First bit of filming with Panasonic GH2 and good news about clean HDMI OUT!

Camera Reviews DSLRs GH1 GH2

I will be adding the this post over the next few days with my thoughts on the camera, but today I did my first test filming with the camera. It was cold, wet and miserable outside so instead of filming ducks and stuff I decided to film my adorable mum cooking lunch for the three of us. Of course it delayed lunch by about an hour as filming something as intricate as cooking with one camera and a small space takes time.

What a lens!!

I shot in the 24mb/s “cinema mode’ with flat picture profile using one single lens. I preach this a lot. You can shoot SO much with just one standard lens. On a GH2 with the 2x crop that is a 25mm lens (35mm equivalent 50mm). Leica make a nice but pricey F1.4 but I tried my admittedly not budget too but still cheaper (but for the quality and speed it’s a bloody bargain!) brand new imported Voigtlander F0.95 25mm. Yep, F0.95. It’s simply my new favourite lens, shame it won’t go on my Canons or Leica M9. It has a beautiful look to it, great bokeh, so solid and well made and can focus as close up as a macro. LOVELY! I shot between F0.95 and F2 varying the ISO and a couple of times the shutter to 1/100th to get exposure.

I used a Gitzo traveller tripod and a gorilla pod

Lighting was all practical light except the PTC for which I used a LitePanel Micro Plus . Sound was with a Zoom Q3 using the built in mic. All the other nat sound apart from the sipping was real from the internal mic. The sipping was OTT foley on purpose.

So full review coming up this week.

Initial thoughts though…

Very easy to operate.

LCD touch screen great, intuitive and nice resolution.

EVF lovely, great resolution and makes handheld much easier!

Nice to have audio meters on screen whilst recording.

Image… gorgeous. SO MUCH better than GH1. No mud, no nasty vertical lines…

Although all shot at low ISO I did some 2500 ISO tests and there were really good! I found ISO 800 almost unusable at times on my GH1, and any underexposure in dark areas even at low ISOs…UGH, no problem now…

Digital Crop…I did not use it in this edit, but it works really well, sampling the centre of the sensor without loss of resolution.

Moire and aliasing minimal, I couldn’t see any, check out the cats whiskers…but more tests need to be done.

Best of all…I have just checked this…the HDMI out is totally clean, no graphics (unless you want them) and the great thing is you can have as many graphics on the GH2 LCD without affecting the clean HDMI. Once caveat. If you use the EVF it for some reason disrupts the HDMI out if you move your eye away from it. To get round this make sure you disable auto EVF/ LCD switching in the menus and it won’t do this…My Marshall says it is outputting 1080i 60i once recording but it certainly looks progressive rather than interlaced. I will connect it up to my Nanoflash tomorrow …we shall see! Great news though as the pre-production version I had two months ago had a record bug and timecode on the HDMI out. I asked Panasonic to remove this as we needed clean HDMI out. I think they may listened to me. Hurrah!

Negatives…

24mb/s only in 24p mode, 17mb/s in 25p mode. BOO Panasonic, sort it out for us EU folk who need the highest bitrate for broadcast!! Please?

Focus assist still a bit fiddly.

Internal mic a bit lackluster, but still miles better than the Canon one.

Better than hacked GH1…yep for me it is, as the hacked GH1 no matter how high the bit rate goes it still SUCKS in low light with those damn vertical lines. None here and I shot at 2500 ISO today (but not in this piece). Again, I need to do a full test soon before giving my definitive opinion. But so far I love the damn thing, especially with the lens from heaven, the Voigtlander 25mm F.95. Those two were destined to be together! Angels sung when I brought them together!

So in the meantime enjoy this cute little short of my adorable mum cooking lunch! A different test for me! Graded with magic bullet looks (i will probably tweak this with more time as I knocked this edit together in half and hour as I need to go to bed, as sleep and I have been strangers recently!) You can get 20% this awesome product at RedGiantSoftware.com with code bloom20 at checkout

Oh, I also have two more reviews coming of cameras that I bought. The Canon 60D which is simply bloody awesome. Miles better than the 550D/ T2i and only one feature away from being better than the 7D! Also the Nikon D7000….lots of things going for it but a couple of operation issues are bugging the hell out of me. Nice image though…I don’t want to do a review of the Nikon until I have something half decent shot with it…you can check out my Canon 60D stuff on my Movember page!!

So hold off on too many questions just yet. I am most likely going to answer them later this week once I get my review done! 🙂

Home Cooking…avec le GH2! from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

My mum has kindly written out the recipe after a number of requests! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
4 chicken escalopes (preferably free range) flattened to really thin
Breadcrumbs
One beaten egg
Piri piri spices
Spaghetti for 4 depending on appetite
One tube to one and half concentrated tomato puree, depending on how tomatoey you like it.
Chilli oil

Heat water in a big casserole dish for the spaghetti, add some olive oil to stop water frothing.

While heating, have two plates ready, one with the breadcrumbs and the other with the beaten egg.

Flatten your escalopes in cling film one by one.

In a large non stick frying pan, dribble some olive oil ( you probably will need to add more as you go along ), dip one escalope at the time in beaten egg, then breadcrumbs and put in frying pan on medium heat, repeat process for the others . Shake piri piri spices over the escalopes and do the same when you turn them over.

This will not take long, may be 10 minutes on medium heat.

When cooked dribble some lemon  over, then put in a dish and cover with aluminium foil. Keep warm in the oven.

