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Panasonic GH2 hacked Moon Trial 5 hack, shot in 1080p HBR mode 25 fps (~ 60Mbps) Standard profile -2-2-2-2 Panasonic 14-42mm kitlens, OIS on. Looks like there are some dropped frames in the GH2 footage, did use a Sandisk 95MB/s card though... Panasonic G6 AVCHD 1080p 25 fps (24Mbps) Standard profile -5-5-5-5 Panasonic 14-42mm kitlens, OIS on. Everything shot with the same fixed white balance at 1/50s, various apertures but same on both camera's at all times. My first impressions: The G6 looks better to me. Better shadow detail and a bit more detail in the highlights. Probably due to flatter picture. The G6 shares the picture styles with the GH3, so no smooth like on the GH2. Kept both camera's on standard to keep it as close as possible. Everything dialed down maximum. Less noise at high iso's, less banding. Couldn't detect any moire. Looks a tad less sharp than (hacked) GH2, but that could be up to the sharpening at -5. With some sharpening probably same detail level. Rolling shutter looks the same to me. Although the G6 is a bit smaller I actually prefer the grip to the GH2. It holds very nicely. The lcd is much much better. The color cast on the GH2 screen is horrible. The G6 looks pretty natural and true to the output. Funny thing: the viewfinder looks quite smaller to me.

https://vimeo.com/65329731#at=0   Not precisely the same, of course, but much much less expensive.

Does the magnified focus assist still work when a monitor is plugged in via HDMI? That was a big problem with the GH2.

Zach, why not get the VAF adapter for 365 problem solved?

  Not true.  Century Optics and LA7200, the later of which being adaptable to wider focal lengths than 85mm with the 5D sensor.

Amen Chrad. I find myself sometimes becoming a shopping bitch and worrying more about which glass to buy or what gear to get next instead of what i shoot next. Gear is only there to support the content. If there is no good content, all gear is useless.   if you got good content, need a certain gear to make a certain shot possible and you can afford it, go for it by all means. Always use the best gear you can get and then forget about it and just see it as a tool.   the gh2 is the best in its priceclass but also has its of limitations (banding, DR, rolling shutter like all dslrs, and i dont like the dark objects on it in lower (but not dark light) although its possible to denoise it well), still i dont see why a good filmmaker should not make a good movie on it.   For my purposes it has always been more than enough. When i was making things for television i always had professionals working the camera (non dslr stuff) and editing the footage with me while i focused on the content and how i wanted things to look. Sometimes i brought it with me as a static-cam to film stuff from weird perspectives and angles. the material could always be intercut with the stuff that cameras did which cost 20 times as much.   Regarding your questions: so far there is no hack for the gh3. as far as i have heard, some people are not too happy about the options (all-i has a too small bitrate etc). so i would wait and see if it ever gets hacked. i would also wait for blackmagic before i get the mkiii.   One thing that just popped in my mind: you said you just film stuff around you, which means you will also carry the stuff. when i do the same thing, i always carry around 6 lenses etc etc. the 5d and EF glass is most of the time heavier than a gh2, plus the gh2 has a decent stealth factor, people dont expect you to film with that tiny beast.   As mentioned before, if you dont film for the big screen the sharpened 5d footage is all fine. if you really blow it up though, it looses its appeal in my opinion. I use plenty of old legacy glass on the gh2 and a hack which focuses on gradations (intravenus or valkyrie) and i would not call sharpness an issue, the old glass is way smoother than most lumix lenses.   regarding whether its clever to invest in EF or m43 or nikon glass: only time will tell :)

Well said.   On the previous page I brought up Upstream Color. The important thing regarding that film is not whether it looks plastic or camcorder-y, it's that it was taken seriously at Sundance, was well reviewed and received international distribution deals. The director didn't publicise the use of the GH2 and didn't want it overly publicised so as not to distract attention from the qualities of the film. The write-ups I read didn't go out of their way to criticise the cinematography, and in fact several of them praised it. All of this from a film shot with a consumer stills camera. It makes the excuses a lot of people create that they're waiting for the right equipment to match their vision look very weak.   I'm not saying that equipment doesn't matter. I think the aesthetic qualities of a work are very important. I don't believe you should force a  video medium onto a filmmaker that is unhappy with it any more than I think you should force an oil painter to use watercolours. But all that said, the effect you can have on an audience with less desirable equipment can't be denied. Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE is another film shot on fuzzy, low res digital video. The 480p image looked soft and blurry on a 35mm blow up, and the dynamic range there is nothing to write home about. But even so, in its way, it's aesthetically gorgeous, and it's a beautiful, haunting work as a whole. Just recently I watched a great Chilean film, No. Shot on VHS! In 4X3 glory! And yet still more engaging and interesting than most films I've watched in cinemas over the past year.   As great as it is to have unrestricted freedom, there is also value in working within limitations. A resilient artist can make the most of what is available to them and thrive even with obstacles in their way. Von Trier's The Five Obstructions is a good film on this subject. Had the Taxi Driver themed sequel not fallen apart in the wake of the Cannes Nazi comment controversy, I imagine one of the challenges would be for Scorsese to remake a scene from the film on an iPhone or some similarly limited video device, and I'm sure Scorsese would knock it out of the park.   Another note: everyone seems to be longing for a device that looks as much like film as possible. I think Blackmagic has the most conventionally pleasing look of any consumer or prosumer camera on the market. I adore the look. It's closer to the characteristics of film than other consumer cameras, mostly because of the lack of digital artefacts and the very wide dynamic range, but it has its own visual signature. It looks like Blackmagic footage. Only film truly looks like film.  I think film(video?)makers can free themselves with this philosophy. You are not shooting with film, so it's okay to make something that looks like video. We all aspire to recreate the gorgeous looking films we were brought up on, but there's nothing wrong with loosening up and going for a less 'perfect' look sometimes. In the case of 'No', VHS was the right aesthetic. it's a good fit for a story about television in the 80s, and it does not end up detracting from the warmth and power of the 'film'.   1. Well, it depends how good you are. You can make the footage much flatter than the GH2, and it's pretty nice to grade.  2. Better than anything else in the price range, bar the 5D3 or Blackmagic Cinema Camera. It's no FS100 or C300, but it gets the job done. 3. I don't have one, but the answer seems to be 'no'.     To an extent, but when you see footage out of the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera you understand. It's like IMAX compared to DSLR video. The test Andrew did a few months ago really proves the point. https://vimeo.com/63131168 I'm not too worried about this because of the imminent BMD M43 cameras. I think the Pocket Cam and BMD M43 are going to be competitive for many years to come. I'm not too worried about 4K right now, given that nearly all cinema releases are 2K and all TV broadcasts are 720P.

