More GH2 filming at the London Movember Gala. More thoughts and a really nice new mic!

Click here to read my blog about Movember

and PLEASE donate if you want to support the fight against Prostate cancer by clicking the donate logo below. Even the smallest amount helps!! Thanks!!


It has been a long month of moustache growing and trying to raise as much cash as possible for prostate cancer. My team and I have done a sterling job in making films to try and raise money for this worthy cause. Some of them are just superb. Check out the Vimeo group for loads of them and my page here for them too. We are almost at the end of November and the Mo gets shaved off and it’s over so PLEASE if you can spare even the smallest amount it will make a difference. So far we have raised close to £6,000 which is amazing…but I know we can make it to £10,000 if everyone who gets something out of my blog donates just a small amount. I would be so grateful! Click here to donate!

Around the world Movember is growing and in major cities Gala parties are held to raise even more money for Prostate Cancer and people who have taken part go along, some of them in the most ridiculous costumes ever all in the name of a great cause! I took my wonderful mum there for her second GH2 appearance as it was because of her I took part this year. My grandfather, her father died from prostate cancer and her brother is suffering from it. She was such a good sport. She even posed with “Borat”, once you see him you know what I mean!

I took the UK pre-production GH2 with me along with the Voigtlander 25mm f.95 and a brand new DSLR mic which I can’t say exactly what it is just yet, except it’s bloody awesome as you will hear. It  was plugged straight into the GH2 (there are meters on the LCD for audio levels and manual control but no headphone jack) and I recorded most of the vox pops in the noisiest part of the club and you can still hear them. Amazing! As soon as I can blog about this new mic I will. It is going to be a DSLR must have.

Shooting with the GH2 was a joy, I am really falling in love with this little beauty. So small, the EVF was awesome apart from the fact I have never had to tell people “it’s video please move” as much as I have that night, must have been it looking like I really was taking stills with my eye up to the viewfinder. Oh, and that lens. Bloody love it. Sure I was a bit too wide open at times but I couldn’t help myself…F0.95…C’mon! You would have done too!! I have decided to this is my desert island lens! Actually some of shots, the wider shots are quite stopped down, around F11 and a couple of them are at 3200 ISO…see if you can spot them! I shot at 24p and 1/50th all the time. ISO varied between 160 and 3200. I just hope when the European production model comes out that we will have 25p at 24mb/s otherwise it will be such a let down for us non US shooters as the 24p is simply awesome!

I did use the 1080p 1:1 cropping on two shots…again I challenge you to tell me what it is. An amazing feature that simply samples native 1920×1080 bit in the middle of sensor and records that, giving a true digital crop, great for getting more out of your lenses…

What is this new mic?!

All the footage is straight out of the camera. No colour correction. The image is very very clean indeed…very impressed! The video is very silly and a lot of fun! There is a tiny bit of swearing and some semi-nudity (not the good kind either!) so please do not watch whilst eating!! 🙂

GH2: Movember Gala Party from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

I will be doing my final assessment of the GH2 next week (with the nanoflash test), alongside my thoughts on the 60D next week. I will also be adding more of my team’s films below for you to enjoy. So again PLEASE donate something. My team have worked so hard this month on promoting this cause, be great if we can give the charity a really large amount!

the final day from Vince Gaffney on Vimeo.

Nov.30th: Mo says No. from Ben Stamper/Cines&Wonders Films on Vimeo.

Movember – Freddie (Team Bloom ‘Tache) from Richard van den Boogaard on Vimeo.

metamorphosis from Amien Phillips on Vimeo.

Who is Rookie Glover? : TEAM BLOOM TACHE, MOVEMBER from Tony Stark on Vimeo.

Keep on living from Domonic White on Vimeo.

What If She Likes It? from Angeline Gragasin on Vimeo.

License to Mo from Ben Stamper/Cines&Wonders Films on Vimeo.

Episode 3: Motivation from Super Mega Action Plus on Vimeo.

It’s Movember from Jordan Pearcey on Vimeo.

Silver Bullet Stare: TEAM BLOOM TACHE, MOVEMBER from Tony Stark on Vimeo.

77 comments

  1. Philip!

    Awesome work on the Movember campaign!, we have a few athletes doing the same and they have raised quite a bit of cash too!

    The footage is awesome! the audio is amazing, i’m actually considering cancelling my AG-AF100 order and buy 3 GH2 bodies instead, i have a ton of glass and can see the point you made about your canon bodies, being able to take 3 of those on a shoot with 5 or 6 lens will give me so much freedom, i still crave the AG-AF100 but that can wait.

    Really looking forward to hearing about this new mic, it really is amazing!

    Sent you an email through the help section by the way 😉

  2. For us on the fence about getting a nanoflash, Could you show some comparison of a native 24mps AVCHD with a Nanoflash capture. Since I believe you can record both at once, correct?

