Axel

To cover many situations, you should have a wide angle lens, a standard lens and a tele lens. The 14-40 is all of them (the 40 mm can be extended x 2.6 in 1080 and by x 3.8 in 720). So the kit lens is not bad for the price. But it is slow, and the images are not very cinematic. Here, the SLR magic 12mm and the Voigtlander 25 mm were a great addition, both to be operated strictly manually. I had the LCW ND fader and changed to the Heliopan. Both can be recommended. The best of course is a mattebox, but it makes everything more bulky. I have the cokin sunshade and filtertray with ND filters. Cheap, lightweight, not designed to impress. It was used on [i]Musgo[/i], and it works. [img]https://43q37q.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pK9UGzR_tFLHIy8C5cjk-txiK094v2-sLv4Iw5GHjokwQcCiFchCaIdT05WQpW6P5Gqb799UYOj98i2_zU03Ln_-ziE93Jeh2/Bild2.png[/img] [size=2]Screenshot of making of - clip of Musgo, with Cokin filterholder attached.[/size]

On the Pana site they advertise 'accurate white balance and faithful color reproduction through Life TTL direct metering', but not as a *NEW* feature. What I found out using iA-mode with the GH2 is that AWB changes color temperature dynamically during recording, so that you pan from the yellow wall to the window with the overcast sky in the background and you will see an ugly dissolve from a cold light to a warm light. I also foolishly used iA once in a night club with a lot of colored lights. Automatic modes are simply dumb. [color=#222222][font=Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(255, 255, 255)][quote name='zephyrnoid' timestamp='1348429365' post='18961']What I have no dubbed "Nato Orange Cast" is not an overall cast so if you WB on a pure white card ( i never do BTW) it will not solve this particular problem.[/quote] A pure white card mostly clips at least one color (the warning 'image too bright' isn't always reliable), so you should better use a neutral grey card. Or, best, use a lens cap with a convex diffusor (not the cheap chinese ones). But the most important thing is to [u]fix[/u] the WB on a setting that fits generally. So either you repeat the measuring [u]for every shot[/u] or you simply choose the tungsten symbol or whatever. Just stay away from AWB![/background][/size][/font][/color] [color=#222222][font=Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(255, 255, 255)]The skin tones of Pocahontas looked as good if not better than those with an EOS, and that's a progress. Unpleasing skin tones were one of the problems of GH2.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

Owner of the 7D, I advise you not to use 720p at all. Use 1080@24p only. Shoot with the shortest shutter speed to eliminate motion blur - as best as you can (Twixtor motion blur cannot be rendered convincingly out of existing motion blur, there will be a jelly-effect, also, the powder will only look brilliant with sharp particles, you probably will have to apply sharpening in post). Use *lights* to get proper exposure. Lowest Iso. Close the aperture enough to get the whole brushes completely sharp, blur only the background. Make test shots to see how Twixtor handles dust clouds and the elasticity of the hairs as the brushes touch ground.

[quote name='EOSHD' timestamp='1348342245' post='18922']The skin tones on the juggler's face issue - one is clearly awful and the other much better - any idea what causes that? [/quote] ??? You can't be serious, look at your own video! The skin reflects a multitude of colored lights, from the blueish background to the green and red LEDs at the bar, reflections of the bottles and everything. I don't know how much color correction you applied, but overall the colors of this camera are the most convincing point so far. For me.

There is no multiple choice. I wrote: No more banding, but actually I want it all. My sign is that of the tyrannosaurus rex, the mythic animal that stands for modesty.

[quote name='Chrad' timestamp='1348067916' post='18597']Might as well go shoot the best story in the world on an iPad. Not much post flexibility...but the lack of options will free you up creatively! [/quote] Just wait, until all the awfully degraded BMCC shots will be on vimeo. No doubt all the other hobby colorists will join with their 'likes'. If just [i]one[/i] good story that needed raw grading will be among them (not just attention-hungry demo shots from amateurs who need to show off their unique feature), you won the bet ...

