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GH2 Resolution. Is it enough for my otherwise perfect film?
  • I bought a GH2 and after some tests using the hacks available I used a pentax 50mm lens at f2.8 set to 160 isa (The lowest setting) I assume this might be like an EX1 without gain? Or maybe the GH2 has an optimum ISO setting maybe 500 Sorry new to digital cameras. When viewed on my monitor I found the GH2 resolution was very good. However once recorded using Intra 176mbs which is a great colour improvement on the 44mbs which tends to have a redish tinge. I found the resolution to be not as good as my old EX1 with a Letus adapter and using the HDSDI out and recording to pro res 220.

    Some have said by using the letus adapter I would only effectively be able to resolve about 700 lines indeed some did quick and dirty tests. If this is the case then I wonder how many lines the GH2 resolves? I estimate then maybe 550? Seems a bit low.

    Does anyone know or have an idea?.
  • 67 Replies sorted by
  • Closed, as it seems like author don't know that he really want to know :-)
    Will be reopened if some new interesting things appear.
  • @dacloo
    Actually don't forget the 'shit' about the ISO bug too soon,... as that hasn't been fixed yet... so still remember that- otherwise some of your footage may turn out extremely grainy... for no reason... :-(
  • This is just waste of time.
  • Hey he wants to be a "nominee" let him play :)
  • Festen was shot on a simple camera, with no artificial light. It's a brilliant movie because of the acting, framing, editing, writing and direction.
    They never cared about friggin pixels, they just used the medium to tell a good story.

    The hacked GH2 can help you with more beautiful pictures. People on this specific forum are anal about it, because well, this is the "hacked GH2 forum" - they have the right to be.

    But I suggest installing this patch, finding a good color profile and quickly forget all this shit and start filming!
  • @mark I find your way of wieving things very skewed. Like the Gh2 is not worth it unless you have a chart which proves its resolution. You don't seem too familiar with the camera, so the suggestion to use it more is a good one.

    However, here is the resolution for the sensor in still images: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicDMCGH2/page11.asp

    Since we know that the sensor uses intelligent pixel binning rather than line skipping to achieve video recording, it is possible to calculate the theoretical resolution of the camera's video output - which the tests AT THE VERY LEAST should approach IF done correctly. A quick calculation (not sure I do it right) gives a vertical resolution of 875 lph for me, with discernible (although some false) detail up to 1080 lph. Maybe someone with accurate understanding of the sensor scaling method can confirm or reject this calculation. IN my experience ( and propably every other GH2 user aswell) the GH2 does output cleaner video (on per pixel level) than still images. Which most of all is credit to the downsampling method.

    Also, you talk about manufacturers and their agenda.. Of the comments regarding the lack of 25p from company officials it seems clear that they have very little clue about a lot of things. (They didn't think it was needed since the camera had 24p). I don't think they know what the camera is capable of quite frankly. - Judging from comments from the broadcast division of panasonic it seems evident that still camera and camcorder divisions have very little to do with each other.
  • @mark2929

    I think the public of "Oscar nominee", will not take with them scientific "resolution meter" while watching your movie ...
    I'm sure they will not count resolution lines for each frame ...
    The GH2 have much sharper image, as people are forced to use filters to "soften" it ...

    Get e good lens and forget about resolution ...
  • @Vitaliy Ha yeah....I'm with you on that. I just hope others see the humor in it as well.
  • @VK behold the anti-GH2-fanboy...

    >Im seriously wondering if I'd been better off just buying the panasonic af101 with built in ND filters and good viewfinder...
    >I am starting to feel annoyed with myself for believing the hype and although the camera remains a good buy with the hack I just hope I havent been led up the garden path.

    This topic has gone to the dogs...
  • >No matter what you or anyone else throws up here...his position will remain the same.