When water has boiled, put your spaghetti and cook according to packet, you could use fresh if you wanted.
When cook, drain in colander and put back in casserole. Over a very low heat, add the tomato puree (not ketchup!) with salt and pepper if desired, stir thoroughly, add some more olive oil so it is not dry and the final touch is some chilli oil. stir more.

Serve your escalopes with the spaghetti with lemon on the side.

Voila, bon appetit xx

270 comments

  1. WOW Very nice!
    Color and Contrast & Bokeh are excellent, I see one dead pixel (as you mentioned) bummer cause it draws my eye to it, BUT WOW! What beautiful footage =)

    Love it,

    Thanks for sharing.

  2. Very nice! For the review please be sure to let us know how well tap-to-focus works while recording. Also, HDMI (as you mentioned.) Testing with Nano-Flash would be great…I think you can get almost everything off the screen, and can always crop out the bit you cant.

    1. Oh man… we really need the hack for this. Hope the rec. graphic doesn’t show on this production unit, that was so daft!! Also, the 60p/50p stream off the sensor in 44Mbit native 1080p AVCHD would be nice please Vitaliy, if you’re reading…

  7. Great stuff Philip! But all the epic Christmas sales are only a few days away!
    Would you recommended waiting for the gh2, or grabbing the 60D now during the holiday shopping?
    Any advice will be highly appreciated!

      1. Philip, thanks for posting all these useful tests and reviews. I’m also deciding between the 60D and the GH2. What if you’re starting from scratch on lenses? Do the Canons still outperform in low light?

        1. I’m personally not a fan of Micro 4/3. There are fine lenses made for both of these cameras, so it’s up to you what “look” you like more from the lens options from either camera. I really don’t think you’re going to be disappointed by the lenses with either choice you make, though.

          I recently bought the 7D. I did this because I KNOW that I will upgrade to a full frame camera soon, most likely another Canon (though Nikon is tempting). So I buy full frame camera lenses. Because of the crop on the 7D I’m not quite getting all that I can get out of these lenses, but I’m certainly getting enough and I’m excited as heck for when I upgrade to full frame and get to see what these lenses are really capable of.

          That was my thinking. Just always remember that it’s more about the lensees than it is about the body if you want a certain look. Find out what looks best to you and go with that.

          NOTE: I’m a photographer. I do some DSLR video, but mostly photos. The choice when comparing these cameras for video work is a no-brainer to me because of the poor bitrate on the GH2. Unless that’s hacked or fixed, it’s simply not an option unless I’m only planning on using it as a hobby device.

      2. Thank you for replying! 😀
        Completely new to the HDSLR game. Looking into short film filmmaking and daily photography, but on a modest budget. Starting from scratch and was going for the ‘film’ look.
        Mostly worried about the investment in lenses and gear. Want the cam to last and then able to move to the next great budget dslr body.

  8. Excellent colour.

    Better resolution than the Canons.

    Faster lens.

    EVF built in.

    AVCHD up to 2 hour clips.

    Live uncompressed HDMI out while recording.

    Auto focus.

    Cheaper wide-zooms.

    PL mount adapters with no mod.

    Manual audio control.

    Smaller and lighter.

    Rotating screen.

    Nice & clean at ISO 2500.

    Nice food.

    Remind me…. why are we all shooting on Canon DSLRs again?? 🙂

    Great edit, enjoyable to watch, footage is very very clean. As clean as your posh Southern kitchens 😉

        1. The GH2’s sensor is larger than 4:3 Micro 4/3rds, it’s a non-standard multi-aspect size to support native 16:9. It’s wider. So it’s actually quite close in size to the APS-C on a Canon. I can get crazy shallow depth of field on the GH1, with an 85mm F1.4 Zeiss. You don’t even need a crazy fast lens for crazy DOF. 35mm F2 even, quite nice. In fact it’s good to have more manageable depth of field sometimes at fast apertures. An F0.95 on a 5DMk2 would be unusable!! Focus plane as thin as hair and MASSIVE bokeh. Would look beautiful but try racking focus on moving actors with that!!

          2. Alright, i may have exaggerated with f4 on the 5D. maybe f2.8 or so.

            But still. While the GH2’s sensor is “close” to the aps-c. I still haven’t seen any GH1/gh2 footage that can come close to the canons in shallow DOF and low light. Of course you can get crazy depth of field with an 85mm f1.4 on the gh2, because that’s a 170mm 35mm field of view. The more telephoto you go, the more shallow depth of field.
            Even with the kit lens on the T2i, i’ve been able to get decent shallow DOF and low light at f3.5-5.6. On the Gh1, you’d need to zoom in a bunch or use a faster lens to get that look.

            Don’t get me wrong, the GH2 looks fantastic. I just don’t like micro4/3 that much.

            m4/3 is like 16mm while APS-C is like Super 35mm.
            16mm works fine, but Super 35mm has an indistinguishable look from it.

            1. Shallow DOF is overrated. When I’m watching a movie I don’t see shallow of DOF being overused (like lots of DLSR movies on Vimeo).

              Philips cooking movie is cool but the DOF is not my taste… Everything looks so dreamy.

              Anyway, Philip did proof you don’t need a Canon 5d mk2 to get ‘that look’. I’d rather spend money on a good lens like the voigtlander.

          1. I’m not Mr. Bloom, but I can answer this one: f/1.9 (two stops). And of course, with 4/3’s, you get an equivalent two stop exposure advantage at the same DOF, allowing lower ISO.

