Sell me a GH2 please :-)

Bluetrain048 · May 20, 2011

I am so close to giving Mr Panasonic a whole load of my money, but I have a few things which need cleared up before I make the big jump

I'm currently using Olympus, an E620 with 14-54 Mk1, 9-18, Sigma 30, 14-42 and 40-150. I am close to selling up and buying into m43, with a GH2 and 14-140.

My main issues with the E620 are noise, viewfinder size, and autofocus speed, and also the heft of the faster lenses. The GH2 appears to address every one of those.

However, I have quite a few questions. I know there's some ex-Oly guys in here so hopefully these aren't too difficult...

1) Autofocus - it's generally regarded as fast, but how fast? In what league are we speaking? How would it compare to an Olympus E5, Nikon D300s or D3?

2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

2.5) Regarding AF and general speed, has anyone here shot a wedding with a GH2?

3) AF with standard 4/3 lenses. I am likely to sell the 14-42 and 40-150 but the 9-18, 30/1.4 and the 14-54 Mk1 are great lenses. Is it worth keeping them and using them with a GH2? Will they AF fast or will the experience be painful?

4) Manual focus - I have a collection of manual lenes that never get used on my E620 because I simply can't focus them properly, and live view has too much of a delay to be any use. What is the manual focus experience like with legacy lenses on the GH2? Could I follow subject motion?

4) This leads me on to the viewfinder. My main concerns are dynamic range and blackout. It seems that at 5fps there is no way to track subject movement. Is this true?

5) Also on the viewfinder, I'm concerned about not being able to see the tones in harsh lighting so that I can compose accurately. Does the sky wash out to pure white very quickly? Does the finder brightness adjust to reflect exposure? And finally, quite important this.. is there any live highlight clipping info, ie: zebras or blinking highlights?

6) The shutter - how noisy is it in comparison to a DSLR?

7) Finally, I intend to use a GND filter.. can anyone recommend an adjustable GND filter that would fit on the small lens diameters of say the 20/1.7 or 14-140?

Thanks in advance,

D

Bluetrain048 · May 20, 2011

A small addendum.. does anyone know where to actually find one of these things in the UK? I haven't been able to try one out because no-one has any, and many online stores are out of stock as well.

bluejake · May 20, 2011

Mathers of Lancashire have the body only for £649. Plenty of other places seem to have it in stock including Amazon.co.uk. Don't think there is any shortage of 'em in the UK.

duartix · May 20, 2011

Bluetrain048 said:
A small addendum.. does anyone know where to actually find one of these things in the UK? I haven't been able to try one out because no-one has any, and many online stores are out of stock as well.

http://www.43rumors.com/message-to-soruces-and-readers-very-hot-rumor-time-coming/
The pixmania link is showing stock for ~1100£.
--
Duarte Bruno

larsbc · May 20, 2011

Bluetrain048 wrote:
[snip]

Bluetrain048 said:
However, I have quite a few questions. I know there's some ex-Oly guys in here so hopefully these aren't too difficult...

I've never owned a digital Olympus but I do own a GH2 so I think I can answer some of your questions.

Bluetrain048 said:
1) Autofocus - it's generally regarded as fast, but how fast? In what league are we speaking? How would it compare to an Olympus E5, Nikon D300s or D3?

For single shot focusing, it's pretty close to the performance of my D300. For tracking and continuous AF, the D300 is better.

Bluetrain048 said:
2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

Yes, the GH2 has a dedicated AF assist lamp.

Bluetrain048 said:
2.5) Regarding AF and general speed, has anyone here shot a wedding with a GH2?

I've shot weddings with my D70, a D90, and a my D300. In terms of AF and general speed, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a wedding with one. However, I won't use my GH2 for a wedding simply because I prefer to use Nikon's wireless TTL flash system. Also, I would prefer to use my 2.8 zooms for the improved AF and the ability to throw more of the background out of focus. Oh, and the larger lenses and DSLRs impress the client more, so they feel they're getting their money's worth. ;-)

Bluetrain048 said:
4) This leads me on to the viewfinder. My main concerns are dynamic range and blackout. It seems that at 5fps there is no way to track subject movement. Is this true?

Yep. Even at 3fps, I find it a bit unwieldly. In any case, the buffer on the GH2 is quite limited especially compared to something like my D300.

Bluetrain048 said:
5) Also on the viewfinder, I'm concerned about not being able to see the tones in harsh lighting so that I can compose accurately. Does the sky wash out to pure white very quickly? Does the finder brightness adjust to reflect exposure?

Yes, the EVF adjusted to reflect the exposure, which also means that the sky does not wash out to pure white (because the exposure adjustment is usually bringing it down to a reasonable level). I find that the EVF's tonal range is good enough to display scenes, even in harsh sunlight, with good detail and no blooming.

Bluetrain048 said:
And finally, quite important this.. is there any live highlight clipping info, ie: zebras or blinking highlights?

Hmm...I don't know. I've never looked for that feature. I just rely on the live histogram.

Bluetrain048 said:
6) The shutter - how noisy is it in comparison to a DSLR?

It's a longer duration compared to a mid-range DSLR's shutter, but it's a bit quieter, too.

Bluetrain048 said:
7) Finally, I intend to use a GND filter.. can anyone recommend an adjustable GND filter that would fit on the small lens diameters of say the 20/1.7 or 14-140?

No, but I can recommend the Hi-tech brand. Reasonably priced and they're colour neutral.

larsbc

Jon Schick · May 20, 2011

Bluetrain048 said:
I am so close to giving Mr Panasonic a whole load of my money, but I have a few things which need cleared up before I make the big jump

I'm currently using Olympus, an E620 with 14-54 Mk1, 9-18, Sigma 30, 14-42 and 40-150. I am close to selling up and buying into m43, with a GH2 and 14-140.

My main issues with the E620 are noise, viewfinder size, and autofocus speed, and also the heft of the faster lenses. The GH2 appears to address every one of those.

However, I have quite a few questions. I know there's some ex-Oly guys in here so hopefully these aren't too difficult...

I'm an E-1 owner with 14-54 Mk1, 50-150 Mk1 and 30mm Sigma. I also have GH2 with 14-140, mZuiko 9-18, 20mm pancake and 100-300.

Bluetrain048 said:
1) Autofocus - it's generally regarded as fast, but how fast? In what league are we speaking? How would it compare to an Olympus E5, Nikon D300s or D3?

I have no experience of the cameras you quote, but the GH2 is certainly faster to focus than the E-1 or the much more recent Pentax K-7 that it has replaced. The K-7 is not as fast as the Nikons that you have mentioned, although was a significant step forward for Pentax. I would say the GH2 focuses very fast for stationary objects, but would probably be beaten by good dSLRs for continuous focus and rapidly moving subjects.

Bluetrain048 said:
2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

Absolutely no complaints - it seems to work very well. AF is also very accurate - other cameras may sometimes be faster, but the fast-focussing dSLRs are not necessarily as accurate as the mirrorless cameras.

Bluetrain048 said:
2.5) Regarding AF and general speed, has anyone here shot a wedding with a GH2?

No, but I would have thought that would be fine. The main issues would be (a) wedding couples would expect their photographer to have larger and fancier looking kit and (b) the absence of fast zooms. m43 needs to address the latter as a matter of some urgency. Not just about keeping the ISO down, but also about controlling depth of field - which would be particularly important for some wedding shots.

Bluetrain048 said:
3) AF with standard 4/3 lenses. I am likely to sell the 14-42 and 40-150 but the 9-18, 30/1.4 and the 14-54 Mk1 are great lenses. Is it worth keeping them and using them with a GH2? Will they AF fast or will the experience be painful?

I'd like to know the answer to this too, because I've been too cheap to buy the required adapter so far!

