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I know you guys are all waiting to hear more about the future GH3. But look at the hacked GH2 versus the super new 5DmarkII video resolution comparison posted at EosHD (Click here). The new super featured $3499 Canon 5D markIII (here on Amazon) is just marginally better than the $860 hacked GH2 camera. Of course the 5DmarkIII is vastly superior when it comes to still image quality but It has to be said that Panasonic does a great job when it comes to deliver a high quality video performance. It really makes me wonder what kind of surprise we should expect from the GH3!
Speaking of the hacker Vitaly, I kindly ask you to support him for the NAB show coverage (Click here). The NABshow is the biggest broadcast video event of the year (Click here to see the official website)
P.S.: From time to time the Gh2 gets some super deal like it was with the now ended [shoplink 29671 ebay]GH2 with 14-140mm for $899 on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Drop me a message if you find more deals like that so that I can share it with other 43rumors readers! Thanks!
Here are some GH2 search links: [shopcountry 16254].
50 Responses
I would urge Pana to concentrate on deliver highest IQ rather than videography , that is what a camera is all about . I expect a lot of from Pana’s next highend product , must produce significant class leading improvements in detailing , dynamic range & ISO performance .
Obviously, an increasing number of people regard videography as a natural and important extension to taking still pictures, and that is only too understandable given how the importance of presenting images on pager decreases while almost anything gets displayed on electronic displays which are quite capable of displaying moving pictures.
10 years from now, still images will be of as minor interest in comparison to video as today black&white pictures are in comparison to color pictures.
Also, there is simply not a single technical reason why a camera that can do videography well could not also take great still images. Just spend some more transistors per pixel on a sensor, build the sub-sampling logic into the sensor chip, and that’s about it. (And from the low prices of CPUs with billions of transistors one can see that this would not really make sensor chips significantly more expensive.)
> 10 years from now, still images will be of as minor interest in comparison to video as today black&white pictures are in comparison to color pictures.
– Huh?!… Do you really think B&W is a “minor interest” compared to colour? Astonishing…
And stills will NEVER be eclipsed by video.
@ Jeff: I hate to break it to you, but B&W is a “minor interest” compared to color any way you measure it. In terms of images captured worldwide, B&W is probably just a rounding error compared to the number of color images captured. Even if you eliminate casual snapshots and narrow the field to professional/serious/artistic/whatever photographers, B&W photos are a tiny percentage. This in no way invalidates B&W as an artistic form, but the numbers speak for themselves. Interest in B&W photography is indeed minor compared to color.
Affordable video cameras have been around for many years. With youtube etc, an easy way to share video is also available. If video was going to completely sideline stills as you suggest, I think it would have already happened or we’d see more signs of it in progress.
I think you’re right that interest in video will keep increasing, but saying it will sideline stills reminds me more about how people thought photography would make painting a dead artform.
Take a wedding for example. If you want to be reminded of it, do you want a nice still image or two up on your wall, or a sit down and watch a 45 min video of a priest moan on?
If you are ‘all about’ stills then the GH2 may not be the camera for you. It’s a hybrid device with awesome video and competent stills, and I want to see the same approach in the GH3.
Well actually, gh2 looks better – and 5Dm3 as been sharpened
+1
I don´t know if they were sharpened both or 5D only.. but Admin the GH2 is really sharper
I prefer GH2 because of balanced tonality, I don´t like white overburning on top of the strands on 5D3 image. Sharpness is great on both, but GH2 has slightly more detail and stronger tonality, color seems a little better on 5D3, but depends a lot on WB.
I decided to keep my GH2 and cancel my em5 preorder, in spite the fact that there are lots of things that I hate about it. Plastic, the shutter sound, the jpegs. But I like the grip and hard buttons, as well as the flip screen.
And the large, bright view finder, which so far nobody has beaten.
I agree that the GH2 probably is still no 1 in system camera ergonomics. The plastic housing of the GH2 is not as bad as people claim. It is very robust and quite unsensitive to scratches. I dropped my body once onto asphalt and nothing substantial happened.
If you look at the back of the EM-5, you’ll note that the LCD and the body are plain. The GH2 LCD is reversable and a little recessed. So which camera is more robust then? I can predict a lot of forum reports, after the EM-5 hit the market, complaining about sratchy EM-5 LCDs. Oh, yes, now people come up with LCD protection overlays. But what is the point of having an excellent LCD, when it is needed to decrease some of its quality just to protect it?
The GH2 is a better body design, functionally, the EM-5 shines with the new IBIS. To me ergonomics are more important though.
Not crazy about the EVF either. On my sample, the picture always looks blurred after taking a shot. I tried adjusting the diopter to no luck. Don’t get much confidence on the results until I upload to computer. But I Do enjoy the video, even in mpeg mode!
Odd, no blur in the viewfinder for me. Do you wear glasses? I do, maybe it’s a distance thing. Diopter pulls in real sharp…?
1+
….and MR. Reeeeeee…..is nodding his head…saying …tell me something that I don’t already know!!! LOL!
I think someone already has commented on your idea of scratched AMOLED screen (not LCD!); my E-P3 is 4 months old; not a single scratch. Personally, I wouldn’t mind the protection you suggest — I have to liok out for shirt buttons, etc.
