the editman.com

Today I said bye to my Panasonic GH1. I'm sure this camera will go to the history and be a classic. A great little camera that with hacked firmware has served me a long time.

I could have kept it and use it whenever I felt but one of my goals in 2012 is to reduce the amount of gear I own. Part of my plan is to not involve DSLR cameras in video shooting. Frankly I have a great tool to shoot video in the AF101 so that'll be my choice of camera. I still love my Canon 5DmkII to use when taking stills and I'll try to only use it to do that this year.

In 2011 I invested heavily in equipment and have reach a very comfortable platform when it comes to tools. I now need very few new things to cope with what I do. I wont stop getting new things but I also realize I don't really need them. It's the natural curve of the developing interest I have.

Looking back 2011 has been a great year and the best thing is I've become much better at what I do. That's the greatest investment but many things has helpt me to learn even more of how and what works and what doesn't and my GH1 has been a part of that.

Thank you my red GH1 and go on and make more lovely images with the new owner!

A Petite Neuchateloise in a timeless state only lit by candlelight.

As the sun sat down I whipped my GH1 and Leica 45 and captured the beauty of a sky painted by the sun as it settled down in the west.

I just love this tiny lens as it feels like made for that GH1.

My first macro lens - Leica Elmarit 45/2.8 for my AF101/GH1 cameras.



I will use this lens as a counterpart to the excellent Canon 100L macro on my 5DmkII to have about the same field of view and sensitivity on my AF101.

It's a tiny lens but I kinda like the focus ring despite focusing works by wire.

I've updated this article with some sample images using my Panasonic DMC-GH1. It's really a lovely lens for micro four third cameras. A portrait lens with image stabilization and on the GH1 it feels really nice balanced.

Having it on the GH1 it might not be the fastest lens in terms of focusing speed but I guess the newer GH2 and G3 makes this lens faster.

So it seams the stars are converging and much of the things that have been stuck in the pipeline will get here this fall. Many interesting things, both new and well known. On top of the list is of course Birger Engineerings micro 4/3 adapter to put Canon EF lensos on bodys like GH1, GH2 or AF100/101.



But before this adapter hits the marker in November we have another adapter from Red Rock Micro. Not as versatile since it only controls aperture and need a 9V external battery. But that's atleast two choices for micro 4/3 users!




Finally Nikon steps into the mirrorless game. Can we expect the same thing happening as when Nikon got the D90 on the market? It was the first DSLR with video and soon after the still excellent Canon 5DmkII took over and crushed Nikons attempt. The Nikon 1 system seams no better than micro 4/3 so I don't see the point. When you're dealing with an exchangeable lens system small is relative to a normal DSLR and it's lenses but non of these mirrorless cameras are small and pocketable if you take the lens in account. I do think it's great to have a small camera with exchangeable lenses that's smaller than let's say a 7D but I believe every attempt to make it to fit in a pocket is futile so make them as good as possible instead.

Canon have something coming on 3 November and if this is a mirrorless system, a new large sensor video camera or something for the movie industry we'll know more of then. Interesting RED announces their Scarlet at the same date. Maybe a Canon 5DmkIII? I do hope for a XF305 like camera with a large sensor and EF mount.

Then the affordable Atomos Samurai is due in October and it seams they have squeezed at least some of the asked for features. Can be a good recorder and monitor to use on any camera with HD SDI output. I'll be getting one for sure as soon as I can. Atomos also have converters so that you can use the Samurai for both HDMI and HD SDI sources.

I also have an eye out for that affordable Sachtler ACE system. Could be a decent choice for a smaller camera setup.

Another piece of add-on lurking could be the new motor for the slidekamera. I'm waiting for an English manual before going any further.

My latest lens Olympus 35-100/2 arrived and I wanted to do a short test on how manual focusing works. It sure looks big enough mounted on the GH1... well actually it's the GH1 mounted onto the lens!



I put the Olympus 35-100 on my GH1 and mounted it inside my "editman" cage and used my Shoot35 follow focus. It worked fine to use the grooves on the focus ring itself instead of using one of my Zipgears or Flexigears. As you can see I top mounted the FF unit because using that tripod collar on the lens raises the camera more than my 5D/7D which my cage is set up for.




I also shot this short video showing focus pulling, a bit course I know but I did it in a hurry...



You can't use repeatable marks on a follow focus to do focus pulls with this lens. Focus-by-wire is not made for that and it sucks since this is such a fine lens. Another thing that's somewhat irritating is that focus pulls takes a bit longer than I would like them to take. On the other hand you hardly miss a focus spot. It's also interesting that when you turn off the camera the lens parks itself at infinity.

