Portraits: Use GH2 or purchase 5Dmkii ?

[Jeff Hinson]

GRAND DAUGHTER ON HALLOWEEN....

Taken with my GH2
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/...halloween.html

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

I use the Canon 5D Mk2 but I expect the new GH3 will also be very good for stills (combined with video of course).

[Jeff Hinson]

Tony...
Yeah, Ive been torn for months trying to decide to stay with the GH2/3 or splurge for a 5DmkII.
My small business needs both stills and video...plus some multicam shoots.....in which "matching" cams saves a lot of post work.

Considering the difference in price, I will probably stay with the GH line, and most likely the GH2s, with the FlowMotion hack/patch. Ive delivered up to 16x20s taken with the GH2 and they look nice. All of the stills in my portrait section were with the GH2....although downsized for this forum.

Waiting for the verdict on the GH3.

Thanks for the post,
Jeff

[Bill Bruner]

Looks like Panasonic has done a lot to improve still performance with the

GH3

 

GH3

- to some small degree at the expense of video performance:

"Like the Olympus OM-D E-M5, stills are an improvement on the GH2 and colour is now right up there with the Canon 7D. Especially in terms of noise in raw format and colour balance, the

GH3

 

GH3

is a winner. The improved colour, smoother tones and wider dynamic range are to the benefit of the video mode too. Reduced are the halos around bright light sources and the banding of gradation between subtle shades. There’s now a smoother transition between different shades and tones in both stills and movie mode..."

And: "Uematsu-san replied that the only surefire way to reduce moire was to read-out all pixels and oversample. He said it was preferable to reduce the pixel count to 4K (8MP). 10MP was also a good number. He cited the Aptina sensor in the Nikon 1 as capable of reading out all pixels at a frame rate fast enough for video and the Canon C300′s sensor design where each RGB photosite is output and moire is reduced. With the 16MP sensor in the

GH3

 

GH3

, this would be a tall order especially given the price point which is 1/12th of Canon’s C300, and they are not willing to compromise resolution in stills mode down to just 10MP either. This is totally understandable. But Uematsu-san also hinted at a weaker anti-aliasing filter in our conversations. This results in sharper stills but more aliasing in video mode."

Can't wait to get my hands on this camera!

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

[Jeff Hinson]

Great info Bill!
Thanks
Jeff

[Guy Smith]

Originally Posted by Jeff Hinson

Would the 5D offer a noticeable improvement in quality over the GH2 for still/portrait photography in a controlled studio environment?

Hi Jeff, I must concur that the 5DmKII is a much better choice for still photos of any kind. Two of my friends have one and the results are superb. I must also concur with the opinion that it does well when shooting video when moire and maximum sharpness aren't an issue. A co-worker shot an indoor natural light interview and the color rendering was superb.

Having said that, you may also want to consider Nikon. I use the D7000 at work for shooting product photos and have played with it a bit on the weekends shooting friends and family. I used the D7000 with a 60's-vintage Nikon 105mm f2.5 portrait lens that I purchased for my GH1 and the results with the D7000 were stunning. I can't really describe it, but the images just had a visual quality that I've seen but have never been able to achieve.

In my (much) younger days I shot some portraits with my Olympus and with my Mamiya RB67 medium format camera but never came close to the look of the D7000/105 f2.5. I paid $95 for the lens at a local camera store the specializes in vintage equipment, and I chose this lens over the newer (circa 1980's)_ version because the older brownish/yellow lens coating rendered significantly better skin tones on my GH1.

Having used both, I feel that Canon and Nikon are both excellent. Canon is great for sports and for mixed lighting conditions when manual white balancing isn't practical (Canon's AWB is excellent). But for the type of work you are doing I would recommend taking a look at Nikon. Lens choice is everything and Nikon cameras (mid-level and above, not the 3000/5000 series) fully support vintage lenses that are both excellent and inexpensive.

[Kin Lau]

Originally Posted by Guy Smith

Having used both, I feel that Canon and Nikon are both excellent. Canon is great for sports and for mixed lighting conditions when manual white balancing isn't practical (Canon's AWB is excellent). But for the type of work you are doing I would recommend taking a look at Nikon. Lens choice is everything and Nikon cameras (mid-level and above, not the 3000/5000 series) fully support vintage lenses that are both excellent and inexpensive.

The funny thing is, Canon DSLR's have the better support for older Nikon vintage lenses. Most Nikon DSLR's have a metering prong that will be crushed by many vintage Nikon lenses when you attempt to mount them. The only solution for those lenses, is to actually grind the back of the lens down so that it won't do that.

[Guy Smith]

Originally Posted by Kin Lau

Most Nikon DSLR's have a metering prong that will be crushed by many vintage Nikon lenses when you attempt to mount them. The only solution for those lenses, is to actually grind the back of the lens down so that it won't do that.

Good point, thanks for bringing this up. The lens I purchased had already been modified and I should have mentioned that. This gentleman can convert older non-ai lenses to work with current DSLRs for about $35: Prices and Shipping (Type B conversion)

D7000 and higher bodies support non-CPU lenses, so a modded lens will stay at its maximum aperture for focusing and metering and stop down automatically when a picture is taken. I was also able to use the camera in Aperture-priority exposure mode, so basically the only loss is auto-focus.

[Aaron Courtney]

Little late to the party but just in case anyone is wondering about the potential of the GH2 for stills, you can view a series of corp portraits I shot with one of my GH2's with an old Sigma APO 70-210/2.8 that will stack up well against anything from any camera out there IMO at this site:

Capital Investment Services

Click on the download JPEG artwork link in the middle of the page for a hi rez image. These were shot outside the office suite in a common area of the building (everything full manual). I'm currently developing this website for this client and not all sections are quite ready yet. Used a couple of Nikon speedlights. Virtually untouched - just a bit of color grading in Bridge and some dirt removal from the suit jacket in Photoshop.

[Jeff Hinson]

Nice Portrait...thanks for sharing.
jeff