There has been talk in the low GOP thread about a high bitrate / low GOP setting for 1080i which I'm going to try now my computer is back in action. In terms of detail at least, none of the high-bitrate 720p footage I've seen has been as good as even the stock 24p (IMO) so I'm keen to see what you can get out of 1080i 50. For me the interest is twofold: I'm in a PAL region, and I have 2 HD camcorders to use alongside my GH2.
honestly- get a GH2 - by the time the GH3 is hacked into shape (taking into account that Panny will not be sending VK a SDK) you will probably we wanting to get the GH4... Vicious cycle... Nip it in the bud...
720p50 is great for news etc, and when it gets higher bit rate it will scream - remember the GH2 is doing pixel binning not frame skipping- so as far as I am aware - all the lovely data is being used!
You could, but you'd have to duplicate frames or use a plug in like Twixtor or other forms of artifacts. While there is an opportunity with DSLR to shoot natively at 60 fps, then conform it with Cinema Tools at 24 or 25. When you play it back it is natively slowed down by 2.5 (at 24, slightly less at 25). In this case you get beautiful slomo, as good as when originated on film by overcranking the camera.
With a higher bitrate hack, I think it's a viable option to shoot 720/50p and edit on a 25fps time. Upscale 720 to 1080 is not a problem. Previously, the unhack GH2 720/50p (17mbps) is just too low.
Btw, what's the most stable and gorgeous looking 720/50p setting for hacked GH2 at the moment?
Actually, why not shooting 720/25p, as it's now possible with PTool 3.61d? Unless you need to slomo, my understanding is that you get less compression vs. shooting 50p. Anyone can confirm? And also, another method would be to shoot at 1080/24p, conform to 25, edit and then slow it down to 96% using Twixtor, as stated in one of their tutorials. I have done a short test (rendering takes forever on my 4 and a half year old Macbook Pro) but I didn't notice any artifact. Any thoughts?
By the way, thank you very much Vitally, wonderful work! Very much appreciated!
It wouldn't be a good solution. As Elenion said, the 1080/50i is interlaced (it's not 1080p/50) - so you will get half vertical resolution is every other frame is dropped. Big no-no, that option is out of question.
It does seem 720/25p might be possible, but not sure.
@Mark_the_harp I think mpgxsvcd was referring to the fact that if the shutter goes below the fps the camera record just the frame it needs. This means that if you record 50p at 1/25 the camera record just 25fps (that you have to interpret during editing), but the fact is that gh2 doesn't have (yet) 1080p50, it has only interlaced ones, then you can get 1080i25. I don't think that it could be a good solution.
@mpgxsvcd "You can also get 1080p @ 25 FPS from the GH2 by dropping the shutter speed below 1/50th."
Could you just explain that? I think I get what you mean but I'm not sure! And of course it's not going to have the data rate of the stock 24p mode unless you also tweak the data rate settings on a hacked camera.
I would say the 14-140mm is a great starting point with the GH2. Its small aperture is not useful for the GH1. However, the GH2 has a 1-stop advantage over the other m4/3s cameras so the 14-140mm is usable.
After that I would get the upcoming 25mm F1.4 over the 20mm for video. If you manually focus or use AFS the 20mm is fine for video. However, the 25mm looks like it will be an ideal video lens.
After those I would say the 45mm F1.8 or perhaps the 45mm F2.8 with IS would be good choices. However, I really like my old MF lenses in that focal range.
All of which is still 1080p in the same way as that iPhone 3 app that 'upgraded' the 2MP camera to a '7MP camera'... man that was hilarious. No argument that the camera is awesome, I agree that good 720p is better than crappy 1080p, and I personally will be fine for my needs with the modes available (now that we can get 24, 30, 50 and 60 together). But 1080p PAL would be even awesomer :o)
@stolpis: lots of threads in the gear section... I'm going for a 14-45 for starters myself and maybe a fast prime like the panny-lieca f1.4 or the nocton down the track, but I have some old Pentax K-mount glass and a Volna-3 on a tilter, that I plan to re-use. Gotta love micro 4/3, it'll take (almost) anything.
Right that's it, i'm getting one. The only ones I've seen physically available in shops have the 14-42mm lens. Am i right in thinking the 14-140mm is the basic starting point lens I should go for? This is my first real step into camera work, I've always hired DOPs for previous projects.
You can easily get 25p with a stock GH2. Just shoot 1080i and deinterlace it. So many people complain that 720p doesn’t have nearly as much resolution as 1080i. You can also get 1080p @ 25 FPS from the GH2 by dropping the shutter speed below 1/50th.
Now in reality the 1080i mode has terrible vertical resolution so this isn’t really a viable solution. Shooting 720p @ 50 FPS with the upcoming hack will produce perfectly acceptable 720p @ 25 FPS. You can always upscale it to 1080p @ 25 FPS if it must be 1080p.
I wish I had a GH1 to test against the GH2’s 720p mode. The GH2 ‘s 720p is so much better than the non GH series cameras.