jonpais

Re: the supposedly over-processed, over-sharpened images of the GH* cameras. What I am seeing in Wex Photographic's marvelous Slovenia video are incredibly subtle color, dreamy out-of-focus rendition, well-controlled highlight roll off and squeaky-clean high ISO performance. Most likely posted before, but worth watching again. And again.

I don’t spend hours each day trolling Blackmagic, Fuji, Sony, Olympus and Canon threads. Not sure why anyone would keep repeating over and over again in every Panasonic thread how great Canon is, and that they’d get a C200 if they could. We get it already.

FWIW, Mystery Box never questions claims of 14 stops of dynamic range. Though, like I said before, I could care less about specs. Mystery Box produce some dazzling HDR content: they’ve got both technical chops and, from time to time, they produce some virtuosic camerawork. But I don’t need to take their word for it - for one thing, I already own the GH5. For another, Wex Photographic’s ‘Slovenia’. Oh, and $2,500.00 USD is not overpriced for a camera of this calibre. Unless you’re still only charging $200 for a wedding!

Some notes from Mystery Box on dual ISO, the importance of getting white balance correct in camera and how to get the greatest dynamic range when shooting V-Log for HDR delivery: ISO & Dynamic Range Note The camera has two native ISOs: 400 and 2500. Plan on filming using one of these two ISOs, as they offer the greatest dynamic range. The camera works by rating the sensor at one of these two ISOs and then virtually adjusting the ISO to your selected ISO. When possible, the camera selects a native ISO greater than the selected ISO, i.e. ISO 400 for ISO ranges 160-400, and ISO 2500 for all ISOs greater than 500. For instance, if you select an ISO of 800, the camera operates internally at 2500, and selects for the brighter portions of the range for a dynamic range loss of 1.64 stops, lowering your clipping white point. When selecting an ISO of 5000, the camera again operates internally at ISO 2500, and selects for the darker portions of the range, resulting in a dynamic range loss of 1 stop, and increasing the signal to noise ratio. You can calculate the dynamic range loss with the following two equations. Notice the applicable ISO ranges. Rated ISO is lower than the native ISO (ISO 160-320, 500-2000): Stops of dynamic range lost = (LOG (Native ISO [400 or 2500] / Selected ISO)) / LOG 2 Rated ISO is greater than the native ISO (ISO 3200-51200): Stops of dynamic range lost = (LOG (Selected ISO / Native ISO [2500])) / LOG 2 When the selected ISO is greater than native ISO, stops lost can be converted into an equivalent decrease in the signal to noise ratio, where each 1 stop equates to a -6dB loss in SNR. When shooting for HDR10, you want the camera to capture as much of the available dynamic range as it can for you to work with later in post-production. As a result, plan on rating the sensor at either ISO 400 or 2500. White Balance Note It’s essential that you capture the image with as close to perfect white balance as you can. While there are small corrections you can apply in post production, improper white balance usually results in a 1-2 stop loss of dynamic range and a compression of the available colors. Source

Robin Wong, Ming Thien, lenstip and just about everyone else agrees that the 12-100 is an awesome instrument. Right, no correction for aberrations, no dual IBIS, and AF performance will probably take a hit on a Panasonic body too. Color rendition will also differ from Panasonic and Leica if that’s important to you. All my recent frame grabs have been with the Oly 75mm: it remains one of my very favorites, and with AF-S on the GH5, it is usually spot on. It’s also wonderfully compact. The 12-100 is going to be a little beast on a u4/3 body. If you had to choose only one lens the 12-100 might be the one to go for; and with the low light capability of the GH5s, f/4 may be sufficient for some photographers; but I don’t think I could ever accept not having creative control over depth of field, especially at the wide end.

It does, but you’ll have to choose one or the other. ?

Now, Nocticron, V-Log, ISO 400, shot just weeks before with the GH5. Dramatic difference!

It's a common complaint. The Titan is miles ahead of the rest.