Bluetrain048 said:
4) Manual focus - I have a collection of manual lenes that never get used on my E620 because I simply can't focus them properly, and live view has too much of a delay to be any use. What is the manual focus experience like with legacy lenses on the GH2? Could I follow subject motion?

Real strength of the GH2 - manual focus with the EVF is vastly superior to APSC dSLR, let alone the E620. Not least because of the ability to magnify the image in the viewfinder. I think you could follow subject motion within reason and with practice.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) This leads me on to the viewfinder. My main concerns are dynamic range and blackout. It seems that at 5fps there is no way to track subject movement. Is this true?

I've tracked flying birds of prey and didn't find it too painful. But a good dSLR would probably be better.

Bluetrain048 said:
5) Also on the viewfinder, I'm concerned about not being able to see the tones in harsh lighting so that I can compose accurately. Does the sky wash out to pure white very quickly? Does the finder brightness adjust to reflect exposure? And finally, quite important this.. is there any live highlight clipping info, ie: zebras or blinking highlights?

The viewfinder adjusts to enable you to see clearly even in dark conditions, but does not give a very good indication of what the final image will look like. However, it is also possible to include live histogram, and decide where you would like that to be positioned in the display. That's very helpful. Not aware of any camera that does the blinkies until after a shot has been taken.

Bluetrain048 said:
6) The shutter - how noisy is it in comparison to a DSLR?

Pretty quiet but not silent. My E-1 is probably quieter, and sounds nicer. But the GH2 shutter is not objectionable and is certainly a lot quieter than some of the pro Canons and Nikons.

Bluetrain048 said:
7) Finally, I intend to use a GND filter.. can anyone recommend an adjustable GND filter that would fit on the small lens diameters of say the 20/1.7 or 14-140?

The 14-140 does not have a small filter thread, so that one should not be an issue. I would imagine that an adjustable ND filter would be of particular benefit for video when you want to keep the shutter speed to 1/50 sec even on a bright day - and the one I've heard of in the UK is the "FaderND" which seems to get reasonable reviews (but not as good as separate NDs from the high end people like Lee). You talk of an adjustable ND Grad - don't think they exist? For stills, I'd be tempted to buy a slot in filter set with different adapters for your different lenses (I have Hi Tech Formatt filters from Teamwork Photo in London and feel they represent a good compromise between cost and quality - better than cheapie Cokins but cheaper than high end like Lee). For the 20mm lens, I think you'd be really struggling to find filters that fit - but a cheap step up ring available for peanuts would sort you out.

Hope this helps,

Jon

Bluetrain048 said:
Thanks in advance,

D

--
http://jonschick.smugmug.com/

Jon Schick · May 20, 2011

I've not used them, but Mathers seem very highly regarded for Panasonic stuff in the UK. My personal favourite shop is SRS Microsystems in Watford (they do mail order and internet orders) who are excellent and offer exemplary service at competitive prices. You could also try Park Cameras. Batteries will be your real issue....
--
http://jonschick.smugmug.com/

dko22 · May 20, 2011

Jon Schick said:
I've not used them, but Mathers seem very highly regarded for Panasonic stuff in the UK. My personal favourite shop is SRS Microsystems in Watford (they do mail order and internet orders) who are excellent and offer exemplary service at competitive prices. You could also try Park Cameras. Batteries will be your real issue....
--
http://jonschick.smugmug.com/

I bought most of my lenses from SRS and the GH2 from Mathers. Mathers seems to win out on sheer enthusiasm and helpfulness but both appear to be excellent in general and keenly priced.

David

David Lawson · May 20, 2011

I've bought off them.

Pete Berry · May 20, 2011

The Oly Pens have a very sophisticated live view blinky setup, with adjustable thresholds for both shadow and highlights.

The GH2 perpetuates the GH1's fault on the histogram of any negative exposure comp. moving the highlight spike off the right histogram vertical - even pointed at the sun! So you have to judge comp. by appearance of some detail in the highlights, or the old shoot and review dance. Very few wasted shots with my E-PL1 due to highlight clipping, but the GH2's other attributes make it far the best I've yet owned.

