GH3 with timecode, XLR, peaking, OLED viewfinder and magnesium alloy body

[Andrew Reid]

[img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/gh2-in-a-heli-rig.jpg[/img]

There's a lot to chew over in the latest GH3 specs. EOSHD takes a look point by point...

[seattledv]

Thank you for the best comprehensive preview I've seen so far. I'm looking forward to further details on some of the new features. Will the GH3 still be at 4:2:0 or perhaps 4:2:2? Will the HDMI output finally be clean? Did Vitaly have a hand in the development of the new codec? It's great to hear about having timecode as well as an XLR accessory input. It will be very interesting to see how the new camera performs. It seems like serious upgrade overall and that's all good news. It doesn't appear to be a 3 steps forward 2 steps back upgrade like has happened with many other cameras in the past. It's an exciting time with so many choices for incredible cameras.

[Xiong]

Weather sealed! Thats the biggest plus I wanted for the GH2, if true then I'll be very pleased.

[tttulio]

RIP AVCHD, you won't be missed.

[Tzedekh]

I'd like to see 10-bit 4:2:2, at least through HDMI.

[andy lee]

any idea on price yet??

[cameraboy]

looks like that panasonic decide to kill competition ....
it would not be so hard for them with all that experience in video camera design ....
probably we could expect af200 soon but with avc ultra ....

[eosjames]

Interested in the stills-capability. I know the video will be incredible.
The 'high iso-performance'....are we talking MkII or MkIII level for lowlight?
Will it be similar to OM5 for stills imagery? If so, this definitely would be dSLR of the year.

[Bruno]

If this is at or below 1500 USD, comes with 1080/60fps and performs well, I find it more appealing than the black magic camera!

[cameraboy]

i dont think its going to be more than 1100$ body...
is photo camera and not just video ...
not many photographs would pay big money for 43 camera ...
panasonic can make lot of cash by selling lens ...

[Ben Holden Sentient Cities]

I'm well pleased about focus peaking. Little bit scary pulling focus without it when you're shooting stuff intended for the big screen.

XLR accessory is a welcome surprise.

GH3 has the edge on the Black Magic for me, mainly because it means I can use m43 lenses like 25mm f0.95 lenses and f1.4 12mm

Fingers crossed for a BMCC with an m43 mount!

[FilmMan]

A poster named Matt from Nofilmschool says,

The Panasonic AVC-Ultra family defines an additional three new encoding parameters within the MPEG-4 Part 10 standard, utilizing up to the 4:4:4 Intra Predictive Profile, as well as an additional low bitrate proxy recording mode.

The most efficient new parameter within AVC-Ultra is by Panasonic called, AVC-LongG. AVC-LongG enables compression of video resolutions up to 1920 × 1080 @ 23.97, 25 and 29.97p, with 10 bits of pixel depth at 4:2:2 color sampling, at data rates as low as 25 Mbit / sec.

More over, the AVC-Intra Class 50/100 is now extended to Class 200 and Class 4:4:4. The Class 200 mode extends the bitrate to 226 Mbit / sec for 1080/23,97p, while the Class 4:4:4 extends the possible resolution from 720p to 4K with pixel depths at 10 and 12 bits.

The bitrate settings for Class 4:4:4 varies between 200 and 440 Mbit / sec depending on the resolution, frame rate and bit depth. Both the Class 200 and the Class 4:4:4 are Intra-only coding modes

The AVC-Proxy mode enables extremely fast ENG content delivery and offline edits of 720p and 1080p video at bitrates varying between 800 Kbit to 3,5 Mbit / sec at 8 bits of pixel depth.

if they really want to pack 4:2:2 10bit 1080/60p in gh3 with 80mbit/s they can do it, let´s wait and see

[Julian]

Sounds like this is going to be my new photo and video camera.. Cant wait!

[FilmMan]

[color=#ff0000][size=5][i]if they really want to pack 4:2:2 10bit 1080/60p in gh3 with 80mbit/s they can do it[/i][/size][/color]

[size=5]If this happens then BAM! [/size]

[cameraboy]

i dont think panasonic would implement avc ultra on gh3 ...
they need to left out something for big boys...
but 8 422 codec would be nice ....
and some log curve ...

[KahL]

422 and more than 10stops DR from the sensor. Beyond that, it's almost the same as the last one. Only w/ more hardware inputs, really :-/
Here's to hoping it has these features.

[RobertoSF]

Exciting news, Andrew. Any word on the GH3 having a 4:3 aspect ratio available? I would pre-order if it did.

[QuickHitRecord]

A good start. I have a lot of M43 and M43-adapted glass riding on this release.

[FilmMan]

[quote name='KahL' timestamp='1346785541' post='17317']
422 and more than 10stops DR from the sensor. Beyond that, it's almost the same as the last one. Only w/ more hardware inputs, really :-/
Here's to hoping it has these features.
[/quote]

@KahL,

Good point!

[Tzedekh]

[quote name='cameraboy' timestamp='1346784709' post='17316']
i dont think panasonic would implement avc ultra on gh3 ...
they need to left out something for big boys...[/quote]

Well, no, technically they don't. At 80 Mbps, 10-bit AVC-LongG should be able to handle at least 60p, let alone 24p. If they hobble the camera just to preserve their pro line, I hope it goes down in flames.

[quote]and some log curve ...[/quote]

Yeah, a log curve is essential. I don't understand why they're the only ones with no log curve in their AVC cameras.