Panasonic

Panasonic GH3 wishlist

ssh — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:47:58 +0000

GH3 is rumored to be released in October. This site has the biggest amount of GH2 users that Panasonic will target with upcoming GH3. What features do you miss the most (GH2) and would wish to see implemented (GH3).

We still have some time, who knows, Panasonic might listen...

How to turn off EVF sensor?

filmsourcefilms — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:15:31 +0000

ALWAYS WHEN IM HITTING A BUTTON I HATE THE BLINK I GET BECAUSE MY HAND IS BLOCKING THE SENSOR OF THE VIEWFINDER IF YOU KNOW PLEASE HELP ME

GH2 Dark section on the sensor?

BillTheButcher — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:39:39 +0000

It seems that most of the sensor is somehow too bright, and the section on the right is the only area that is correctly exposed. I was shooting outdoors for the first time and a seemingly random array of my clips have this odd defect to them. I mostly shot 60p that day, and only the few that were shot in 24H are affected. Anyone have an idea of what this is? I've never seen this type of phenomena before.

Settings: ISO 160 24H 1/60 Cake 2.2 Sandisk Extreme 45mbit/s

FIX to stop the GH2 Viewfinder / LCD from Changing

Ralph_B — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:42:15 +0000

We all know how the Viewfinder /LCD panel changes color/gamma when going from standby into record.

Well, today I stumbled upon a way to stop that from happening. Go to page 4 of the Custom menu and set CONSTANT PREVIEW to OFF.

That's it.

Now the viewfinder will appear the same in standby as it is in recording.

Charger always green

Jspatz — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:03:06 +0000

Has anyone run into this? I placed a Lumix GH2 battery which was 3/4 depleted into the charger and the green light goes on. I tried a different charger and the same issue.

Panasonic sensor information

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:18:53 +0000

Interesting stuff from http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2012/04/panasonic-talks-about-micro-machined.html

http://www.semicon.panasonic.co.jp/en/catalog/cat/pdf/T12013CE.pdf

It is GH2 sensor, btw:

https://chipworks.secure.force.com/catalog/ProductDetails?sku=PAN-DMC-GH2-K_Pri-Camera&viewState=DetailView

Flatter Color for GH Cameras

Aria — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:22:55 +0000

Growing tired of the old -2 options, I've played around with my GH13 and one thing that has been interesting to look at is messing around filming under the My Color Mode setting and in there you can lower the color saturation in a course way, but much lower than in the other settings in the camera. Unfortunately you can adjust other key settings while in that mode, but it does work to flatten the color.

My question is have we completely given up on either hacking or asking for more fine color adjustment from Panasonic? It seems that everyone would like to have a less baked in look in terms of color and contrast, so why hasn't there been more of a concerted effort to get Panasonic to allow more range? Of course the same could be said for the Sharpness adjustment. Why not have more discussion about fine tuning the image in camera as a future update?

Do frame rate and shutter speed sync?

dtr — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:13:25 +0000

Hey, I'm the proud owner of GH2 since a couple of weeks and have steadily been learning about DSLR photo and video. Now there's one thing that is not entirely clear to me. It's about the sync between video frame rate and shutter speed. Are these synced, ie. the shutter triggers a cycle when a new frame capture starts? Or do they run independently from each other? If it's case 1, what happens when shutter speed is slower than the frame rate, ie. it takes longer than 1 frame for the shutter to open and close?

Thanks for any clarifications, Dieter

GH17 Motion issues? Strobbing?

radicalkat — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:37:52 +0000

Hello,

I've got a question about the following footage. It was shot with the 100mbps max lat hack. f1.8, Shutter 1/50th. Nikon 50mm lens. The motion looks jumpy to me, especially at about 11 sec in when she starts rocking back and forth. Is this normal? Is this, in fact, strobing? Is there a fix? Is it just me?

-Thanks

GF3 - stripes on movies

bartwaw — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:44:34 +0000

Hi, I've recently bought GF3. Few days ago i observed stripes on films, they are especially when it is a little light. They are at an angle of 30-35 degrees. Is it normal ?

I watched "Polytechnique" last night, was wondering if this is possible....

formula_swim — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:33:46 +0000

IMBD page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1194238/

Would it be possible to get digital cinema 4k black and white out of the gh2?? or atleast 4096 × 1714 (2.39 aspect ratio 4k)??

I love my GH2 and the Driftwood quantum x v4b orion patch and its a bullet proof combo for my work. but i would love to experiment with black and white 4k.

GH2 @ iso 12800 'strange' lines, is this normal?

albertdros — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:51:36 +0000

noticed this weird lines with iso 12800. Tested with vanilla eoshd hack with kitlens and helios 44-2 lens, both giving me this lines at iso 12800.