          3. 25mm 0.95 on a gh1 is equal to a 50mm 1.8 on the 5D

            i’ve have both on order for a month, and am eternally jealous of bloggers that get to play. thanks for the great review Phillip, and making it all the way to calgary.

  11. Great video Philip and GH2 looks very nice but there is one thing i want to know. Can u use that nice EVF while ur filming? or is it only for photo mode?

    Also i havent find any info about slow & quick motion modes of gh2 that does this modes work in 1920×1080 resolution?

      2. Ok thanks! Still one thing… Can u say is the EVF better to use than EX1R or AG-AF101 EVF or could it be closer to ex3 evf quality? I have owned sony nxcam nx5 what includes same evf what is on the ex1/r and i could not use it for focusing quite well… always opted lcd.

  13. Well well as a gh1 and 5dmk2 owner I am keen to get hold of the gh2, it looks great from what you just did in the kitchen! Heavy grading held up well it seems. Beautiful little film…not to mention your mother…’nuff said! I love this film…..thanks. Julian

  17. I do so love it when you do food videos 🙂 as a former chef i always recommend “one hand for egg wash, one for flour”, that way no finger clumps.

    Your comments on the 60d are starting to pursuade me to pick one up as a second shooting body for my d7000 to have the slow motion option. I’m looking forward to your review of it soon.

    and sorry, 67 or not, shes pretty stunning. 🙂

  20. Looks nice. Not a huge fan of the CC, but the images look clean. Definitely not sold on this camera though. I’d have to see what it looks like using lenses that don’t cost as much as my car.

      2. These lenses aren’t cheap, but you will be able to use these lenses 20-30 years from now on a GH-30 or what ever camera. These bodies last a year or two, but a good lens is forever….

        Unless you drop it.

  21. Lovely as always; the food, the choice of music, the talent.

    How does the 24mb/s compression compare to the 7D’s compression? Never really loved my 7D…

  22. Thanks for the Review Mr. Bloom, I couldn’t wait to hear it!

    I do have do have a question though: Why is that the Canon DSLR footage (which I uderstand records at around 50 Mb/s) is harder to grade and has less lattitude than AVCHD footage which is set at 24 Mb/s?

    Shouldn’t it be flip-flopped?

    -Miles

    1. I am currently shooting a piece for an electric car company with 5D/7D/EX3. Before we started shooting I had a conversation with a colorist at a place called “local hero” I think that what he told me might answer your question.

      Here is what he said: It all comes down to the limitations within the codec, and not as much the bit rate. He said I could go ahead and shoot the ex3 flat, but with the 5D/7D I should stay as close to what I want in the end as possible. He said that attempting to adjust any aspect of the color correction more than 15/20% would cause a kind of blocking up and degrade the image. With most digital formats it is easier to bring up than it is to bring down, but with canon’s h.264 it is hard to do either, and bringing things up actually causes more noise than bringing things down! AVCHD at 24Mb/s is actually far more desireable to a colorist than 50 mb/s H.264

      Hope that helps!

  24. Mums are the best

    That food looked good. Good cook + good cameraman = good looking food. I’m so close to getting a 60D, but this is a nice camera too. Oh well, the 60D is out now 😀

    Love your stuff Phil,
    Orr

      1. Oh I see, I thought you meant the ‘cinema’ film mode.
        The ‘nostalgic’ and ‘smooth’ with -2 contrast are usually lauded as having the most dr and cinematic gamma as far as film mode goes. Though I think it’ll be nostalgic for the win.

      3. Btw, thank you for confirming the HDMI.
        Some at dvxuser are curious to know if it is capable of 720p 50/60 over hdmi as well.
        I am excited to see the visual difference between the 4:2:2 nanoflash sample and the in camera 4:2:0, or if the true 4:2:2 is not passed along (lost in processing etc).

    1. I’m guessing it will be “segmented frame” – a progressive image in an interlaced signal (exactly like a film transfer to PAL). Pretty common with Panasonic, and the short version is it has no effect, progressive pix.

      The longer version is: only impact for post is that you have to manually flag it as, e.g. in FCP, having “no field dominance” if you want wipes/transitions to happen at 24/25/30P and better scaling/rotation.

      Also I’d expect that 24fps would be coming out at 60i with pulldown – you’d need to remove that before posting – any Yank will be able to tell us what to do …

  29. So lifelike I could almost smell the aroma! All that is missing is all three of you eating this appetizing dish. Your mom is very friendly. I like the humoristic tone with your mom sipping her glass every few shots!

    All in all, quite a cute little short film. I just wish my TM700 could have such depth of field to begin with…but small sensors…

  33. Phil,

    What are you lens recommendations for those on a budget and new to video?

    The Panny 14-140mm doesn’t seem like it would be fast enough. And the Panny 20mm perhaps not versatile enough?

    I’ve been looking into old prime lenses with manual focus and aperture rings, but you mention the importance of IS.

    Should I focus on primes or finding an adaptable zoom?

  34. Je ne savais pas que Philip avait un épouse Française c’est pour moi un surprise, le film est très bien fait, et le film qui sort de la G2 est de très bonne qualitée, si je n’avais pas acheté une powershot G12 je l’aurais prise en consideration, compliment a Philip et sa a Femme.
    Nicolas

  35. Being vegan, I can’t say I like the look of the food, but I do like the look of the bokeh 🙂

    In regards to the lens, I’ve noticed from reading reports on photography blogs and forums that a few users still prefer Panasonic’s own f1.4 25mm lens. Apparently f1.4 is the limit before the image starts looking soft on the Voigtlander? Have you tried that Panasonic?

