@AlbertZ There aren't actually a lot of ETC mode options on the GH2. The only option is whether ETC crops to 1280x720 or 1920x1080, so it is pretty much determined by the output resolution you want.

@Ebacherville Thanks for the balanced summing-up of ETC!

Anyone else got a dead pixel in ETC? That's a pretty big drawback!

Also, you can't shoot ETC mode if you're running an external monitor. That's really annoying, but not so much a drawback to ETC in itself.

@Ebacherville

"one other benefit/disadvantage is it acts like a small sensor camera.. less shallow DOF than full frame, but also has a small sensor advantage , less jello (virtual none) with fast camera motion."

I don't believe this is correct. Jello is affected by sensor readout speed. I don't think the sensor reads any faster with the cropped frame.

In reality Jello is not made worse or better with ETC. However, the ETC's zoomed in frame can make jello more apparent especially in slow motion.

@mpgxsvcd

Intuitively jello & rolling shutter effects wouldn’t be improved on the sensor cropped image compared to its non-cropped image’s “cropped” center part that matches to the ETC’s framing.

But ETC would show less jello/rolling shutter effects than using non-ETC mode at the same framing. E.g. 20mm with ETC vs 52mm lens with no ETC.

It's accepted knowledge that ETC yields less jello. If anyone doubts it, test it. I experimented quite a bit for a chase sequence and the difference is dramatic. Although, I don't believe it completely eliminates it. I dunno if it's perceived or actual, all I know is in ETC you get a lot less jello. It's a major feature of the GH2 in my mind.

@Vitaliy I understand, I just wanted to highlight that capability because it seems no one mentions it much. For hand held action/crash sequence, it can make a huge difference. I never used it much for tele, if I want tele I change the lens.

sky banding issue is the worst scenario with ETC, it is like flickering light, you must find right shutter speed, and even then it is very noticeable, so most of the shoots with sky in it, done with ETC are junk

@oneday really?? why is that?

@AlbertZ what's the Pentax 6-41?

This video shows the Jello Effect when ETC mode is used. I used the 14-140mm @ 35mm plus the 3.9x 720p ETC and the 14-140mm @ 140mm to give the same equivalent field of view.

I filmed passing trucks at the same speed with 1/250th shutter speed. I could not tell any difference in the angle of distortion between the two clips. A lot of people think that rolling shutters only affect the video if the camera is moving. It will actually slant vertical lines if the subject is moving fast enough horizontally even if the camera is still.

I do not believe that using ETC mode over just the lens has any affect on the rolling shutter jello effect. Theoretically sensor readout speed is the only thing that could affect it. Using ETC mode should reduce the number of pixels that the camera reads. However, that does not appear to help at all. Instead it appears to read the entire sensor in the same time that it takes to read it without using ETC. Maybe it is just throwing out the data that the ETC mode doesn't need?

Sorry it is late and I didn't know where the original thread was so I had originally posted this as its own topic.

Good test indeed, @mpgxsvcd

@stonebat

That is correct. If there is a difference then it is negligible. However, the more important thing is “why isn’t there a bigger difference?”. If the sensor is read at the same rate then it stands to reason that it should read the entire sensor faster if it is only reading a portion of the sensor.

I don’t fully understand how these sensors are read. I will leave that up to you experts. However, I do believe that it should be possible to virtually eliminate rolling shutter by using a fast readout for the sensor(1/250th like in the Nikon 1 series cameras) and using a cropped sensor mode.