Andrew from EosHD (Click here) posted a new detailed Canon 5DmarkkIII versus Panasonic GH2 video comparison. In terms of resolution the “$600 GH2 still matches the full frame beast at $3500.“. And “the 5D Mark III’s image cannot be sharpened in post to match the GH2. That camera has a sharper image yet it is organic and fine not digitally over sharpened.“. And the praise for the GH2 continues: “In the standard picture profiles the 5D Mark III and GH2 are pretty neck and neck for dynamic range. Nobody in their right mind would say the sensor in the GH2 was a match for the 5D Mark III’s full frame CMOS but in video mode, it is. This is because the GH2′s video image is very close to its JPEG output whilst the 5D Mark III’s is painfully far away from its superb stills.”
We should really thank the Panasonic engineers and Vitaly’s hack for the awesome work they did on the GH2. On the other side I am surprised by Canon. Even when it comes to the stills quality they seem to have lost the train in favour of the Nikon D800 which sells way better than the new 5D (Here are the Amazon rankings). Makes me wonder if Canon will make a decent mirrorless system or not (more about that here on MirrorlessRumors).
What about the new GH3? I got some rumors from new sources I will post soon. It’s low value only but as usual I hope trusted sources can read this to confirm if it’s true or not.
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Panasonic GH2 price check links: [shopcountry 16254].
76 Responses
the GH3 will be a really important camera for Panasonic, I’m hoping/expecting that will do it right 😀
*didn’t realise Canon were still around*
@ admin:
Just a single question please.
Any (even small) chances for GH3 to have a square sensor?
I would love a square sensor. Only shooting 1:1.
@ kesztio
…zero chance, more likely to have a 21:9 or a 20:9 size sensor (which itself is unlikely)
Just asking because there are rumors for square sensor in latest Sony fullframe dslr.
Actually, while a true “square sensor” is probably not in the realm of possibility for Panasonic, I’ve often thought it would be nice if their multi-aspect sensor would do a better job when using a 1:1 ratio, rather than 16:9, 3:2, or 4:3.
When you use the 16:9, or 3:2, you get more pixels beyond the typical 4000px width of the 12mp 4:3 sensor, in regards to width. but when you go to 1:1, you get just a boring 3000px square image, as the multi-aspect sensor only grows in width, but not in height.
I’ve often thought that it would be nice for Panasonic to add to the vertical, as well as horizontal dimensions of the multi-aspect sensor, and give us a 5:4 and 1:1 ratio where one could get more than 3000px in height. For instance, given the 12mp of the GH1, you would be able to get a 3500px square image, rather than 3000px. And for 5:4, perhaps a 4000 x 3200 px image rather than 3750 x 3000 px image you get with cropping.
Those are just examples of course, but with a sensor that could expand vertically as well as horizontally in pixels, one could have a lot more data to work with, especially in regards to stills.
It doesn’t need to be a true square, but it would help.
@ Ron Zack
most square aspect ratios images are used for blogs, web and as avatars, and are less likely to be printed so 3000px by 3000px is fine for most real world 1:1 use
I’m going to go out o a limb and guess that there are other m43 photographers that are like me—I use 1:1 for about 80% (if not more) of my personal shooting. Its a format I grew to love when my only lens choices were 50, 80 and 150. I’d love a square sensor.
The point of using square sensors is the possibility of composing both portrait and landscape scenes w/o rotating the camera – rather than using the square format itself.
Pany and Oly are saving that for the new “One-Ones” system next year.
As long as I know…no!
Admin, what’s the latest rumor on ETA of GH3?
Cheers
Brian
the GH2 was “only” 88mbit.. you can get even more detail from this little monster
Yeah, but from what I’ve seen, it’s diminishing returns beyond 100 mbps, where the quality vs. space consumed ratio just isn’t favorable.
It is diminishing returns past 42 mb/sec.
Panasonic should rightly be very proud of their GH-2. It is just fabulous. 🙂
I am hoping that the GH-3 will be as useful as the GH-2 is.
