GH2 to G6 (Or GX7?) plus focal reducer?

[andy lee]

it must be Microsoft not supporting AVCHD properly

 

I use VLC to preview and no issues there Dische - just use that it works

 

peaking is hit and miss with older legacy lenses , but its all better then no peaking , I leave it on all the time now

[JBraddock]

VLC player does not play very well with AVCHD on my Mac. I use MPlayerX and it works well but I wish I could set up a custom 3:55:1 aspect ratio to preview my anamorphic footage.

 

As for the peaking, it works really well on GX7 but sometimes it gets peaky when the contrast is low.

[dishe]

Ok, its apparently just a Windows bug and I should ignore it. Footage is truly sharp and full HD in my editor. 

In fact, in Windows Media Player, if I click view at 50%, then 200%, then back to 100%, it seems to display at the correct 1080 HD size. 

 

Meanwhile, one other thing that is irking me- I intend to use this for long recordings at times, and currently the screen shuts off after an amount of time. I managed to find that setting in the menu to turn off, so now the display remains on. But the meters and live data disappear (audio levels, etc). I'd like to keep those up, as they do on my GH2. Can that be done? Where is the menu option for that?

[andy lee]

there is a button on the right hand side on th back marked - DSP

toggle that button and it cycles thru frame with data , frame with just shutter speed data, frame with artificial horizon and data, frame with artificial horizon and no data , full data screen with no frame , and full black frame (yes this will catch you out if you get this full black frame you can think the camera is dead!! beware!! haha!)

[dishe]

Right, but how do I keep the frame with data from timing out? It used to go black after a few minutes, and I could bring it back with the DSP button. Then I figured out how to keep the display alive (turn "sleep" to off), so it stays on but the data still times out after a few minutes. In other words, the recording starts off with live view + data (including audio meters, which is what I'm looking for here) and then after a few minutes the data disappears and only displays the live view. At least the screen stays on now, but I'd like the data to stay on as well! Yes, pressing DSP brings it back (as it did when the display went dark before as well), but I don't want to touch the camera while recording an event!

 

Another option is to use the wireless monitor via my smartphone, but I'm concerned about stability and battery life of my smartphone if doing that for an extended amount of time. Also, apparently the audio meters don't appear on the WiFi remote monitor either!

[andy lee]

the wifi control of the camera is amazing!! Ive got a cheap tablet to use so it has a bigger screen than my smart phone

no audio meters seem to appear , but full control of the camera functions including iso , shutter and if you use a Panny lens you can pull focus on it!!

its nothing short of an amazing feature to have , so Im not worried there is no live HDMI out - I dont ever need cables sticking out the camera to a monitor when wifi is the way to go ....

 

ps if your camera goes to sleep you just re start the app and it re aquires the camera via wifi you dont need to go over the the camera

[andy lee]

the datas comes back if you touch lighty the front trigger button , depress lighly but dont take a photo .....you know what I mean

[dishe]

the datas comes back if you touch lighty the front trigger button , depress lighly but dont take a photo .....you know what I mean

 

Yes, but it also comes back if I press the DISP button. The idea is to *leave it on screen* as I don't need an accidental camera shake in the middle of a speech I was hired to record!

 

As far as the WiFi control- I agree that it is a super cool feature to have! But the transmission is the same standard definition VGA resolution that the camera's LCD has, so it doesn't really make it any easier to pull focus than the built in display. If it were a full screen HD image, that would be amazing (but also really unlikely considering the amount of CPU and bandwidth required to do that in real time). This however, is VGA resolution, and so far I haven't been able to make it full screen at that (it exists in a corner of my display, surrounded by buttons and UI controls), so I'd need a much larger display to benefit from it compared to the internal LCD. Speaking of which, the built in display does peaking, and I noticed that the WiFi monitoring app does not. So, the WiFi option, while extremely cool, might not help for the reasons many people use external monitors.

Don't get me wrong, the function is extremely cool, especially at this price point, but it does not quite replace a real HDMI output. I was also recently asked to help out with a multi-cam live stream event, something I used to be able to do with my GH2's clean HDMI out option. I'm realizing that as cool as the G6 is, I might need to still hold on to my old camera as there are some needs it doesn't fill!

 

Between this and the on-screen data that doesn't go away on a time out, the GH2 really seems better suited for those times I need to do camcorder-esque jobs, and the G6 perhaps better suited for film making ones. I do love the colors, 60p recordering, in-body peaking and WiFi function (even if it ends up being mostly used just to show off how cool my set up is). But the way some folks discuss it around here, I almost had unrealistic expectations.

[andy lee]

Ive build whole new shoulder rigs for my g6s so Im just using the EVF as its so good , I dont film using the rear screen much now

[quivering_member]

Yes, but it also comes back if I press the DISP button. The idea is to *leave it on screen* as I don't need an accidental camera shake in the middle of a speech I was hired to record!

 

Yes, this is pretty annoying. I've never noticed this before since I don't usually do very long files at a time without making adjustments. You can bring it back by either lighting pressing the shutter button or lightly tapping screen though, and I think this should be achievable without introducing camera shake. 

 

I've found the peaking seems to work really well for vertical lines but not as much for horizontal. For portraits the peaking dot usually appears in the center of the persons eyes. 

 

But the way some folks discuss it around here, I almost had unrealistic expectations.

 

I don't think anyone hyped it up more than it deserves. It's not the best camera in the world at any single thing but it's a very good overall package. 

[dishe]

 

I don't think anyone hyped it up more than it deserves. It's not the best camera in the world at any single thing but it's a very good overall package. 

 

Well, you didn't hype it up more than it deserves, but that doesn't mean other members of this forum didn't. I agree, its a very good overall package and I was mostly attracted to the price.

 

My problem is what to do now, as I planned to sell one of my GH2s to balance out the purchase price of the G6. I had bought a second GH2 body because I do a lot of live event multi-cam projects (actually have one coming up this weekend), and I found it particularly annoying and time consuming trying to color match between the GH2 and other cameras.
I figured the G6 is the GH2 sensor in an upgraded body, but the color rendition has clearly changed between the generations here. In fact, I think it has been improved, which is good. So, I guess the logical thing to do would be to sell BOTH Gh2's and buy myself another G6. 

...but then there's the things the GH2 does better. It has live HDMI out while shooting as well as meters that stay on for the entire duration of recording (not to mention a much easier to access SD card door for swapping cards in a hurry). So now I'm starting to feel a bit of buyer's remorse, maybe I'm better off with the 2 GH2s that I have?