I have high hopes for this camera too. I can't wait to dump my GH2s. Hacks are only good for the most extreme detail. But in reality, there's way less banding and better noise with the G6. And I hope I won't have to use the most expensive Sandisk cards and I can go back to using 32GB cards.

I did read your post, my point was just that some of the GH2 footage that Panasonic uploaded looked quite soft, which points to the fault being on their end. Granted, the GH2 with 12-35 f/2.8 video I posted is a bit sharper than the G6 demo, but barely.   I shouldn't have been such a smartass about it, sorry about that.

This is great news. It appears that the G6 possibly performs even better than the GH2! (contrary to what earlier videos showed). I took both cityscape screenshots and put them together for detail comparison. I sharpened the G6 one a tiny little bit to match the GH2 (which brought up a little artifacting), as well as touching levels a little. GH2 on the left, G6 on the right. Hope is back.

I have this same lens, and JohnBarlow is correct. Depending on the taking lens and distance to the subject, the Kowa can vary from 2X to 1.5X squeeze. That's why when I film people I always crop to 2.40. That way, I can vary the stretch down from 2X if need be.

Thanks for watching!   I tend to shoot with what are refered to as the "broken ISO's" in low light. For example 160,320,640 etc. I find that you get less noise on the 5D II this way. I did do a bit of noise reduction and levels boosting in After Effects on some shots though. But shooting at 640 ISO it wasnt really too bad. As for the deep depth of field shots; these were created by increasing the distance between the camera and subject rather than stopping the lens down too much. (therefore not having to ramp the ISO up too high) I cant remember the exact settings but I would guess around f2.8 maybe f3.2 at a push.   You will get vignetting using this set-up, it becomes more noticable the more you stop the lens down. I found better results (much less vignetting) using my Kowa 8Z with the Jupiter. Wide open on the Sankor its not too bad, but anything past f8 ish and its pretty unusable.

The ISO3200 example is sorta academic, to me. I'd rather see more realistic comparisons at something like 640/800 where too much above that you're pretty much in a horrible lighting situation and just hoping you get an image you can use and then it becomes a contest of "which camera would I rather have when I'm not lighting anything and my light is shit?", more or less. Some differences between the ISO160 examples could also come from the Standard profile reportedly not giving a correct exposure for medium gray on the GH2. According to Shian Storm (ColorGHear) and his tests with scopes and handheld light meter (unconfirmed yet myself) only Nostalgia measures medium gray exposure @ 50% and the others are closer to 40%. Perhaps they fixed this anomaly in the G6?

I shot hacked with Moon Trial 5 at HBR (60Mbps). Might do more tests later. But it already looks pretty good for the G6 I think, so if I don't have to 'unhack' my GH2 I might keep it this way. On the other hand, I should try some more/other hacks.. so If I find the time :) I'm planning on making some screendumbs so you can see the actual quality, the youtube compression is pretty harsh. Don't have time now, but here are some examples (make sure you see the full res 1080p image). G6 on top, GH2 below. ISO 3200 and 160. No tripod, so not a perfect test.

The red lenses look like normal spherical lenses to me, you don't need them. You need a way to fix the golden lens to your taking lens on the 5D Mark III (probably you need at least 80mm to avoid black corners).   I have one of those big gold ISCO's, the quality is great, but it's a huge beast...   Here is a topic on those lenses: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/972-isco-anamorphic-projection-lenses/   Some still images I shot with it (really sharp!) on a Panasonic GF3 and 45mm Minolta (90mm equivalent) http://www.eoshd.com/comments/gallery/album/8-isco-ultrastar-gf3-minolta-md-45mm-f2/   You can use the Velbon SPT-1 to make an anamorphic rig. Also you need a tripod collar. You can buy a genuine one for the Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro on eBay from China for like $5, it fits on my Isco and it looks pretty much the same.   With the Velbon and tripod collar you get this: