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Bricked my GH1. Help on a replacement
  • ppcroftppcroft

    Sorry if there is a similar thread, but could not find it. Apologies if this is long....

    I was being stupid and tried to remove the SD card that got stuck in the card slot of the 3 year old GH1 by a little force and a pin. The camera is now dead and the Panny service center told that the main board has been damaged and need replacement. It will cost in excess of $350, but parts are not available either. There is no way I am going spend that much on a GH1 now. So I am in need of a camera and need it before 10th March before I go on vacation.

    GH1 was my first serious camera and it was Vitaliy's hack that kindled this passion. I have the following lenses now:

    Lumix 14-140mm Lumix 20mm Samyang 85mm MF (Nikon) Nikon 50 mm 1.8 MF Vivitar 55mm 2.8 Macro MF (Nikon)

    I am a casual shooter and shoots mainly family, nature etc., especially while on holidays. I was sold out by the GH1 videos and I have almost used the camera 80% for videos. Now that is not to say I don't use it for stills. Well, stills are not so much fun with the GH1 (peace, in a more capable hands they sure can be). Of the lenses I use, I almost always use 14-140 for video and by virtue of being having AF and myself being lazy, use it for stills as well. This a not a very ideal solution. I had always wanted a quality lens that can can do AF, video etc. day/night. The MF lenses while excellent, had me working more and I always found myself missing the fun while in the middle of changing lens, adapter and doing manual focus etc.. All this combined made sure the GH1 was mainly a video camera. I often wondered changing format and going for a Nikon or Canon for stills and have some AF lenses for them. The bulk and costs kept me at bay. Where I live the m4/3 is almost unheard of. Even the Panasonic service engineer had not heard of the GH1 when I spoke to him. So Panasonic lenses may be of little resale value here. So that was another factor in looking at m4/3 solution as a replacement camera.

    Having been an avid follower of these forums, I took a break for almost an year as I was trying to learn other things like Adobe CS6 etc. Now the sudden demise of GH1 made me search and there was this GH3 with almost universal praise. I hoped the GH3 would solve my problems with the still photography if were to mate it with a good AF lens like the 12-35 or 35-100 from Panny. In a moment of excitement I back-ordered a GH3 body+ battery + 2 year B&H SquareTrade warranty for about $1550. The lenses have to wait for now. However now there is a possibility that the camera may not be delivered by 10th March deadline...

    It is then that I read about the Olympus OMD EM-5. I had totally missed the noise around this one. The IBIS and image quality seemed quite a match for the MF lenses that I had (was planning on a Samyang 35mm cine lens, but now the budget is gone). Video seem inferior to Gh3. I also feel it may not be comfortable to hold the body with big lenses sans the grip. The camera is available right now and cheaper and...I could not make up my mind.

    So I am now looking at options as an after thought..I think I can change my order with the B&H.. I would appreciate suggestions what would be a best camera GH3, OMD EM-5 or any other. Any suggestions welcome.. Thanks in advance

  • 6 Replies sorted by
  • RRRRRRRR

    My thoughts: OMD EM-5 is great for stills. Shit for video. The form-factor is not as cool in practice as it looks. I was slightly dissapointed with the stills in gh3 for the two weeks I had it. An improvement, but not as much as I´d hoped.

    As of yet, there is no perfect hybrid as far as I´m concerned. For stills, I´d go with fuji x-mount over any m43 cam as it stands, but then again, I have invested in the format, avaiting the BMDCC in MFT mount..

    Why not get a second hand gh2 while you are waiting? It´s bang for buck right now.

  • ppcroftppcroft

    @RRRR

    Thanks for the suggestions. I would be disappointed if the GH3 images were not on par with OMD EM-5. From what I heard they may be using the same sensor and the images were supposedly a tie. I don't want two cameras for stills and video. I had thought of getting the GH2, but while being a great video cam, I felt the GH3 had more to offer on still side and a better body and lots of other features including Wi-fi, apps, time lapse etc. Since I plan to use this camera for another 3-4 years at least, I thought of going with the GH3 even at double the price be on the safe side with parts availability etc.

  • RRRRRRRR

    @ppcroft

    Personally, I think the EM-5 has a slightly nicer grain to it. Can be in-cam settings (noise reduction e.t.c.), of course. Don´t get me wrong, the gh3 has improved stills capabilities for sure. It´s just not excatly what I´m personally looking for.

    I´m sure you will make good use of the gh3, but a gh2 while waiting for the order (if you have the money) would ease over the bump.

  • tinbeotinbeo

    I would buy a lumix lx7 for both still & video and a gh2 with a better lense for inside shooting.

  • ppcroftppcroft

    @tinbeo

    Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think I want to go 2 camera route. I would rather brave the increased bulk that GH3 brings than get another one for indorr outdoor. With a GH2 in hand, I don't think the lx7 brings much to the equation other than the fast zoom. I would rather spend it on a lens than on a fixed lens body.

    As I read around more, I feel the limited video of EM-5 might be a deal killer. On the other hand, spending close $1700 (including shipping) on the GH3+battery is making me feel a bit overspent :)

  • ppcroftppcroft

    I have been pondering between the OMD and GH3 and wondering what would be the killer feature that would make go either way apart from the obvious differences between these two cameras. For GH3 it is video and for OMD it is IBIS, In my view. At the moment I am leaning towards the video, though still not made up my mind:-)

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