[quote name='Steven Phipps' timestamp='1348064618' post='18585'] Correct me if im wrong, the pyramid there in front of the louvre, isnt that about the most prone to aliasing structure on earth? I ve never had the best eye for this sort of thing, but I dont see any. [/quote] Every shot where the pyramid is in focus has no pan. [quote name='QuickHitRecord' timestamp='1348066996' post='18595'] This is the softest footage I have seen from the GH3 yet. [/quote] Maybe related to Voigtländer. I prefer softness. The clip is neither convincing nor disappointing.

Nikon D600: + video looks good so far + reasonable price + many lenses to choose from + better photos - the mirror. I like to have an EVF, so a Zacuto or something would have to be added, more expensive, more heavy, not really run&gun - until now, there always was heavy aliasing with the Nikon VDSLRs, maybe fixed to some extend - until now, the ISO problems of the Nikons were a no-go BMCC + you know - a much higher price, if you take into account all the rig stuff that needs to be added - incredibly cumbersome. Not a working camera at all, just a dumb brick with some opportunities - raw. Raw is the easiest thing to implement in a camera, because it spares the manufactorers the need for an intelligent processor. The client is left with the task to develop some acceptable image (with the aid of DaVinci) and is lured into the delusion that his grading skills will top those of the top engineers. It sounds promising for people who believe that by being more flexible in grading they will get a special kick. For those who believe that the aesthetics of an image should be secondary to the need of the story, this sounds not so promising. GH3 - almost 5D in size - a lot of foul compromises (although multi aspect functionality of the sensor may be added by later FW) + for the MFT community only: If you already own the lenses ... Sigh.

Remember that, properly lit, one seldom had any banding issues with the GH2. The Bloom film [i]was[/i] properly lit. After reading [url="http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gh3/still_image_quality.html"]this[/url] (scroll down a bit), it seems this thing is not yet in the can with the ominous 'HDR'. Looks as if it is a feature for stills only, and the iPhone 4 has a similar function (it differs from HDR developing in Photoshop insofar as it [i]may[/i] be also possible for moving objects or handheld camera, if not, if I have to use a tripod for landscapes or the like, I do much better with the GH2's auto bracket and [i]seven[/i] 'consecutive' photos!). Also, the clip with the cat on the chair didn't look as if it had HDR, it looked definitely LDR. After all the minor and major disappointments, that we work hard to get used to, this would for me be the last straw. Still banding? OMG.

[quote name='AaronChicago' timestamp='1347992108' post='18472'] This is hilariously awkward. Watch from 0:55. No applause, dead silence. [url="https://vimeo.com/49672830#"]https://vimeo.com/49672830#[/url] [/quote] I was present backstage at a lot of such events. The presentation is worse than that of a new frying pan at a shopping mall. My English is not very good, but this comedian's English actually sounds as if he didn't know half the words he stutters by meaning. I don't get it. It's a billion dollar enterprise, they have made an amateurish promotion video, they prepared a very embarrassing show that could only have been rehearsed before anxious employees. An orgy of dilettantism! They should have studied Apple keynotes. [i]The only one who could ever teach me was the son of a preacherman[/i]. Did you hear Disney's true story about [i]The Lion King[/i]? All the original drafts showed lions in the jungle (that's why some parts still take place in the jungle to include the characters). Half year into the ongoing production a new minor employee joined the team. He said, hey guys, as far as I know, lions live in the savanna, never in the jungle. There were eighty people involved. Heads rolled. What's the moral of this?