I do think this lens will come in handy but at the same time I prefer my Zeiss lenses since they are much better to focus with. The big advantage now that I have both the Olympus 14-35/2 and the Olympus 35-100/2 is I cover all of the focal I tend to use. 14mm is wide enough and I seldom go closer than 100mm unless I'm doing a macro shot.

There are three adapters for using 4/3 lenses on a micro 4/3 camera body. Panasonic has the DMW-MA1 and Olympus MMF-1 and MMF-2. I decided to try both Olympus adapters since I already have tried Panasonics adapter.

Besides the obvious colour that differ these two adapters apart they are near identical if you look upon them. But picking one up it's also obvious that the MMF-1 is the one with better built quality. It weights almost twice as much as the MMF-2. It's worrying that the newer adapter, MMF-2, is so light weight and I don't get that sense of owning something exclusive when holding it. It will probably work with lenses up to 1kg but if I had a choice it would be the MMF-1 no doubt.



So why is the MMF-1 twice as heavy? First of the mount is solid steel as oppose to MMF-2's aluminium mount. I guess the MMF-1 adapter is also reinforced inside and that this adds to the weight. The answer could also be that the MMF-1 is made in Japan and the MMF-2 is made in China...



Besides MMF-1 being the better adapter it functions is no different than that of the MMF-2 or the Panasonic adapter. They could all be the same if it wasn't for the MMF-2's weak construction. I have tried both adapters on my GH1 with the Olympus 14-35 lens and when mounted I really can't tell which one I'm using except the colour of the adapter. They both feels solid but I can't dismiss what I know so I will use the MMF-1 on my AF101 as it is the better option.

Having EF lenses on a micro 4/3 camera pose one problem and that is to control aperture. Birger engineering is suppose to come with one adapter with electronic coupling that allows for many things like aperture, focus and IS function on EF lenses. But until it is a real product this adapter might come in handy.

At $125 it's a bit pricier than the plain EOS to m 4/3 adapters but it's a solid piece and got no less than 14 aperture blades to stop down the lens. The aperture ring is heavily damped and feels great to turn. It's numbered between 1 and 6 but you can go beyond the 6 mark albeit with the risk for introducing black spots according to the manual.




I took the adapter straight out of the box and fitted my Zeiss 50/1.4 ZE lens. It feels like a fine machined adapter. You can't use EF-S lenses because they will probably hit the blades. It's the same thing as EF-S lenses does not fit a 5D mkII.



Here's the adapter mounted without lens and the aperture open. Setting at "1". There is no glass so I suggest you open it up before removing the lens or adapter to protect the aperture blades.




Here the blades are closed to "6" on the aperture ring but you can close it even further. I will take a few snaps later tonight and show how it affects DOF and image quality.

More testing is needed but so far it feels great and finally I can use my Zeiss lenses on the GH1/13 and the AF101!

You can get it here on ebay!

Update 20 December:

Testvideo with the adapter.

I put this test together to try out if it would vignette on different lenses and how DOF would be affected. This video is updated with a pure vignette test in the second half.

Lenses used in the test:

Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II L
Canon 100/2.8 L Macro
Zeiss 85/1.4 ZE
Zeiss 50/1.4 ZE
Zeiss 35/2 ZE
Olympus 14-35/2
Canon 16-35/2.8 L

I would say this adapter is a great buy to make use of specially Zeiss ZE primes 35/50/85. It works perfectly with all of these to increase DOF and stop down the lens. On the other hand I don't think it works that good with the 70-200/2.8 since you get vignette after "3" and IS is not activated. Even the Canon 16-35/2.8 L turned out to work okay with only a slight vignette that could be tolerable.

Usually when I frame for head shots I use my Zeiss 85/1.4 lens. It's a great lens and focal length. Not the best near limit at about 85cm but for interviews or like the framing I used in the Guldbrev commercial it's about perfect on the 5D mkII. Very pleasing shallow DOF, sharp but also with a soft focus fall off. So when I get the AF101 and would like the same type of effect I have two options.

Field of view with a 85mm lens on the 5D mkII is just like putting a 50mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera. What you loose is that very shallow DOF but you can have the camera at almost the exact position and still have the same framing. Take a look at these frame grabs.

First off is the Canon 5D mkII with the Zeiss 85mm at F1.4. Very nice bokeh and out of focus background.



