GH3 won't get peaking - shame!

[TJB]

Dpreview.com recently posted an interview with Michiharu Uematsu and Yoshiyuki Inoue.

 

quote from article -

 

"They explain the challenges of making and marketing a high image quality compact and suggest the GH3 won't get focus peaking.

Uematsu spoke about how the market has reacted to the company's products: 'GH3 has been well recieved, especially for motion pictures. As you know we interviewed many people in the industry in Europe and North America, so it would offer what they needed - broadcasters needed bitrates above 50Mbps so we offer 50 and 72Mbps. In Europe they needed 25p, not 50i. And they're using GH3 - it's much smaller and lighter than a professional camcorder and doesn't need several people to operate it.'

However, he says, there is still one feature they're calling for. 'Focus peaking and zebra pattern. More than 90% of the requests we're getting are for these features. We haven't been able to offer it - because of the limits of resources and of the Venus Engine processor. Because it is not included in the Venus Engine, focus peaking is very hard to introduce - anything we added in software would be very different."

[richg101]

the value of focus peaking it vastly over rated IMO. Never is it accurate enough to judge focus well enough to be relied on in the same way punching in 5x or 10x can be.

[Mondo]

The punch in on the GH3 is working fine for me. I love how you can move around the punch in screen as well. Very handy. I'd be fine without those features.

[vas907]

Peaking on such a little screen is is pointless honestly, punching is alot more useful to me. Can we please get the screen info to stay on at all times, eff peaking just let me have my info on all the time!

[Andrew Reid]

I find the magic window magnified focus assist is working well. Keeps your composition full screen and magnifies the centre.

[TJB]

Can the magic magnified window be used to manually track focus on moving subjects using the viewfinder whilst recording? 

[jgharding]

I find peaking most useful when pulling manual focus. I don't really like carrying external monitors around so not having it would piss me off. What a shame :(

[Jenkly]

When I reserved the GH3, I knew of this fault.  But I also worked an external monitor into my budget.  I can respect what Panasonic did with the GH3.  They gave us a lot and yeah, we lost a few things as well.  I can say with confidence that magnified focus assist is one of the best tools I have worked with for focus.  At the very least it is adequate.  I have shot some things that I thought were far above my talent with the GH3.  Even without this feature I highly recommend the camera to anyone considering the purchase.

[zaz]

I'm finding the 4x punch-in to be basically unusable. Seems to be digital magnification of screen display not sensor read-out - way too blurry to judge focus. The 5x and 10x magnifications are very crisp and clean, but I wish there was a way to bring them up while recording. Peaking is a valuable tool - it helps to visualize the composition of a shallow DOF shot, and helps a great deal in shooting moving subjects.

[TJB]

I really wanted to talk myself into the GH3, however I found I can't (nearly as accurately as the GH2) manually focus whilst recording.

Shooting low profile, documentary style means I don't use an LCD monitor. I come from a broadcast background so I'm used to using quality viewfinders. I find the GH2 viewfinder pretty good as it displays slight aliasing on sharp focus areas providing a type of peaking.

The GH3 viewfinder in comparison seems a little softer, slightly smaller and without the aliasing to help pick sharp focussed areas.

Although I agree that the magnified focus assist is an option for stationary subjects and to check focus before hitting record, I have trouble seeing how it would help assist focus for times when peaking is invaluable - like moving subject matter or pulling focus with an unscripted dialogue between two people. Without peaking - I just can't hit sharp focus where and when I choose. This is a problem and this is why I think it's a shame the GH3 will not get peaking.

[Andrew Reid]

I think they need to get focus sorted out for digital displays.

 

Peaking isn't the answer. Nothing they have come up with so far has been much good.

 

I would suggest a small green focus confirm box which moves around the frame and sits over the focus point like a face detection square.

 

That is the least intrusive way of showing where the focus is.

 

Peaking makes my composition look like it is bleeding and the magnified focus assist is absolutely 100% useless when trying to shoot live action.

[toxotis70]

all sony slt has that.

This is the reason i have sony a65…. focus confirmation with PDAF sencors active in video recording!

No other dslr can do this 

[TJB]

"I would suggest a small green focus confirm box which moves around the frame and sits over the focus point like a face detection square."

 

Sounds great, but until then, good old fashioned focus peaking would have been better than nothing at all. Even the tiny hint of peaking from aliasing I see with the GH2 viewfinder makes it 100% more valuable for tracking moving subjects than the GH3.

 

Thing is about the GH3 - it's one of the few really worthwhile mirror-less EVF cameras out there for video and IMHO, having the EVF built in places it way ahead of the flapping mirror competition. It's a shame it comes short for my applications, however I'm happy to stick with the GH2.