The Panasonic GH3 is here

[KarimNassar]

they really put this camera together with the creatives in mind
very impressive especially at the price!
looking forward to know more

[RobertoSF]

[quote name='richg101' timestamp='1347888587' post='18334']
Spec sheet of dreams.

I been waiting for a m4/3 sensor camera to come out for use with anamorphic lenses. not gone with the gh2 yet due to expecting this to come out. The BMC is out of the question due to file sizes. this is perfect. Will an Iscorama 36 + 25mm taking lens vignette on m4/3?

Will this provide 4:3 recording at 70mbit?
[/quote]

I second the question.

Can we, finally, realize the dream of shooting something close to 2.35:1 with LOMO anamorphic lenses?

[nomadicanuk]

I finally ditched my canon gear & jumped on the panny wagon a few weeks ago.
SO stoked on adding the gh3 to the new gh2 addition!

[riccardocovino]

Sensor size is still a bit unclear to me.
Someone states it's multi apsect, someone else no.
Panasonic on previous GH put it in clear evidence as a unique feature, now.. nothing.. so I guess it's not.

[Xiong]

Looks damn good to me, everything I wanted just got better in the GH3 from GH2. Better form factor, better codec, more frame rates, better dynamic range. I cant complain when its coming out the gate swinging :D

Now all I need is a release date.

[Germy1979]

Stoked about 4:2:2 hdmi possibly, and a Log type PIcture style perhaps? I'm hearing no...

On the other hand, I find it hilarious that the camera hasn't even been officially announced 24 hours, and there's already a cat video up.

[johnnymossville]

[quote name='Germy1979' timestamp='1347896722' post='18356']
Stoked about 4:2:2 hdmi possibly, and a Log type PIcture style perhaps? I'm hearing no...

On the other hand, I find it hilarious that the camera hasn't even been officially announced 24 hours, and there's already a cat video up.
[/quote]

It hasn't arrived until the skateboarder video goes up. ;-)

[XXX]

Lowlight and DR. That´s what I´m interested in. Lighting and controlling ratios is time consuming and expensive. For documentary (style) work it is the difference between getting a shot or not getting it. Will not be of anyones concern here, but I really hope we see some more test footage dedicated to this soon...

[marcuswolschon]

[quote name='AaronChicago' timestamp='1347888098' post='18330']
This is a small concern, but is there any word on the recording time limit for Quicktime MOV mode?
[/quote]


Spec says 29min 59s.
So without a hack the camera is useless for longer video.


Peaking=FOCUS peaking. Not making the areas with clipping blink.

[miseducation]

What do we know about the dynamic range? The French footage is the only non-graded stuff we've seen so far. It looks more like FS100 footage than GH2 but I can't really deduce anything specific from it.

Also that really sucks about no peaking. Have we gotten a final confirmation on that?

[HurtinMinorKey]

[quote name='richg101' timestamp='1347891481' post='18343']
gh2 out of the box at 24mbs is better quality than your 5dmk2 at 50mbs with proper lighting. Bitrate isnt everything...
[/quote]

Yes, but there is only so much you can do to make one intra codec more efficient than another. You're removing a huge degree of freedom from the compression(time) that inter is allowed. In this respect, I don't see any reason to think that the 80Mbit All-I codec from the Gh3 will noticably exceed the detail of the 5D3. I hope I'm wrong.

[FrankatCoffs]

Canon guys must be ever so nervous sucking on their egg noodles, $1299 for a feature packed stills/video power house that DEFINITELY has sharper video than my EOS 5DIII with WiFi and smartphone connectivity, the AF makes the EOS 650D video AF look like a clunky embarrassment.
Did I say the price? $1299, how much for the 5DIII? I paid $3800 AUD and while it's a good stills cam it's not sharp in video mode and only has 50p in 720 which is way too soft, in fact the 720/50p on my GH2 is sharper than the 1080/25p on my 5DIII.
I will buy the GH3 oh yes, pre order NOW
Yes I now it's not full frame and I will miss that but the GH3 is so feature packed how can I ignore it

[marino mannarini]

@Axel:[quote name='Axel' timestamp='1347893999' post='18349']
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 ...
[/quote]

What do you mean that GH2 has focus peaking??

[TC]

Hey, you missed the real news today! Canon has announced the S110, the SX160 IS, the G15, the SX 500 IS, and the SX 50 HS. And some of them are available in red. This is true innovation.

[MattH]

I'm not seeing much increase in dynamic range at all. Even in the stills on the panasonic website there is highlight clipping all over the place [url="http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/dslm/gh3_special/gallery/index.html"]http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/dslm/gh3_special/gallery/index.html[/url]
Rumours talked about a high dynamic range sensor, but this looks like stealth marketing. The only reference to high dynamic range on the website is a multi exposure hdr mode for stills. No flat mode for video, although you can turn the contrast down which may do something.

As far as the multi aspect sensor, I don't think it is one. By looking at the pictures of the cam without the lens mount the sensor clearly looks smaller with black borders all around, and as already pointed out the horizontal resolutions on the website are 4608 for all aspects. Both of these things strongly indicate a regular sensor.
I think dpreview made a mistake. They probably saw the different aspect ratios and just assumed panasonic wouldn't go backwards on such a good feature, so they just copied and pasted the sensor stuff from the gh2.

[Digital Master]

[background=transparent]
[b][color=#000000][font=Arial][background=transparent]Hello Andrew [/background][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial][background=transparent]Some interestings links for your paper.. :)[b][background=transparent] [/background][/b][/background][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial][background=transparent]A French DOP made too an exclusive test of the Lumix GH3...[/background][/font][/color][/b]
[/background][background=transparent]
[img]http://pampuri.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pampurigh3.png?w=510&h=382[/img][/background][background=transparent]

[b][color=#000000][font=Arial][background=transparent]Mister Pampuri wrote some impressions here... [/background][/font][/color][/b]
[/background][background=transparent]
In native French...[/background][background=transparent]

[b][url="http://pampuri.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/panasonic-lumix-gh3-premier-week-end-passe-avec-un-prototype/"][color=#1155CC][font=Arial][background=transparent]http://pampuri.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/panasonic-lumix-gh3-premier-week-end-passe-avec-un-prototype/[/background][/font][/color][/url][/b]
[/background][background=transparent]
In "sometimes" funny Google English translation...[/background]
[background=transparent]

[b] [background=rgb(230, 236, 249)]Panasonic Lumix GH3 first weekend spent with a prototype[/background][/b]
[/background]
[background=transparent]
[url="http://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpampuri.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F09%2F17%2Fpanasonic-lumix-gh3-premier-week-end-passe-avec-un-prototype%2F"]http://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpampuri.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F09%2F17%2Fpanasonic-lumix-gh3-premier-week-end-passe-avec-un-prototype%2F[/url][/background][background=transparent]

[b][color=#000000][font=Arial][background=transparent]And put a movie sample (edited) from Paris Saint-denis here...[/background][/font][/color]

[url="http://vimeo.com/pampuri/review/49558910/0880d601ae"][color=#1155CC][font=Arial][background=transparent]http://vimeo.com/pampuri/review/49558910/0880d601ae[/background][/font][/color][/url]

[color=#000000][font=Arial][background=transparent]Best regards [/background][/font][/color][/b][/background]

[bg2b]

Techradar said no peaking, but cnet says explicitly:

[quote]Other really useful video additions include timecode (both record run and free run, drop frame and NDF), a headphone jack, focus peaking, audio levels control, and clean and uncompressed HDMI out.[/quote]

Possibly all these people have just tried cameras with different pre-production firmware versions.

[Axel]

[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.

[markm]

I wonder if it still has focus assist and if it works in the muti sensor crop modes. That would be very useful. Also focus peaking is available on many monitors so to me it all sounds good.

[Per Lichtman]

In regards to everyone discussing I-frame/intra-codec compression the Gh2, GH3 amd 5DmkIII here are my own notes based on spending a lot of time testing (and my experience as consultant to tech companies in the past, which is not as an engineer).

Question 1: Is there any reason to believe that the Gh2 and GH3 would be sharper at given Intra-codec bitrate than another camera, like the 5DMkII or 5DMkIII?

A: The primary determinant of the cameras video mode sharpness (other than the lens used, etc.) is approach to downscaling/downsampling the image in combination with the processor used. The codec format and bitrate determines how much of that information is preserved but a huge amount of information is lost before it even gets that chance.

The GH2 feautres a superior downscaling/downsampling algorithm to that used in the Canon APS-C DSLRs and 5DMkII and 5DMkIII. That means that there is more information for the codec to start with. Therefore, given an equal bitrate and equally effective algorithms, the GH2 would be capable of recording more detail.

Question 2: How big a role does bitrate play in determining image quality?

A: Increasing the bitrate increases the range of material that can be represented to the codec`s best ability. At some point you hit a point of diminishing return where there are essentially no realistic scenarios that receive any benefit. Usually this happens some point before you reach the bitrate it would take to reproduce the data in uncompressed fashion. But if your codec is really weird, it is theoretically possible to have it be less efficient than uncompressed at high enough bitrates.

At 70mbps or 80 mpbs, frame size is still much smaller than what would normally be used for a JPEG of similar dimensions (as a somewhat unrelated reference point given the differeing efficency of .h264 encoding) and compression artifacts can easily manifest themselves depending on content and the specifics of the encoder. The most common h.264 artifacts are macroblocking and mosquito noise. If you scene does not have sufficient detail to suffer from one of these (or some of the less common artifacts) then any gains from increasing the bitrate will be subtle at best. Note that changing from GOP1 (I-frame only) to IPB encoding has a much more dramatic difference as it affects the way grain is handled in a scene (or shadow detail) by changing the "update frequency" with which the codec handles what it considers to be "low detail" or "low priority" areas.

Raising the bitrate will not make much difference if you are not spotting artifacts in the first place. A general softness is not the result of a low bitrate: macroblocking often is.

Question 3: Can we get a sense for how the GH2 handles/would handle bitrates around 70 to 80 mbps and possibly compare them to the 5DMkIII?

A: Yes, there multiple settings that Nick Driftwood made for the Gh2 much earlier on that did just that. Note that they do not use the newer high detail matrices and various other tricks, but they still outperform the 5DmkIII in terms of resolved detail. Look up SMBU (v1) from last year and some of the early Quantum X settings from early this year that target lower bitrates (Pictoris is available in two matrices with both CBR and VBR options and there may be others).

Question 4: Does the bitrate of the GH3 All-I settings affect GH2 settings or serve us reason for new ones?

A: No, the bitrates were already tested and provided as settings and the newer matrices may have issues at lower bitrates. In addition, the specifics of the codec handling on the Gh3 may mean a difference in performance at the same bitrate (remember that the GH2 could often look better at the same bitrate than the GH1, even with simlar GOP settings).