[quote name='EOSHD' timestamp='1347992329' post='18473'][color=#333333][font=Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][size=3]There’s very minor moire and aliasing present in this early hardware. Whilst the GH2 rendered sloping horizontals and fine patterns extremely cleanly with no shimmering, the GH3 I used had a touch of aliasing and in some cases even a bit of moire on a stripy shirt viewed from a distance. VERY minor, but like the OM-D E-M5 it was there, at this early stage. Hopefully this will be fixed for the final hardware / software revision in November but it is a very minor thing and I feel the benefits of the better all-round sensor outweigh this drawback. This issue however for now goes top of my list of things to fix along with the introduction of peaking.[/size][/font][/color] [/quote] Okay, so we have to look for more moire. Hope it's going to be solved. One more thing, whilst you are there: Please ask them, if there will be a rubber eyecap for the GH3, included or as an extra. As banal as it sounds, it is almost more important (at least for me) than peaking. In bright daylight, if I use the viewfinder, I want to concentrate on the image without hurting my brows. It is also more comfortable handheld.

:) ;) :P Funny, well filmed and edited (as well as choreographed, dressed and set dressed, location scouted, played, danced). The lighting could have been more soft, more retro, more glamourous (difficult though with no-nonsense Litepanels. These things were done with tungsten fresnels from far!). Or the grading. Or both.

Okay, I liked it, but because I liked it, make a tart from the chocolate and serve it to your guests when you win.

[quote name='theSUBVERSIVEBIRDS' timestamp='1347917625' post='18391'] It's interesting that it doesn't matter if it's 24p, 50p, whatever, in All-I it will always be 72Mbps and in IPB it will always be 50Mbps. Doesn't it mean that at 24p you will always get less compression? [/quote] For All-I, if the bitrate really stays the same. For IBP only marginally, because when you, say, double the framerate per second from 25 to 50 (Europe for example), you would for the sake of efficiency use relatively longer GOPs, and no one found a quality loss, because you put the same amount of data within the same time span. Of course single frames, if you pause the playback, were be slightly degraded, people who want to use 50/60 fps for slomos won't like that. Typical AVCHD- Camcorder have 24 mbps for 24/25p and 28 mbps for 50/60p, the latter often described as 'better quality' but also as too clean and videoish.

@Per Lichtman Flawless. Unfortunately, a used GH2, before on ebay for an average of 500€, will now drop in price. So to the questions if the GH3 is a worthy heir, when it will be delivered and all that comes a new dilemma: Both?

[quote name='marino mannarini' timestamp='1347899146' post='18367'] @Axel: What do you mean that GH2 has focus peaking?? [/quote] Before FW1.1 came out, the boss of the development department at Pana asked users to send their wishes. Mine was. among others, peaking. They answered, yes, we could color the sharpened outliness (looks like aliasing sometimes on moire-typical structures). But they didn't. However, if you know it's there, you see it the moment your motif turns sharp. Very useful.

Peaking: You are all wrong. Even the GH2 has peaking and I hope it will still be implemented in the GH3. I am used to it, and I can focus intuitively and without pumping back and forth. It is not colored, that's what you probably mean, and better so, because I find red peaking distracting. Check your viewfinder and your display, it can't be deactivated. The rest: Let's just wait a few days, and we will see ...

YES! CINEMA! ALMOST SOLD! Thank you so much, PB. Sexist? How prude. American?

Don't be sad. You are good at what you do. No pain, no gain, if this idiom fits ...

[quote name='KarimNassar' timestamp='1347686065' post='18087'] And although 10bit is much welcome straight out of camera for grading flexibility, isn't the flashing macro blocking noise the most visible downside of the current gh2 image quality? [/quote] With my half knowledge I understand the term macro blocking as the 'big square pixel clouds' I see in big, darker areas. Correct me. It is probably not noise, but simplifying gradients, and therefore has the same origins as banding. Does it disappear at higher bitrates? [quote name='theSUBVERSIVEBIRDS' timestamp='1347686544' post='18088'] What about the Engine? My dream was Panny's video with Oly's pics, can the new Venus Engine get anything close to what Olympus does? I have to say that even considering all the compression in the video and all that bla bla bla, the pics that were taken with the GH3 in the promo didn't really impress me as much as I wanted. But let's wait until the first shots and previews. [/quote] In my view, the D600 video was better not only for the images. It had a little 'story'. It was filmed and edited better. Why did Pana allow the distorted wide angle shots, the shaky handheld shots asf. in their promotional video? These videos tell more about the skills of the filmmakers than about the quality of the camera. In the screening room here one sees much better clips with the GH2 (and many other cameras), and probably almost every mobile phone can be promoted better. Did you see [url="http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/6/3297878/nokias-pureview-still-photos-also-include-fakes"]this[/url]?