  36. Great stuff – that made me very hungry – schnitzel mmmmm… your mum did a pro job. Quirky fun piece ( again you nail the music perfect. )
    Love the oil shot !

    Would the GF2 work alright with the voigt 25mm ??
    I wonder how much of an image quality gap there is between the GH2 + GF2 ??

    time for a schnitzel.

  37. Oh man, let me say that tubed tomato sauce doesn’t give proper merit to your lovely mum’s work… Must definitely send you some home made one from Italy!!! 😉

    Jokes apart, big thanks as always for your precious work sharing!
    Stefano

  38. The HDMI live-view output is not suitable for recording use, using nanoFLASH or Ki pro, Ki pro mini, etc..
    You will get one freezing image every 17 seconds.
    It happens because of the difference between 60 fps, which is the frame rate at which the sensor reads the light, and 59.94 fps, which is the frame rate of the HDMI output.
    This is the explanation I had from Panasonic.
    Although you can not use it for recording, I found it great that you can view the recording image at 1920 x 1080 resolution.
    The most beautiful thing about the new GH2 is that its image sensor reads at 60 fps.
    So, the 60i is a real 60(59.94)i and 60p, although at 1280 x 720, is a real 60(59.94)p.
    I am sure that you will do the slow motion by converting 60p to 30p soon, and you will see the difference.
    The 4/3 image sensor is smaller than EOS’s, but EOS’s image sensor can read only at 30fps.

  39. Haha! that was awesome. I like to see tests of cams for sure, but not fond of the over-used (from what I’ve seen) random outside events to classical music. I always fall asleep before the end.

    But THAT was great! Nice pace on the editing, great shots and an interesting story (rather than someone sitting on a bench!), all to a kitsch in the kitchen soundtrack. Bravo auteur!

    And yes, your mum is gorgeous. She only looks about 45! How old are you? 22? LOL.

    And great to see the voig 0.95. Been wanting to buy that lens and now seen it in action.

    Thanks so much

    Keep up with the more lively films. There’s more hip people checking your work rather than the classic boring cameraman hahaha 😉

  42. oh, nice. finally a more thought over imaging with this new toy. beats most other `let me take you to the landscape and see my beautifully framed waterfall´ examples. thanks. i´ll own one in two weeks. your mother looks very young i must say, good of course too. but…you don´t need oil in the pasta boiling water. .-)

  46. Can you please test the manual sound input and the s/n of the pre amp/DAC in the minimum sound setting? If you have a Juicedlink og similar mic preamp could you test if the sound is useable with pro XLR mics? I was really hoping to use this camera without an external recorder and to mess with sound sync in post.

  51. I really love your film. The way you choose where to place your camera to obtain original and beautiful shots (especially in a tiny and low light room).
    I’m sure you caught a cold shooting from outside behind the window 😉

    And of course, your choice as a director, to cast this wonderful actress.. 🙂

    One word for your mom :
    Félicitations Mme Bloom ! Vous êtes à la fois belle, douce et chaleureuse, ET une excellente cuisinière. Bref, la maman idéale 🙂
    Vous m’avez donné faim… 😉
    Bises de France !

  52. Hi Philip,
    Thanks for all infos.
    I like the food here. I love olive oil and on spaghetti I do the same. By the way your mum looks a lot like you.
    For the film now. It seems to me very clear but as I see your shadows are a bit flat compared with Canons 5D and to my eye it is a little bit flat. I like the nice bokeh you get from filming the animals.
    Overall I see a different look from what I am used to. GOOD OR BAD I can not say. I myself like to use that camera in different look settings to explore its potentialities.

    Thanks once again
    Costas

  53. Does it lower the bitrate for 30p and 60p?

    I’m really excited about this camera and the voigtlander. That will be a hard lens to pick up when this camera is shipping.

    I’m also going to check up on the Duclos mod. Ever use that?

    Cheers and thanks for all that you do to enlighten the masses! KUDOS…

  54. Thanks for posting this clip. I was beginning to go a bit luke warm on the GH2, but this and a few other recent clips have relit my fire for it again.
    Nice recipe, nice mum, nice music what could be better!
    Cheers

      2. What are your opinions about the Olympus 25mm f/2.8? I like the idea of a “normal” 50mm equivalent for the GHx, but this Voigtlander is a few notches above my price range…

  59. Thank you Philip for the great service you continually provide to this community.

    Your comment regarding the 60i looking like progressive is intriguing.

    If you don’t mind — may I respectfully request that you maybe let us know if the two fields in 60i are temporally correlated — the equivalent of 1080p/29.97?

    That would explain the 60i looking like progressive — and it would open up a number of very interesting “deliverable options”.

    Thank you very much.

  60. Lovely fun. And I must agree with several of the posters above, your mum’s a lovely lady, 67 or no. Simple and expertly done and, as ever, you’ve chosen the perfect music. Made me wonder if I’d made a mistake buying a 7D. But, as you say, depends what you’re trying to achieve. As always, thanks for taking the time to do this and to share it.

  61. Wonderful video Philip. I’m absolutely sold on the GH2 and that lens is amazing indeed. The one area i wish to know more about are its stills capability and imagery. Wish to hear your thoughts about the cam for stills and how they compare to your other cams. Thanks.