Someone asked earlier about a GH-2 without AA filter. I use one (modified from the stock GH-2). One has to experience it to know how fantastic it really is. 🙂
Hi Vivek, can I ask you where did you get modified your baby ? have you any pictures taken without AA filter to share with us?:D
10minutes ago I wanted to comment that GH3 can be a gamechanger if they remove AA filter and give us 4k video with nice codec (I don´t mention weathersealing, oled viewfinder and 920dot ips display,1080/50p or electronic global shutter cmos because I think it will have it )
I would really like to have GH3 also like my n.1 stills cam
Did it myself within a month after buying my first GH-2 (flickr: Vivek Iyer). I also use it for Ultraviolet and Infrared-both stills and video.
I also have a G1 modified. The difference between these are two like night and day.
Do you have a way to post/compare your modified GH2 to an unmodified camera even if a G3/X1? You’ve left me very curious on the gains…
Gains: Marginal compared to a stock GH-2 (which is already superb) for visible light imaging. Enormous for Ultraviolet and Infrared for which the stock GH-2 is totally blind. So, for regular use, I would not modify the GH-2. A modified GH-2 for visible light use, needs a special UV/IR cut filter on the lens (expensive).
Most who chat about AA vs non AA, etc loosely have absolutely no clue what they are talking about.
you have some nice macro shots there.. I didn´t know which ones were shoot with the modified gh2 but some shots like this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/471806049/in/set-72157600151220643/ looks to my eye way too much oversharpened .. So I´m guessing this is the gh2 without AA filter?
Matt: The date says, year 2007. Long before m4/3rds. That was a Nikon D70 shot. Very high contrast shot.
oh sorry, I was looking at the dates first time but somehow I missed it when I was looking at the trees.. can you point me on some of your shots where the gh2 gains from not having an AA filter?
No worries, Matt. One of these days, a good house keeping is going to happen. 🙂
On the AA vs non AA. Again, I see marginal gains (cherry on top, so to say) in the visible. Not worth the effort and the expense (really a lot!) if you are not into invisible spectral photography. In infrared there is at least a 2 stop gain in S/N ratio and visible boost in the dynamic range which is difficult to demonstrate (at least I am not capable of doing that).
😀 thanks for the explanation, I was thinking that you get better sharpness and moire when you remove the AA filter.. but now I understand you use it on UV/IR photography ..
How easy is the mod? What glass did you use to fill the space of the AA filter?
I’ve modded a Canon 350D and 5D in the past (for astrophotography). Playing around with IR video sounds like it might be fun…
Wow, it was really beaten up by the GH2… maybe the firmware on the Mark III is not matured enough… which it should be, considering price tag and development time.
I wonder whether such news should make me happy about not having bought a Canon and still waiting for a decent new video capable 43 camera… or whether I should be sad about manufacturers one by one demonstrating their inability/disinterest in addressing video interested customers.
“still waiting for a decent new video capable 43 camera”
Ha Ha Ha Ha ….
Do you have any more jokes like that, if so, please share.
GH2 is obviously great for video! Unfortunately I don’t do that. I am hungry for rumors about GH3 and also about Pana strategy: Will the “very high end camera” be the GH3? Or will it also include a high end, stills photo camera?.
Images from my G3 are OK, not comfortable with the camera, no joy to use.
A Nex-7 would suit me very well, but not the lenses.
A X-Pro1 would suit me excellently, but the systems is unmature and the OVF is not implemented as intelligent as it could have been.
Oly EM5 is great in many ways, but I know I do not like having to toggle between information in the viewfinder and monitor, in total 8 different views….
A Pana GX2 “very high end”, a little bigger with built in EVF could fit me. A Pana GH3 could do if I dont feel I have to pay a lot for video capability. And – an m43 sans AA-filter would be perfect!
Or will I end up accepting the bulk and weight of Nikon D800: No flaws, excellent ergonomy and IQ and you can buy a few 2nd hand HQ lenses.
It feels nice to be proven right after all, but I still can’t see what prompted the original opinion with such lack of information on how the tests were done. However it was only a question of looking at the grabs to see how the nature of the detail was clearly better on the GH2…
I don’t understand either how Andrew Reid post those initial thoughts when he had full information on how he tested.
Any way everyone can make mistakes, from those pictures I also thought the GH2 had less DR.
