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Panasonic G6 topic, GH2 replacement camera
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  • @dishe But this happens when shooting in sunlight/cloudy weather, no electrical lighting whatsoever.

  • Hi to all; does anyone know if it is possible to use a wireless wifi reciever with the G6. Like if you need to send the video signal to an external monitor like in a steadicam or such things.

  • @mcoser you can connect the G6 with an android tablet via wifi. However I strongly recommend you to test your camera, since many G6 models seem to have issues with wi-fi unfortunately...

  • Yes, i knew, in fact i tried today and it works.

    However, what i was thinking was to use an external wifi reciever (not a smartphone or a tablet) wich can output a sdi signal that can be sent to an another monitor

  • Got my repaired G6 back on Friday !!!

    Unfortunately Panasonic repair updated the original firmware to 1.2 and I have now lost the ability to use the zoom rocker on top to actuate zoom focus assist. It was one of the nicest features of this cam. The ability to simply zoom in the screen at any time with any lens to check focus.

    In fact the new menus are identical to the GH4 now. I can't seem to assign that function on my GH4 either. I have to double tap the screen now on both cams to get it to zoom in to check focus and it only works in manual focus mode.

    Does anyone know if I'm just missing it in the menu? I can't seem to find a way to assign that function to the zoom rocker.

    Cheers, Pete

  • Have lurked for awhile hoping for a hack on the G6, but looks unlikely with 4K already out. I still like the camera having got it recently. Have experimented with an anamorphic projector lens on an old prime with some pleasing results, though for pulling focus or quick setups, it is not great! Here's a link to my first test. Vimeo sure takes the sharpness out though.

  • Hey guys, I'm about to buy a G6 but I'm not entirely sure yet. All the footage I've seen throughout this discussion has helped me a lot but I'm still unsure. My second guess would be a Canon T3i.

    I want to shoot short movies and have some nice DOF. My friend (who's a hobby photographer) says that using adapters with the G6 will narrow down my FOV and darken my shots, which I don't understand why. I'm currently a student and money is quite a big deal atm so I will not be able to buy expensive glass for the panasonic yet. On the other hand, Canon lenses are quite cheaper.

    Any thoughts?

  • You can also check and try to get used GH3.

    As for narrow DOF. Usually small DOF is used very rarely in practice. If you want DOF like on bigger sensor cameras, or want faster lenses - http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/9086/rj-lens-turbo-m43-adapters#Item_447

  • @Claim First of all, you should be lighting your shots. I shoot at ISO 200 with 1/50 Shutter indoors and outdoors. I could raise the ISO if I wanted, but I like having more control over my footage. (Creative Lighting).

    Use the glass you can afford and light your shots. Even if that means buying cheap hardware lights initially.

    As far as loss of light, etc. Unless you are using an extension tube, the amount of light lost with an adapter will be significantly less than the amount gained; saying you are going from a kit 3.5-5.6 to a 1.4 or 1.8.

    Long story short, it's not anything that should cause you stress.

    Instead worry about:

    1- Is it in Focus?

    2- Is it framed correctly?

    2- Can we hear it? (External Recorder)

  • Thank you for the quick replies! I'm really sorry if I came over straight up arrogant a bit, but the more I read the more I realise I know nothing about cameras and it's really tough and frustrating to decide which camera to buy. I guess I have more lighting than I need lying around my apartment so that's no problem. Getting a used GH3 is going to be a bit more expensive than it should be, since I'm in europe, it's gonna go up to 700€ (body only) that I cannot spend right now. It's going to be either the T3i or the G6, whereby I kind of opt for the G6.

  • @claim what is the budget for your camera?

  • @dishe Why compare the G6 to the NX30? Well - why not... basically that's what I'm asking. Some of the reasons are it has uncompressed HDMI out. It has a bigger sensor. It's price should drop quite quickly to the same level. But the way, the technical data sheet says it has 24fps - and it seems to be region switchable. Especially 30fps are much more important to me and something the G6 does not have for us people in Germany. It's EVF should be better than that of the G6 and from what can be read about the picture quality, it's said to be good to perfect (not my words). It does 1080p60, has NFC and WIFI, it also can be remote controlled with a tablet or smartphone, it has full control of external audio in, full manual video control, it also has focus peaking,... it just has many features that are what many of us are looking for.

    As there is no information about video quality anywhere - at least I couldn't find anything about it - I'm asking here: Could the NX30 be a serious competitor of the G6.

  • @matthere something about 550€, maybe I can round it up a bit, but it'd hurt to spend more than that atm - my dad has a few expensive Nikon lenses (he has a D7100), so I'm not sure if I can use those.

  • 5 months ago I took my Panasonic G6 on a journey to tell the story of our local filmmaking community here in Jamaica. I have come to this site before as a resource of good help. I now share with you the culmination of that work, my short documentary "Just Action". All of the content you see was filmed on the G6 along with some of the audio. Hope you enjoy!

    Just Action - Behind The Scenes of Jamaican Filmmaking from David Boncrek Johnson on Vimeo.

  • Modern Luxury / CS Magazine (a large fashion/travel/design publication in the US) just released this video I shot with the GH4 (thanks to Vitaliy's GH4 early batch sales on the deals section of this www.personal-view.com site, thanks Vitaliy!!!), G6 and GH2 (hacked) in May 2014.