  63. You’re bloody amazing Philip! I want to know though, (it’s a really noob question, but) does the f/.95 fit on a Canon DSLR? Or what lens would give an equivalent DOF for a not so expensive price?

    Oh, and would you consider the GH2 better than the T2i? Cause I bought the T2i just under a year ago, and I can’t afford ANYTHING, so I’d hate to hear that the T2i is out of fashion!

    P.S. You seem much happier and cheerful after your week off from emails and twitter!

    2. You could always sell the T2i? I recently sold my 550D on a prominent auction site for only £100 less than what I paid for it 8 months ago. Took the bullet and bought the 60D, loving the extra features, makes the T2i/550D look so cheap in comparison, but I am curious about the GH2!!!

  64. Dear Philip,

    could you please find out whether the analog “AV out” is working WHILE recording and if the “AV out” includes audio out?

    Thanks and greetings

  66. It was reported or suggested that the Live HDMI out drops a frame, or duplicates a frame every 17 seconds due to a mismatch between the sensors 60 frame scan and how it outputs 60i? I’m not sure how you can observe the anomaly?

  67. FYI: The GH2 user manual (PDF) is now available in several languages from Panasonic’s website (enter “DMC-GH2”):
    http://dlc.panasonic-europe-service.com/EUDocs/

    Concerning the GH2’s live HDMI out:

    Refer to the note on page 159 in the GH2 manual, where it says:

    “… • During [24P CINEMA] and [VARIABLE MOVIE MODE] playback, please set [HDMI MODE] to [AUTO]. For settings other than [AUTO], it cannot output at 24 frames/second. …”

    This setting may or may not explain why different GH2 users report conflicting results in their attempts to use a GH2 with an external HDMI recording device. Maybe. I hope! 😉

    This is also being discussed on DVXuser:
    http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?229701-GH2-RAW-4.2.2-HD-Out&p=2165945&viewfull=1#post2165945

    Cheers.

  71. back on the advantages of 35mm sensor vs this one, this 4/3rds sensor with a super fast 0.95 would have an advantage when you’re focusing closer to infinity right? lets say you were filming a concert or something far away with a 5D2 and 50mm at 1.8 at ISO 2000, does this mean you could get the same sort of framing with a GH2, 25mm at 0.95 at like ISO 1000?

    by the way love the cooking film! all the edits looked so pro as did the colours and dof obviously! you’re seriously incredible phil! a huge inspiration to me and an ‘online mentor’ 😛

    2. Hey Dan!

      The 5DMkII sensor is bigger and therefore more light-sensitive.
      As some posters above mentioned, the GH2 sensor needs 2 stops more light compared to the 5DMkII.
      So 5DMk2 with 50mm 1.8 at ISO 2000 would be “equal” to GH2 with 25mm 0.95 at ISO 2000 as well.

      Cheers,
      Simon

      1. That is a crazy comment. If I use a spot light meter. And it reads at ISO 2000, that I need 1/30 at f 1.8. That would be the same settings on a 5D, GH-2, or Nikon F3. Assuming the F stop (Tstop) is accurate and each cameras ISO is in the right range.

  72. Phil,

    Is Canon going to come out with anything at all? They are so silent it’s hurting my ears.

    The GH2 looks great, but I got too many Canon lenses to jump ship, and the 4/3rds thing is not too great either. But dang….. the Aliasing and terrible 720p on Canon’s is bumming me out. If Canon released the same camera with a slightly sharper image and no aliasing, I would be happy. I was hoping the 60D was going to be that. But no dice.

    I heard the 5D mark3 is suppose to come out soon. Any validity to this rumor. Panasonic is starting to really kick butt on Canon. Canon is lagging.

  74. The GH2 is really cool.. you make me think that my 7d is too old.. NO WAY, 7d, I still love you!
    Anyway, I’m italian.. please, never eat again spaghetti with that tomato sauce!
    If you pass by Milano, please, give me a call, I’ll teach you something ’bout italian sauce.. fuck yeah!
    Ben

  75. “Sensor capable of 1080p at 60 or 50 fps (rather than 24 or 25 fps), still output as 60i/50i”

    – This is on the spec list for the GH2 on Panasonic’s site; I’m very very confused by it.

    The sensor is capable of 60p at 1080p but only records 60i?

    What’s the point of even saying what the sensor can do if it doesn’t utilize the feature. I think I’m just thoroughly confused with p’s and i’s at this point. I apologize for my ignorance, any light shed on this would be appreciated.

    1. Exactly, it records the 1080 60 fps in interlaced

      and

      I have no idea what’s the point; why they couldn’t get their act together.
      We are stuck with 720 60p. Until a hack comes along…

    2. The AVCHD codec is not compatible with 60p/50p apparently at that res, so conversion to 60i takes place. 1080 60i is either like 1080 30p, or 540 60p depending on how you look at it.
      So, at 1080 60i, only every 2nd line of pixels is recorded, which means you end up with 2 consecutive frames interleaved into 1 frame.
      The fact that they mention it suggests to me that there is a possibility of 1080 60p in future. Or they are trying to trick people.

      Does anyone know if it’s likely to be out in the UK before christmas?

      1. Wow, this is incredibly frustrating. Such a tease.

        The obvious question then is why not choose a different native recording codec so as to take full advantage of the camera’s capabilities and rape competitors?

