wow so many negative comments about the GH3 here. Its almost as if some people are trying to get others to turn away from the GH3 so they dont feel left out because they cant make up their mind on weather to get it or not. If you dont like it, dont complain or whine about it. If you're so satisfied with the GH2, then why bother even commenting on the new camera if it's such a disappointment to you. You're now just trying to justify you're reason to stick with the GH2 and get people to agree, because you're scared to get to pre order the new camera.

Like the great's say, the camera is a tool. If you cant work around the problems of the GH3 like how we have done that for the GH2 or 5D and all, then work on your fundamentals first. Sheeshkebab!

@bg2b, ok thx I was wrong, I should have googled : 16:9 still resolution is 4976x2800 as you said.

@ragnar I have a little idea about this... Here maybe is the secret of gh2 : 1920x1080x9=18662400 is about the resolution of gh2 : 18.3 Mpix. We would have a binning of 9 !! 9 pixels for one point of video : there you can define a center (the one in the middle of the 9 points) and ponderate the others (by distance, etc) in an efficient way.

So what exactly makes the GH2 so good at avoiding moire and aliasing? Was it just dumb luck or is it something about that sensor that minimizes it?

As for the GH3, I too would really like to have a less noisey stills camera than my GH2 and I also really like the wi-fi possibilities for my bird photo hobby. I'll sit on the fence until July or August and see what happens. No hurry.

@bwhitz I whish for gh3 the best success.

Be interested to hear what you find out. On the other end of the scale, Sony have just announced their F5 and F55, which will put some real pressure now on the other players at the top end of the scale.

I hope to get my hands on GH3 pre-production model this Thursday afternoon for an hour during a training demonstration at a mate's workplace. So far I'm liking the look of the encoder (High Profile Level 5) based off test mov files. All being well Thursday will allow me to give a personal opinion of the rest of its capabilities.

The camera suffering moirè effect

@magnifico

he amsterdam video doesnt compare gh3/gh2.

This doesn't matter and it doesn't have to. I've certainly used the GH2 a great deal... I know what the detail I'm looking for looks like. Some of the GH3 clips have it. Some don't. But once ANY SINGLE GH3 video comes out and shows it has the detail level of the GH2... then it's an indication that they ARE ALL capable of it. Mushy over-sharpened garbage has been shot on the GH2 too... it doesn't mean that just because some people use the wrong lenses and settings that ALL videos fallow suit. Last I heard, the GH3 doesn't have an "operator error" prevention feature.

I don't see what you're getting at here?

@bwhitz, the amsterdam video doesnt compare gh3/gh2. Yes gh3 seems to be a good cam. For sure there are a lot of improvement in this cam (wifi, color, DR, 1080@60p, etc...) But I agree with danyyyel about crap videos telling more than elaborated ones. And the crap clip shown by amateur tells me more like a shild who never lies speaking to me:-)

Canon has announced the release of its output 4:2:2 5DmIII for April! Everyone expects the first images of the mount BBMC in 4/3. Panasonic GH3 and will be very bland next to competitors as efficient. I'm ok with you, of course, we must wait for the first real tests by real filmmakers with the final firmware. I'm also ok that current judgments are more passionate than realistic. BUT, let's be sure if Panasonic does provide an 8 bit 4:2:0 with return of aliasing and moiré, and an image that looks like for the moment the Canon mid-range (that I saw for the moment reminds me of the tone images 7D or 550D!) = the GH3 will be a total flop. Hack or no hack. I love these comments passion. They reflect an expectation full of hope. Hot and love for the GH2. Passion: "Shit, it's true, the images of GH3 are currently vraiments ugly." And they are! Even those of Philip Bloom for some. Realistic: "Wait and see." What we all do. No choice! In the end, in both cases, it is the passion that speaks. But if you are objective, Panasonic would never have released a camera if it was not 95% of its potential already. We have reason to believe that the final adjustments are necessarily trivial. Unless Panasonic announces new release of its time camera. Canon has put a kick in the ass to Panasonic. BBMC when we will also see that it's still royal to have images in 12-bit 4:2:2 for Postprod. So continue to shout loud and clear that the GH3 seems to be shit for the moment!

I think this camera will please some and disgust others. If it is a Sony sensor like 99% chance from the info that we have it will have some aliasing and moire but better low light and dynamic range. So some will really like the image even with the added moire/aliasing because they might get 1 or 2 stop better low light and DR. For example the latest EBU camera test, also referred to the BBC test, rated the Nikon D800 at about 12 stop of DR. For me it is too what level of alias/moire vs Low light/DR that will be the deciding factor.

Contrary to many, I think crap test shots are good example to see the true quality of a camera because with some good prepared and well plan shot, everything can look amazing.

@documentary It's as a result of myths perpetuated by folks who want to believe the GH2 has reached a pinnacle in DSLR performance that cannot be surpassed.

Myth #1 - Setting sharpness to -2 in the GH2 removes in-camera sharpening and leads to an accurate representation of the camera's true resolution. Truth: It softens the image to some degree, but we don't know how for sure.

Myth #2 - GH3 set to sharpening level -5 should be equal to a GH2 set on -2. Truth: Panasonic delivered on a request to increase the amount of adjustment range on contrast, sharpness, saturation and noise reduction. We do not actually know if -5 increases softening in the GH3 beyond the GH2 set to -2, but it would certainly be reasonable to assume that is the case. Therefore, all tests shot comparing sharpness -5 and sharpness -2 probably mean absolutely nothing. It is more likely that the GH3 artificially softens the image at that extreme in order to justify the greater range that is now selectable in the menu.

I submit that is much more fair to compare a GH2 and a GH3 that are both set to 0,0,0,0 as it is the closest we can get to Mfr established baseline representative of the benchmark image. Why no one has used 0,0,0,0 settings for comparison once they get their hands on the camera for testing is a mystery to me. It's unlikely a Mfr would create 11 total steps of adjustment just to eliminate artificial sharpening from an image all the way down at -5.