    I think it makes it even more funny and interesting :-)
  • LOL....@bwhitz you can prove your point till you are blue in the face....he has a serious agenda. It's very subtle but nevertheless designed to provoke. There has been a lot of fanboism going on around this camera and that eats at a lot of folks. So the purpose for some is to stir up trouble like...this thread for example. No matter what you or anyone else throws up here...his position will remain the same.
  • @mark2929
    dude, very little of what you say makes much sense to me. Please trust some of us who know both ex1+GH2 cameras quite well. The GH2 I would say is the same resolution wise as in it resolves the same amount of lines, but I would also say though that it's slightly sharper than the EX1, and remember sharpness and resolution are 2 very different things. And this is in good light, talk about low light, and the EX1 is screwed sharpness wise.
    With this in mind, take vitaliy's advice and don't waste your time performing resolution tests, instead spend your time learning how to get the most out of the GH2-best patch/film mode/lens combo/post workflow/grading and I promise you you will be over the moon with happiness.
  • bwhitz So now we have your opinion my opinion and zero facts. Seriously I just bought a GH2 and ND filters as well as a zacuto evf totalling near enough £2500 and Im seriously wondering if I'd been better off just buying the panasonic af101 with built in ND filters and good viewfinder even though its a camera I would never want due to its highlight noise and resolution issues.

    Go ahead prove me wrong I seriously want you to. I am starting to feel annoyed with myself for believing the hype and although the camera remains a good buy with the hack I just hope I havent been led up the garden path.
  • @bwhitz
    remember to bring a chart.. ;)
  • @mark2929

    "Will know more when my adapter arrives and hopefully will tell by eye whether or not to use the camera if borderline I'll have to get the charts but I have slightly more reason to believe now that the GH2 resolves about 630 lines."

    Wow, dude, what are you looking at? The GH2 is near 1000-lines. I use EX3's quite frequently and the GH2 is able to resolve more detail cleaner.

    The 7D has been measured at about 600-700 lines... and the GH2 out resolves it by far.

    Actually, I can probably shoot a demo of this on friday. I'm no fanboy... but the EX3 does not hold up well next to it.
  • Just did a few further tests using crop mode on the same 50mm lens and I turned the asa up to 250 in order to close the iris and keep a better focus. This seems to give better resolution but a lot of noise and the plain blue wall in the room had about three bands of redish colour that couldnt be removed by neat video or colour correction. Basicly the picture looked sharper but unusable because of the banding in crop mode.

    I'm going to offer an opinion (Just an opinion and maybe completley wrong) So please dont take offence. I wonder if in normal mode the camera has some on board noise reduction that makes the image softer and that is not applied in crop mode and this further decreases resolution. Maybe they know it couldn't pass muster as broadcastable. Although funnily the noise isnt there on the HDMI out monitor and I wonder if some clever crippling has gone on. The camera is good but perhaps not up to broadcast standard and Panasonic know it can only be hacked only so far and that there higher end range is protected. I also wonder why no one has done resolution tests surely enough pro's by now would have taken a serious interest in this. Only Adam wilt as far as I can tell has said about 630 lines for the GH1 and 2 stops less than the AF101.

    He said in another article the GH2 improves over the GH1 with two stops so taking the GH2 up to the same level of the af101. I dont know about the resolution for the GH2 though. and crop mode has got me interested.

    I also wonder if Panny are ACTUALLY very happy with the hacking work being done as its selling shed loads of these cameras and they dont have to be responsible for any side effects etc. Because they are now ACTUALLY helping by giving 25p and I bet it wont affect the hacks. I'd be interested to see if it does.

    Just a few of my thoughts but then I may be pleasantly surprised when my adapter comes through for my super 16mm zeiss primes. I hope so. Sorry I've always been suspicious of manufacturers motivations. Even when it seems like a good deal.
  • I was thinking that there are also perhaps other things that can be done to push the GH2's resolution up. Perhaps lowering NR being one. Others may have some other thoughts on things that can mitigate against better resolution on the GH2.
  • I don't know why no one else hasn't already stated this.... But this thread is an obvious flame starter.

