Philip Bloom gets his mitts on a GH1 in Austin, TX

[Phil Bloom]

Originally Posted by Jim Froom

Phil:

The slow motion is a nice feature. I like it so far. If I could get my mitts on one for 24 hours, I'm guessing I'd be $1500 poorer.

Our family has been to Kauai about 10-12 time in the last 15 years. Don't recognize the beach though.

Any chance you shot the sunset around Hanapepe or maybe on a beach down by the base of Waimea Canyon somewhere.
if not there, maybe up on the north shore near the end of the road in Hanea State Park?

If your like Pizza, one of my favorite Pizza joints is a place called the Brick Oven in Kalaheo on the south part of the island. As good as I've had anywhere.

Don't forget to get a bubba burger up north in Hanalei. They cheat tourist and lawyers and won't sell a burger for less than the cost of a can of dog food, or something along those lines.

Are you going to use the GH1 as a B cam with your EX3 Letus rig on this shoot?

Looking forward to some more GH1 footage.

It's on the north shore near Princeville. I will be doing some more shooting with the Lumix but mostly it's ex3/ ultimate from now on...

[Phil Bloom]

Originally Posted by Jim Froom

Phil:

After this week, even though I haven't touched a GH1, I'm getting the gut feeling that I may be able to sell the XH A1 w/ Cinevate. Then my 2 cams would then be the D5 mkII and GH1.

I need one camera to be able to roll for 30 minutes or longer. The other camera can be started and stopped. The XH A1 was my benchmark for image quality and DOF.

I'm liking the auto focus on the GH1, ease of use, and manual controls. Of course, optimistic on the image quality so far, just waiting to see more.

What's your opinion of image quality on GH1 vs the HDV camcorders with 35 adapters?
Think one can get buy with 2 DSLR's and no HDV camcorder?

i would be VERY nervous about having two DSLRs and no proper camcorder. The GH1 is a great little tool but no substitute...the codec is quite weak and the lack of audio monitoring if a problem...I would keep the HDV camcorder.

Put it this one I am shooting professionally for the next few days using the EX3/ Ultimate. I have a 5dmk2 here and a GH1 but this is a pro gig and the only camera I will use for it still is the EX3...we are getting there though!! These DSLR are great B cams for 35mm rigs as they are SO lightweight and awesome in low light. Especially the Canon.

The autofocus features on the GH1 stock lens are great (especially facial recognition with memory so you can program it to stay focused on one person and ignore the rest!) but it does do sudden reactionary changes unlike the subtle changes you can do with video cams...

[Klas Persson]

Actually I think the 5DMii could very well replace any HDV camcorder had it 24/25p and manual controls. Especially the latter. If you're into narrative film making that is, with controlled lighting, separate audio recording and staged actors. The GH1 on the other hand is way too compressed it seems.

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Phil Bloom

i would be VERY nervous about having two DSLRs and no proper camcorder.

Kind of depends on what you mean by "proper." At $1500 MSRP the price is not far above the current crop of AVCHD "consumer" camcorders. IMHO these camera are too tiny, too light, and either without a VF or with a tiny lo-rez VF. The GH1 has a great VF. And, many of these camcorders have no physical manual controls.

Shooting at 720p60 with the GH1 is a strong possibility for, what I would guess, may be the larger population of folks shoot "video" rather than "movies." In fact, I'd venture to guess the number of folks who today want to shoot progressive with high-temporal accuracy is greater than the number who want to shoot p24. :)

And, video shooters also have a need (e.g., interviews) for minimum DOF.

I'd be curious how you think the GH1 compares to the HM100 at 720p60. I had the HM100's earlier consumer version, the HD7, and I found the tiny "under your nose" controls very difficult to use.

PS 1: Another great demo, Phil.

PS 2: I had no problem using the AVCHD import function of iMovie 09 to import 720p60 from a prototype GH1. And, once AIC, it edited no differently than HDV.

However, despite Pana claiming the 24p is in 60i -- iMovie saw it as 24p and said it could not be imported. It would import into FCP, but it was clearly pure 1080p24. Looks like, unfortunately, the production version is using pulldown.

[Phil Bloom]

agreed...am thinking more along the lines of the people wanting to see their Canon A1s...the lack of proper audio at the moment and the still wobbly sensors still makes me see these DSLRs as B cams...but i WANT them to be A cams!!

[Ram Shani]

i am sorry if this is stupid Q

but can you zoom when shooting using the camera servo zoom?

probably yes but i want to make sure


2- is there a way to see live view at external monitor(sd or hd)
when shooting? (for the director to have reference)

thanks

[Jelle Dobma]

Originally Posted by Ram Shani

i am sorry if this is stupid Q

but can you zoom when shooting using the camera servo zoom?

probably yes but i want to make sure

The camera has no zoom buttons. Zooming is manual like a SLR.

Originally Posted by Ram Shani

2- is there a way to see live view at external monitor(sd or hd)
when shooting? (for the director to have reference)

thanks

Don't think so, but not sure...

[Phil Bloom]

i have an english pdf of the manual if interested...please email me at philip@philipbloom.co.uk and i will send it to you...

[Phil Bloom]

here is the gh1 with a mattebox on it!

Philip Bloom Blog Archive Using a Matte Box on the GH1

[John Vincent]

Thanks Phil for all the footage and info... very excited to get me mitts on this cam.

john

[Jose A. Garcia]

I just have one question:

Was the first clip (the one at RE:Frame) shot at 1/50? Because it doesn't look too smooth compared to say a HV20 in progressive 25fps at 1/50. I know it's different but I wasn't expecting it to be so different in terms of motion feeling. Other than that, the camera looks like a dream come true.

[Jose A. Garcia]

I've seen other 1080p24/25 test shots looking smoother. Maybe it's because of the 60i pulldown removal process?

[Ian G. Thompson]

I believe Phil has a PAL model.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Yep, it is a PAL model that he has and those clips were converted at least twice. I’m not sure if he found a host for his higher quality version.

[Jose A. Garcia]

Sorry, I meant conversion from 50i to 25p.