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GH3 Issues Topic
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  • I've had an occassional problem with the GX1 and GH3 if I pan from a very dark sceen to a very bright scene and I'm shooting in continuous, with the camera in A mode the shutter speeed will jump to 1/4000 and flash, but when I go back to a darker scene the shutter speed stays pegged at 1/4000. I've found that covering the lens momentarily with my hand resets whatever the problem is. Not sure if this is related to what you're reporting.

  • its a firmware bug for sure….

  • Are known firmware-bugs collected somewhere open (like openradar for apple-bugs)?

  • @larsarus

    No one prevents to find them all on forum, check personally, and put on wiki :-)

  • @craichead Am I correct in assuming that all external mics used on a GH3 require phantom power? My collection of hand held and lav mic's don't seem to work. However, my wireless mic system does work when I connect to the GH3 with an XLR to 3.5mm mini cable. Am I missing something? The only time I use an external mic is to record interviews. So, I need to be able to connect a lav mic. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

  • @timfrakes I believe you are correct. I've used wireless lavs plugged into dslrs but these of course had their own power. I suppose a dynamic mic might work given a good adapter but have never tried. Even still, you'll want an external preamped signal so that you can hav your camera preamp set to its lowest setting for noise floor reasons.

  • can anyone with gh3 and pany 12-35 can confirm this new problem with this lens ? I am ready to buy it,but i see that there are some problems with this lens (zoom flickering, now this...) Is it a problem with the lens or GH3 ?

  • @toxotis70

    No need to crosspost. As I'll remove previouspost in this case.

  • @toxotis70:

    checked it but can't see that issue with the first test shot:

  • We noticed a pretty serious problem with the GH3 intervalometer. It doesn't actually work at regular intervals! It fires early and fires late. But never fires on time. Details with a video documenting the problem are here:

    http://timelapse.org/2013/02/panasonic-gh3-for-timelapse-problems/

  • @timelapse_org

    . . .and what would be an acceptable accuracy interval?

  • i dont see any serious problem!

  • Well I've tried a similar sort of test with 16 shots at 5 sec intervals photographing a timer on my ipad using gh3 with 35-100mm and sandisk extreme card 95mbs and the shots seem pretty much in sync with intervalometer first shot fired at 0.6sec and the last was 1min 15.6sec only the second shot seemed to alter most seemed with in 0.1 of sec of the 5 seconds ,unless there are other variables to consider and I don't really understand how much it would alter your workflow in regards to timelapse videos mine seems to be fairly accurate ,wether this is going to be problem I don't know.?

  • After 10 seconds of recording the grid lines go away, and i have to press the touch screen for them to reappear. Does anyone know how to solve this? I'm kind of a noob.

  • I just found out you can't. That's sad. They should fix that on a firmware update.

    http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/1681-gh3-onscreen-info-disappearing-after-10-seconds/

  • You can wave the hand over the EVF. Then the screen goes black and comes back immedeately and shows the lines again for 10 seconds. At least you do not have to touch the camera.

  • Yeah, it's something but still... this needs to be fixed, seems easy.

  • There is plenty to like about the GH3 but here are my complaints:

    EVF sucks - I am very nearsighted and often like to shoot both video and stills without my glasses or contacts because I can see very clearly up close which makes seeing the LCD screen very easy. So without eyesight correction, with the GH2 I could adjust the diapoter to see perfectly through the viewfinder and feel reasonably confident in my focus when going manual. This is not possible with the GH3's viewfinder - it does not adjust enough for my nearsightedness which is pretty severe! Then when I put on glasses or contacts, although the diapoter dials in, there is some crapy distortion going on especially at the edges. It feels like I am on drugs! Video shooters may dismiss this as a minor flaw but for shooting stills this is really bad! The whole frame should be clear when looking through the EVF!

    Also regarding audio, I recorded a guitarist the other day and used the Rode Video Mic Pro on a stand with an extension cable into the GH3. I had the levels pretty hot but only occasionally going into the red. I wanted to hear the result of recording hot. There seems to be an undesirable limiting effect so I hope that by keeping the levels lower things will improve.

    And as has been stated before, unless I have missed a fix, the audio level meters disappear from the screen soon after hitting record as does other vital information. How insane is that! This just has to be fixed in a firmware update!