Does anyone know if this is normal?

pic: http://i40.tinypic.com/21awfwy.jpg

video: (especially notice the lines in the middle)

GH1 (Hack or not) Chroma space when shooting black & white

LucasAdamson — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:12:33 +0000

Question:

Upcoming film using 2x GH1s, hacked using "LPowell's Peak Reliability Patch," shooting for Black & White destination (probably).

I was intending to shoot colour for monochrome conversion, as there are advantages regarding filtering colour contrast levels in post.

However, my question is this: Being 8-bit acquisition, is there any advantage in terms of chroma levels in shooting chromatic in the first place? In other words, if 8 bit acquisition creates 256 levels, if not shooting colour, does this merely reduce bitrate, or is there a way it can also increase chroma space for a better image?

Touch-AF on the GH2 - help!

Mark_the_Harp — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:00:26 +0000

Guys, I'm embarrassed to ask such a basic question given I know my GH2 very well, but I'm away from home on a fairly flaky connection and can't keep the internet alive long enough to find the answer. Basically, in the past I've used the touchscreen to focus on my GH2 during video recording, but now when it's recording, I just get the yellow "set AF area" box rather than it actually controlling the focus. I'm pretty sure I must have changed a setting during a firmware flash but I can't work our what. Whatever menu item I try I get the yellow box rather than actually controlling focus.

Just to be clear, I can use the "half press" shutter thing to control AF, but not the touchscreen. What am I doing wrong? Cheers!

For info: using firmware 1.1-based Cake 2.0 patch.

Color Profiles/Film Modes

thepalalias — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:17:34 +0000

I noticed that there was a lot of discussion about film modes/color profiles in the Sedna thread, so I thought it might be time to give them one of their own.

In the wake of recent testing, the standard profile has been held in much higher regard than before. Vibrant has also received a boost in popularity. Nostalgic continues to be popular as does Smooth (the two profiles previously viewed as having the widest dynamic range). Most of the other ones are not viewed as kindly.

This thread is meant to focus the discussion a little more.

Gh2 Broken LCD!!! Options?

kupchenpo — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:55:34 +0000

While traveling in Asia last month my tripod was toppled over (stupid setup, my fault) with the lcd out and it shattered some of the plastic and crippled the touch screen capability. I basically used some gaffers tape to hold things together for the rest of my trip (displays fine). Now that I'm home, I decided to take things apart and see what was causing the touch features to not work. As you'll see in the picture, the fall pulled a cable receptor off of the board, I'm guessing that is what enables the touch function? I tried making the contact by pressing it in place, but it had no effect. When I took the lcd off the body of the camera, what remaining functioning plastic that holds things together (screw holes) crumbled making it not possible for me to reattach properly.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU ALL:

Can this be fixed? How? Where to get the necessary parts/materials? Can anyone do it for me at a reasonable price?
If it's a lost cause. Where can I find a replacement LCD? I've scoured the web and thus far come up completely empty. Even if I get a new LCD, I'd need the plastic housing too.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. For now I'm just using the EVF and an ext. monitor, but I miss the functionality of that LCD big time.

Thank you.

Issues with card insertion

rockroadpix — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:39:43 +0000

I am out of town on a job and suddenly the cards do no eject anymore. It's like the spring inside is broken. I need to change my settings and the the cam will not read the old firmware on the cards all of a sudden. WTF??!!?!

Is the GH2 display always representative for spotting light/beamer interference?

dtr — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:25:59 +0000

Hi,

I'm an audiovisual performance artist, working a lot with projections and other artificial light sources. I got me a GH2 to document my work and I was wondering if the GH2's display is always accurate for spotting interference of shutter speed, frame rate and electric light sources resulting in flickering and pulsing in the recording. The display has a refresh rate itself so I could imagine it adds an inaccuracy factor. Anyone's got advice on this?

Thanks, Dieter

HDR video ideas and solutions for a new sensor design and merge two streams on camera

apefos — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:39:52 +0000

Vitaly, please take a look at this:

The big improvement GH2 can get in a next GH3 or GH4 model is enable a HDR function for video. Not the cartoon look HDR, but the improved latitude dynamic range HDR

The best solution would be to get two video streams from the same sensor at the same time, with same shutter speed for both, probably using different iso for adjacent pixels, half pixels at low iso, half pixels at high iso, and the camera merge the two streams into one video mts file. or to use same iso with a sensor designed to have half pixels in a small size and half pixels in biger size. Or to combine some pixels like the idea on the link below. This method would be very better than the Magic Lantern HDR solution for Canon cameras using two different exposures in different consecutive frames.