The protective covers coming with Nikon DSLRs is excellent.
… why did my comment to mahler end up here? Well, anyway.
Marginally better???
@Admin: You are drawing conclusions from 2 frames which are absolutely clean, have no idea what ISO they were taken at and which original size they were resized from?
For me this comparison is close to useless…
P.S. If those are 100% crops (which we don’t even know) by looking at the nature of texture, I’ll bet my ass the MKIII will be plagued with moiré problems (as usual)!
So, the GH-2 is a 2nd tier tool for video? Is that the conclusion?
And 4th tier for images.
Buy the right tool for the specific job. One that doesn’t require a warranty voiding hack.
such an Oly fan boy….so cute……
How do you come to those conclusions? Have you read the linked article?
This is what the Admin posted:
“The new super featured $3499 Canon 5D markIII (here on Amazon) is just marginally better than the $860 hacked GH2 camera. Of course the 5DmarkIII is vastly superior when it comes to still image quality but It has to be said that Panasonic does a great job when it comes to deliver a high quality video performance.”
How do you read it? 🙂
I know what the Admin posted and I read it as an opinion, but now I ask you again: “Have you read the article?” Can you form the same opinion? Because even though I have loads of respect the Admin’s work in this site, this time I don’t have the slightest clue where he got HIS opinion from, unless he is blindingly reposting EOSHD’s opinion without even looking at the pictures…
Because if you look closely at the pictures (which we don’t have the faintest idea of Hack/ISO/F-Stop/Resizing/Lens conditions) MY CONCLUSION would be totally different:
GH2 has more blocking (which would be highly unlikely on a good hack) and less DR, but OTOH also less noise on shadows and a shitload less artifacting.
And that’s if these are 100% crops, which we don’t even know!!! That’s why I say this comparison is pretty much useless until we know in which conditions it was taken.
I do not waste my time reading about Canon stuff. I really do not care what their cameras do or do not. Do you? 😉
http://www.eoshd.com/content/7631/panasonic-gh2-vs-5d-mark-iii
Review. 43rumors owner, Mark III is NOT better or even marginally better, at least on resolution (according to EOSHD). GH2 beats it comfortably. Having said that for a consumer like me, I don’t think the difference really matters. I am just happy that the camera I like is just as good (or better) for videography as a camera that is priced at 3500. For me, even if GH2 didn’t perform on par with Mark III, I would still get the GH2/GH3 for its sheer portability.
It feels nice to be proven right, but I still can’t see what prompted the original opinion. It was only a question of looking at the files…
For $800, a hacked GH2 was doing I-frame at 176mbs a “while” ago. The resolution on the 5d3 has been letting people down all over the place… I don’t think it’s really the video camera Canon was focusing on though, moreso than a “fix”. Sure, you would think since the 5D2 started all this, its successor would be where the buck stops. But alas, the only advantage over a hacked GH2 it has imo, is full frame. Other than that, the GH2 has 3 processors, you can adapt any lens on Gods green Earth to it, hack it beyond “Red Epic” detail, and its a quarter the cost of the 5d3 “body”. The 5D3 does better in the shadows. I bet when the GH3 comes out, it’ll STILL be a quarter the cost of the 5D3, and once that baby gets hacked, game over. In fact, you’d almost think Panasonic would drop that $5000 version of GH2 and allocate the money into a righteous GH3… I mean, how many people think “stills” when you say GH2?
I think you mean Scarlet. 🙂 Anyway, I use the stills function all the time in my job. One man team for commercial/industrial/and videography production. Every job I need still to put on my website, to build graphics with, to build DVD covers and menus, and for color correcting comparison. Yeah, I still use my big ENG style camera, but it sits on the sticks most of the time hooked up to a mixing board and a pile of mics. 😉
I need both stills and video, that was a big reason for choosing the GH2 for my 3D rig. I have to carry that on foot for long distances, so a small hybrid cam with pancakes & beautiful video performance was the only option. But the stills on the GH2 are only competent, hopefully that will be addressed in the GH3.
An m43 sensor sans AA-filter would be nice
Well, it’s like the Canon G1X all over again – Canon already has the C300 DSLR movie camera, so it can’t make the 5D Mk III TOO good as a video camera, evidently.
If Panasonic were smart, they would focus the GH series on top-line video capability (and build up the GX series for top of the line stills image quality). But then, Panasonic too have their VAF100 to protect…
History is full of companies who tried to “protect” one of their products by voluntarily manufacturing another one not as good as it could be (for the same price). In the end, they always learned the hard way, that there are competitors out there who have “nothing to protect”, so they manufacture their products as good as they can (for the price) and easily gain market share. And when the company who tried to “protect” their product notices their declining market share, it’s too late: the reputation is ruined, the competitors won a user base, and the “protecting” company just looks like a dinosaur.
In the case of camera manufacturers, there is already a very strong competitor on the rise: The smart phones. You already need a lot of explanation to tell people why it’s worth taking yet another gadget with you, while the smart phone can already do acceptable still images – and videos that look better than what e.g. a Canon G1X can take (with its horrible moire and snail-like focus hunting).