Video is not relevant to me , I would like Pana to come out awesome still imagings . This is last chance for Pana to prove if it can regain the era of GF1 . While Canon is on it’s mirrorless debut , Sony on FF NEX , Leica likely to come out new products , Pana have no choice but to use whatever resources to come out something that stay in the race . Only a very highend camera will do , this should be the benchmark camera that above GH series .
… and now there are rumors about a Hasselblad digital X Pan/DSLR type. Obviously camera makers see a new camera niche: Lightweight, HQ performance, HQ images. There are many users – fat wallet enthusiasts as well as pro’s – that realises from what m43/Sony/Fuji offers – and want to carry less and still really HQ IQ.
Mirrorless is not anymore just to fill the gap between p&s and low end DSLR, it is developing to be a real game-changer.
I’ve waited for CES… nothing… waited for CP+… nothing. Earlier this month I took the plunge and bought the GH2 with 14-140mm lens. With the earliest hints of an announcement (of the GH3) at Photokina, in september, I just want to start shooting stuff and do not want to wait for Christmas! And the GH2 itself a great enough camera already! Who knows what Panasonic has in mind for the GH3? It could be groundbreaking, but it could also turn out to be expensive and not live up to the hugely build up expectation people have of it.
Already Cokin P-series filterbox + filters on their way. Am also gonna experiment with c-mount lenses of Fujian: the 35mm f1.7 and 25mm f1.4. The GH2 may not be the perfect camera for everyone, but it is for me!
Ick, that 14-140mm lens is a real dog. Lose it before the new X lenses comes out, which will cause its value to plummet.
It is quite funny to see a 2 year old Panasonic 1/4 size sensor beat the brand new unlaunched full frame Canon beast at anything, let alone a crucial aspect like video quality.
I suspect the Canon mirrorless will use the same size sensor as the G1X which puts it directly in competition with micro 4/3, probably with a new lens mount too. I just hope it doesn’t eat too much into micro-4/3 market share as I know the Canon fanboys will say it’s the new coming even if it falls behind 2 year old micro-4/3 standard. A big majority of camera shops salesmen are Canon fanboys who will push anything Canon over the competition which has an effect on overall sales.
Olympus and Panasonic deserve a sizable percentage of the market considering the effort they’ve put in and the quality of cameras and lenses available, Canon have lagged behind all this time updating their SLRs and compacts to be 2% better than the last ones so they need to make an impact.
But saying that, if Canon does make something quite spectacular then it should push Panasonic/Olympus to up their game with nicer cameras for us who supported them early.
@Rob
I think Micro Four Thirds is already winning the Mirrorless battle in the minds of consumers in many markets with even Nikon1 ‘s and Sony NEX often referred to as Micro Four Thirds (Samsung NX and Pentax Q aren’t even on the radar) by your average Joe/Jill Blogs……….
Yes, I agree micro-4/3 is on top now. Especially on the internet when the truth tends to be more clear with direct comparisons of every aspect of the camera including sales.
But in the declining world of retail it will be more biased towards Canon if they can do something competitive (performance is not as important as price here too). The best selling camera at the moment to me seems to be the Panasonic G2 as its just dropped in price offering a superb package for the money (the average consumer is as likely to buy the Oly E-M5 as they are a Canon 7D or NEX-7 for their first).
I see (and know) plenty of idiots who won’t buy anything but Canon which has just left me a bit jaded and feeling melancholy about it all, especially when their eyes just don’t seem to work when it comes to comparing image quality. But then again I’ve given up on pixel peeping as that is also a mugs game when it comes to amateur and a lot of professional photography..
@Rob
Olympus and Panny are doing a good job aggressively competing on price in bricks and mortar stores (especially with PENs)as Nikon have found out to their cost with the unsuccessful launch of their Nikon 1 system, Canon are leaving it too late to join the party, any Canon mirrorless won’t hit the shops until November at the earliest…
Funniest thing for me that the web praising the GH2 is called EosHD…
Pretty funny IMO.:-)
Well, that’s how products should be always considered:
Is their tech properly working instead of which has biggest name brand stamped on.
There are enough bullshitters claiming to be reviewers who always give free pass for big brand products regardless even notable technical deficiencies while lesser brand products with better tech get disparaged.
