Watch the GH3 skateboarding documentary I helped shoot for Panasonic (plus a useful GH3 vs 5D Mark III video)

[Andrew Reid]

[url="http://vimeo.com/53642599"]http://vimeo.com/53642599[/url]

Last month I was invited by Panasonic to shoot a documentary for a skatepark in Hamburg, as an opportunity to test out the GH3 and offer some feedback on the camera.

Here, thanks to Simon Sticker of [url="http://flowmedia.co.uk"]Flow Media[/url], a filmmaker given the unenviable task of editing together the footage, is the finished piece!

How does the GH3 compare to it's main rival in the Canon camp for video, the 5D Mark III? Have a look at the next video for some clues.
 

[Pixelheist]

As someone who films skateboarding, and is immersed in quite deeply, that missed the mark for me. As far as showing what skateland is and does, you nailed it, sure. I would have loved to see a little more research gone into the actuality of filming skateboarding. The slow-mo was bad, general practice for that should have been time-remapping, or ramping in after effects. It's clear you dont skate, nor have seen many skateboarding films. Please correct me if I am wrong. As far as the GH3 goes though, Im sold. I feel this video is just another delivery from someone who does not know the medium well, and it is a little insulting sometimes.

[Robert]

The skateboard footage looks sharp. I think the funfair has the whites shouldered too much, but maybe that's from trying to fight the bright lights of a fair and the darkness of night. All of it sends me back to "Where's my BMCC?" :)

 

I'm ready to be done with messing with 8-bit muddy Canon footage. Bleh.

[Andrew Reid]

Very observant Pixelheist. No I don't shoot skateboarding videos for a living! The focus of that day was not really on making Dogtown and Z-boys. Those few hours at the skateboard were organised as a test session of the pre-production GH3 with a feedback session afterwards. I think Simon has done a good job to edit together various shots from around 10 different people in that video. This isn't what he usually does, he is a filmmaker and here's an example of his main work - [url="http://www.humansproject.com"]http://www.humansproject.com[/url]

[RLX-Devlin]

Wow, pretty chilled reaction to the slightly provocative post of Pixelheist. ;)

[powderbanks]

As someone who films skateboarding, and is immersed in quite deeply, that missed the mark for me. As far as showing what skateland is and does, you nailed it, sure. I would have loved to see a little more research gone into the actuality of filming skateboarding. The slow-mo was bad, general practice for that should have been time-remapping, or ramping in after effects. It's clear you dont skate, nor have seen many skateboarding films. Please correct me if I am wrong. As far as the GH3 goes though, Im sold. I feel this video is just another delivery from someone who does not know the medium well, and it is a little insulting sometimes.

 

as a skate video, yeah, misses the mark. but as a video about skateland, i thought it was well put together. the focus wasn't on any of the specific skaters or tricks they were landing, but more about the people who run this park and those who skate there. i'd agree, the skate footage shown was 'meh' trick wise, but again, that wasn't the point of the video. i didn't care for the slow motion either

 

was this shot in one of the gh3's b&w modes, or the b&w done in post? also, what fisheye did you use?

[HurtinMinorKey]

Really like the BW stuff on the skate park. But, the gh3 5D3 comparison almost bored me to tears.

[TJB]

Thanks for this comparison. I was wondering if you planned to do a more detailed GH2 vs GH3 comparison and a more comprehensive GH3 review now that the final firmware is out and about.

[Andrew Reid]

Yes but there's hardly any difference between the firmware I had and the final one.

[Xiong]

Wow, pretty chilled reaction to the slightly provocative post of Pixelheist. ;)

 

My thoughts exactly :D

[ipcmlr]

As someone who films skateboarding, and is immersed in quite deeply, that missed the mark for me. As far as showing what skateland is and does, you nailed it, sure. I would have loved to see a little more research gone into the actuality of filming skateboarding. The slow-mo was bad, general practice for that should have been time-remapping, or ramping in after effects. It's clear you dont skate, nor have seen many skateboarding films. Please correct me if I am wrong. As far as the GH3 goes though, Im sold. I feel this video is just another delivery from someone who does not know the medium well, and it is a little insulting sometimes.