        Oh yeah, that’s too simple. Simply amazing how slowly the business moves.

        1. That because Panasonic jointly developed the AVCHD format and have a vested interest in supporting it. Panasonic did mention in a recent interview that they are looking at a new version of AVCHD. Panasonic also said even if AVCHD supported 1080p60 the GH2 couldn’t support it due to some hardware limitation. So we can forget about a firmware update.

  76. One observation. She could have dipped the meat in flour before the egg. This is how my mum taught me to do it. Maybe you can suggest it and she can try it next time?

    P.S. I thought the video was great.

  77. Hi Philip
    Great piece, and nice to meet your Mum. I´ve become adicted to your blog! And very much looking forward to your review of the D7000, as I am a Nikon person, and have to actually chose ONE camera:-(
    So please hurry it up. Im sure there are others waiting as well.
    Keep the Faith

  79. The true artist, all ways creating.
    I laughed out loud several times.
    Great fun and beautiful.
    Your Mom is stunning.

    What do think Canons waiting for?
    They could put a 5D sensor in a XL2 and price point kill the F3.
    The final nail in the coffin would be ProRes, 4:2:2, 50mb recording in camera.

    I would love to see Nikon surprise everyone with a full frame sensor video camera.

    Have you heard anything from Canon?

  80. Hey Philip two BIG questions.

    I have work with the AVCHD codec and its very tricky cause you have to convert it to work with it.Avid MC5 dosent import this tipe of codec.

    I read a lot of posts in the web that people are having so much trouble dealing with this type of codec and the fact of transcoding it makes loss of quality.

    So

    Whats your workflow with this codec?

    And whats the benefits of using this codec?.

    Thanks!

  81. Can we get back to the oil and pasta hypothesis? i find this very intriguing!!! Do you mean to tell me that i have been wasting litres of olive oil for all these years?? i think not

    I think you will find that if the water is brought to boiling point the oil has little effect however when the water is below boiling temp i find it does reduce the cohesive nature of the pasta.

  82. Dear Philip,

    Would you be so kind to pay attention to the overheating-issue that Canon 60d is supposed to have. For my films I very often have to do interviews that last more than 2 hours, so I need a reliable camera in respect to duration.

    http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com, in their test of Canon 60d states:

    “The most annoying thing about the 60D in terms of handling is the fact that the camera will overheat after prolonged periods of video-mode use. The live view mode, which is necessary for recording video, causes the camera’s internal components to get to hot and, in turn, the 60D will automatically shut down when this occurs. Now, we only had this happen to us once during our testing (and it was after 30 – 40 minutes of straight use in video mode), but if you’re doing a long day of shooting it is most likely going to occur. And, if it does, you must let the camera sit for a few minutes before you can use its video mode again.”

    I think they also mentioned that they expect the 4/3 inch camera’s to be more reliable duration-wise.

    Creative Cow, on the other hand posted a test that would show reliable shooting:

    http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/59/859941

    So could you please help us potential buyers out: Is this a risk of Canon 60d, and if yes: is Panasonic GH2 more reliable in this respect.

    Many thanks in advance,

    David de Jongh

  84. Love my GH1 (except for banding issue) but most footage I’ve seen of GH2 hasn’t fully sold me. Codec seems to break-up while subject/camera moves or in high-detail shots. Maybe it was because they were pre-production units, but I’d love to see you test these things. Thanks!

  86. Great warm toned shooting, nice bokeh! I just got the feeling the DOF was a bit too short sometimes, don’t you think?

    Can you just clarify one of your statements: you say 24Mbps is only available in 24p mode, but is 24p an option in the PAL version?

  88. Hello, and thank you for such detailed tests, but I wonder why I see little latitude in between the lights low and high, saturated it so easily? And Phillip, you believe that the optics Angeniuex 12 120 work well in this camera? Thanks thanks and more thanks.

  89. Was almost ready to buy the 60D along with the nice 17-55/2.8 and 50/1.4, but now this beautiful little cam comes along…

    I think prices would be a little bit more in favor of the GH2, but I’m not sure. Would you still benefit from a Zacuto or comparable viewfinder? Would you need a follow focus (I think for the 60D you do, perhaps the GH2 could do without)… choices choices…

    I don’t want to push you, Philip, but I hope can find the time to compare the GH2 with the 60D and let us know. Your opinion is highly regarded!!!

    (Also, since I love your timelaps-movies, does this GH2 has an internal intervalometer?)

      1. Please compare the two cameras, I am in a same situation as bigmac, undecided between the 60D and the GH2.
        First prolost’s article and now your excellent film! Damn! 😉

        2. Me too…

          i need it mostly for good video cause iam dancing and wanna
          have a good cam for filming my self….

          but also want to do good photos for my son :))

          So which would be the better one 60D or GH2??

          thanks for your help

  92. OMG! That was a bit of a shock watching the opening of that film. Having read in the forward it was ‘lunch with your Mum’ you don’t expect to see someone you know. I have shot with your Mum for She, Good Housekeeping etc plus also your sister Natalie when she was modelling, at Storm if I remember rightly? How funny! Been reading your blog for months enjoying all your hints and tips and never put two and two together.
    Seems like a great little camera.
    Send my best regards to both your Mum and Natalie.
    Keep up the blog – it’s a great help to all us ‘fashion’ boys trying to embrace our evolving careers!

      1. New poster here, but I’ve been following this blog for a long time now… (thanks Mr. Bloom for providing such a great site by the way!)