    A few things:

    --The GH-2 is NOT the GH-1

    The AF100 does NOT have the same sensor as the GH-2 (or GH-1)

    --I provided a link earlier from another site that showed the results and comparisons of the AF and GH2 which says something different from provido coalitions test of the GH-1 (though it's GH-2) - Take it for what it's worth.

    --There are a number of folks who have owned both cameras here and gave their impressions.

    Yet with all that was said and done the OP keeps reverting back to his opinion (which he's entitled to).

    So...why go any further?

  • If you are into pixel peeping, charts are not expensive:

    www.graphics.cor- nell.edu/~westin/misc/res-chart.html

    Print it with the best printer you can find and really large.

    BTW, if anybody is pixel peeping, don't confuse false detail (beyond the Shannon/Nyquist limit) with true resolution. Sony is notorious for this, even the F3 is not free of it!
  • Its true that its very important that people care about resolutions, compression and all the technical details that brings the viewer closer to the scene. Training their reception, getting picky, thinking about methods to measure subjective aspects of reality. Because this brought us here. Only what we can measure, thus we know.

    Then again Kontent is King, so the really inovative ideas can hold up, even when filmed with a smartphone (without primes..) in a dark room with no actor at all. (Still lookin for this one..).
    However... 28 days later was recorded on DV, and even thought I missed a bit of depth, it was a quite enjoyable experience. Charlie Chaplin doesn´t even speak, and its still a pleasure to watch him.

    Since the hacking (THX!!!) the GH2 kicks ass in overall reality (re)produktion, if you need any better add xxK€$ to one of the boxes you carry around out in the wild. Its not perfect, its freakin 8bit420h264psfwraps, it was not ment fo this task, it might tend a bit more to that and miss a bit of this. And yes.. if I drag levels alltogether I can actually still see some compression artefacts... but come on! Look at this thing! Its a tiny little cam fighting with +10K goliaths that you gotta hug around.

    Just give it a try, its worth! In worst case you gain a little toy you can take with you anywhere to collect ideas. And to do some resolution tests, so we know for sure we can resolve x lines@1920x1080(+y)@150mbit(+z). ;)

    Cheers, really exited about the firmware update. :-O
  • Okay I've found some more information from a trusted source provideo coalition and Adam Wilt who also uses a hacked GH1

    http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/awilt/story/ag-af100_and_pmw-f3_on_the_charts/P1/

    A quarter way down the page It seems he found the AF101 slightly out resolved the GH1 and resolved about 630 lines. The af101 was not as good with highlights but has a couple of stops more than the GH1. How this translates to the GH2 I don't know. Will know more when my adapter arrives and hopefully will tell by eye whether or not to use the camera if borderline I'll have to get the charts but I have slightly more reason to believe now that the GH2 resolves about 630 lines.

    Mark
  • Vitaliy

    From my side I am quite capable of seeing whats in front of me and could visually see the GH2 resolution was soft and sought answers...

    If proper line resolution tests had been done and out there then I would have known something was wrong my side. All the more reason for proper resolution tests and I was quite right to look for them So then no mistakes either by me or possibly misinformed on a forum somewhere.
  • On the topic of GH2 and AF100, the sensors are likely similar in actual resolution but the OLPF (optical low pass filter) is completely different.

    In video cameras the OLPF is usually designed to cut off lower so that aliasing is less. This leads to less edge sharpness but also less aliasing. This is probably why the GH2 out resolves the AF100 by a small amount.
  • >I really hope this little camera can get me the resolution I want.

    I really hope that you stop thinking in all this numbers regardless of camera.
    Any camera.
    As all this time spend on this is just your wasted time.
  • Vitaliy.... Right I'm with you now. :)

    AHHH Yes that could well be a mistake I have made. Great observation and could be a fatal flaw in my test. I have an adapter coming for my zeiss mark one lenses. The 25mm will fit and if I crop to a 2.35 image so will the 16mm Also I will use the 12 and 9.5mm in crop mode and see what results I can get from them! Also I need to purchase some decent four third lenses at a later date when I can afford to.

    I really hope this little camera can get me the resolution I want.

    Mark
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