[quote name='HurtinMinorKey' timestamp='1347658605' post='18066']The bottom line is that 4:2:0 throws away color information, so it will certainly affect grading. [/quote] Yes. So what? 4:2:0 equals roughly the spreading ratio of cone cells on the retina, which are sensitive only for a color each ('RGB'). The brain combines their signals to form the [i]sharp[/i] image in the center of our field of vision (the borders are blurred like a shallow DoF vignette, and are much less saturated, since outside the fovea the B&W rod cells predominate), interpolating much more color information than any video compression. If our own vision is hardly more than a roughly colored B&W image, how can 4:2:0 make such a big difference? In secondary color corrections, you often feather the masks quite liberally without any problems. We simply have no senses for color resolution.

[quote name='ipcmlr' timestamp='1347655424' post='18055'] But is it 4:2:2? [/quote] I am not so sure what you expect of 4:2:2. You won't [u]see[/u] any difference compared to 4:2:0. It is color resolution actually. 4:2:0 is a compression factor that uses the [u]inability[/u] of the human eye to distinguish colors with the same accuracy as subtle brightness changes. It can't be downsampled well for different TV resolutions (SD, HDready, FullHD, interlace, progressive), that's why the broadcasters officially don't support it. There was a myth that you couldn't color-key with it. Now look at all the greenscreen videos shot with DSLRs. 10-bit is different. It is more related to the dynamic range. 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256 describe the stops an 8-bit video can store. Every time the luminance doubles is one stop, makes 9 stops ideally. Due to the limitations of electronic signals, the range is mostly between 16 and 235, between 4 and 5 stops. HDR 8-bit means scaling the values through a curve, remapping them. But then, of course, the whole image is just flatted down, gradients that should have at least 30 steps to appear smooth get only 10, and banding occurs. Let's assume the GH2 could hold 8 stops by various tricks. If the GH3 has considerably better dynamic range, say 10 stops, how can they be stored in 8-bit, when 10-bit can only store 11? It's easy to see a difference between 8-bit and 10-bit - on a 10-bit monitor. Alas, Panasonic may rightly suppose that most GH3 buyers don't own a 10-bit monitor. So perhaps the banding issue may not be solved. [quote name='Dr. John R. Brinkley' timestamp='1347655626' post='18056'] I don't want to judge too much from that vimeo video...but the video they showed, in my opinion, lacked warmth and resolution. Still, I'm very curious to see a real review by Andrew. [/quote] Agreed.

I like this very much. Really enjoyable! Be careful! Never aim your camera at a laser. Never seen one of the hundreds of youtube clips 'a laser destroyed my sensor'? At least never shoot into the bright centers.

BTW: Funny, how such first impressions are shot in similar places: [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57198583/%3F%3F%3F.jpg[/img]From the D600 video. Better. Not?

[quote name='Max' timestamp='1347649608' post='18039'] [b]Panasonic AVC-Intra 100[/b][color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3]:[/size][/font][/color] nominally 100 Mbit/s, [color=#B22222]size of each frame is fixed[/color][color=#006400] (so its 150kbyte per frame@60p)[/color][/quote] Yes. So much about the file size. It is not comparable to a simple jpeg with the same size. It doesn't mean the same image quality. I don't pretend to understand how the compression works, but I was told not to worry by a friend of mine who is a broadcast engineer. I don't think he is wrong. AVI-Intra is an old method, algorithms have developed since. I suggest we just wait. In the promotion video there are two things that make me worry though: Is 'HDR' for stills only? And: They show a camera mounted on a car rig. The shots (probably from the GH3?) showing the driver are very short, as if they were cut in a way as not to betray any RS issues. They could have made them longer to show that the sensor now handles these things better.