GH1 Video with 14-45 Lens

[jdee]

Hi,

I've been trying to decide between a GH1 and a G1. I'm honestly not all that interested in video and the larger lens on the GH1 seems to defeat the purpose of small walk around system. That being said, it would be nice to have video on occasion since I don't have any other means of capturing it. I'm now considering buying a GH1 body and a 14-45mm lens to go with it. This would get the kit price down well under $1000 with Bing.com 20% cashback on ebay.

So my question is, how is the video performance with the 14-45mm lens? I know the lens that comes with the GH1 is designed for video and is better suited to it, but if I'm not too picky, how does the 14-45mm compare?

I'm thinking that a GH1 body, a 14-45 and a 20mm lens might be the best setup for me. I'm not all that interested in telephoto, but I could always pick up a 45-200mm later on if I needed it, and it could be left at home most of the time.

Thoughts?

 

[mpgxsvcd]

If you are not that interested in video then why buy a GH1? Pretty much the only advantages it has over the GF1 are related to video(Manual Controls..etc).

I have shot quite a few videos with my GF1 + 14-45 + 20 mm in the last few months. I have learned that the 14-45 just isn’t any good for video. The lens is simply just too slow. It is fine for bright light. However, you almost never have even lighting while you are shooting video.

The problem is that the compression and noise artifacts really show up with a slow lens. Just watch the video below when the climbers go into the shadows. You can see the smearing clearly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBzvr36SxLU&fmt=22

With my 20 mm F1.7 and my soon to be 50mm F1.4 this never happens. The camera almost never increases the iso or lowers the frame rate with those lens. It produces nice sharp videos like at the beginning of this video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYvhvoNg-gM&fmt=37

The bottom line is that fast glass is vital for really good video. That is the major advantage that interchangeable lens cameras have over camcorders. My suggestion is buy the GF1 with the 20mm pancake. That is your best bang for the buck when it comes to video and still performance.

--
GF1 & ZS3 Sample movies
http://www.youtube.com/user/mpgxsvcd#play/uploads

 

[inti4444]

Here is a video I made with the gh1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBwjO-FtHvM

I am very happy with it

 

[jdee]

I'm not interested in the Gf1 either. I really prefer to have a viewfinder and the flip out screen on the G1 and GH1 are appealing to me.

As far as the 14-45 being too slow for video, I assume it would follow that the 14-140mm would be even worse since it's slower...

While I'm not really interested in video, it would be nice to have on occasion. I'm just wondering if the Gh1 with the 14-45 would fit the bill since it's much cheaper then the Gh1 with 14-140 though still not nearly as cheap as a G1 14-45 combo.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

How come you didn't post it in HD? I still don't understand buying a $1000+ HD video camera to convert everything back to standard definition. The Canon G11 or S90 are much better choices if you only want SD.

Here is a video I made with the gh1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBwjO-FtHvM

I am very happy with it

--
GF1 & ZS3 Sample movies
http://www.youtube.com/user/mpgxsvcd#play/uploads

 

[G1Houston]

From what I read, it should be quite good, especially if video is not your primarily interest. I have a GH1 w/ the 14-140 lens and am thinking about the same thing. The GH1+ 14-140 is a large package and close to dSLR territory. With the new firmware update, the 14-45 can now AF in all HD modes. The 14-45 should AF quite quickly but is likely to be slightly more noisy than the 14-140. However I read more complains in terms of AF speed and noise with the 20/1.7 lens so the 14-45 should be at least better than the 20/1.7 in these areas. The 14-140 has another advantage: stepless shutter so if you leave it in some kind of auto mode you do not see a sudden change of exposure due to change of light levels. I am not sure how critical this is, if you shoot video in manual mode, in which you set up each shot by a fix set of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. You may want to go to DVXUSER.com and people there are more interested in video and have several posts on this matter.

 

[jdee]

From what I read, it should be quite good, especially if video is not your primarily interest. I have a GH1 w/ the 14-140 lens and am thinking about the same thing. The GH1+ 14-140 is a large package and close to dSLR territory. With the new firmware update, the 14-45 can now AF in all HD modes. The 14-45 should AF quite quickly but is likely to be slightly more noisy than the 14-140. However I read more complains in terms of AF speed and noise with the 20/1.7 lens so the 14-45 should be at least better than the 20/1.7 in these areas. The 14-140 has another advantage: stepless shutter so if you leave it in some kind of auto mode you do not see a sudden change of exposure due to change of light levels. I am not sure how critical this is, if you shoot video in manual mode, in which you set up each shot by a fix set of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. You may want to go to DVXUSER.com and people there are more interested in video and have several posts on this matter.

Thanks for the response. I'm primarily interested in some casual video probably just during vacations and things of that nature so I don't think the issues you mention above would be a huge deal. For the most part I'd much rather carry around a smaller picture taking setup I think.