Thursday
Apr302009
Philip Bloom's GH1 First Impressions
Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 10:47AM In a nutshell, he loves the camera, appreciates the video-specific features of the kit lens, but laments its slow stop. Worth a read, and of course a look at the video:
I’m a little confused by the lack of a subway, but it beats this!
[via comment by Ivan Babko]
Reader Comments (24)
That video is pure geek pr0n! Nice!
But what do you think thus far, Stu? :-)
So far I'm impressed. Skew seems minimal, compression artifacts are reasonable (but not great), and noise seems to be pretty good. Here's a great thread for just following GH1 footage: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=179
This does appear to be the camera I'll get to replace my HV20, but my biggest quandry at this point is which lens adapter to get... Canon FD, Nikon F, Leica M? Decisions decisions...
Hey thanks for posting this Stu.
Bloom certainly does a better job than the Canon any-job guys.
Hmmmm, nice so far. But when I see the price tag pre-seen for Europe....... I don't know.......
The 1080p version of the footage looks great. I'm already planning on selling my HV30 and K10d. Pair it with a Zoom H4N and some nice glass and to me, near perfect Rebel cam at Rebel price.
cb says:
April 30, 2009 at 12:32
Phil, thank you for providing info and test footage.
What shutter speed(s) did you use?
Reply
pbloom says:
April 30, 2009 at 12:38
indoors was 30th, outside was different most shots so I could stay wide open.
Eeks... Thought it looked like video.....
Any word on the audio- can you manually set the mic level? Are there meters? Is it full time AGC?
What about exposure- are there zebras, histogram or other readouts?
Sounds like 30 mins max clip length, which isn't bad.
How much can you fit on a card?
What about remote control?
Can you remote start/stop the cam? Anything else remotable?
Even if all those questions are a "no", it still looks promising for an ultra-portable rig. Love the swing out LCD, and EVF.
To me, it looks like a nice video taking camera, not a good film making camera.
{{puts on helmet..... ducks.}}
List of adaptors:
http://rangefinderrestorations.com/photo_posts/G1adapterlist.html
stu,
just a pointer to all who read this blog, hopefully the link stays active for awhile.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/210430-SMPTE_Outlines_Requirements_for_New_3_D_Standard.php?nid=2387&source=title&rid=5739616
Laurence
Looks good but, I still want Canon to fix the 5D. I really think that there are limited places for video-capable DSLRs and filmmaking is one of the most ready for it. however, the sensor is the thing in my observation. Now, if Nikon brings us some love and joy with the D3 I am quite ready jump into their pasture. I just want a creative tool.
The Panasonic will certainly put pressure on the others to get with the program me thinks.
-gl
Looks pretty good. I like this footage the best. Shows the cam in lots of different light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zed6fSntVYY
i don't know, it looks ok for sure and with the manual controls it might be the best video slr so far, but the latitude? the highlights look like video and the shadows seem to lose detail very quickly too. are people shooting with a "video gamma" curve or is this the best it can do? compared to the raw canon and nikon footage i've seen and shot i can't say i like the look of this.
Mattias, I pretty much agree on the point you made regarding the latitude.
It still has a video feel to it, most of the time.
Other times though, it's very nice.
I just want to see more tests with faster lenses.
Most people are using the stock zoom and it's pretty slow.
I need to see more tests with lenses at f1.4 up to 2.8. I don't really care about the stock lens, although for the time being it's still doing a decent job.
I've has a good look at the three Philip Bloom GH1 clips and my initial impression is there is something missing. I downloaded them from Exposure Room and watched them on my 37" LCD in the lounge.
The footage doesn't have the sparkle or organic feel of the Vincent Laforet 5D MKII footage. To me it does not seem 'real' enough, maybe it is the white balance (skin tones are too orange) however the footage also seems to lack detail (again especially in the skin tones), but maybe it is the absence of noise and the limited latitude.
What Philip Bloom does is great and Philip, please keep it coming but what I think we need to see is some footage that is well lit, then colour corrected and graded to really see the best of the GH1.
You´re right Rocket Boy, I´d also love to see some graded footage, since Philip Bloom mentioned:
"….also the code is relatively low bit rate at just 17mbps so it won’t stand up to any heavy grading. "
So we all know, a great look is not all about shallow dof. And it´s true, the cam seems to blow out soon and to loose detail in shadows. I don´t know if there´s much to push in post. And AVCHD works with 8-bit color depth..
Seems like I should wait a few more months for the RED SCARLET. Ok, 2/3 sensor, but RAW shooting rules!
Bloom added slow mo sunset footage which was graded using Magic Bullet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW4Lkrugpvo
"All I had on me was the little red GH1 and an SLR Gorillapod. So not ideal. But I set it up on the sand, got myself covered in sand and filmed this beautiful sunset. All in 1280×720 mode50p slowed down to 25p in cinema tools.
Graded with Magic Bullet Looks and it held up just fine!
Would 1280 X 720 suggest motion jpeg?
Radical thought. Why doesn't Canon just put a larger sensor in the HV30? Seems like we're all talking about this thing as a video camera anyway. I don't even want the still camera capability. I'm looking for a "digital cinema camera"--and we all know the perfect digital cinema camera is within striking distance. Another 24 months maybe? Scarlet will definitely have a lot of competition in the marketplace. The GH1 is close. Bujt I'd rather have a higher bit rate right to an HDV tape and skip all the pitfalls of a still camera that is delivering highly compromised video.
Skip i guess they could (and they defenitly should), but in that case no one would give a damn about their prosumer cams like the A1 or H1...
Put if they´re still dreaming of home video fans playing around with the video function of their still cams, they´re gonna get overrolled by Red and a lot of others..
By the way, here´s some footage, said to be of a red scarlet:
http://redgrabs.com/izzy/
if it´s true, quite impressing, even though its a short flash sequence..
Sam, i like the footage (and the song). It looks like a touch of grading, with gradients and a slight push towards yellow..
But giving it a intense look without damaging skin tones....that´s a different job...
I still love the cam, seems to be the ideal cam for shooting family, holidays, both stills and some video..but, same like skip, i guess THE CAMERA is coming, we don´t know when..
regards from germany (btw, we´re paying 500 dollars more for the GH1)
out in US.
Amazon
Not in UK yet.... :(
yeah, it sucks that basically all hardware is so much more expensive in the EU compared with the USA...:/
hey stu,
gh1 or 5d mark II?
and how would you compare the still image quality of the gh1 to 5d or even d90?
thanks!
Hey Stu,
I have the Japanese version of the GH1 (only Japanese menus). It's brand new, hasn't been used. Know anybody who'd want it at a steep discount?
Robert