        This is interesting, so the camera DOES have 25p? I thought it didn’t at all, only the 50i mode for PAL users…
        But yes, I’m keen on this camera, I’d want to shoot 25p at the best available bit rate. It seems a bit arbitrary that the 24p mode gets the higher bit rate and not the other frame rates. Why not share the good stuff to people shooting in all modes, perhaps offering menu options for selecting quality (bit rate) of each mode.

        Anyway, look forward to any more info as and when it comes along. Thanks again for sharing this with us all.

  97. More than the GH2 review, I found this video quite interesting for the cooking part (i’m french and we are often motivated by food).
    So i decided to take the challenge of cooking and only use one lens (a 50mm planar 1.7) and one light (a fresnel cremer 500w)
    So here is the video : http://vimeo.com/17148306
    As you may probably know, french student are not fluent in english, so excuse my english

    2. I use the JuicedLink DT-454 — results are absolutely outstanding. Every bit as good as H4N. But Phil is right … best to monitor what is actually recorded. I still use the 454 all the time, but I am always running the risk of some cable problem or in-camera problem that I won’t know about until I get back to the computer.

  102. Hey… nice video. colour, contrast, and the magic looks make more interesting. turnin an simple video footage into award winning.

    Nice close takes, bokeh. but we can expect to visit us? someday?

    well, i’ll stop, this video makes me feel hungry. may you post the recipe? please…

    Regards

    Kaze.
    ( from São Paulo – Brasil )

  103. Hey Philip 2 questions?

    Can you make a post between the AVCHD vs QT .mov h264.

    and since you graded in AVCHD and .mov H264

    In terms of compresion and workflow wich one its better?

  109. Hi Phil,

    I’ve been wondering about this for a long time now. Do you pay any money for the music that you use in these videos?

    Thanks for the blog and info you keep producing!

    Ufo

  113. Nononono!
    Spaghetti served WITH your meat is so….hmmmm….. mittleuropean! :-((
    You shall have spaghetti FIRST, then your main course (w/ veggies, even better)!

    Philip: je ne savais pas que ta mère était francaise… J’étais convainçu que tu étais un vrai englishman.

    Vais figurer (engl: go figure) 😀

    Ciao

    Paul
    p.s: oh… what was that thing about the GH2, again?
    :-p

  115. Philip, great site. Hope you or any readers can give an insight on the GH2’s tele conversion feature as used with super 16 cine lens (with a PL adapter). What is the physical sensor size – is it closer to – 1/2″ or 2/3″? It would be really great to have a budget version of the scarlet 2/3 or ikonoskop and be able to use the full range of super 16 (and regular 16) glass that is out there. Let me what you think. Thanks.

  116. I would like to thank you Mr. Bloom for fueling my interest in moviemaking. I got my newfound love after watching your first clip of your mum and the diving movie. Your mum is a star and so are you.

  118. hey Philip, i once saw a post of u on the set of ‘Redtails’, where u mentioned DP-ing 2unit of a ‘modified Canon 7d’. exactly what did u meant when u said ‘modified’ and can u tell me what were some of the gadget hooked up on the 2unit. thanks.

  120. Ok, first of all…this video made me run to the kitchen to get food….

    Today I had the chance to test the GH2 from Panasonic in Utrecht.
    Very small camera compared to other DSLR’s. Still, the results amaze me!
    But what a shame Panasonic dropped the data rate to 17 Mbit/sec for 25P.

    So, Panasonic? Listen carefully I only ask this once: ‘Please can you find a way to raise the data rate to 24Mbit/sec at 25P?’

    You can make EU citizens VERY happy with that.

  122. I love my GH-1 in many ways, like the fun I’ve had experimenting with
    every piece of good bad and other glass I can find, BUT..big big BUTT..

    Do note that the Panasonic DSLRs are not particularly well-made,
    they are plastic and do tend to fall apart.

    The GH-1-2 are not supported as pro gear, so as my GH-1 has fallen to bits Panasonic has been a Royal horror-show dealing with repairs.

    Understand this before you go feet first, and make sure you have a backup.

    I can elaborate if necessary.

  123. Great post Philip, every day I think do I make the jump from Professional/Prosumer Cameras to Digital SLR. This post has slightly swayed me, especially the GH2, it looked fantastic and so is the price.

    However the 24mb/s only in 24p mode, 17mb/s in 25p mode, I work regularly in broadcast, is this something Panasonic could change?

    My main area of film’s are in factual and documentary, do you think using DSLR would be good for me? My brain feels like a pendulum swaying back and forth on the idea!!!

    Many thanks

    Jim

      1. Philip, have you been able to do any testing with the HDMI out? Would love to hear what you find. I can’t imagine Panasonic giving away the farm at that price, but it is possible.

  124. 24/25 or 30 fps it is important..?

    Mostly hollywood movies shoot with 24fps ..
    but in my broadcast television system they works in 25 fps..
    maybe in japan broadcast television, hollywood movies plays in 30 fps.. based on pal and ntsc..

    how the hollywood delivery one project movie that shoot in 24fps into every country based on their broadcast system especially on 25fps and 30fps?

    how the hollywood add : 1 frame in pal mode (25-24), and
    6 frame in ntsc mode (30-24)

    what are they add on it?

    thanks for replay..
    have nice day

  125. Hey again Philip. Trying to wrap my head around a few specs on this camera.

    On B&H, the GH2 is stated to record:
    “[Full HD] 1,920 x 1,080, 60i (sensor output is 60p)”
    “[Full HD] 1,920 x 1,080, 50i (sensor output is 50p)”

    Does this mean that

    1) if you use an external capture device, like the Atomos Ninja, you would be recording native 60p because you’re coming straight off the sensor? Then you could do some sweet full HD slow mo?