This one is with a Zeiss 50mm at F1.4 and with the GH1/micro 4/3 sensor. Still shallow DOF but nothing like that buttery bokeh of the 85mm on the 5D. These two shots differ in levels so disregard that but you can clearly see they both have the same angle of view and about the same framing. Just a tad closer. The camera was at the same position on both these two shots. One advantage of using a 50mm lens is you can get closer and get even more shallow DOF as it's near limit is 45cm.



This third shot is with the 85mm Zeiss still at F1.4 on the GH1/micro 4/3 but with the camera backed half a meter and the object moved towards the wall about 75cm. Still about the same framing and angle of view but with much more pleasing bokeh. If I have the space this is the lens I would use when framing for heads. If I can get as close as I can and have more than 2 meters behind the subject I bet it will look great.

I can see three lenses being utilised together with the AF101. First an Olympus 14-35/F2. This one covers the wide end and is very fast. Then a Zeiss 50/F1.4 is great for interviews and so is the Zeiss 85/F1.4 when you really need that super pleasing bokeh. Another thing with that Zeiss 50mm is you can get close. It's not a macro lens but Zeiss has a 50/F2 lens to get even closer. I tend to stay in the 35-85mm area on both my 7D and 5D, I guess that's why 35/50/85 is a standard lens-set. I already have a Zeiss 35/F2 which is great so when I get the Olympus I do a comparison.

Shallow DOF is all about how close you are to the subject and how far it's from the subject to the background. Even my Canon 16-35/F2.8 can have a very pleasing bokeh when you get really close at 35mm. But there's something about staying in the medium tele range that just feels right. One advantage with using a more sensible sensor size like the micro 4/3 standard is you do have some room for in focus subjects. A 5D sensor at full aperture is just to shallow in many instances.

I'm on a tight schedule but managed to revisit the GH1 with hacked firmware during this weekend. What I can do is to compare it to Canon 5D mkII and Canon 7D. These cameras have been my main cameras for the last six months and I really like the result.

Some things become very apparent and it's handling of the GH1 compare to 5D2/7D. The Canon cameras are much better. They feel sturdy, have more buttons to change parameters on the fly, they do allow HDMI monitoring while shooting (which is essential) and the final images look really nice. But they both have two disadvantages. They do have much more moire and aliasing than GH1 and they have less resolution. Actually both 5D2 and 7D has higher resolution from the sensor but the way the camera down samples the signal, much is lost and distorted introducing moire and aliasing.

When comparing images this is the main thing that separates the different cameras. The GH1 is superior really.

In one area the GH1 fails. It has a fixed pattern noise, as do most CMOS sensors, and when underexposure it becomes apparent. With care you can set up scenes and it will look great from the GH1. But it does limit the camera in the same way the Canon 5D2/7D do with the high level of moire and mostly aliasing. It's like apples and pears. Two bad things.

When you use the magnify function on either camera you really see how high resolution the Canon cameras have. This is real sensor resolution and this is one of the reasons we accept footage from the Canons. The other reason is the image pop Canon always have had. Colours are full and it's a contrasty image, it looks really nice. Every time you steer clear of most of the aliasing it looks truly great.

The low bitrate in the GH1 introduced alot of mud. Hacking the firmware and increasing bitrate takes away almost all of the mud issue. I've never seen a mud issue on either Canon.

If you look at the display on each camera and when I now revisit the GH1 I really dislike that display. In comparison with what's on either Canon camera it's lower resolution and has to much image lag introducing ghost images and smearing. Same thing with the viewfinder and I do think it's to small and has to rough edges to be comfortable to the eye and when pressing your nose towards the camera.

In the end lack of monitoring makes this camera useless in most situations when doing commercials. It's fine to be used as a B-camera or when shooting features. But forget about commercial work if you do have clients on set. In a couple of weeks the GH2 will start to appear in stores. My hope is that this camera will solve this issue but it seams another issue is introduced - no 25p! Come on Panasonic give PAL world a high bitrate PAL codec!

25p on the GH1 or GH13 as many calls this hacked camera looks sweet and it puzzles me they have no 25p in the GH2. In the test footage I took this weekend, 25p in high bitrate mode, it looked truly great. I did some grading and it held up very well also. Will I have to turn to the AG-AF101 for 25p? This seams to be the case.

Speaking of the AG-AF101, one store in Sweden has finally a price on the body - $8240!!!! inc VAT but what the fuck!

