • support for Files Exceeding 4Gb

    • Variable Movie Mode (40%-300%)

    • Time Code & Time lapse

    • Uncompressed (clean ?) data stream to an external recorder via HDMI

    • φ3.5 mm MIC & Headphone socket

    • WiFi connectivity

    • Support for SDXC (UHS-I) memory cards (as in GX1, G5, GF5)

    • New 614k dot OLED LCD & new 1.7 million dot 16:9 ratio OLED EVF

    Have I missed some other important differences?

  • Here some videosi found and didnt see posted here (or at least i didnt see them while checking the last 16 pages) I didnt shoot these but thought they might be helpful. Hopefully a moderator can remove the links that are double posted?

  • Something i dont understand is that most people do not like the 72mb/s all-i setting but you would think that should actually be the best considering the bitrate. Would it be that they knew this up front but wanted to press for a certain release date and will 'fix' this in a future firmware update? Otherwise it hardly makes any sense to create a high bitrate setting that is outperformed by a lower bitrate setting like the 50mb/s .mov. Also, does anyone know how footage of the nikon D600 is compared to the GH3 ?

  • @andrevanberlo What's up with the "DMC-GH3 Video Test Review"? It has interlacing artifacts. It doesn't look like that was shot on the GH3.

  • @charlie_orozco It was definitely shot at 50i. I downloaded it and had a look in After Effects.

  • First off, great information here and amazing footage from the GH3.

    I'f got the GH3 +12-35mm lens for a few days now and it's my first experience with shooting video on a still camera. So far I mostly like what I see except for one rather big issue. in most of my test shots I see a slight strobe/hick-up effect when I pan or tilt (even slow pans). At first I thought my Imac was to slow to do a correct playback, but after connecting the camera directly (HDMI) to an HD monitor the strobe/hick-up effect is still there. Is this something inherent to these kind of camera's, is it a setting or is it a camera error. I shot most of my tests on mov. I FHD/25p and mov. FHD/25p shutter-speed 50 (-5 -5 0 -5)

    I also have a magenta tinge on both the (very soft) evf and the oled screen. Thanks, Jack

  • @Jwalker Slow your pans down most likely. That is usually the case for users.

  • @Jwalker

    The 24p-25p strobing is normal. I see it on all video dslr's. What doesn't seem normal are what you call the "hiccups". I also thought that it was due to the processor or graphic card speed of my Mac Pro at the higher bit rates but I'm also seeing it in AVCHD @ 24mbsp. I'm also seeing it in compressed VIMEO and YouTube clips so its obviously not processor speed. I did a bunch of very slow pan tests and saw it with or without OIS on the 12-35 lens.

    Hope this gets figured out cause I really like the camera otherwise.

  • I did not see this video before here. I think it is very nice but aliasing is a bit problematic. It is sure a horror test as it is a brick fest and it is more aliasing than moire that is evident. In a worst case scenario, would it be considered blasphemy to think about a Mosaic filter for a GH camera. It could make gh3 the near perfect replacement to the gh2 without any drawback.

  • @Conundrum So you do suspect it is a camera error?

  • I honestly cannot say. But I'd sure like to find out.

  • @charlie_orozco I honestly don't know, i got this video from someone who posted it on philip blooms forum.

  • @andrevanberlo It's OK, I'm just telling 'cause I don't like what I see at all, and it seems like that guy was selling smoke with that video.

    @fredfred27 Exactly. But doesn't the GH3 replace 50i with 1080p50? By the way, what first caught my eye was the bad quality of the video, it looks more like some camcorder stuff than something shot on the GH3 or the GH2. Then I saw the interlacing artifacts so I'm pretty sure it's a scam. What do you think?

  • @charlie_orozco Panasonic lists 50i in the specs for the GH3. You have no reason to doubt that the video is from a GH3.

  • @Conundrum AVCHD requires more processor power than any of the MOV modes from the GH3, and that's because of the extra compression algorithms, the bitrate isn't directly related.

  • @fredfred27 Fair enough. It just looks kinda bad to me, and I tend to doubt from users that don't allow for "likes" and don't allow commentaries or filter them through revision and approval (I'm waiting for him to answer me about the ISO settings he used). I had a bad experience with one a couple of months ago with someone like that. And let's not forget this guy who has posted a lighter video a 100 times with different camera names to get views! Smart, I have to admit, but what a bastard. Of course he's disabled all comments.

    On the other hand the user mentions to have used a 14-140mm, so that explains the bad look apart from the heavy compression.

  • @Arquer053

    All I meant was that I am seeing the "hiccups" in all modes, not simply the high bit-rate modes. It is visible in many of the examples on Youtube and Vimeo as well. On my system AVCHD 24mbps (24p) plays back flawlessly in FCPX without need for transcoding to Prores. The hiccups are only apparent on horizontal or vertical pans.

    Do you have any idea what could cause this?

  • @Conundrum I see..., well, all the native videos I've downloaded from the GH3 play butter smoothly in my pc, even the PAL ones. The "strobing" could be caused by many reasons, like dropping 24p video into a 30p, 60p or 60i timeline, however, you mention it happens in camera. The only two things that come into my mind for that are either your camera is defective, or you use a very high shutter speed when testing the camera. Maybe a downloadable sample clip could make things clearer? =)

  • @Conundrum Maybe you have OIS turned on? That will mess up pans.

  • @Conundrum After a lot of tests with my 2 gh3... with 25p 72 25p 50... I saw "hiccups", yes. But the problem is that those hiccups "are moving" on the file and so I think that the problem is more a problem of Codec and decoding. As an example... I just shoot an horizontal pan.... and sometimes the hiccups are at 7" and 12" sometimes at 10" and sometimes (like if it was on cache no hiccups at all). Same thing on my pc (i7 990X 16gb GTX680) and on my mac book (15" Retina 8gb).

    May be this is totally crazy... but , as my wife saw the same thing on the screen, if i'm crazy, we are two :)

  • @themacdeg @conundrum. Did you guys find this issue w/ manual lens and 50Mbps as well? Thx

  • @Arquer053 No I give each test a new project in FCPX, and each project is set to the format and frame rate of the clip. I did transcode a number of tests toProres and still saw the "hiccup". What I find a little strange is that I see the Hiccup on certain pans but not others on Vimeo and Youtube clips which have been compressed therefore removing any strain on my native CPUs or GPUs.

    @cbrandin As I said I tried both with and without OIS. The hiccup is still there. Quite a bit of jello, aliasing and moire too under contrasty conditions unfortunately. Like I said, it may be that I have a problem with the camera. What I find weird is that I see it on a number of the uploaded clips too. I've edited uncompressed HD on this system many times and never seen this, so I'm stumped. I took it back to the dealer and they refunded me completely after watching the test files. Their suggestion was to wait and see what Panny does in the next little while. They will submit a report. They didn't have a clue either.

    I really do like this camera and hope that this gets sorted soon. I'll pick up a new one in a month or two and run some new tests. It might just be a bad batch.