The GH2 seems to be a strange market, it’s a video camera in a stills camera body that excels at video but not so much at stills. It’s a trap.
Folk that complain about GH2 stills need to either work on their technique, or revise their expectations of a sub-$1000 camera.
Look, I love my GH2 and all, and it’s far from horrible, but there are plenty of sub-$1000 cameras that take much better stills regardless of your technique. That said, most of them are a lot bigger/heavier (especially once you include lenses) and take lousy video, so I’m very happy with the compromise 90% of the time. For the 10% of the time where I absolutely want the best possible stills, I pull the 5D2 off the shelf and brush off the dust.
Personally, I love the idea of a world class video camera that takes reasonable still pictures in the body of a still camera. For years, I carried around large video cameras and it is so nice to have something really compact that can do an even better job than those cameras.
I shoot a lot with long telephoto lenses for bird videos. The GH hangs off the back of a lens mounted on a tripod just fine. An AF100 would need a rail system to support the camera and lens together. Very cumbersome!
So, please Panasonic, continue to advance the video on the GH series and have it be top in HD or 4K video. The still shooters have PLENTY of choices for cameras. Those of us that need small interchangeable lens video cameras have so few choices, but we will remain loyal to the GH series if it keeps offering best in class performance.
As a side note, I agree with eric89 above that video is the future. Yes, there will always be a market for still images, even in black and white. But, what we are talking about is the vast majority of the market on the web will eventually move to video. It is already happening with the newspaper web sites and other media outlets. A traditional newspaper used many still images, mostly in black and white. Now that they are going out of business in print and moving to the web, they are using almost all color and moving rapidly to video. So, cameras will need to evolve in that direction. Eventually, cameras that can only shoot excellent stills and are not fully functional for video will begin to fail in the marketplace.
And another side note, I think Olympus has missed a real opportunity with the E-M5. I do think it is a better still camera than the GH-2, but they screwed up the video side of it by not providing all of the video frame rates and options that we want. The camera has the capability to be as good or better than the GH-2 for video, but they didn’t unlock it with proper software. Maybe they will do this with a firmware update, but I doubt it. Olympus seems to have no interest in video, even though they need to grow their customer base to survive.
And yet another side note, why should we donate to Vitaliy for NAB coverage? What is this coverage going to provide that none of the other web sites will provide with their coverage? There will be plenty of news coming out of NAB and none of it will require a donation. I have supported Vitaliy with donations in the past for the hack, but this seems a bit strange.
I think you’re over estimating the move to video from stills, more video will become the norm but I don’t see a decrease in photos, they’re quite separate.
olympus could make GH2 killer but they messed up the video.. they have nothing to protect.. so they could include 1080/50p , peaking, 4:2:2 50mbit video, or clean hdmi and it would be a little dream .. now it´s only a nice stills camera
There’s a lot of expertise (in hardware, in software, and in knowing what’s important for video quality) that would go into all those things. It’s not reasonable to expect Olympus to develop or integrate all that quickly, and it’s not just a matter of writing down terms on a spec sheet.
I do wish that Olympus COULD make a GH2 killer, but right now they CAN’T. They can make a nice camera though, and based on early reports, it looks like they have.
I don’t think there is a true hd camera with 4:2:2 for under 10 grand.
Canon XF100 at $3000 is pretty close, but it’s sensor is admittedly a bit small (1/3″). Still, it does 4:2:2 at 50mbps straight to card. Pretty neat.
everybody forget, canon can hack too
Maybe someone can hack the 5d3, but they haven’t yet, and anyone who buys a camera that doesn’t meet their needs based on what some 3rd party may eventually be able to implement with custom firmware is a fool.
5D marginally better? No way! Who cares about minor differences in resolution? The GH2 is vastly superior as a video camera!
If I was taking movies, I would instantly choose the GH2. I think the GH2 looks the better of the 2 on the very very limited offering shown. Also far cheaper and lighter and no post processing, and no post processing, did I say no post processing.
Maybe some people don’t think it is any good unless its done the hard way. I use an aeroplane to fly I am not trying to grow or make feathers, though some apparently do.
You guys are so funny 5d mkiii is by far the better camera! I have both gh2 and 5d mkiii and anyone who says gh2 is better is either deluded, never used a 5dmkiii or doesn’t know what they are doing behind a camera & in post. Shooting properly with the 5dmkiii – good glass – properly setup custom profiles combined with professional post production makes the gh2 look like a toy. IMO
Sure the price is good (that is why I have both) and it is a great video cam but not on the same page as 5d mk iii but great back up body.
Yep this review says 2 things: the GH2 is really a great camera and Canon has not innovated over the last 36 months. Really a $3500 body that takes great stills when paired to massive sized and priced tele-zooms. Every brand is improving their jpeg engine and features and it troubles me that Canon can be so complacent.
what about the horrible full frame censor designed for still. Brilliant for stills, crap for vid
what about audio quality? Far better on gh2
GH3 will not be a great improvement. Pana will not challenge their own camcorder market
Let’s not be stupid, people. The company is in business for profit, not for arty farty would be directors on a budget