    Update (March 13, 2012) - regarding the hot levels mentioned above - indeed when using the Rode mic up close say when recording live music, I had the Rode set to +20dB but this is just too much even when the GH3's mic inputs are set to a minimum. Just set the Rode to 0 dB then you will not go into the red as easily and can bring up the GH3 mic levels a bit if necessary.

    Also, a bit of a work around for the GH3 audio meters disappearing - just tap the LCD screen and they and other inf. will reappear although only for a short time.

  • evf is poxy on my cam too....its such a shame because its such a nice body upgrade from the gh2

  • Can someone tell me how to keep the display (iso, shutter, exposure) on constantly? It disappears after a few second which makes monitoring exposure difficult while shooting...

  • there is no way to do that... for now!

  • looking for some help here. We've come across an issue with how the GH3 saves video related information into an AVCHD .MTS file. I'm not particularly good at explaining this but the screenshots below will make it clear hopefully. The first one is the video properties of the bad clip. The second is of a normal clip that does work.

    We film 1080/50p AVCHD.

    Basically we import all our clips into our NLE (COREL VIDEOSTUDIO X5) and about 1 in every 100 clips has some missing or corrupted properties attached to the MTS file. We then get an error message shown in the screenshot below.

    In this case the video is approx 7 minutes long, and the video plays with no issues in Windows Media Player from start to finish.

    I believe that for some reason the GH3 is failing to assign the correct properties to the video file to allow it to be edited within Corel. Now this may because of the way Corel processes the information and simply rejects because the properties don't add up. But in any case the GH3 should not do this.

    I am working away from home just now so I am not able to test with other NLEs but was curious if this was happening to anybody else?

    GH3 Video Data Error.JPG
    2301 x 2451 - 215K
    GH3 Video Data Normal.JPG
    2448 x 3264 - 303K
  • I would like to post this on the GH3 User Reviews and Opinions, but given my very limited experience on this site, I assume that it would be either deleted or subject to censure.

    I see that crowbar has already stated above exactly what my complaints are. In any event, here is the opinion I recently stated (and which has now been published) on the site of a dealer from whom I recently purchased the GH3, and from whom I purchase the majority of my equipment:

    "The Emporer Has No Clothes!

    Before you read ANY of the following, you should know that I have only "played" with this camera, and have never gotten as far as shooting with it. I use this and the GH2 for video, and selcom for stills. My overwhelmingly negative initial impression (which is all that is stated here) has precluded my further use of it thus far, and led to the title above.

    My negative reaction to this camera is based upon its relatively useless LVF (what Panasonic refers to as "Live View Finder") as a way of seeing what I am taking. For over the last year I have been an avid, over the top enthusiast with a hacked Panasonic GH2, backing up my very long line of Sony Cameras, particularly the EX-1. Therefore, and particularly in view of a number of very positive technical reviews of the GH3, I was expecting a significant improvement in the GH3. Well, for starters, which is all the further I have gone, I have found a couple of horrible steps backward.

    I purchased the camera because of its reported, out of the box, un-hacked superb performance at 50 Mbps GOP MOV setting, at which it could shoot a full 1080 60p (without the unpredictable crashing of the hacked GH2 when faced with scenes involving a lot of fine, moving detail). This ability, accompanied by the myriad of other well publicized, documented positive features sold me! And in particular, its ability to wrap in MOV versus the GH2s sole AVCHD, was extremely attractive concerning the horrendous rendering time AVCHD (even on some of my very powerful workstations) required when heavy color grading, etc., was required. I do a lot of run and gun shooting in poorly lit venues, so the first thing I did was to start a series of set ups involving such scenes. And here is where I ran in to a brick wall with this camera, compared to the GH2. I use all of my Sonys only with set ups permitting manual prefocus. With the hacked GH2 I found that I could shoot light or very dark using the camera's auto focus, and I could depend upon it for an immediate, reliable focus, even in the darkest of scenes.

    Ah ha, you can see where I'm heading. In dark scenes, in contrast to the GH2's uncanny abilities, the GH3's auto focus is hunt and seek or total failure. Now if I could even manually focus, that would be another matter. BUT I CAN'T. And further, and this is the almost total knockout for me for this camera, I cannot reliably focus manually with this camera under any circumstances, BECAUSE I CANNOT SEE WHAT I AM SHOOTING, with the LVF.