    2) if you converted your 60i/50i to 30p/25p, it would be a cleaner conversion, since it was shot progressive natively, than if it was native interlace and the frames don’t perfectly align? Or is that screwed up because you’re going from 60p, to 60i, then 30p and by the end you’ve lost half the original footage?

    Also, how does that 17mb look? usable/worthless?

  127. ok, so im going back to this blog and its amazing test, though i feel that alot of the answers people were proposing havent got a finishing statement to them, especially hdmi out, best slow motion,film mode, and i even had one about this 4.3 or 1.1 or 16.9 quality factor which seems to be over looked…which ill start with, im not sure what advantage 1.1 has, but with 4.3 in video it seems like it gives you a much bigger frame size still in hd, would this be preferable in lets say, a green screen shoot? or anamorphic? seems like youd gain resolution.
    anyway, since most of us JUST got out cameras i started some testing and of course look to you philip first in reviews and tests.
    im looking for the best settings, for you know, 24p film making that compares our look and quality to footage we would get out of a red camera or sony f35.
    i hear mixed messages about hdmi out, cinema film look mode, 24p, variable mode and a few more but lets try to some it all shall we?

    first HDMI mode, since this is what the post is about. i havent tested it myself yet but whats the result, does it freeze every 17 seconds like someone posts? and what is the file once analyzed? 60i? 24p? and would you be recording on the camera the same time your capturing to a nano flash or ki pro?

    best SLOW MOTION, it seems that the variable mode is also 24mbts, so slowing it down to 80 percent, that should be about 30fps right? but is that actually giving me 30fps with 30 actual progressive frames? and do i have to conform that footage in cinema tools if so, or is it some automatic conversion taking place when compressed to avchd?
    i also tried the 40fps burst! and it worked! i got 40 individual frames at 4k(4mp). its tricky because its automatic on how many frames are captured depending on the quality you set in the camera, and the shutter speed! but i got 40 and put them into final cut as one frame on a 24frame time line and got nice slow motion. the only issue was on the final output it looked a little squished, so think i shot and had all the settings at 1080×1920, so dont know whats going on there. the only downfall is you only get one second, so is all this better than just shooting 720p and blowing it up to 1080?
    i tried one 720p test and i seem to get a bit of wobble, but it was me just whip panning around.
    lastly, for now, FILM mode, i like the look of the cinema, and at first i hear that is one to use to be most like film gamma corrections, like the old panasonic hvx’s gamma correction. does this cause any degradation and/or whats your opinion on the film modes? these film modes definitely seem to go further then you can go in any manual settings, the manual setting basically only go over two clicks from the normal, i with they went further, and color mode, does that do anymore grading, is that the grading people are talking about, or is the film modes the actually grading, which means the grading is mostly just automatic pre sets.
    ok, thanks again and id love to hear your thoughts before a new and better camera comes out, but i have to say i love the lens baby tilt adapter with my 20mm 2.8 nikkor lens! its sick!
    i got the 14-42, but i was thinking about the 20mm 1.7, is it worth it or should i wait, anyone with opinions on that, i think the faster stop is so much better to have then with the new 14mm 2.5, but the 20mm is older and i hate buying old technology since i bet it doesnt focus as fast or something weird. any thoughts?

  128. Lovely vid. One thing re cooking. The jury’s still out on the safety of Clingfilm and similar soft plastic products. How carcinogenic are they?

      1. naaa bummer
        please, if you find time, tell me why..

        i am working on local sports tv in animation & vfx dep. and bosses are thinking of buying a nano,
        and i was thinking of trading 550d for gh2 cause of clean hdmi hd output…

        Is there some other solution for recording higher bit rate and color space with gh2 ?

        I believe it is recording 4:2:2, correct me if wrong

        Love from Serbia 🙂

  132. I really want the Voigtlander 25mm F0.95 lens. It’s way out of my price range and what I can afford right now, so I dream about it. I’d like to learn more about filmmaking because I’m always observing the cinema-photography in the movies, my favorite being; No Country For Old Men. When I saw the film of Phillip Bloom’s mom, I really starting researching this lens and I’ve always been a huge fan of Voigtlander. So I’ll just keep trying to save up hoping life doesn’t eat at the savings and try to get it eventually. Thanks for the work in promoting it with your talent, Phillip. . .

  133. Hi, I may be slightly off subject but pose this question: With regards to setting the camera “flat” for maximum video post production latitude such as with color grading etc., for ex. sharpness, contrast and saturation being set back several notches on the GH2, well then if you want to switch to shooting stills, do you need to reset these settings back to center position? I am thinking that if you are shooting “raw” still images then there is no need to readjust these “flat settings settings back and forth between video and stills as the “raw” stills are not effected by these settings? I am just beginning to learn all this stuff so have not yet had much time to experiment on my own.

    Also, I am trying to decide on editing/coloring software to buy. I have a Mac and so am looking at FCT Pro X although I know many pros are not that thrilled with this new version. For me it seems fine as long as Magic Bullet Looks will soon be compatible. Any word or thoughts on that? Thanks, Vance

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