Really useful to see this - I've been using ex mode recently and thought it was a bit noisy.

And remember about switching ISOs and the weird glitch with them being noisier if you increment upwards rather than downwards.

...and a portion of the two photos lined up and then split between the two, which makes it really obvious:

@balazer Nice idea - I did do a full-frame shot with the video lens, so had a go at what you suggested, and loaded it into the editor and zoomed in until the image filled the output, then flipped between that and the ETC-mode - but unfortunately there is exactly no difference on my lens, because it just barely covers the ETC-mode sensor area. I was excited for a second though!

I'm also so annoyed that I had two huge TV studio camera lenses that I basically chucked away 2 years ago. But I don't suppose they would have been any better, and they weighed a ton. Both were about 60cm / 24" long! So more a case of having a lens with a camera attached to the back.

Thanks so much for your thoughts though - the lens came from an ancient AKAI tube camera, and resolution-wise it's not so bad really (if it's that or get no usable video because of poor light). So it'll have a use somewhere. At the moment it's a bit of an oddity with an aperture lever poking out the side and a Russian adaptor screwed to the back so it fits on the camera. Just that sometimes when there's not much light around, it's nice to have the flexibility of a zoom lens which works well in low light - though maybe what I'm looking for isn't possible without spending a shedload of money.

The ETC mode was one of the primary reasons I bought the camera--I tried it once and never used it because of the noise. But handy in a pinch, for sure. Under the right conditions, for example with decent light and a fast prime, I'm sure you can get an interesting effect.

@balazer @DrDave Thanks guys - your experience in this is really valuable, as you've found out and clearly explained what I would otherwise have spent a ton of time finding out! I did a bit of comparing last night and my Nikon 1.4 definitely looks nicer in low light than the 1.4 zoom + ETC. And yes, I'll hang on to my TV zoom lens I think, just for those special times when it's useful. Talking of which,

@SisterCities thank you for this. I'd seen it before but I really like it and it could be exactly the right look for some things. Having seen the very high ISO GH2 stuff around recently, the grain in that is a bit too "fixed" for me, and this ETC-mode grain does look very good if that's the effect needed.

On the other hand, it's also made me realise how interesting it is to work with fast primes, esp with some of the hacks like the GOP1 ones which seem to produce nicer-looking noise, and to have to recompose to get shots.

@brianluce Thanks - didn't know that, and I really really hate the jello look so useful to know.

Isn't that the same situation as with optical teleconverters where 2x tele give you 2 stops loss?

I'm wondering what's the difference in terms of noise between electronic teleconverter technology and real optical add-on lens? If I put on a 2.5x extender I guess it will give about the same amount of light loss as with decreasing the active sensor surface. But still I think that a full sensor will be less prone to intrusive noise than just a fraction of it.

There is a variety of cheap teleconverters on ebay.

So, anyone has experience with an optical teleconverter on his GH2? How does it compare to ETC?

I baught the GH2 for ETC also. Cause my GH1 made eveything else good enough. The noise problem in ETC-Mode let me use it in good light situations only. But fortunately @ almost any daylight sport situations where i need fast pannings i do have good light. And with the1:1 crop the rolling shutter effect is greatly minimized.

Hello Everyone!

I have done a lot of testing in the past and have come to some conclusions and have many more questions as a result, and I'd like to cover some of them here.

• First of all, I could find no evidence of the "ISO Bug" with my GH2. I tried everything, but got consistent results regardless of how I set the ISO.

• I get noise at ISO 160. I think it's distracting and for high contrast dramatic scenes, it's unacceptable.

• I purchased a nice 1/2" C-Mount lens for it's incredible low light capability, but I have to use it in ETC Mode. BTW it's one of the nicest handling lenses that I use. It is Parfocal and unlike my Nikon Prime lens, it is smooth when rack focusing in each direction without slop.

• ETC Mode generates way bad noise, which renders my low light advantage of the C-Mount lens Useless.

So I can use the C-Mount lens in well lit situation, but not for the reason I purchased it. If I had the time to experiment with a GH2 before I purchased it, I probably would have purchased a more expensive option.

My question to everyone is: Do you think that Panasonic a) can fix this with a firmware update b) will they fix it if they can (with the GH3 coming out ??) ?

Is there a hack that addresses the noise problem in ETC?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

For high contrast dramatic scenes, unacceptable to me, but I've seen other GH2 footage and it was like mine, so I think it's just bad QC on Panasonic's part... hit or miss maybe.

From the many threads I've read (maybe hundreds) noise at ISO 160 is a common problem. I guess it is a subjective measure of what you can tolerate.

If my camera is faulty, well I'm stuck with it, but I was hoping that Panasonic, or some Hacker would improve the performance, especially in ETC Mode.

Post-mortem:

After all of my research I decided I had enough information to make hacking my GH2 worth a try.

I ran numerous tests and learned a lot along the way. I understand what I read and the comments I recieved much differently now than I did before.

I posted the results of my numerous tests here: http://philipbloom.net/forum/threads/gh2-hacks-noise.1814/

Thanks All!