Wex Photographic's lovely Slovenia and Bernard Bertrand's boxer video above are pretty impressive; and I've no doubt the color science has improved, as it has with each subsequent release. I'll be going out on another shoot tomorrow evening with the GH5 and Zhiyun Crane, and I can rest assured the images will be more than steady enough to use without any post-stabilization. I could dig some of that GH5s low light goodness myself, but if I were to use it on tomorrow's shoot, all the clips would have to be warp stabilized. I shake a lot, there's no getting around it. Speaking of low light ability, although the boxer video was shot at ISO 3200-6400, in reality, it's probably closer to 1600-3200, as Panasonic regularly overstates their ISOs. In fact, there are over half a dozen different ways manufacturers can measure ISO - and no two are alike. I personally won't shoot above ISO 800 with the GH5. The Nocticron M. Bertrand is using is a 42mm f/1.2, but in actuality, it's probably T1.8. None of this means squat to me - if I see a couple more videos like M. Bertrand's, I just might buy the GH5s, IBIS be damned! Of course, if you need 14 stops of dynamic range and you have superhuman powers that can detect motion cadence, I congratulate you. Because I've watched dozens of interviews with DoPs talking about everything under the sun, and not once has there ever been nonsense about motion cadence. Only in these pages! I respect your work and your opinion.

Not sure whether this has been posted before. Really like Bernard Bertrand's simple kit: Leica Nocticron, cage, Inferno, Bright Tangerine Titan Arm, light. V-Log, ISO 3200-6400. Handheld. The Titan is a bit on the expensive side, but worth every penny.

Back to your remark about the AJA Io, @Axel, I believe they start at around $2,000 USD and have tons of connectivity options, half of which I'm sure I'd never need.

And in spite of what so many here insist on - most of whom have no experience whatsoever with HDR capture (one thing at which the GH5s excels at) and delivery - is that 8-bit is wholly insufficient.

I'm not seeing this 'video' or 'over-processed' look you're referring to either, @cantsin. Skin tones are marvelous on the new GH cameras. The only limiting factors as far as I can tell from my own personal experience are as follows: lighting, white balance and color correction.

Step-by-step - how to shoot and grade GH5s HDR. https://www.mysterybox.us/blog/2018/1/8/panasonic-gh5s-hdr10 A couple of random observations: like just about every other tutorial on HDR, Mystery Box neglects to say what the options are for connecting a monitor to the computer. They also point out that correcting improper white balance in post can result in a loss of as many as two stops of dynamic range. And I found this nugget over at film convert’s blog: 5500K is the average colour temperature in Los Angeles and it was this temperature that was chosen for daylight fixtures due to Hollywood being the light manufacturers biggest market. In northern Europe, the average colour temperature of daylight is around 6500K, which is why that was chosen as the white reference point for the colour space that is defined by Rec.709, as the scientists who’s work laid the foundations for broadcast transmission were from northern Europe. source

I think it all boils down to this - the GH5s boasts cleaner low light performance and time code, but no IBIS, and 25% dearer. In no way does the GH5s make the GH5 even remotely redundant. If I need to shoot in low light (and I do all the time!), I use something called lighting. V-Log L incl. at last (!), however it arrived a little too late, as many are now migrating over to HLG as the photo style of choice. So, what would it take for me to upgrade from a camera that I’m already infatuated with? Internal NDs. 4K 10-bit 60p internal. PDAF. No more, no less.

I wouldn’t even shoot on a gimbal without IBIS. Pretty massive difference.

I hope we can discuss crop factor and equivalency for another ten pages...

GH5s - Best of CES 2018!

Good question

Sean Robinson explains all in his interview with Hugh Brownstone of Three Blind Men & an Elephant.

Yes

Sean Robinson is saying they conservatively estimate a 1-1/2 stop increase in low light performance over the GH5.

Good for you!

Luke Neumann says highlight rolloff is much better.

I haven’t watched anything yet, I’ll have to watch all these videos tomorrow, it’s 2am here. But 1st of all, the GH5 does not have 12 stops of usable DR. Secondly, they greatly overstate their ISOs compared to Sony.