On the shadow side, it does react proportionally to positive comp, not moving off the left vertical until shadows aren't clipped.

Pete

Corkcampbell · May 20, 2011

immediately ordered spare batteries from two HK shops on eBay. One order (of two batteries) arrived yesterday and seem to work fine. The costs were between ten and 14 US dollars per battery and, the shipping was free in one situation and nominal in another.

One of the merchants sold me batteries for my GF1, bought when introduced, and they still perform well.

By the way, I saw GH2 bodies in a couple of Panasonic stores in the UK (including Plymouth) recently, but that was in March. I bought mine from Panasonic in Beijing; it was the 14-42 kit which I got for $100 less than the USA list price. eBaying the lens will make it even cheaper.

Off topic:

The only issue I have with my m4/3 system is lack of high quality mid-range zooms, such as a 16-80 (35mm equivalent). Bought the 14mm pancake yesterday and am pleased with it, despite my earlier concerns that it was too similar to my 20mm. If only someone would bring out a 7mm prime...

papillon_65 · May 21, 2011

Bluetrain048 said:
I am so close to giving Mr Panasonic a whole load of my money, but I have a few things which need cleared up before I make the big jump

I'm a long time Oly user and have owned many of the popular DSLR's including the E-30. I have the GH2 and EPL-1, as well as still owning the E-510, E-330 and E-1 so I think I'm pretty well qualified to give you an honest opinion on the GH2 compared to the E-620.

Bluetrain048 said:
I'm currently using Olympus, an E620 with 14-54 Mk1, 9-18, Sigma 30, 14-42 and 40-150. I am close to selling up and buying into m43, with a GH2 and 14-140.

My main issues with the E620 are noise, viewfinder size, and autofocus speed, and also the heft of the faster lenses. The GH2 appears to address every one of those.

It does.

Bluetrain048 said:
However, I have quite a few questions. I know there's some ex-Oly guys in here so hopefully these aren't too difficult...

1) Autofocus - it's generally regarded as fast, but how fast? In what league are we speaking? How would it compare to an Olympus E5, Nikon D300s or D3?

Not quite as fast as the E-30 (which is extremely fast) but there's nothing much in it.

Bluetrain048 said:
2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

Fast and accurate and it does have an af assist lamp. The GH2 will also automatically enlarge the focus area if it is struggling, it does this very quickly. Lowlight focusing has not been an issue for me.

Bluetrain048 said:
2.5) Regarding AF and general speed, has anyone here shot a wedding with a GH2?

No but I could quite happily do so and have done with the E-510 and E-30.

Bluetrain048 said:
3) AF with standard 4/3 lenses. I am likely to sell the 14-42 and 40-150 but the 9-18, 30/1.4 and the 14-54 Mk1 are great lenses. Is it worth keeping them and using them with a GH2? Will they AF fast or will the experience be painful?

The 9-18mm will af in about 1.5-2 seconds on average. The 14-54mm mk1 and 30mm 1.4 (both of which I have owned) are best manually focused, which is dead easy on the GH2. Neither are cdaf compatible and will rack in and out before achieving focus.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) Manual focus - I have a collection of manual lenes that never get used on my E620 because I simply can't focus them properly, and live view has too much of a delay to be any use. What is the manual focus experience like with legacy lenses on the GH2? Could I follow subject motion?

You could but it's hard work with any camera unless you use hyperfocal techniques or focus in advance and predict the targets movement. If you are talking telephoto lenses forget it.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) This leads me on to the viewfinder. My main concerns are dynamic range and blackout. It seems that at 5fps there is no way to track subject movement. Is this true?

A DSLR is better for this but track the subject and fire in short bursts and you should get some decent results.

Bluetrain048 said:
5) Also on the viewfinder, I'm concerned about not being able to see the tones in harsh lighting so that I can compose accurately. Does the sky wash out to pure white very quickly? Does the finder brightness adjust to reflect exposure? And finally, quite important this.. is there any live highlight clipping info, ie: zebras or blinking highlights?