    Clearly, the higher bitrate and Prores is better, but subjectively how much can we tell the difference?

    On my GH-13, in low light slightly out of focus areas I get that “Contour map” effect on the gradations in the shadow area I hate. Is that banding? Would the Nano eliminate that?

  3. What I really like about Panasonic’s Engineers, is they are making a relatively lower end, pricewise, camera compared with 7D and 5D, and yet, as with the GH-1’s high bitrate hack, and now the clean HDMI there is a great deal of “extras” for your dollar. And for stills or video, the Dynamic Black and White settings is amazing. And I’ve shot and developed Tri-X all my life. I wonder what other hidden Easter eggs we will find buried in the little GH-2 in days and weeks to come.

  4. Thanks for making it more difficult for me to choose between the GH2 or 60D, this footage is awesome for such a little cam. Sure this great lens will help too… Kudos to your mum for growing a mo too, ha!

    Looking forward to your final GH2 assessment and 60D thoughts, I really appreciate all the energy and efforts you’re putting into this.

  5. i had to laugh when you mentioned the irritating size of the gh2. wait for the `problems´ that will develop when soccer will be filmed by fans in high quality and put online. and not only that but many other situations where it can be put to professional use without scaring people because of the size of the camera pointed at them. should be the perfect reportage tool. at least i hope so as i sacrified my m6 for it.

  6. Hi Phil,

    When you have time do you mind elaborating a bit more on broadcast requirements and the GH2? At one point you had mentioned that this camera doesn’t have enough bitrate (I think that was the term) for I’m assuming BBC and the like and here for PBS (though their requirements seem a bit looser). Will the nanoflash eliminate that issue? Up to this point I’ve been shooting documentary work in SD (DV and beta). And I intend to purchase the AG-AF100 when it comes out. My thought is that I could buy a GH2 (or possibly a 60D, at one point I was thinking a 5D) now and use that camera as a B camera later on. But the biggest issue is broadcast quality and how well the GH2 will blow up to a large screen. It looks great on the web but how well will it transfer to large TVs and screens.

    Also, I’m guessing that for a b cam the GH2 will better match the AG-AF100 than the 60D, no?

  7. Hi Phil, it’s a pity you can’t tell us about the new microphone.

    I’m about to buy a Sennheiser MKE-400 for my soon-to-come GH2, whenever it may arrive.

    Would you advise me to wait with the purchase of the Sennheiser mic? Or can you say when you will be able to talk about that new mic?

    Thanks for any comment!

  8. Philip said:
    “It was plugged straight into the GH2…”

    For real? The new mystery mic didn’t need an adapter to go from 3.5mm to the GH2’s sub-mini 2.5mm mic input? If that’s the case, I may consider waiting for this new mic over the MKE 400. The GH1/GH2 world is badly in need of an on-camera mic with a 2.5mm jack that’s superior to the Panasonic DMW-MS1 (which fails to impress).

    Anders said:
    “One question about the external mic input:
    Is it a stereo in? Can you split it and have the mystery camera mic on ch.1 and e.g. a wireless receiver on ch.2?”

    The input on the GH1 & GH2 is indeed a stereo input. However, I wouldn’t advise splitting the signal. You run into impedance mismatch problems when you use a Y-cable, and I would imagine you’d have more failures than successes. You’d be better off recording “double system sound” with a separate portable digital recorder like the Tascam DR100 with two XLR inputs (and using a shotgun mic and wireless receiver with XLR outputs).

  9. The video on the GH2 looks great! I’m currently shooting a documentary on my 5Dmk2 and audio has been my biggest problem! it’s either using cheap wireless mic that hisses. I know I need to upgrade my wireless Mic (perhaps Sennheiser G3 series lapel mic system)

    It looks like you’re getting pretty clean very directional audio from this mystery mic of yours.. I would LOVE to find out what it is! 🙂

  10. This camera looks really interesting, and might be what I’ll get instead of the 7D.

    I just wonder about the rolling shutter problem. Is that eliminated on the GH2? I saw something looking like rolling shutter on the vimeo video, but it might just have been the vimeo compression or the computer I watched it on.

  11. Philip, I have been following silently 🙂 Great work, congrats ! I am very curious what your opinion is on: GH2 HDMI out to nanoflash and blow up to 35mm ? Am I still dreaming or you think this will be possible and still get a great theatrical release quality film-out technically speaking ? Thanks, Keep up the great work !

      1. I’d love to see your “which DSLR should I buy?” post updated with both the GH2 and 60D. It’s hard to find objective, thoughtful comparisons of those two cameras that don’t devolve into angry bickering. 😉

        Specifically, how does the 60D overall image quality compare to the GH2? Do either of them tend to overheat, and if so, which one overheats more quickly? Is the wealth of Canon lenses available reason enough to go with the 60D? Which would you prefer for documentary-style shooting? Which would you prefer for narrative work?