Please take a look at these solutions showed in these links so you can help Panasonic to develop a HDR video solution for M43 cameras.

http://finepix.com/exr_cmos/en/ (click in DR wide dynamic range in the middle of page, great sensor design)

http://www.fujifilmexr.com (skip intro and go to EXR modes explained / dynamic range)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_CCD (the versions of HDR sensors developed by fuji, nice sensors designs)

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201201/12-010E/index.html (scroll page down to see hdr video sensor concept)

Hope this can be done some day, it is the big step forward!!!

GH2 issues

achielvda — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:17:33 +0000

Hi all, last week when I was shooting with my GH2 and I stumbled on some annoying problems. First of all, my fn buttons are messed up, they switch functions all the time and sometimes don't work at all. Also the iso starts changing randomly, jumping from one to another. I have the same problem with my menu, resulting that I can't reach anything. I even run the original firmware V1.1, so I don't think that's the problem. Does anyone have an idea? it's starting to freak me out. Thanks

Viewing GH2 LCD in bright conditions

JeffGibbsTC — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:32:12 +0000

I am sorry if this is reposting a question that has been answered but could not find the topic thread. There are times when I need to shoot outside in bright conditions and must use the LCD flip out screen. Some days it's impossible to see much of anything on the LCD, much less focus. Seems like a hazy sky day is the worst. Has any one found a hood that works, or used something like the "VARAVON LOUPE EX-SUPPORTER" for GH1/GH2?" I prefer a simple solution to getting rails, an external monitor, etc. as I usually shoot low-key run and gun style. Thanks for any help.

GH2 for multirotors

anaka — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:18:21 +0000

Hi people, a lot of you use the gh2 on tripod or rigs or something else, i use it on a multirotor, the gh2 is the best one to load on a multirotor thanks to it's great quality and light weight. I'd like to know if there is someone else here that use the gh2 in the same way and what's are the best settings for a good flight-shooting. At the moment I have the original firmware, updated to the latest release, it works pretty good but probably could be better with an hacked one. You can take a look at my last shooting, made with the 14-42 G X compact lens, i feel that in the pan movements the gh2 loose the focus or in general gives more blurred results.

it's still nothing professional so all the good tips are well come

thanks in advance

GF2 optional external microphone

spk — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:24:26 +0000

A keen-eyed person on the forum spotted that the GF2 might be able to accept a microphone input via the hot-shoe or the EVF socket

Does anyone here know any more about this?

GF2 sensor is slightly smaller.. Could be really good paired with a b4 2/3" ENG with doubler lens.

Ebacherville — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:15:54 +0000

I noticed something tonight, I have this C mount lens that almost covered the entire GH2 sensor, had slight edge vignetting in the corners.. I put it on my GF2 and no vignetting... I double checked this.. The GF2 seems to have a slightly smaller sensor area.. In my quest for lenses, I have been tempted to get a old b4 ENG 2/3 lens with a doubler and the adapter to micro 4/3 , but have always been turned off by the edge distorsion in the corners with some of these lenses. It has always been a bit to much in the corners.. but if the GF2 has a slightly smaller area, this may be absolutely perfect for the 2/3 ENG lens.. especially if we get manual video controls.

ENG cameras are going to be 60i footage for broadcast anyway, we already have bitrate hacks that make the GF2 put out really nice quality 1080, if the sensor is a bit smaller, we eliminate or lessen the edge corner distortion of the ENG lens doubler..

So, if your lucky with ebay for about $700 - $900 total you get a used 2/3" ENG lens with doubler, constant F from 16-300mm (lens dependent, most are 8-140mm range), a GF2 body, and the b4 lens adapter, add a LCDVF and a cowboy studio sholder rig, rig up power to the zoom on the ENG lens and you have a full HD ENG camera, and I bet would hold up well or beat out the lower end ENG style cameras on the market like Pani's low priced ENG style camcorders ($2500 range). Still lacking integrated sound with XLR ect, but segregated sound isn't a big deal.

Most of these used ENG lenses are from SD cameras, but are very high quality lenses.. new they went new for 7k+ each... There are a few really nice samples online of these lenses on GHx bodies.. Some have the corner distortion others don't.. If we figure out manual controls on the GF line we could have a great ENG replacement on our hands with this combo... for next to nothing dollar wise.. smaller physical size and weight too.. And not to mention the lens can be swapped to primes for those special shots that require loads of bokeh or super low light etc. This small sensor size difference got me pretty excited about the little GF2 and GF3 camera line.

Any one have direct experiance with the B4 lenses on GH or GF cameras..

Can any one confirm the GF2 and GF3 sensor is indeed, a bit smaller?