 

As a former skater (my wife has basically banned me from skating when I went crashing down a hill :( ) I too would have wanted to see more of the skaters.

 

We're interested in skating. We want people pulling off stuff, not pics of people in the air or cheesy slomos.

 

But that's just us.

 

The video is about the skatepark, the people behind it and what its done for the community.

In that regard it was pretty good.

[Mirrorkisser]

I would also like to see a detailed gh2 vs gh3 comparison. As far as i can judge by now its rather different than a real improvement (ok, the new exterior of the camera is better).

[TJB]

Yes but there's hardly any difference between the firmware I had and the final one.

Ok, great - that's good to know. The magic moire reducing firmware update has been proven to be as load of nonsense then?

 

Like maybe some other readers, I have specific questions about image quality differences between the GH2 and GH3. Some of these have been answered through various sources but in some cases not definitively enough to make a purchase decision. 

You know your way around the GH2 better than most and I for one would really enjoy hearing a little more of your opinions on the differences, even subtle between the two cameras.

 

I got 10 minutes with a GH3 today in my local camera store which of course wan't really enough to discover personally if it's a goer or not. I did shove a card into it and now know how much better ETC quality is when underexposing. 

[Pixelheist]

My comments weren't intended to ruffle any feathers whatsoever. I respect Andrews reply to what I had written, and the other posters baiting for a harsher response is really lame. The dog town and Z boys reference is understood, but not well met with what I was referring to. Daily, there are oodles of video pieces like this one going up on prominent skateboard-video content providers ( hellaclips.com, skatedaily.net etc) that do just aswell getting their message across, but also couple that with the proper filming of skateboarding. Thanks for all the hard work you do, Andrew! I check this site alot and am new posting.  

[Pixelheist]

 
http://vimeo.com/55094977

 

This amazing video was filmed with a Jamcopter and a hacked GH2. Enjoy :)

[cinevoyeur]

Hey Andrew, I just got my GH3, put an Olympus zoom lens on it and when I zoom in and out, the image flickers.  Any idea what's happening there or if you've had similar experience?  Maybe a lack of compatibility btwn the Oly lens and Gh3?  Let me know your thoughts!

[Andrew Reid]

The lens is likely changing aperture as you go through the zoom range. Try not to zoom during a shot.

[cinevoyeur]

Andrew, thanks for the response. Another question looking for your thoughts - so I got 2 GH3s and the aperture slider on one of them sometimes doesn't click and change aperture like it should. Instead it just glides as its being turned (no clicking friction) and doesn't adjust the aperture. This probably shouldn't happen. You ever experience that on your gh2/3? I'm wondering whether I should deal with it or take that one back.

[FilmMan]

Here's some info from Driftwood from the ML site with respect to 5D3 and GH3. 

 

Ok Here's a look at the h264 encoder found inside the MKIII in-depth. Thanks to hjfilmspeed for supplying the test files.

First and foremost the encoder uses only 4x4 transform (along with the standard 16x16) and employs High Profile Level 5.1 for All-I and High Profile Level 4.1 for IPB. Everything is encoded using CAVLC (All-I and IPB) and NO scaling matrices are found to be used if my analysis using Elecard is correct.

Contrary to the Canon 5DMKiii encoder, the new Panasonic GH3 encoder uses Adaptive 8x8 and 4x4 transform and is thus 12% more efficient. It's All-I rec modes chooses High Profile lvl 5.0 CAVLC to encode - IPB employs CABAC High Profile level 4.1. All the GH3 modes use the same scaling matrix algorithms. So you can see there are marked differences between the GH3 and the 5DMK3.

I will attach graphs and sequence parameter sets for each of the Canon 5DMKIII modes shortly.

The dropbox link to the folder/files is;-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zqayfoniqo1s6dz/GO9zr30AMb