Admin, if sales were an indicator of image quality we’d all have sold our cameras for iPhone’s by now. 🙂
You can bet lots of (especially younger) people whose first experience in photography/videography is using their iPhone (or other smartphones) are already kind of lost for the dedicated camera market, as they will consider their results “good enough”, and sizing/weight/pricing of dedicated cameras will not really tempt them to buy one.
It’s just the same as with music recordings, where it was nothing but a fantasy of some industry people that they could sell high priced (and severely usage restricted) “Super Audio CDs” to a generation that was growing up listening to 128kBit/s-encoded MP3s on some lousy earphone.
(Funny how they try to sell better images to those that – due to age – have less perfect vision, and better sound to those that for the same reason hear less of high frequencies…)
My GH2 doesn’t do any good videos at the moment. I just “fried” it by mistake by supplying 19 Volts instead of roughly 9 Volts. Silly voltage switch.
So GH3 should have overvoltage protection please 😉
And mod: a lot of people buy cameras prior to knowing if they are really good or not (same with stupid iPad…). High number of sales at the beginning has not to be the best quality in every case…
I know! The GH3 will have a Super 35 sized image sensor! (Just starting my own rumor here….)
🙂
Oh, how much I would like it to be true 🙁
I think panasonic should put into GH series the biggest senzor that can be covered with m4/3 lenses.. I wouldn´t care that much about little bit soft corners if they make it S35mm size …
Nope. It’ll have an IMAX-sized sensor. You heard it here first!
Sure the GH2 beats the 5D Mark III from performance:price ratio but both camera have very different color rendition style. Hope Pany not screw-up the GHx series by unnecessary feature blunder.
pannasonic manager (I think his name was Uematsu? ) said in one interview that one of the things they want to focus is IQ and colours on the next camera.. maybe he was only talking about their avchd intra 4:2:2 codec but I think we will see a jump in IQ.. the gh series should offer the best that can panasonic in stills category deliver.. because they don´t have pro photo division..
Why the frak do you ppl want to get rid of the AA filter? GH2 is already super sharp and I’ve never seen moire or aliasing. That is why I threw my T2i in the trashcan. And ppl aren’t buying cameras just for sharp images, that’s why the 5DMKII sold so well, and exactly why the III will too- the aesthetic of it pleases some filmmakers. But really, I think Canon looks like crap- stuff looks like Pixar movies to my eye???!!!
Hmmm…I hope you meant it figuratively when you said you threw your t2i in the trashcan. It’s an outstanding camera for stills…
Everything beats the 5D Mk II — NEX, GH2, OMD
Canon wins on weight & bulkiness, and it announces “I’m a professional photographer, everyone. Move out of my way.” for the insecure. (Helps to add scruffy beard/hair and a vest.)
If you think GH2 is better than 5D Mk II concerning stills, then you are a fool! I have both cameras and while GH2 has fabulous AF compared to the Canon cam, GH2 lacks considerably low light capability (also considering stills)…
“I have both cameras” Ha! Who’s the fool? 😀
You could have saved ~$2000: http://www.thephoblographer.com/2012/02/02/which-one-is-which-sony-nex-5n-vs-canon-5d-mk-ii/
Having both cameras does not necessarily mean that I bought both myself 😉
Now if the NEX7 was available with the Nex5n sensor……….
gh3 wont beast gh2 in terms of video, should make it a better photographers camera. Panny needs to contract with Vitaly and the other modders on his website.
Not surprise to see that D800 reaches such achievement very early. On last friday DXOMARK released the D800 sensor test score and its result is freaking unbelievable. According to DXOMARK, this formiddable monster has been rated as the 1st rank in their database. Color of depth, dynamic range, and ISO performance are awesome. It even beats many medium format cameras too. I really want to see how 5dmkIII and 1dX perform on DXOMARK testing.
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Publications/DxOMark-Reviews/Nikon-D800-Review/Sensor-performance
So that is why Nikon promptly raised the selling price. Now it cost more then some medium format cameras.
DoX mark it is a joke. go into real life, take a look of details, hair for example is useful to understand. Fine and complete detail in 5D2, completely destroyed in D800, no detail and we are talking about RAWs not jpegs. Still image, sorry about the rest, but Canon do it better, and I am not talking about color rendition where Nikon fails, specially with skins.