        Thanks as always,
        Ben

  12. Mr Bloom, the mike is just useful to GH2? I’m about to buy a Rode NTG-2 and Rycote dslr kit to feed my 5DMkII in “solo” man run and gun plan, would you advise me to wait with the purchase of the Rode mic? Tkhs a lot for your reviews, absolut link to dslr knowledge.

  13. Do you know if the automatic gain control can be disabled on the GH2? I am looking at getting a RODE mic and they mentioned that the AGC on some DSLR’s can be an issue.

  14. Philip,

    Great work on the Movember piece (and a many others). However, that Mic really intrigues me! While I’m considering a dual-audio recording approach, a good quality on-camera mic would be VERY useful. So…

    What the latest on the secret mic? Come one… You can tell me. I promise not to tell any one! 🙂

    Thanks,

    Dan.

  15. As the happy owner of a GH2 🙂 and about to go to the States, I’m really curious to know when the embargo on naming the amazing gun mike is gonna be lifted..! And..will it be small enough to avoid problems when using the 7-14mm panny lens and the 25mm voigtlander? Thanks!

      1. many thanks
        in the past we’ve used 5d with very small gun mic mounted, and that proved v useful in doc filming situations where we wanted to be a more discreet (eg certain street scenes). so this mic sounds a very useful addition from that perspective, also avoiding a big mic waggling on top of the small gh2!

        adding my thanks for all the fantastic help you’ve given the community with your site, and for inspiring us with your films!

  16. Been reading your blog for only a few months now. Love all the great articles and reviews as well as the video and still samples.

    Great Movember stuff!

    I’m currently in “film”school (in the US) and deciding what cam to get myself. I have no camcorder or camera, so whatever I buy will be my only weapon. (though we have access to the school video cameras). I’m a complete newbie, so I am looking for a good camera that will help me learn my craft and art. My primary use will be video with a small interest in stills (around 90/10 balance of interest)

    I’m pretty sure I am gonna go with a DSLR (or DSLR-like) camera, instead of a HD Camcorder. I’m thinking about the 60D, 7D, or GH2. At first I was learning toward the 7D but the more I read the more the GH2 feature-set is capturing my attention. However I really dont know know, being such a newbie

    You mentioned doing a full review on the GH2 and 60D, will you also be comparing against the 7D? If video is the primary concern, with 2nd priority being a camera that might be best as a beginner learning platform, which is the best pick?

      1. can you give an advice to a real beginner in using the GH2 ? I did try the TinyMike from ambient – small, light, excellent quality, expensive , but the connection to the GH2 is not working – is there any good adaptor from 3.5 to 2.5. The ambient company could not find any good one.

  17. Mr Bloom , u recommend to set the sharpness of the canon all the way down,
    my first question (of 2, don`t be afraid) is:

    1. You like the image quality in the GH2 , why?
    Depth of field? Aesthetical? Sharp image?

    2. You could set the contrast and saturation curves just like the “picture Style Editor” from Canon, to achieve more stops , or more “film look” in the GH2?

    Sorry for my horrible english, i hearing me is worst !!

    congratulations MR BLOOM, I am a fan of your PASSION and LOVE for what you do.

    regards from Venezuela
    Leo Medd
    MEDDstudios

  18. I would like to see the “latitude” in this GH2,
    I love the flexibility of the canons with the “Picture Style Editor”
    cause you can flatten the gamma achieving a little more dynamic range,
    of course , not as a RED or a ARRI.

  19. OK, I am new here, read all these posts and so of course I am wondering about the new mic that pairs well with the GH2 which is the camera I have. It is now Nov. 2011. Has the mic name/model been announced yet? Thanks, Vance

  20. Thanks, I will check that Rode mic out.

    Since I already ordered the Zoom H4n, I was thinking that the headphone out on that unit could also feed the mic input of the Gh2 with a 3.5 to 2.5 adapter. Since the H4n headphone output has volume control this should allow for a level match directly into the Gh2 and thus avoid the whole post audio sync process if so desired. Of course the audio preamps on the GH2 may degrade the sound quality slightly as compared with the directly recorded H4n signal so a comparison would be in order. Another idea if trying this method would be to use a y cable terminating with two 3.5 female inputs out of the H4n so that headphones may be used at the same time the signal is being fed into the Gh2 via a 3.5 to 2.5 cable.
    Of course all this is more tedious than using a regular video mic but the advantage of the H4n is that when a situation calls for it, two additional outboard mics can be recorded along with the onboard stereo pair. For ex. I could see using several wireless mics on the talent while the onboard mics capture the ambient sounds, all without an additional mixer.

  21. Hi there,
    I realize it has been some time since this article was published. At this point can you reveal what mic you were using? Quite frankly, I must have one.

    Highly appreciate your reviews,
    Ben

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