GH3 user reviews and opinions

stoney

@Alex Were those frame captures from movie files?

Tron

@jjj_ri_usa Exactly right, 4.5K RAW baby! And the great thing about the electronic shutter on the GH3 - I took almost 400 12MP RAWs (16:9) and the battery was still showing full. This thing is an amazing little creature for timelapse, with the battery grip it will shoot forever w/ electronic shutter. I can't wait to get crazy with this thing shooting some landscapes and starlight.

gib

@alex Function button #3 is set to "AFmode"

Alex

@jjj_ri_usa

it takes -40% for the GH3 shot and -85% for the GH2 shot to completely clean from red pixels. After -50% the GH2 is almost clean. There are some clipping edge pixels which are gone at -85%.

Portrait seams to be pretty flat with a smooth highlight rolloff. Nostalgic is the what I like the most on the GH2. Despite the sepia tint ...

Alex

@gib what is the name of that function, "zoom focus"? There is "focus area set" as a assignable funktion and it requires SET tobe pressed to actually do the magnification. "Focus area set" only gives a box that can be resized. Do I miss the function that zooms in by the press of ONE button??

jjj_ri_usa

@Tron. That's good to hear. So the GH3 can handle an 'infinite' string of RAWs every 2 seconds until either the card fills up, or the battery runs dry. Cool. That will make for some beautiful time lapse sequences. Hey: it's like shooting "raw" video with just an incredibly slow frame rate. Who needs a Black Magic camera. :-)

jjj_ri_usa

@Alex. Nice test. This might be a stupid question, but, why did you not include more of the area with the clipped highlights in the 100% Crop? I would also be curious to know the LR negative highlights value you needed to clear all clipping for each camera. Taking the highlights to -100 for both shots seems quite extreme? I'm assuming that you needed only a smaller negative highlight adjustment for the GH3, and probably a bit more adjustment for the GH2. It seems like overkill to go to -100 for both shots? Wouldn't that 'flatten' the highlights too much in both shots?

And, like tinyrobot. I wonder why the different profiles for the two cams? Did you do some experiments that showed these were the two 'closest' settings? The color balance is quite different.

Sorry if these seem like silly question. :-)

We all appreciate any testing done. I'm not trying to be critical, just asking some questions to learn.

I wish I could do some more testing, but..I can't do anything with my GH3 until the weekend, since it is dark when I go in to work, and it is dark by the time I get home from work. :-(

gib

@alex As well as using the touch screen, you can also use the FN3 button to zoom focus (default) or change it to another function button

tinyrobot

@Alex great test. I would like to see how they recover from both under exposure and over exposure files.

And why don't you just use the standard profile for both?

Tron

@jjj_ri_usa I just loaded up my 2 sec interval RAWs, which I originally stopped prematurely after perceiving a pause in shutter actuation and they appear to be timed correctly. Its possible the audible for electronic shutter will sometimes drop out in the sequence, but the camera seems to keep firing just fine. I was using a Sandisk Extreme 32GB 45MB/S. So far I am loving this little camera!!

Alex

tried to compare DR between GH2 and GH3. I used the Voigtländer 17.5mm @ f8 RAW processed with Lightroom RC4.3

GH2 setup: - WB 6400K - Nostalgic -2-2+2-2 - shutter 1000/sec

GH3 setup: - WB 6400K - Portrait c-5 sh-5 sat-2 nr-5 - shutter 1000/sec

Red indicating highlight clipping without adjustment (default development settings)
100% crop with full highlight recovery (Highlights -100)
60% cliped black

lenuisible

@Alex man that sucks... This behavior was one of the reason I replaced my GH1 with a GH2, I was used to the GF1 which already has the push dial feature, and 2 step magnification is a pain

jjj_ri_usa

@jfro. I can't comment on comparing the GH3 to a 5D MkII. The best camera I ever had was the GH1. From what I've seen so far, the GH3 is a much better stills camera than the GH1. That's about all I can say. :-)

It's nice having the jump in resolution from 12 MP to 16 MP and actually see an apparent increase in quantum efficiency? That's the only way to explain the better performance from what have to be smaller pixels. I'm very happy with the photo quality of the GH3 so far. But...I haven't really taken many photos.

But...as good as a 5D Mk II? I think that's impossible just because of the difference in sensor size. a u43 sensor can never match a full frame for sensitivity. The FF will always have much larger pixels. But, I believe that for my life, the photo resolution of u43 is "good enough". I'll never have photos blown up 10x life size hanging in a museum, so...for my purposes, it looks like the GH3 satisfies my desire for more pixels than a GH1 (for finer grain and ability to crop more aggressively).

jjj_ri_usa

@tron. Nice time lapse. I think your guess about the write buffer getting overrun at 1 RAW every 2 seconds is probably correct? What speed card were you using? So far, everything I've shot, all videos and clips were on Sandisk 30 Mb/s. I was worried I might need to buy faster cards, but zero issue so far. And I've shot 1080/60 and 1080/24 All I.

Sph1nxster

@driftwood doh! Thanks for pointing that out. That makes a lot more sense.

Now if only there was a movie ISO limiter.......

jjj_ri_usa

No. I have not seen anything like that. Just quickly took an under-exposed shot. I don't have a coke can, but the Pepsi logo should have red in it. This is Standard {0,0,0,0} with AWB. ISO 800, 1/80th, f1.8. The focus point was the red in the Pepsi logo. The only illumination was the overhead light in this bedrooom, two 60W bulbs. No color adjustments made.

It is easy enough to adjust in PP, but...I've not yet seen the Color Balance so out of whack in any stills I've taken. What were you using for WB? The 2nd pic is just a copy of yours after a couple clicks in LR (like Color Temp adjustment and remove blown highlights, etc).

I did have an ugly yellow cast to some CAF test videos I posted, but...that was my own fault. I simply chose Tungsten for WB, assuming that would be correct. But, the lamps were actually compact fluorescents, and, clearly their color temperature was not 2800K! Also, those CAF videos were shot at ISO 3200 and ISO 1600 which might also push the CCT off a bit?

jshzr

Hey guys, I just got my GH3 and noticed that the REDS are coming out on the orange side for photo and video. Anyone notice that? Upping the saturation didn't fix it either.

jfro

Any new owners care to comment on photo capabilities. I'm interested in opinions comparing photo quality to 5d Mark II quality. If it's there, I'd swap 5D for gh3 and keep my gh2's. I need a camera for high quality photos in addition to the video we are getting from hack and now apparently, the gh3.

Alex

@Jib yes, touching the screen brings up magnification but that doesn't help when using the viewfinder and I prefer to use the EVF in most situations ... Focusing manual lenses seams to have become less convenient ...

Tron

@tinyrobot Oedipax is right, it's just a post-zoom, but I really love the amount of detail available in these files... I can add the ungraded version if you guys want to compare them.

Oedipax

@tinyrobot, I think that's just a post-zoom.

tinyrobot

@Tron what kind of slider are you using. Very nice!

Tron

My quick timelapse test... 4 sec intervals, 1 second exposure, electronic shutter.

Has anyone noticed 2 second intervals seem to pause intermittently in the sequence... I'm wondering if the camera just can't write RAWs fast enough in the buffer on a continuous basis?

driftwood

Wi-Fi Operation Overview:-

JDN

Initially the pricing was supposed to be around $2000 US for gh3 + 12-35 as a kit, but this hasn't materialized yet...

May have just been marketing. Or a pipe dream. But you're right, less of an issue with the lens price drops.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

Tags in Topic

Top Posters