    It was a 6 day photo-video fashion shoot, at different bars/restaurants across Chicago, using all kinds of gears (steadicam merlin, manfrotto steadimodo, tripods & slider) & lenses, to highlight some of the nightlife in the Windy City. Lenses used were Canon FD 50mm F1.4 (with and without RJ Lens Turbo), SLR Magic 25mm F0.95, Olympus 9-18mm, Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8, 20mm F1.7, 14 -140mm among others. Some footage was shoot at 4K on the GH4, some others at 1080p60/96/24 fps on GH4 or G6 or GH2.

    Enjoy & feel free to spot which camera was used for which sequence ;-).

    Overall, my experience with G6 is that it provides excellent image quality at 1080p60 AVCHD, better low light ISO performance than GH2 but worse than GH4, BUT the biggest pet peeve for me is the EVF being sooo low-resolution (way worse than GH2, or obviously GH4)... and lack of dedicated manual controls (no quick AF/MF adjustment knob for instance).

  • @claim if you're a totally newbie filmmaker with not much cash then the Panasonic G6 is the blatantly obvious choice to make, just go for it!! :-)

    The #2 choice after the G6 in its price range would be the Sony A6000, #3= choice after that would be the Nikon D5200/D5300. But I'd say a Panasonic G6 is clear winner over those if you're new to this, due to its features. As for Canon... NOTHING Canon makes in this price range comes anywhere near as good as the ones I just mentioned.

    For myself, I personally most recently went with getting a Nikon D5200. But if you're total new to this I'd still recommend you go with the Panasonic G6 instead. I only went with a D5200 instead because I knew very very specifically what I wanted and what trade offs I'd find acceptable, but it still was a tough choice for me between the G6 vs A6000 vs D5200! So if you're starting out with no experience, don't worry about that and just get the Panasonic G6.

    For those who have slightly different budget requirements who might be reading this, if you've got a lot more money to spend then the Panasonic GH4 is an easy choice over the G6 (but double check your budget! As the body is a small part of the overall budget, once you add it up... you might realise a G6 is a more sensible choice for you), and if you've got a much smaller budget then the clear winner here is to get a second hand Panasonic GH1 (which is what I did myself for my first camera, it served me very well!).

    I highly recommend taking a look at this webpage:

    I found it very useful when I was starting out, and it is still broadly applicable to anybody starting out with any other Micro Four Thirds camera. The key difference I'd note is buy all your lenses for a Nikon F mount (as is the best way to "future proof" your investment) and use the RJ Lens Turbo (it isn't mentioned in the webpage before, because focal reducers didn't exist back then for m4/3, it is a relative recent development which is a huge game changer): http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/9086/rj-lens-turbo-m43-adapters/p1

  • @IronFilm

    Thanks a lot! What I'm looking for is (since I'm going to use the camera for short movies):

    • some nice DOF (I know this depends on the glass)
    • good image quality
    • mic input
    • maybe ergonomics
    • film look (that probably depends a bit on post but the cam footage should already look good)

    Since you mentioned, that nothing from Canon's side comes close to the G6/A6000/etc, is the bitrate difference unnoticeable? BTW, my current gear is a JVC Adixxion Action Cam.

  • @KDLproductions Very good work and grading!! what scenes were shooted with the G6?

    And in particular, in what scenes have you used the Canon FD 50mm F1.4 with RJ Lens Turbo? I was very interested in this "couple" but I haven't found vimeo test ;)

  • @AlbertZ Thanks for watching it and glad you enjoyed it ;-)!!!

    All the steadicam shots were used with the G6. So needless to say it worked great, and focuses very fast as long as your lens is set appropriately... used the Pana X 12-35mm, and Olympus 9-18mm for these shots.

    As for the RJ + Canon FD 50 shots with GH2, the scenes inside the drake palm court (brown haired girl + fountain inside) & inside that tavern with curly blonde girl. e.g. Main screengrab on the vimeo link. See 00:07, 01:42, 03:11, 03:16... I didn't get the purple dot people talked about, had the latest version bought via Ebay. ;-)

  • Short thing shot with the G6 at 50p (3 shots with gopro and 2 with 5dmk2 and mosaic filter - rest G6). Shot in natural dialled all way down in contrast and -2 saturation. Sharpness at default. 50p is nice on the G6 and holds up quite well in grading.

  • @claim maybe you would consider spending your cash on the BMPCC now it's within your budget?

  • @matthere @claim The BMPCC (in ProRes) is a good idea, however you have to consider the extra cost for SD cards, wide lenses or speedbooster too ;) and a decent pc for heavy color grading... I think that the total cost for the BMPCC plus lenses like the Panasonic 12-35mm or Sigma 18-35 1.8 + speedbooster would exceed the GH4, which is more user-friendly camera...

    @KDLproductions thanks for your detailed info! :)

  • The BMPCC has a severe learning curve.

  • I'm kind of thinking about waiting for the GH3 to become cheaper.

  • @claim

    you should have bought the g6 when it cost 500. Maybe if you're lucky, it'll fall again.