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Kudos Caleb!  Very nice and this is the reason I love the anamorphic look.  I bet it was hard to try and follow your dog!  I can't even imagine walking around unless you have one of those baby hypergonars or whatnot.  Overall I really like the atmosphere!

Yeah there are maybe 5 reputable camera dealers in Hawaii, the rest are more like pawn shops.  Nobody has any real stock unless it's Canon.  And anything anamorphic?  Forget it.  These days everything I order is online, and fleabay is the only real resource for me.  I agree with Rudolf and Tony, some of the "deals" are so shady.  I really hate to work with fleabay, but not much alternatives for me.  Don't get me wrong, I'll pay $3-4K for a good ISCO, in fact I almost bought an ISCO36 two months ago until the seller backed out.  But it's just getting crazy how much these B grade or worse lenses are selling for...

Tony I know but it's hard to find deals since all anamorphics are going for ridiculous prices.  I can't find anything locally, wish I could.  I've been lucky with the Sankor and Eiki that I have, got both of them at really low prices.  But now everyone is after Moller and Bolex.  Even ISCOs were going for less than $2K last year, now almost $4K?  I think people have more money than common sense...

Yes noise in the image/video.  By using a smaller portion of the sensor, you increase the signal/noise ratio immensely, like 4-5 times.  Also, the image you see on the screen looks like a bad digital zoom, so focus is difficult.  This goes away when you hit record, but if you try and pre-focus, well it is difficult.  I usually do my best before, then fine tune after hitting record.  I guess you don't have the GH3 yet, but when you do you will understand.  Not a deal-breaker, but just something you get used to.  And this is the same with the GH2.

  I tell you these ebay prices are just ridiculous!  There's even an Isco with haze/fungus selling for $3500!  Cmon people, these lenses shouldn't cost this much.  I'm glad I got my Sankor, thing is sharp and smooth focus.  Sure dual focus is a huge pain, but the images are well worth it.  I'm just amazed at these prices...

Yes E-M5 is best for stills.  My friend is a stills guy, so he has the E-M5.  Just awesome photos.  I'm video, so I have the GH3.

Will it resolve an HD image?  Any lens will resolve no problem.  The problem is the vignette since the lens may not cover the sensor, even with ETC mode.  You can't use the wide end, but maybe mid-range to long tele will be OK.  More a concern is the extra noise you get with EX Tele mode.  And forget about high ISOs, you might get away with ISO 1600 but be prepared to use heavy noise reduction (and not in camera if you can help it).

Olympus lenses work on Panasonic mirrorless, and vice versa.  AF works better for each maker, in other words Olympus 17mm on an Olympus E-M5.  Both cameras do AF in video, but the GH3 has much better video modes.  Olympus is stuck at 30P, GH3 can do 24P, 30P and 60P.  Might not matter if you only do web videos, then either works.  E-M5 is more a stills camera, GH3 is more video.  I suggest trying them both to see which one you like.  They are both in the same price range.

Any mode that does 50P or 60P is not usable with EX Tele mode.  This is 1080P or 720P.  Slow motion (in camera) modes are also disabled with EX Tele mode.  FHD is quicktime MOV mode, HD is AVCHD.  If you're going to use your Fujinon lens, then you will need to do EX Tele mode because of the vignette.  But remember that focus is an issue as well as the increased noise.

Just did some lens tests with the GH3 vs GH2 w/ Flow Motion v2.02 hack.  Information below:   GH2 vs GH3 Night Lens Test Panasonic GH2 w/ Flow Motion v2.02 Hack, Vivid -2,-2,-2,-2 Panasonic GH3, Vivid -3,-5,-4,-5 Lenses used: Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm F1.4 Canon FD 50mm F1.2L Canon FD 85mm F1.2L Canon EF 100mm Macro F2.8 Perspective is different even though I used them on the same tripod.  GH2 is 1.86x sensor crop, GH3 is 2x sensor crop.   In very dark situations the GH3 is noticeably brighter, about 2/3 of a stop.  I tried to compensate by making the GH2 1 stop ISO brighter.  But by doing so makes the GH2 have more noise and have "milky" blacks.  Color correction is very difficult with the GH2 even with the hack.  The GH3 does much better in this regard, although detail might be a little lower.   http://youtu.be/KM_6ZKCFuPs   http://youtu.be/6pwNZxfa1uM   http://youtu.be/_UK0Ck7jQbM

Definitely come to Hawaii!  Wish I could go to Japan.  So much stuff to do there.  And I didn't know the difference in stills vs video.  But it looks really nice!  Keep it coming!

I really like the subway shot and the bridge bay shot.  Wow very very nice!  BTW really like your flickr name! hehehe

When I put these values in, it saves it as the custom profile.  Same with any of the other profiles.  I just chose Vivid because I wanted it to match the GH2s I shoot with.  You can go with Smooth or whatever, your choice.  As always, test it out to see if you like it.  So far I'm happy with it since I usually to multi-camera shoots.

