Anyone using Panasonic GH2?

The GH2 was recently compared by Philip Bloom to much more expensive cameras and came out looking pretty good. I was wondering if anyone here uses it for stock. The sensor isn't as big as say a D5 MII, but it doesn't have the moire issues and uses AVCHD. There is also a hack to enable very low compression. It has stabilization built in to the body and continuous AF, which is lacking on most SLRs (except Sony A65). Of course the GH3 should be coming out soon, and I here we should be seeing a 7D Mark II sometime this year.

Rick

Yes, I have seen artists that use the GH1, GH1 hacked (GH13), GH2 and GH2 with Ninja recorder. I have seen plenty of GH1 stock footage here. The problem with the GH1 and GH2 is that there are few lenses and accessories for them.

Hi,

I shot for a year with a Canon 60D (same sensor as 7D), and I work with 5D footage all the time at work. I can honestly say that the hacked GH2 is so much better, I sold my whole Canon kit and dove headfirst into GH2.

As for lenses, the GH2 actually has far MORE flexibility than other cameras. Because of the mirror less design and short flange distance, you can use cheap adapters to use Nikon, Canon, and virtually any other type of lens. There are some limitations with the newest Canon lenses (regarding aperture control), but you can use the great Canon FD lenses with no problems or limitations.

And yes, the GH2 has been compared to the new $3500 5D Mark III in side by side tests, and the GH2 is the clear winner. Go to eoshd.com to see all the tests.

It's also nice that it's smaller and lighter than the Canons... especially with the pancake lenses, I can easily carry it wherever I go, and am more likely to catch impromptu moments.

Haven't had a chance to upload any of my GH2 footage yet. I will soon.

Hope this helps,
Gray.

Thanks Gray, someday I'll probably get one one day to compliment my HF G10. The technology is moving so quick now. I can probably wait for the GH3 and see if Panasonic one ups themselves.

I'll go take a look at this camera and visit the Bloom site. Could you briefly explain the advantages of AVCHD over H.264? This always confuses me.

For video compression, AVCHD uses the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (AVC) standard, supporting a variety of standard, high definition, and stereoscopic (3D) video resolutions. For audio compression, supports both Dolby AC-3 (Dolby Digital) and uncompressed linear PCM audio. Stereo and multichannel surround (5.1) are both supported.

Here's a link that tells you all about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

Jason, thanks. Would you say that it's best to think of AVCHD as a wrapper, in the same way we think of .mov files, rather than a file format itself? (It had a very bad rap when it first came out in low end consumer cameras.) Let me put this as a more gear specific question: if my Canon T3i uses H.264 and the Panasonic GH2 uses AVCHD, does AVCHD allow superior recording? This going back to the origin of the thread.

Both cameras use the same compression. AVCHD

As does the Canon D5 MII, recording .mov files but apparently records in in a maximum frame size of 1920x1080 and at 1080p. Nice animal. Now I get the original meaning of the post, having decoded it from Hellenic Geek to normal brain understand can speak.

The Canon 5D Mll is nice and so is the price. Your T3i can record 60p only in 1280x720 but it can outputted as 1920x1080p in your software. Of course there is allot the 5D can do over the T3i but I can think of better things to do than spending the money on a another camera.