It's not quite as good as the EPL-1 in this respect but getting the correct exposure is very easy and you can see highlight clipping in real time. The liveview histogram is useful for this as well.

Bluetrain048 said:
6) The shutter - how noisy is it in comparison to a DSLR?

Better than the E-30 but not especially quiet.

Bluetrain048 said:
7) Finally, I intend to use a GND filter.. can anyone recommend an adjustable GND filter that would fit on the small lens diameters of say the 20/1.7 or 14-140?

I use the lightcraft fader ND with a step-up ring as it covers from 1-8 stops and is very good but some people might find it overkill on a smaller lens.

Bluetrain048 said:
Thanks in advance,

D

--
It's a known fact that where there's tea there's hope.
Tony
http://the-random-photographer.blogspot.com/

Pete Berry · May 21, 2011

Tony, how in the world do you see live clipping on the GH2?

As far as I can see, it's identical to the GH1 in this respect. Of course the histogram shows it, but as I explained in my note above, it becomes innacurate with the first -1/3 stop of comp. My E-PL1 was a real delight in one shot highlight management.

Pete

EXR · May 21, 2011

Bluetrain048 said:
1) Autofocus - it's generally regarded as fast, but how fast? In what league are we speaking? How would it compare to an Olympus E5, Nikon D300s or D3?

Single-focus is about as fast or even faster as a DSLR. Focus-tracking is still better with phase-detection.

Bluetrain048 said:
2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

Low-light focusing is much better than any DSLR. The camera will still reliable lock focus when any phase-detection system gives up. Focus-times of course will get longer, but depending on the lens you usually can expect a maximum of arount 0,5s.

Bluetrain048 said:
3) AF with standard 4/3 lenses. I am likely to sell the 14-42 and 40-150 but the 9-18, 30/1.4 and the 14-54 Mk1 are great lenses. Is it worth keeping them and using them with a GH2? Will they AF fast or will the experience be painful?

AF with 4/3-lenses will be very slow, usually too slow to be usable. I´ve tried a few "CD-enabled" lenses, and focusing is usually so slow you could measure it with your stopwatch with reasonable accuracy.

You can expect at least 1s, an average of maybe 2s and if the current focusing-position of the lens isn´t ideal it can exceed 3-4s as well.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) Manual focus - I have a collection of manual lenes that never get used on my E620 because I simply can't focus them properly, and live view has too much of a delay to be any use. What is the manual focus experience like with legacy lenses on the GH2? Could I follow subject motion?

The viewfinder of the GH2 is much bigger, so manual-focusing will be a lot easier, even without magnification. You can switch to magnified view very quickly to check critical focus, but it may be a bit tricky if you try it with a long lens without IS.

Following a moving subject could be a bit tricky, it will depend on your experience. I´m sure I could not, but some more experienced photographers may be able to do it.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) This leads me on to the viewfinder. My main concerns are dynamic range and blackout. It seems that at 5fps there is no way to track subject movement. Is this true?

This is true you have to switch to the lower speeds if you want to have live-view between the shots. I´m also pretty sure you have to live with S-AF when using the highest speeds. If 4MP is enough for you, you could also use the 40fps-mode, this should be enough to follow moving subjects, but again without C-AF.

While the GH2 improves performance quite a bit µ4/3 is surely still not the first choice for high-speed-shooting.

Bluetrain048 said:
5) Also on the viewfinder, I'm concerned about not being able to see the tones in harsh lighting so that I can compose accurately. Does the sky wash out to pure white very quickly? Does the finder brightness adjust to reflect exposure? And finally, quite important this.. is there any live highlight clipping info, ie: zebras or blinking highlights?