I just have a question about using it on a GH2.  If rear thread is 24mm, what lenses can be used with it?  And I assume you have to use EX Tele mode because of vignette.  I know the look is awesome, but the range of lenses, as well as field of view, seem somewhat limited.  Just asking for some advice, I was tempted to buy it but I need to consider the practical issues shooting with it.  Thanks!

You want to see the difference between IS on and off?  Watch my video below.  All handheld, I forgot to turn IS on until 02:50 in the video.  Huge difference in performance, and my hands were shaking all over the place.  Again shot all handheld for the whole hour!  Ouch!   http://youtu.be/8Lr7Jvu009w

Finally put my GH3 through it's paces and I got my anamorphics too.  I shot the local teen group EMKE Hawaii live at Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu's 25th Anniversary celebration.  But to shoot all anamorphic, well you can call me crazy I guess.  Shooting dual focus is no joke, and I really had to change my thinking in terms of zooming and framing.  The videos below are from the middle of the set when I finally got a hang of it.  Well sort of, some shots are still soft.  I can say that I'm happy with the performance of the Sankor and Eiki 16D (pretty much the same lens).  Both are sharp if focused correctly.  The LA7200 I could never get good results past 50mm, so I just use it wide angle, in this case 17mm.  Overall the GH3 works very well, and I think I have a good combination here.   Wide Angle Shot - Panasonic GH2 w/ Flow Motion v2.02 hack, Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens @ 17mm, Panasonic LA7200 Anamorphic lens, ISO 1250, F4.5, 1/80sec, Vivid (-2,-2,-2,-2)   Medium Shot - Panasonic GH2 w/ Flow Motion v2.02 hack, Canon FD 50mm F1.2L, Eiki 16D Anamorphic lens, ISO 1250, F4.5, 1/80sec, Vivid (-2,-2,-2,-2)   Medium/Close-up Shot - Panasonic GH3, 24P 72mbit MOV, Panasonic 45-200mm lens, Sankor 16D Anamorphic lens, ISO 1250, F4.5-5.6 (zoomed), 1/80sec, Vivid (-3,-5,-4,-5)   http://youtu.be/N2RsGEoWtkM   Edit: Sorry forgot to add that the LA7200 is 1.33x, the Sankor/Eiki are 2x anamorphics.  So I cropped the Sankor/Eiki to fit into a 2.35:1 space.  Sorry no super-wide look, I needed it to match the LA7200.

So far I've gone to -3 contrast, -5 sharpness, -4 saturation and -5 noise reduction.  That might seem extreme, but after shooting ISO 1250 and 1600, I can use Neat Video to remove a lot of unwanted noise and get fairly clean footage.  Or course you should try it out yourself and see how much you have to work the video.  I'm only using fast color corrector in Premiere CS5.5, but I just add a little saturation here or there, and if I need to a little sharpening.  But the most improvement is noise characteristics.  Default settings produced some real crap, but being able to dial it down has helped significantly.  Feels very much like a hack for the GH2, even the Flow Motion (although I find the Flow Motion hack has more detail for very high ISOs, 3200+).  As for the profile, I still use Vivid although you can go very flat with some of the others.  Good luck!

Working with the mosquito noise of the 5dmkIII just drives me batty.  After going with the GH2 w/ Flow Motion Hack, it's very hard to go back to the 5dmkIII.  Sure you get nice images, but the GH2 and GH3 are just so much better for video.  I've pretty much retired my 5dmkIII to photos only.  And forget about shooting ISO 6400 or worse.  Unless you want to be showcasing some night owls or something, practically it's useless.

That is some amazing footage you have.  What taking lenses did you use?  Some of that stuff, especially some of the sunset shots and in-car shots, just really nice.

I like the first video a lot.  Reminds me of some 70's movies.  Lots of character, I really like your combo.  I hope you can do a few more like this.  Maybe Times Square or Rockefeller Center?

I like this!  Very atmospheric, must have had the fog rolling in.  I wonder, I see the lights way far away as ovals, but the streetlamps and headlights are all circular.  Is it a 2x or 1.5x?  I would think all the lights would be ovals.  Anyway, great footage!

I second the Satchler ACE.  I love this tripod, light and easy to carry, stable and solid for the price.  I've used Manfrotto and it's crap - broke mine on my 3rd shoot.  If you go into the $1K range, Vinten, Satchler, and Miller are all very solid choices.  Read the reviews, watch reviews on youtube, but for the money the ACE is very good.

I like The Tourist.  Shot anamorphic too!

It's annoying but workable.  For me shooting live events, I need to know where the focus area is.  That also disappears, so either I press Display or change focus.  So far I'll have to just deal with it.  Worse thing is EX Tele mode only works on certain lenses.  My 14-140 will not work with EX Tele mode, something that really pisses me off.

I always use Sandisk.  But I have both Extreme Red Cards (45mb/s) and Extreme Pro Gold Cards (95mb/s).  Both work very well.  And unlike using a GH2 with any hack, no crashes or problems.  I think you could use any SD card at least with 45mb/s speed.