    Now those of you who use the fold out screen may find this a non-issue, but with the GH series I have always used the electronic view finder, and intend to continue to do so. In the GH2, the EVF is LCD (basically black and white with color "artificially" added), and is always comparatively razor sharp, presenting a highly reliable view of the scene being shot. In contrast, the LVF in the GH3 is OLED: it has the definite advantages of showing greater and more accurate contrast, less color fringing, and greater speed, with less smearing of fast moving objects. BUT THE VIEW THE LVF PRESENTS IS MUSH, compared to any other camera I have used.

    If this could be fixed with a firmware update, fine, but it can't. If the camera's features could be improved with a peaking function, fine, but evidently the nature of the image processor does not permit this. So, for the moment, I continue to shoot with current projects entirely with my Sony Camcorders and the GH2. I always use the GH2 now for dark run and gun. And where I have time for a fixed focus set up, I invariably depend upon the Sony EX-1 for not only the greatest fidelity and low noise, but its relatively superb audio recording. If pressed, I have yet to find a darkly lit scene shot with the GH2 where the noise cannot be successfully removed in post - of course with a substantial diminution of detail and loss of color fidelity - in a word, pretty awful!

    I intend eventually to attempt to use the GH3 only in brightly lit scenes - my assumption, based upon other user reports, is that under relatively bright venues the auto focus, whether momentary or continuous, will be accurate and reliable, no matter that I cannot see what I am taking, other than for framing, and viewing the on screen histogram.

    I hope and trust that some of the really stupid additional downgrades of the GH3 from the GH2 will be fixed by Panasonic in its first firmware upgrade; these include in particular the newly introduced non-defeatable auto turn off of important screen indicators after a few seconds, the audio pre-peaking distortion and non-defeatable audio limiter, and the substandard performance of all I-Frame set ups. Otherwise, I would have immediately returned this camera as totally unacceptable.

    What a terrible shame it is what Panasonic has now rendered, in view of some of the really outstandingly great improvements the camera otherwise offers. ......."

    So, sports fans, that's what I had to say in the dealer provided review area, after spending four hours in comparing the dark venue viewing of the GH3 compared to the GH2. And by the way, I failed to mention that the REALLY superb video performance that I'm getting with the Sony EX-1 is with the on-camera data collection at 100 Mbps provided by the nanoFlash. And along with so many of you, I look forward hopefully to the hacks that may eventually improve the great positive features of this camera even more!

  • Hi,

    before I upgrade from my GH2 to GH3, I would like to ask you, somebody who already owns the GH3 body:

    1.- Does GH3 have a PAL video output (not HDMI but SD PAL video) ??? I am shooting with helicopter and I need video output for my 5,8Ghz video transmitter. Yes, I have an HDMI-to-PAL converter, but it sucks to connect mini HDMI cable to GH2 on gimbal, therefore I don´t use my GH2 for aerial video. And is this PAL output working durring recording?

    2.- Did somebody try 10-bit 4:2:2 HDMI output already?

    3.- Is there a possibility to simultaneously record 10-bit 4:2:2 HDMI output 1080 25p (to external recorder) and internal recording 8-bit 4:2:0 1080 50p on SD card?

    4.- is GH3 battery different from GH2 kind? As we all have a lot of batteries for GH2.

    5.- If somebody bought GH3 KIT with 12-35mm F2,8 lens, is the optical stabilizator better then on older 14-140mm lens?

    Sorry, I have a lot more questios, but I think it is enough for now :-)

    Thank you very very much!

    Stanley

  • @guzak

    as far as i know:

    1: Monaural Type, NTSC / PAL, NTSC only for North America * Check the website of the Panasonic sales company in your country or region for details on the products that are available in your market.

    2: HDMI is 8bit 4:2:0 only, reported not much difference when recording to external recorder

    3: HDMI Monitor-Through The HDMI terminal on the DMC-GH3 connects easily to a large-screen monitor for real-time image checking. The HDMI output also enables external recording, with simultaneous recording to the SD card.

    4: gh3 battery is different

    5: don't know..