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

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…

  3. 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.

  4. 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!!

          1. People seem to be very confused about how the gh1/2 sensor size is an epic win for lowlight focus.
            The voigtlanders are fantastic, and put to shame notions of 5d dof advantage.

          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.

          2. 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.

  5. 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?

      1. 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.

  6. 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

  7. 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. 🙂

  8. 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.

      1. 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.

  9. 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…

  10. 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!

  11. 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.

      2. 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 …

  12. 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…

  13. 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?

  14. 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

  15. 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?

  16. 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.

  17. 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

  18. 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.

  19. 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 😉

  20. 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. .-)