I guess I have to much time making BTS videos :)
Anyway it's great to have these short videos documenting our shoots. We all tend to forget and it helps to watch it again and remember how we solved things.

This BTS is for a new beverage "Briska" from Spendrups in Sweden. The actual commercial is once again a sponsorship this time for "Desperate House Wifes" and we try to get a similar look for some of the key characters in the show.

It took two whole days to shoot this one. From 8 AM to 7PM each day and it seams to be insane when the final result just gonna be 20 seconds...

My Canon 7D was used to shoot the commercial and I had my "B" camera - the GH1 to make this one.

What I really love about the GH1 it feels natural. I would say the 7D has a more filmic look to it but it's not as natural as the GH1. Love both cameras and that's why I have both.
I don't like tungsten, daylight is much better and most important more natural.

A still from the last half hour of the shoot. I guess everybody was a bit tired...

I had time to make a short behind the scenes video using my GH1 and 20/1.7 lens.

Sweden is drenched in snow for the moment and it's a joy to be outside despite shortage of daylight.
I brought my GH1, Lumix 20/1.7 a Fader ND and a Velbon tripod out in the cold.



The sun is very low even mid day here this time a year and you have not many hours doing something before it's to late.
It was not many locations that had any useful light but there where a lot of ice build ups on the rock side to capture.

Edited a short winter film out of the clips I manage to gadder using 1080p25 on the GH1. Shutter at 1/50s and aperture at 2.0.
Used the Fader ND to adjust exposure and left ISO at 100 for lowest possible sensor noise.

I found out the focus ring was very stiff, due to the cold weather, which made it a bit hard to tweak properly.
Didn't feel like carrying a heavy load and the Velbon is super light, a bit weak but lightweight especially with a GH1-20/1.7 combo.

Alone on the race track from editman on Vimeo.

I shot this one in the beginning of October in the middle of Sweden. At first I hoped on getting this one ready after a week but due to the clients tight schedule it's on hold. This is my cut without clients graphics.

It was a fun day but really bad weather. It didn't rain but cloudy and cold. Got my feet wet when running around the race track! Interesting to be close to a roaring race car passing by just a meter away.

All my cameras came to use. I had the Canon 7D on a tripod and handheld. The GH1 was mounted inside the Porsche and finally I had a suction cup mounted outside of the car to get some interesting cut away with a Panasonic FT1.

I think all cameras worked well together in this edit.
Everything edited in Avid and graded in AE.
Audio all from the 7D and GH1 internal mic.

This evening I received a Lumix 20/1.7 pancake lens. I begin to understand how small and portable the GH1 really can be with such a lens.
It's no bigger than a regular superzoom but more versatile and has better picture quality.

The camera feels like a point and shoot and I can wait to bring it with me on the next low light occasion.
Due to it's small size I guess pulling focus manual will be tricky. I miss the Nikons focus rings...

This Tuesday I shot an IBM corporate video in Kista/Stockholm. We went to the IBM Forum Nordic and had two interviews to record and capture the facilities.
My plan was to use the Canon 7D to do it all but the first subject had a patterned shirt and moire was horrible.
I had no choice but to switch using the Panasonic GH1 with no moire. This shows the GH1s strenght and it's way superior to the 7D.
For further interviews I'll only be doing it with the GH1 and it works well in either 1080p or 720p.



All other images I captured with the 7D and used my camera slider to make smooth shots. I have to work to get it really smooth but I think it will turn out ok.

Audio was captured with the chain AT897/Juicedlink CX231/Sony PCM-D50. I've made a cable that attenuates line to mic levels and used that going between
D50s line out and the GH1s mic in. Just to ensure I at least have useful audio in camera. But I will sync audio in post to get full fidelity.




Used Canon 35/1.4 and Canon 50/1.2 for the interviews and the Canon 16-35/2.8, Canon 85/1.8 and the Canon 50/1.2 to capture everything else.
Both the GH1 and 7D was set to 1080p. I really like the GH1 because it is so easy to use.

This film was made during a trip I made to the largest island of Sweden - Gotland.
I spent many summers here and revisited some of the places from my childhood memory's.

I think this shows what a great camera the GH1 is. I used a Fader ND on all shots to control light and had the GH1 in 1/50 and 720p.

Regrettably I'm selling my loved Nikkor lenses and gathering Canon L lenses.
Expensive yes but these lenses are meant to last.
Since I sold my D90 and got the 7D I was not sure about Nikon or Canon cameras.
Couldn't really decide which brand I could get comfortable with.