GF2 Flicker Reduction Behavior

Rambo — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:52:50 +0000

I've taken this out of page 6 the GF2 Stable settings Thread http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2321/gf2-stable-settings/p6

GF2 is a strange camera in Video mode. Panasonic say in their manual that Flicker Red (Flicker reduction) when set to 1/50 >1/120 in video mode will lock the shutter. I agree from the tests i have done in bright daylight that it does, however it appears SOMETHING is changing when large amounts of light or dark is introduced quickly, it seems to have a trigger point. If you use a manual lens, set aperture, use an ND or VariND and set iso to 100, it appears you can shoot and lock shutter between 1/50 and 1/120.

In dark situations where the camera needs gain, i think the iso will follow a similar pattern, jumping at trigger points, but shutter and iso will be locked at what you set it to unless you pan the camera to a very bright or very dark area, this seems to trigger some change but not enough to correct exposure. Weird. I throw this out there for discussion, as there seems to be conflicting opinions on this and no real explanations on what the camera is doing.

GHx/GFx/GXx emotions

Ebacherville — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:18:17 +0000

I took my personally owned hacked GH2 and assortment of lenses into work today for a project, I have 2 Pany HD ENG cameras at work,(less than a year old) camera's at work. Used my GH2 with a minimal 42 Mbps hack today... Blew away the ENG cameras, hands down blew them out of the water.. its like watching VHS-C versus 1080P..

How the heck can Pany top the GH2 and the hack.. looking at buying some new cameras this year at work.. quite possibly GH2's, hopefully GH3 will top the GH2.. Wish I could post some footage... but its proprietary content.. but it is DANG its F'ing pretty!

Vitaliy, If I get my "videoography slush fund" that I have asked for, based on this footage, your getting a nice donation!

GH2 or waiting for K-01

chrischtili — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:13:36 +0000

Is it worth waiting for K-01 or would you buy a GH2 ( for now i do have only a GF1/20mm and 2 Pentax Primes/manual ones)? chrischtili

GH2 - Difraction test for the M.ZD 45mm F/1.8 - 100% Crops.

duartix — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:02:19 +0000

When comparing neighboring apertures the effect it's not very apparent but usually comparing crops 2/3EV apart you will see a difference. Having said that, I can say I'm pretty confortable up to f/11-13 even though if you compare to f/9 you can spot a marginal difference. These are 100% crops. Had to shoot these at ISO640 because that was the needed amplification for F22@2fps. Shot on tripod with constant lighting. At very wide apertures (F/5.6 and faster) there is flickering from the lighting but it doesn't make a difference for this purpose.

BTW I also tested with a chart on the center and another on the corner but the diffraction settles in equally as expected, so I'm publishing this test where I zoomed in on the chart and it's easier to see the differences.

A zip file with all images is also here: http://www.mediafire.com/?hwotq64ixux4z9k

Panasonic GX1 Topic

driftwood — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:55:05 +0000

As a precursor to the likely GX1 hack here's some information regarding the Panasonic GX1.

[More to come...]

The DMC-GX1 employs full HD 1,920 x 1,080 videos in AVCHD (MPEG-4 / H.264) format. The AVCHD format features almost twice the recording time in HD quality than the conventional Motion JPEG. The AVCDH matrix for i and p frames in 1080i is the same as each other (as seen in the attached file GX1 picture parameter set). Notably, the 720p matrices differ from each other from i frames to p frames (notice both pps matrices attached below)

Video AVCHD:

NTSC [Full HD] 1,920 x 1,080, 60i (sensor output is 30p) (FSH: 17 Mbps) [HD] 1,280 x 720, 60p (sensor output is 30p) (SH: 17 Mbps)

PAL [Full HD] 1,920 x 1,080, 50i (sensor output is 25p) (FSH: 17 Mbps) [HD] 1,280 x 720, 50p (sensor output is 25p) (SH: 17 Mbps)

Video MP4:

The DMC-GX1 can record videos in MP4 format. This format is suitable for editing videos on a computer or uploading those to websites. Resolution can be selected among 1,920 x 1,080 (20Mbps), 1,280 x 720 (10Mbps), and 640 x 480 (4Mbps), all at 30p (NTSC) / 25p (PAL). The mp4 mode records files to the DCIM folder. See attached 1080 p25 mp4 header info and streameye graphic for GOP and progressive confirmation.

The usual mini HDMI Type C. Video: Auto / 1080i / 720p / 480p (576p in PAL system)

Optional accessory (essential): Live View Finder (field sequential color, 1,440,000-dot equivalent).

More info on video capabilities: http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gx1/video.html#avchd

Firmware: http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/dl/gx1.html

Panasonic GF5 rumors

kitano — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:38:33 +0000

http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/18/panasonic-lumix-gf5-leak-hong-kong/