OT - Any opinions on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2

dibbkd wrote on 9/30/2012, 7:40 PM

I've heard a few good things about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2, been thinking about getting one.

Wanted to hear from anyone here who has one what they thought about it. I've also read about the hacks available, wanted to know what you thought of those as well.

And of course, does the video it creates work well with Vegas?

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Laurence wrote on 10/13/2012, 8:45 PM

I have never been as excited about a camera as I am about the GH3. Things like being able to watch your framing on an iPad when you are doing an interview and asking the questions and working the camera at the same time from an off camera position... I love that. Think of it. Right when the questions and answers are getting intense, you just can't lean move over to the camera and zoom in and refocus. That would ruin the mood. I want to be able to work the camera from an off camera interviewing position. Then there is the wifi DNLA server feature. You can preview on many wifi bluray players, certain HDTVs or IOS or android tablets right off the camera with no wires! Then there are camera features like built in remote flash TTL triggering, tapping on the viewer to focus then shoot a still. Smooth fast autofocus with tracking, facial recognition with registered faces to that it will pick out a certain face out of a group...this camera is several years ahead of Canon or Nikon, no question!

fldave wrote on 10/13/2012, 8:51 PM

Thanks, Mark, I'll have to experiment with it. My main concern is copying the files to a hard drive ASAP and backing it up before I do anything with the footage.

Lyris wrote on 10/13/2012, 9:15 PM

We've been using hacked GH2s since January. We used them to produce documentaries (with Vegas) for these titles.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Les-Enfants-Du-Paradis-Packaging/dp/B008B91830/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350180924&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gloire-P%C3%A8re-Ch%C3%A2teau-M%C3%A8re-Blu-ray/dp/B008QY8C66/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350180941&sr=8-3

The price-performance ratio is outstanding. The resolution and overall quality are far better than the blurry, aliased video modes on cameras like the Canon T2i / T3i / 550d etc.

fldave wrote on 10/14/2012, 12:05 AM

Is there a definitive, "safe" hack to use? I want to use the base camera as long as I can under warranty, but I want to make sure I am not compromising my quality too much. Kind of a conservative approach, I know.

Thoughts are welcome!

Laurence wrote on 10/14/2012, 12:23 AM

The hack is actually surprisingly safe. It's just a program which rewrites the latest version of the firmware which you can then install on your camera in the regular way. It is easy to go back to an unhacked version of the firmware should you ever need warranty work, although I doubt that sending in a hacked version would catch anyone's attention. On my GF3 (which is included in the latest version of the hacking software) all I did was bump up the bitrate, remove the 30 minute limit, and set it so it can go back and forth between PAL and NTSC. The hack is actually just a firmware modifying tool. It is easy to use and it is limited in what it can change. It doesn't look like you could change the settings in a way that could damage the camera if you tried.