Nikon cameras are really good and I'm used to how they operate and how they focus.
Something I have spent some time getting used to with the Canon 7D.

I'm starting to get the hang of it and now it's time for a Canon only lens setup.
I've decided to go with only L lenses except the Canon EF 85/1.8.
The 85/1.2 is just to expensive and not worth it.



I started the L series with a Canon 16-35/2.8 L. I've missed a true wide angle on the D90 since I only had a 24/2.8.
If you wanna go wide and have a large aperture you're very limited. Next was a tele lens and after reviewing the excellent
www.photozone.de it was clear nothing short of the Canon 135/2.0 L would do. Got this one from ebay a bit cheaper than
in Swedish stores.

And today I got a Canon 50/1.2 L. What a lens this is. Fast and built to last. As you can see on the picture above I put it on the GH1
and it works really well even on the GH1. For comparison I took some pictures with this one and the Canon 50/1.4 and the Nikkor 50/1.4D.
Wide open they all had about the same sharpness and image quality. But the 50/1.2 is faster of course. I like it!

I found this flash handle at a local flea market and tried it out on the GH1 for run n gun.
Worked out pretty well and made the camera more stable. I think I payed $5 for it.



This handle is suppost to go upwards on one side of the camera but I managed to turn it around and use it that way.
After awhile it became somewhat fatiguing due to the imbalance holding at the far right edge of the GH1.
But I got some great shots and I liked the added stability.

Today I was at the race track shooting a Swedish actor in his racing Porsche.
The weather was really bad. Cloudy and rain hanging in the air all day.
Daylight is also pretty spars this time a year and I really don't know how this will turn out.

What's exiting with this project is I used all my cameras. The GH1 was mounted in two locations inside the Porsche.
My FT1 I mounted with a suction cup to the side of the Porsche and finally every other exterior was with the 7D!

How this will turn out I don't know due to the bad or non existing light conditions this day. But it was fun and interesting to do this.
Video coming later this week.

Interior of the Porsche.

Here's the making of Axe/Pokerstars commercial. I used my Panasonic GH1 and some Nikon lenses.

This is a small behind the scenes feature I did a while ago. It really shows what the GH1 can accomplish. Especially with nice primes from Nikon.

Documenting RED work with GH1 from editman on Vimeo.

Captured with GH1. A comparison towards the end of GH1 and RED footage.

RED footage was imported from the 4K RAW file into Avid at 1920x1080 rez. GH1 was converted to MXF 1440x1080 DVCPROHD. A slight advantage for the RED footage. Some jello due to handheld camera.

GH1 was set to 1080/25p. 1/50s, ISO320 for most of the clips. Lenses used: Kit lens, Nikkor 24/2.8D, 35/2.0D, 50/1.4D and 85/1.8D.

Music: Black Magic Woman

Here's what I did. First I went to dvcity.com and got the PROAIM v11 Matte box with rods. This is an affordable Matte box.
Not super high quality and not for big cameras. But it makes perfect match for the little GH1.
The advantage of a matte box is to control flares and light spill better. Filters are also easy to change with the PROAIMS 4x4 filter trays.

I use mainly Nikon lenses with the GH1 even thou the kit lens does auto focus fast primes are always fast primes and gives you a shallow depth of field.

One thing I wasn't sure how to solve was the donut between the lens and matte box. There are some universal versions but they are expensive.
The solution was to use the lens hoods and have them between lens and the flat donut of the PROAIM v11.
This works really well even on Nikon "D" primes that has a slight movement of the inner tub during focusing.
There are rubber hoods on ebay for most diameters and they flex enough to get a tight fit without being to stiff.

To be able to film even at low angles I have a Hoodman 3.0 attached to the swivel display.
It works out nice but I would like to see a softer and larger eye cup.

 
GH1 with PROAIM v11 and Hoodman

All in all it's a great rig for a good price and I like it!

What do you really want out of a camera... Is it to capture your children's sports? Is it to make documentation of special occasions? For me it's do all of the above but mostly to have a camera that does not set it's limits on what I want to capture. If there should be any limit it should be me.

Enter the DMC-GH1. What an interesting concept this is. A still camera, a video camera in one body. I like it! It does have cons like the weak encoding of video files, shortage of lenses in the micro 4/3 segment and it's not the best still camera you can get. But still very versatile if you want something lightweight and easy to use while at the same time getting excellent quality.

I've captured some really exiting footage and sometimes you fail with setting it up correctly so it's pretty much up to the DP.

Here are some of the first films I've done with it: