Panasonic GH3 real-world test (pre-production firmware)

[Zach]

GH3 hands on

[Ernesto Mantaras]

GH3 hands on

[media]

[/media]

Just watched it out of my YouTube feed. No mention of moiré, and although I found the deer's (or whatever those animals are) hair to look weird, I don't really know if that was moiré.
But overall I liked it and I think the samples were shot with the "High Dynamic" profile set and with lower sharpness settings.

[Jon de Zwaan]

Nice review, this guy knows what he's doing and the footage is nice, although I watched on my phone. Maybe Panny has delivered a winner after all. After Andrew's review and now this, I'm turning quite positive. With the GH3 in experienced hands, we get a decent image of the capabilities and I like it. Now, where's my money.

[sanveer]

If you are talking about those sleep line kindda pattern on the deer, then, I am guessing, that, those may be caused by its fur being rubbed against shrubs and bushes.

I found the detail pretty good, and the attached mic's quality, was very good.

About the shortfalls, on the GH3, I think, Panasonic should sit will developers, and let people buy em off them, through the Android App Store or Apple Stores.I think people wouldn't mind buying things like (software upgrades for):
1. Peaking.
2. 10 bit 4-2-2

Maybe even pick up grips, with XLR and GPRS.

About the moire and aliasing, I guess, we'll be updated about them, as newer videos keep making the rounds. Also, maybe having Test Charts, with shootouts, between the GH2 and the GH3, would be a great idea.

Btw, this guy mentioned something about the famous gamma shift, like on the GH2. I wonder why they didn't think of fixing it.

[foggyflute]

I'm pleased with what this camera provide in photography. There's one thing I missing from NEX is peaking focus, everything else work fine, and very good, better than X100 and new mirrorless from canon (m or something, I dont bother to check, it not AF right even under full sunlight lit scene).

The 12-35 (24-70) is too sharp, I repeat: too sharp for video for my liking. I either dial down the contrast in picture style or do it in post.
I will do a moire test for you guys tomorrow (got quite bad headache today due to go outside under hard heat from the sun with GH3 yesterday), what kind of moire test is most practical and provide useful information?

[Axel]

The 12-35 (24-70) is too sharp, I repeat: too sharp for video for my liking. I either dial down the contrast in picture style or do it in post.

Ooookay ...
Additionally, you could try the Tiffen Low Contrast 1. It doesn't affect the resolution at all, it just lowers the contrast (as expected) and helps to keep moire off my GH2 footage with the Olympus MFT lenses. Only drawback: It tends to capture reflexes in backlight, so it definitely needs a sunshade (at least).

I will do a moire test for you guys tomorrow (got quite bad headache today due to go outside under hard heat from the sun with GH3 yesterday), what kind of moire test is most practical and provide useful information?

The usual suspects: Brick walls with pans, power lines against a bright sky, all fine, high-contrast patterns.

[PAVP]

Hi Foggyflute, it's hard to say what is best to test Moire, but i'm guessing a fine print shirt or curtain. Perhaps a mesh screen or brick building. Usually it's precise fine patterns that wouldn't appear in nature. Maybe there's some buildings near by that would present a problem.

[zaz]

I will do a moire test for you guys tomorrow (got quite bad headache today due to go outside under hard heat from the sun with GH3 yesterday), what kind of moire test is most practical and provide useful information?

having sharpness and contrast dialed down all the way is essential, i think that's "-5" on the gh3.
Andrew, maybe you can chime in here regarding specifics to new features on the camera.

Which lenses can you try Foggy? did it come with the 12-35 and 35-100? do you have access to anything else? the nokton 17/25 0.95's? it would help to see a variety of lenses shoot the same subject (including the 12-35).

Like Axel said, fine geometric patters usually cause problems. so textiles, bricks, tile, fencing, any kind of pattern that repeats in a grid. Generally speaking material like nylon camera bag fabirc or gortex is prone. sometimes it helps to be in lower light just to pump up the gain on the sensor, and introduce a little noise.

It would also be very helpful to see some fine diagonal lines for aliasing. Like telephone wires, power lines, cat's whiskers, etc. higher contrast would be better, so if you shoot power lines it would be helpful to get some sky behind them. it would also help to have this bright background exposed properly and not blown out.

lastly, uploading to vimeo or a filesharing service would be greately appreciated for us to be able to look at the native resolution files.

Thanks Foggy! hope you didn't get burned too bad out there yesterday!

[XXX]

Hey Foggyflute,
could you also do some portraits (interview situation) under daylight and tungsten to get a better feel for GH3 skintones?
Would be great thanks!

[Jon de Zwaan]

Hey Foggyflute,

could you also do some portraits (interview situation) under daylight and tungsten to get a better feel for GH3 skintones?

Would be great thanks!

You got your daylight interview already, it was in the Camera Store review.

[MaxAperture Films]

...what kind of moire test is most practical and provide useful information?

How about a resolution chart? Let's see a comparison between the GH2 and the GH3 on the same chart with the same lens and in standard picture profile with 0,0,0,0 settings. It will induce moire as well, so it would be a nice comparison test in general.

[MaxAperture Films]

You got your daylight interview already, it was in the Camera Store review.

http://youtu.be/iIJT...qk?hd=1&t=7m20s

I really like the difference in skin tones, they just look smoother overall with nice gradation and dynamic range. Looks very decent for Youtube compressed content.

[pask74]

You were dreaming of a $3K-$5K camera delivered by Panasonic for under $1.5k? Easy to be disappointed with such unrealistic expectations.

I'd be ready to pay the amount of a Black Magic Cinema Camera for my expectations.

[pask74]

fair enough but that was said about the bmcc that could not deliver as much for 3k

and now the gopro hero 3 delivers 2.7k at 24fps for 400usd with a lens...

times of companies holding back on technology to maximize profit are now gone and the ones still playing at that game are loosing a lot of money.

you can up your expectations now

we seem to be on the same page here.

[pask74]

Just to clarify : I find this GH3 very interesting and there seems to be noticable improvements over the GH2 on a few important aspects.
Any of my dream-list points would have made me pull the trigger but I'll wait for the next model instead.

[pask74]

And by the way the only bug I've encountered with any hack is the need to power off/on (takes 3 sec. max) to be able to play certain video files.

[galenb]

I'm pleased with what this camera provide in photography. There's one thing I missing from NEX is peaking focus, everything else work fine, and very good, better than X100 and new mirrorless from canon (m or something, I dont bother to check, it not AF right even under full sunlight lit scene).

The 12-35 (24-70) is too sharp, I repeat: too sharp for video for my liking. I either dial down the contrast in picture style or do it in post.

I will do a moire test for you guys tomorrow (got quite bad headache today due to go outside under hard heat from the sun with GH3 yesterday), what kind of moire test is most practical and provide useful information?

http://www.bealecorner.org/red/test-patterns/
The first one is a common pattern I've seen used most of the time.

[galenb]

having sharpness and contrast dialed down all the way is essential, i think that's "-5" on the gh3.

Andrew, maybe you can chime in here regarding specifics to new features on the camera.

Additionally, when Julian did his tests I think we found that turning the Sharpness down to -5 actually causes the camera to soften the image way to much. So I would recommend to use 0 instead.

[foggyflute]

Tried a little rough canvas on a seat pillow:



I move back an forward a bit to find the point it produce moire, but look like everything still ok.
This image captured from the mov 25p all-i

General

Complete name : C:\Users\fgy\Desktop\P1010435.MOV

Format : MPEG-4

Format profile : QuickTime

Codec ID : qt

File size : 223 MiB

Duration : 25s 920ms

Overall bit rate mode : Variable

Overall bit rate : 72.3 Mbps

Encoded date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Tagged date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

PANA : DMC-GH3

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L5.0

Format settings, CABAC : No

Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames

Format settings, GOP : N=1

Codec ID : avc1

Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding

Duration : 25s 920ms

Bit rate mode : Variable

Bit rate : 70.6 Mbps

Maximum bit rate : 71.7 Mbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 1 080 pixels

Display aspect ratio : 16:9

Frame rate mode : Constant

Frame rate : 25.000 fps

Color space : YUV

Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0

Bit depth : 8 bits

Scan type : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.363

Stream size : 218 MiB (98%)

Encoded date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Tagged date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Color primaries : BT.709

Transfer characteristics : BT.709

Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio

ID : 2

Format : PCM

Format settings, Endianness : Big

Format settings, Sign : Signed

Codec ID : twos

Duration : 25s 920ms

Bit rate mode : Constant

Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps

Channel(s) : 2 channels

Channel positions : Front: L R

Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz

Bit depth : 16 bits

Stream size : 4.75 MiB (2%)

Encoded date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Tagged date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Menu

ID : 3

Duration : 25s 920ms

Encoded date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Tagged date : UTC 2012-11-09 10:31:35

Bit rate mode : CBR

I got 12-35 and 45-150 with me, have a lot MF lens but no M43 mount.

Please note this one is pre-production model too, not a retail one (eventhough they tell me it's a retail one, it's really not.)

It's suck that I got a lot of other work to do right now.

[foggyflute]

This one is normal style 0,0,0,0