GH2 sensor goes into impressive Panasonic G6, adds 1080/60p and focus peaking!

[johnnymossville]

I suppose Panasonic is being very careful in who it's marketing this camera to in an attempt to not steal too many sales from potential GH3 customers.   I know I would if I was them.   The multi-aspect sensor capabilities of the GH2 would have been great for this camera, but not great for GH3 sales. 

[andy lee]

why does everyone need peaking?

- just focus it with your eyes - people have been doing that for over 100 years on film !!

it works!!

 

Technology is making people lazy!

[Will Turner]

why does everyone need peaking?

- just focus it with your eyes - people have been doing that for over 100 years on film !!

it works!!

 

Technology is making people lazy!

 

I agree. It's crazy. Even when focus peaking is available I don't use it because I don't trust it.

[johnnymossville]

why does everyone need peaking?

- just focus it with your eyes - people have been doing that for over 100 years on film !!

it works!!

 

Technology is making people lazy!

 

While shooting a live event with manual lenses in very low light conditions it would be nice to have as a backup focusing option. 

[Chrad]

One positive of this camera vs the GH2 that the video illustrates: big blue skies everywhere, no banding in sight.

[P337]

Everyone seems to be pre-occupied bickering over youtube videos so I did some digging and one thing I found is that the GH3 incorporates 8x8 and 4x4 pixel macroblocks into all of their their Intra and Inter frame compressions where as the GH1 and GH2 only used 4x4 on everything.  

 

As I understand it, this helps the GH3 be more efficient with bandwidth and supposedly helps retain fine detail areas, so if this was carried over then the G6 should have the potential of slightly better details than the GH2.

 

 

 

@Andrew may be in the best situation to assess this since he just finished the DPReviews' video section of the GH3 where he compared it to the GH2 but I leave this question open to anyones speculations.

 

Since no one who actually had hands on this camera did any proper video tests (DPReview should have send EOSHD lol) we are forced to estimate quality until those tests are available but if we assume it has a sensor just as good as the GH2/G5 and a processor as good as the GH3 which do you expect the video quality to be closer too?  GH3 or GH2? 

 

Specifically my worries are going back to the noise levels of the GH2 , seeing the banding return and all this stuff:

 

 

Let my put this question another way; do you think the issues of the GH2 compared to the GH3 mostly lie in the sensor or the processor of the camera?

 

Aside from that wouldn't an increase of bit-rate solve everything?  Since they both use h.264 in (I assume) IPB, does the GH2 at 50Mbps equal the GH3 at 50Mbps?  And isn't there an Intra (ALL-I) hack for the GH2 as well?

[Bruno]

why does everyone need peaking?

- just focus it with your eyes - people have been doing that for over 100 years on film !!

it works!!

 

Technology is making people lazy!

 

 

You know an LCD screen is not the same as looking through a viewfinder...

Also, they've been using measuring tape to focus for over 100 years of film, maybe more than their eyes.  :)

[markm]

Does the G6 have clean uncompressed hdmi out? Thats what I would want to know.

[Jakeman]

This video looks a bit better than the other ones posted so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Qi5P3rJ7A
 

I'm looking for a nice stills camera that can still take pretty great video, and if I find that I like using the video a lot I'd get a GH3 or BlackMagic Pocket Cinema or something later. The 24p 24Mbps on this one should be enough to get my feet wet, right? I'm probably gonna stick to a kit lens until I can afford the Olympus 17mm f1.8 around fall or something.

[espertype]

Am I getting something wrong, or does the video quality also depend on the downsizing algorithms (pixel binning methods) of the sensor image to HD resolution? Aside from the encoding, couldn't this be another reason for loss of detail in the case that G6 video quality does turn out to be behind of what the GH2 offers?

[Chrad]

Perhaps the multi-aspect ratio sensor had a bit to do with the amazing detail retention in GH2 footage.

[andy lee]

Am I getting something wrong, or does the video quality also depend on the downsizing algorithms (pixel binning methods) of the sensor image to HD resolution? Aside from the encoding, couldn't this be another reason for loss of detail in the case that G6 video quality does turn out to be behind of what the GH2 offers?

yes

'video quality does depend on the downsizing algorithms (pixel binning methods)' as you put it

.....and the gh2 is very good at doing that downsizing - lets hope the G6 retains that detail or even improves it !

G6 has the Venus engine so fingers crossed////

[CoolColJ]

Looks like it still has the crushed contrasty Gh2 look

[andy lee]

thats depends on what picture profile you select to shoot on

GH2 Nostalic setting I use all the time is low contrast - not at all crushed

[brucker]

why does everyone need peaking?

- just focus it with your eyes

 

or your brain,.... scale focus bitches!

[CoolColJ]

thats depends on what picture profile you select to shoot on
GH2 Nostalic setting I use all the time is low contrast - not at all crushed

If only it had no yellow shift

[P337]

yes

'video quality does depend on the downsizing algorithms (pixel binning methods)' as you put it

.....and the gh2 is very good at doing that downsizing - lets hope the G6 retains that detail or even improves it !

G6 has the Venus engine so fingers crossed////

 

Panasonic apparently pixel binds 2x2 pixels to reduce the sensor's full resolution to 1/4 before reading the sensor (approximately 12Mp to 3Mp for the GH3), then further reduces that when processing to "FullHD" (about 2Mp).

- http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/09/28/qa-with-panasonic-the-story-behind-the-new-gh3-and-compact-system-tech

 

Also Panasonic claimed disabling the multi-aspect feature of the sensor helps them improve their sensor reads, enabling 1080p60 as well as a cleaner image.  This makes sense since the GH2 had to down res approximately 3.5Mp to 2Mp with an older processor while the G6 will be converting 3Mp to 2Mp with a newly developed processor designed to further increase signal to noise, preserve details in noise reductions and widen dynamic range.  Checkout the G5 since it also used the GH2 sensor with supposedly better results, and it did it without this new processor. (I'm still trying to track down where I read all this so take it with a grain of salt)

 

Can't help to think this could be Panasonic trying to show off what they can do with their own hardware technology, vs the Sony sensor in the GH3, justing on the specs and price Panasonic seems to be ok "cannibalizing" some of the GH3 sales to make this point. 

[andy lee]

that all sounds good ....so we may get a slightly improved image off this sensor if panasonic have tweeked it as you say

we shall have to wait and see ....

[Ernesto Mantaras]

I really hope you guys are right and all these technical explanations that ensure great results on paper end up making the G6 a true continuation of such great image quality, only improved.

[P337]

I really hope you guys are right and all these technical explanations that ensure great results on paper end up making the G6 a true continuation of such great image quality, only improved.

 

I agree, it looks like the G6 hardware has the potential to do better than the GH2 and maybe even the GH3 (moire mostly) but that doesn't mean Panasonic won't hold it back in some other way.  I'm trying to stay reasonable and resist the urge to dream about 4:2:2 clean HDMI or a high bit-rate hack within a year of its release but despite what I've seen with those auto/poorly exposed youtube "reviews" I'm hopeful that we will get decent quality with built in focus peaking :D