Obviously the viewfinder will wash out in overexposed areas. The exposure in every mode apart from M is always simulated. But it is a simulation from a constant live-view, which means overexposed areas stay overexposed, they will just change from white to gray. There is a exposure-preview-mode which will set the live-view-feed to the set exposure-values and reflect exactly the final exposure, including a histogram. This will also work with manual and any (semi) automatic exposure.

Blinking highlights are available in instant review, and play-mode, but not in live-view.

Bluetrain048 said:
6) The shutter - how noisy is it in comparison to a DSLR?

It is less noisy because you hear just the shutter-noise, there is no mirror-slapping, but it still audible and much louder than a central-shutter.

EXR · May 21, 2011

Pete Berry said:
Tony, how in the world do you see live clipping on the GH2?

As far as I can see, it's identical to the GH1 in this respect. Of course the histogram shows it, but as I explained in my note above, it becomes innacurate with the first -1/3 stop of comp. My E-PL1 was a real delight in one shot highlight management.

You will always see highlight-clipping in the live-histogram. What you don´t see by default is how much negative exposure-correction is necessary to avoid clipping, but switch to the exposure-preview-mode and you get a accurate exposure-representation and histogram.

Jogger · May 21, 2011

Bluetrain048 said:
I am so close to giving Mr Panasonic a whole load of my money, but I have a few things which need cleared up before I make the big jump

I'm currently using Olympus, an E620 with 14-54 Mk1, 9-18, Sigma 30, 14-42 and 40-150. I am close to selling up and buying into m43, with a GH2 and 14-140.

Are you planning to adapt your 43 lenses? the 14-54, 9-18, and Sigma 30 are far superior to the 14-140, which is a slow 10x consumer zoom.

Bluetrain048 said:
My main issues with the E620 are noise, viewfinder size, and autofocus speed, and also the heft of the faster lenses. The GH2 appears to address every one of those.

Noise is still going to be there. VF size will see an improvement. AF speed wont. You wont save much in lens size unless you go for the pancakes. The 14-140 is not a small or light lens.

Bluetrain048 said:
However, I have quite a few questions. I know there's some ex-Oly guys in here so hopefully these aren't too difficult...

1) Autofocus - it's generally regarded as fast, but how fast? In what league are we speaking? How would it compare to an Olympus E5, Nikon D300s or D3?

No it is not as fast as the E5 or pro Nikon bodies. Any one who says it is hasnt shot with one. Take a look at any major event esp. sports, they are all shooting Nikon and Canon pro bodies. People who need to nail the shot are not shooting m43 bodies. Thats it.

Is it fast enough for you? Possibly.

Bluetrain048 said:
2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

It uses contrast defect AF.. no contrast = no AF. The AF assist light is there, but, it loses effectiveness if your subject is too far off or you are fully zoomed in. The 14-140 is also extremely slow (f5.6 at the 140 end), its not taking much light in in the first place.

Bluetrain048 said:
2.5) Regarding AF and general speed, has anyone here shot a wedding with a GH2?

No its not good enough as a primary wedding cam. Maybe as a secondary cam. The 14-140 isnt even an appropriate wedding lenses.. its a jack of all trades, consumer super zoom... not suitable for paid wedding work.

Bluetrain048 said:
3) AF with standard 4/3 lenses. I am likely to sell the 14-42 and 40-150 but the 9-18, 30/1.4 and the 14-54 Mk1 are great lenses. Is it worth keeping them and using them with a GH2? Will they AF fast or will the experience be painful?

Yes they are worth keeping simply because they are better than the 14-140.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) Manual focus - I have a collection of manual lenes that never get used on my E620 because I simply can't focus them properly, and live view has too much of a delay to be any use. What is the manual focus experience like with legacy lenses on the GH2? Could I follow subject motion?

MF should be vastly better with the higher rez EVF and LCD screen.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) This leads me on to the viewfinder. My main concerns are dynamic range and blackout. It seems that at 5fps there is no way to track subject movement. Is this true?

Yes. The ability to track anything is very far behind SLRs, anyone who says otherwise is lying. This is true for all mirrorless designs since they use a double shutter mechanism for each shot and needs to black out the sensor. Add to that the non-predicative CDAF that cant anticipate the subject.

At best, you can acquire the initial focus, then blind burst the remainder of the shots. This works ok for lateral motion where the plane of focus doesnt change.

If you need to track and shoot bursts, then you need at minimum a D7000, D300, 7D class camera with appropriate lens.

Bluetrain048 said:
5) Also on the viewfinder, I'm concerned about not being able to see the tones in harsh lighting so that I can compose accurately. Does the sky wash out to pure white very quickly? Does the finder brightness adjust to reflect exposure? And finally, quite important this.. is there any live highlight clipping info, ie: zebras or blinking highlights?

Just use the histogram.

Bluetrain048 said:
6) The shutter - how noisy is it in comparison to a DSLR?

Its still loud and sounds different because of mirrorless design. Keep in mind that the D3 has a shutter that is 4x larger, is good for 300,000 cycles and 9 fps... its over-engineered for pro work.

Bluetrain048 said:
7) Finally, I intend to use a GND filter.. can anyone recommend an adjustable GND filter that would fit on the small lens diameters of say the 20/1.7 or 14-140?

Thanks in advance,

D

jeffharris · May 21, 2011

Bluetrain048 said:
2) How fast / accurate is the AF in low light? The E620 is pitiful when the light drops, and I could not get the E30 / E5 to focus accurately in dim light, even if they are fast. How would the GH2 compare? Does it have a dedicated assist lamp?

It works well for me. I like walking around the city late at night, usually with the 20mm and it works perfectly.

The AF+MF feature lets you automatically switch to MF by turning the focus ring. GREAT!

AND be sure you activate the Constant Preview feature.

Bluetrain048 said:
2.5) Regarding AF and general speed, has anyone here shot a wedding with a GH2?

AF speed is excellent, especially with the 14-140mm. I shoot mostly available light and have no trouble with AF speed.

Bluetrain048 said:
4) Manual focus - I have a collection of manual lenes that never get used on my E620 because I simply can't focus them properly, and live view has too much of a delay to be any use. What is the manual focus experience like with legacy lenses on the GH2? Could I follow subject motion?

I use manual lenses a lot. They're a pleasure to use on a GH2! Manual mode is a excellent especially with a real aperture ring!

You can learn 35mm manual focus techniques, especially if subjects are far enough away, to pre-focus and follow. It takes practice and not every shot needs to be clinically sharp. Remember, you don't have to pay for film and processing!

Play some FPS games, it'll improve your tracking skills. ;-)

Pete Berry · May 22, 2011

EXR said:
Pete Berry said:

Tony, how in the world do you see live clipping on the GH2?

As far as I can see, it's identical to the GH1 in this respect. Of course the histogram shows it, but as I explained in my note above, it becomes innacurate with the first -1/3 stop of comp. My E-PL1 was a real delight in one shot highlight management.

Click to expand...

You will always see highlight-clipping in the live-histogram. What you don´t see by default is how much negative exposure-correction is necessary to avoid clipping, but switch to the exposure-preview-mode and you get a accurate exposure-representation and histogram.

As far as I can tell, and according to the manual, the preview mode reflects only shutter speed and DOF effects - the histogram doesn't change, and the first 1/3 neg comp moves the highlight spike off as before in preview mode. So it's shoot and review for blinkies until you've got it right. What am I missing?

Pete

EXR · May 23, 2011

Pete Berry said:
EXR wrote:

As far as I can tell, and according to the manual, the preview mode reflects only shutter speed and DOF effects - the histogram doesn't change, and the first 1/3 neg comp moves the highlight spike off as before in preview mode.

The preview-mode reflects shutter-speed and DOF, because it uses the set shutter-speed and aperture. But this also means it uses exactly the exposure, which will be used for the final image. More or less as an undocumented side-effect this will effect the exposure-representation as well as the histogram to exactly match the final exposure.