I love my GF1, in fact I’ve sold my Canon gear, but I miss those tones. I will stay for long in m4/3 but I am not blind neither a peeper looking stupid DxO crappy conclusion.
@Will
Thanks for the info. That is unbelievable to know that current FF technologies are able to beat those MF cameras which are priced more than 10 times higher. Landscape shooter should love this beast since it can support the highest dynamic range according to dxomark. This score will disturb MF and Canon users surely. People always try to defend their investment.
I just cannot wait to see E-M5’s test result. Some says E-M5’s sensor score may be very near to GX1 but I don’t believe so.
Forget DXO. They are of no interest in the real world. The real world looks at photographs. Not graphs hanging on a wall.
I love my GH2, many thanks to Panasonic especially for the affordability of top quality in every aspect. If GH2 is made by Canon, it would cost at least double…
It’s funny how Panasonic has to beat the hacked GH2 in terms of performance, and not the default GH2. I wonder if they approached it like this. On the one hand, they can bind more and more people for m43 and their cameras, on the other hand, basically every camera maker just loves to make incremental upgrades. But I am optimistic, since video is so important to Panasonic.
I don’t mean to diminish Vitalys hack – it’s certainly a great thing for many people and deserves our gratitude.
But that said, the hack does not introduce things into the GH2 which Panasonic could not have easily “switched on” if they had wanted, the hack basically removes arbitrary limitations that Panasonic applied (a) to adhere to some standards and specifications and (b) to leave room for “improved” products – your choice which of the reasons sound more realistic 😉
So yes, advertising a new GH3 with features that were just voluntarily not exposed by the GH2 is now not as easy. But Panasonic should be thankful not to be tempted to try such, as in the end, investing in _truly_ advanced features is what keeps competitors behind.
And if features like Global Shutter and 1080p60 materialize in a GH3, that would be a significant progress no patch will be able to realize.
(BTW: The Sanyo Xacti HD 2000 offered 1080p60 H.264 recording from an 8 MPixel sensor in 2009 at a retail price of 380,-€. Panasonic bought Sanyo. So if anyone says that 1080p60 is too much to ask for, I laugh out loud…)
Yes. Pany have now been forced to actually do something more than release the limits and make new labels. Oh I forgot, and charge more, well its new, isn’t it?
Don’t be dumb, buy a Gh2 right now.
In the posted video, I liked the 5D colors better than GH2.
I’ve got a G3 and E-PL2, so I’m not knocking m4/3, but it can’t really be on the same level as a FF sensor camera.
about colors its personal , u should be there to compere wich camera colors are more nature like… but if i have to choose, i like Oly colors more than any others companys.
FF format is better for high detail that can deliver but are not that much to justify the price gap 600$ vs 3500$ the math is more than clear.
Perhaps Panasonic should hire the hacker.
I am, quite frankly, surprised they haven’t already.
Why does the color look much better on the Canon than on the Panasonic? The Panasonic shots look washed out.
By rumors GH3 will have 15.5 mp and they say it is enought for good resolution … Yes it will be better in low light but what about resolution?? same ?
I can’t wait for the GH3 rumour and I hope there is something like this:
recording at 1080 50p/60p
4.2.2 10bit 100 Mb/s (basically an AVCIntra)
clean HDMI 1080p
Iso from 50 to 12800
global shutter
no aliasing and no moire (few megapixel or powerful processor)
an in-body stabilization would be the icing on the cake
omg that sepia-coloured mushy GH2 video image is *that* we’re talking about?
I thought that he has some polarizer/filter on all of his GH2 lenses – he didn’t! Have anyone watched the videos? GH2 lost in absolutely wrong white balance and poor color renditions…
great camera, but please do not compare it to 5DmkIII…look at the video samples, in their *scientific* test they can’t even get the colors right… (no I’m not talking about various cinematic modes they’ve used)
They are extremely comparable. The canon has better color rendition but the GH2 is getting somehwat better resolution. To say the GH2 lost clearly is not really justifiable. At worst they are very close. Which is pretty remarkable given the canon is four-five times more expensive retail. Now, I think the canon also has better image stabilization, which is an overlooked thing for video, and isn’t tested here.