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1. Re: Looking for a compact camera
Bill Hunt Jan 10, 2013 7:29 AM (in response to IggyLights)What sort of budget to you have?
Hunt
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2. Re: Looking for a compact camera
JSS1138 Jan 10, 2013 10:08 AM (in response to IggyLights)I realize I'm not going to get Epic-quality stuff out of a compact
Well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95lVDmpt03I
Take note that the GH3 is the new model from Panasonic, so the GH2 will not be available for long. The upside is that a lot of resellers are offering pretty good discounts. I plan to pick up a second as soon as possible.
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3. Re: Looking for a compact camera
IggyLights Jan 10, 2013 4:31 PM (in response to Bill Hunt)Hey Hunt:
I'm hoping for sub-$1500, I figure if I go any higher than that I should save up and buy a proper video body.
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4. Re: Looking for a compact camera
IggyLights Jan 10, 2013 4:32 PM (in response to JSS1138)Interesting. I've read many diverging things about this camera. I'm guessing you're happy with it considering you're going for #2?
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5. Re: Looking for a compact camera
JSS1138 Jan 11, 2013 9:52 AM (in response to IggyLights)Granting there's a case to be made for the new GH3, in my view you just can't get a better image than a hacked GH2 until you reach about $5000. (And even than, a hacked GH2 can often hold it's own.)
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6. Re: Looking for a compact camera
Ann Bens Jan 11, 2013 1:53 PM (in response to JSS1138)What lenses do you use on the gh2?
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7. Re: Looking for a compact camera
JSS1138 Jan 11, 2013 5:27 PM (in response to Ann Bens)I own three at the moment.
14-42mm f/3.5 -5.6
14-140mm f/4.0-5.8
20mm f/1.7
I also have access to some pretty good Nikors and others that my producer owns.
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8. Re: Looking for a compact camera
Steven L. Gotz Jan 11, 2013 10:05 PM (in response to JSS1138)I went a different way for my GH3, and so far, I am pleased with my selections.
14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 - like Jim's. It is my go to lens. The one I keep on the camera.
45mm f/2.8 (Macro) - it takes getting used to using a Prime as Jim warned me, but I rather like it for closeup work and portraits.
100-300 f/4.0-5.6 - it still doesn't zoom enough for everything I want to do, but it was good enough to get a decent photograph of the moon on a clear night, a couple of nights past full moon.
However, just how compact do you want to go? Is the GH3 too big? It is slightly beefier than the GH2, I believe.
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9. Re: Looking for a compact camera
IggyLights Jan 13, 2013 9:15 AM (in response to JSS1138)I've been looking at some of the 176Mbit video (http://nofilmschool.com/2011/10/panasonic-gh2-hacked-again-record-advanced/) and I mean, even with web compression that looks fantastic!
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10. Re: Looking for a compact camera
Steven L. Gotz Jan 13, 2013 12:49 PM (in response to IggyLights)I think that for most of us, storing video at 176Mb/s might be overkill. I didn't take much video with the GH3 I rented because I was busy learning to shoot photographs, however, the 72Mb/s I-Frame recording mode seems clean enough to me. I didn't see any artifacts that didn't belong, and it certainly looked better than the HDV I got out of the Sony HDR-FX1that I have been shooting with since 2004.
However, with the new, relatively inexpensive memory cards, and the low price per Terabyte of hard drives nowadays, why not store at 176Mb/s?
What I really want, and I think we are close, is to have the equivalent of shooting RAW. When I take a photograph on the GH3, the amount of manipulation I can do to adjust the white balance and other features is amazing. Can you imagine how nice it would be to open a video in Premiere Pro and get a window that looks something like this one that I get when opening a RAW photo? All of the data is there, the camera does not get an opinion as to what it should look like (like it does when it shows you the JPG file).
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11. Re: Looking for a compact camera
JSS1138 Jan 13, 2013 4:32 PM (in response to IggyLights)I've been looking at some of the 176Mbit video
Nick's gone even further with the quality (and at lower bitrates). Here's what I use:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX9-7Pfzjs0&list=PLB8CA0BA972E7CB6B
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12. Re: Looking for a compact camera
IggyLights Jan 13, 2013 4:48 PM (in response to Steven L. Gotz)Now, I haven't looked into data rates in video much, but back when I did sound we used to record at the highest sampling frequencies and bit rates even though CDs and DVDs (and of course MP3) couldn't play them, but that allowed us to get much more involved during editing and processing.
I feel like this could be the same for video. RAW video I feel would be fantastic but almost impossibly large. Imagine a 2.5K Epic RAW file, it'd be Terabytes to store anything. But getting as much data as possible is always a good idea.
I'm scouring eBay for a GH2. I'm not sure I want a new one just yet
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13. Re: Looking for a compact camera
JSS1138 Jan 14, 2013 10:04 AM (in response to IggyLights)With video, bitrate is only part of the story. There's a LOT more involved when creating an image, so a higher bitrate is not always going to be better quality. There are may other variables that will also affect quality, and those variables often interact with each other, so that changing one thing will also change something else. And that's the goal with the patches, trying to adjust all those variables to give the best image possible.
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14. Re: Looking for a compact camera
UlfLaursen Jan 24, 2013 12:04 PM (in response to JSS1138)Just saw this interview reg. Panasonic and thought someone in tjis thread might be interested too:
Ulf
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15. Re: Looking for a compact camera
Steven L. Gotz Jan 24, 2013 5:58 PM (in response to UlfLaursen)Ulf,
Interesting. Thanks.
While the GH3 does not automatically transfer photos to my Smartphone, I can tell the Smartphone to get them from the camera over the wireless link. So how hard could one additional step be?
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16. Re: Looking for a compact camera
SallyLi2003 Mar 23, 2013 5:44 AM (in response to IggyLights)Panasonic make a great range of compact video cameras. http://www.panasonic.com
HC-X920K is a great little unit with 3 MOS.