You usually won´t see much difference if exposure-compensation is 0, in most cases the live-view-image represents the metered exposure quite good (except if you are using a fast lens, like the 20mm/F1,7, then even the uncorrected exposure can be quite off, especially in low light), but you will see a big difference when you are using exposure-compensation.

This of course still isn´t ideal, there are quite a few disadvantages.

Immediately noticeable is the lower framerate for live-view. Also the camera switches back to regular live-view as soon as you press the shutter, so you have to enter preview-mode after each picture if you want to use it.

Also metering is locked as soon as you enter preview-mode. While you can still change the exposure with the exposure-compensation, or directly changing aperture and shutter-speed the camera won´t change exposure automatically if the brightness of the scene changes.

So it is still far from perfect, but it is possible to exactly judge exposure before taking the shot, and it is much faster than talking test-shots and always enter playback-mode to judge exposure, like you have to do it on a DSLR.

I don´t think the disadvantages are too bad, if speed is so important you won´t do much of exposure-compensation anyway. (and you probably should still use a DSLR)

If you have no time and want to avoid clipped highlights, it is best to simply set a low ISO and generally underexpose 1 or 2 stops while shooting RAW. During the RAW-developement you can correct the exposure, and noise-penalty isn´t so bad when you push it from ISO100 to ISO400 for example.

Pete Berry · May 23, 2011

EXR said:
Pete Berry said:

EXR wrote:

As far as I can tell, and according to the manual, the preview mode reflects only shutter speed and DOF effects - the histogram doesn't change, and the first 1/3 neg comp moves the highlight spike off as before in preview mode.

Click to expand...

The preview-mode reflects shutter-speed and DOF, because it uses the set shutter-speed and aperture. But this also means it uses exactly the exposure, which will be used for the final image. More or less as an undocumented side-effect this will effect the exposure-representation as well as the histogram to exactly match the final exposure.

You usually won´t see much difference if exposure-compensation is 0, in most cases the live-view-image represents the metered exposure quite good (except if you are using a fast lens, like the 20mm/F1,7, then even the uncorrected exposure can be quite off, especially in low light), but you will see a big difference when you are using exposure-compensation.

This of course still isn´t ideal, there are quite a few disadvantages.

Immediately noticeable is the lower framerate for live-view. Also the camera switches back to regular live-view as soon as you press the shutter, so you have to enter preview-mode after each picture if you want to use it.

Also metering is locked as soon as you enter preview-mode. While you can still change the exposure with the exposure-compensation, or directly changing aperture and shutter-speed the camera won´t change exposure automatically if the brightness of the scene changes.

So it is still far from perfect, but it is possible to exactly judge exposure before taking the shot, and it is much faster than talking test-shots and always enter playback-mode to judge exposure, like you have to do it on a DSLR.

How can you "exactly judge exposure" (by this I assume you mean avoid highlight clipping through accurate camera feedback) if the histogram functions exactly as in live view mode? In preview, as in live view, with ANY neg. comp, the spike moves left indicating no clipping, but with blown highlights on review if under-comp'd, without accurate histogram or live blinkies to guide you.

So try this: point your camera at a scene with a much brighter light source in it - eg a ceiling light, or bright clouds - and see if you can nail the highlight exposure in one shot with some sort of hard data that I'm not finding in preview mode or live, rather than the usual experiential guestimation. My little ex-E-PLI was a well-honed surgical blade in this regard.

EXR said:
I don´t think the disadvantages are too bad, if speed is so important you won´t do much of exposure-compensation anyway. (and you probably should still use a DSLR)

If you have no time and want to avoid clipped highlights, it is best to simply set a low ISO and generally underexpose 1 or 2 stops while shooting RAW. During the RAW-developement you can correct the exposure, and noise-penalty isn´t so bad when you push it from ISO100 to ISO400 for example.

Of course, which is why I always shoot RAW and often a lot of fill light. Fortunately GH2's shadow DR is pretty deep and easily recoverable.

Pete

Sell me a GH2 please :-)

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