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GH2 Review posted on DPreview

peterb

peterb

Member
No surprises. It's a great still/video camera that's well thought out and executed.

Resolution is up there with the best APS-C. IQ essentially noise free until ISO 800, but 1600 and 3200 are respectable (and more than respectable I suspect in BW). DR while not the ultimate isn't too shabby. Probably best to avoid shooting brightly lit brides in coal mines.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicdmcgh2/
 
biglouis

biglouis

Well-known member
Although I am a great supporter of the GH-2, especially for its handling, controls, EVF and IQ, I know that the latter has some limitations.

DPreview states "Up to ISO 3200 in fact, we'd stick our necks out and say that the GH2 can hold its own against any of the current crop of APS-C format cameras on the market, which is high praise indeed."

Inspiring words, indeed. My experience is that in RAW with LR3 you are able to create great and usable images up to iso1600 comfortably but with the proviso that you know how to use noise and sharpening sliders carefully, and even post processing in Photoshop to tweak your images. Is this a reasonable requirement of a working photographer, or should you be able to take JPEGs straight from the camera and use them?

A number of people on this forum use the GH-2 for assignments and you can see an updated report on using the GH-2 at this thread on reportage.. So, you can judge for yourself whether the GH-2 lives up to DPreview's enthusiastic conclusions.

LouisB
 
D

deejjjaaaa

Member
peterb said:
IQ essentially noise free until ISO 800
Click to expand...
look @ the blue patch @ ISO200 - that is called noise free in DPReview speak ? :poke: ... sure, you can run some big dose of NR in raw converter or afterwards, but then they talk about sensors, not raw converters...

 
T

Tonygamble

Member
Louis,

I got my GH2 about a month ago. I was not as happy about the high ISO results as I'd been expecting from what you, and the others, were saying.

I then jumped ship from Bibble to LR3 a couple of days ago. The difference is significant.

I'm totally new to LR and sucking up knowledge by the bucketload. If you have any URL's you'd like to point me to with regard to the Noise Sliders I'd much appreciate it.

But all I can say as at today LR has transformed my confidence in the GH2.

Tony
Fulham London
 
kwalsh

kwalsh

New member
Tonygamble said:
Louis,
I then jumped ship from Bibble to LR3 a couple of days ago. The difference is significant.
Click to expand...
If you haven't already try out the LR 3.4 release candidate. They fixed two issues with GH2 RAW processing (some mazing/banding and improper handing of hot pixels). Of course, you could also just wait for the official 3.4 release if you're happy with 3.3.

I've also seen people grousing about the relatively lame standard color profile in LR for the GH2. Someone on DPR posted a comparison photo of the Adobe Standard profile vs. a custom profile they did with a X-Rite ColorChecker Passport. I usually ignore all the camera color calibration stuff since I usually shoot landscapes and adjust color to taste in LR anyway, but I was impressed at what appeared to be a far better starting point (especially skin tones) with the ColorChecker generated profile.

As far as LR goes. I've found this book to be a good overview as to how to effectively use and setup LR as a whole workflow:

http://www.amazon.com/Lightroom-Streamlining-Digital-Photography-Process/dp/047060705X/

That book, however, only gives a good overview of all the RAW processing itself. I've found the middle chapters of this book on ACR (which is the same RAW engine as LR) to be excellent on understanding what all the controls do and how to use them:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Camera-Adobe-Photoshop/dp/0321713095/

Finally, Martin Evening's Lightroom book gets great reviews. I've only had a chance to browse it in a book store but from what I saw there is a good chance it covers both of my above references and then some:

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Lightroom-Book-Photographers/dp/0321680707/

It perhaps risks being too in depth! I think with all these kinds of books it really depends on how you learn and what you are interested. I'm a bit detailed oriented myself, so I like in depth books and get tired of long "how-to" presentations (like Kelby's). Other's of course prefer exactly the opposite!

Ken
 
ustein

ustein

Contributing Editor
>so I like in depth books and get tired of long "how-to" presentations (like Kelby's).

I understand what you mean. I try to write more about a workflow oriented approach. You don't need everything but you need to egt a motivation why to use features (of course there are many motivations). The fundamentals hardly change but the sliders do.

This approach is of course even more needed for Photoshop because it is so broad.
 
biglouis

biglouis

Well-known member
Tony

Ken and Uwe have provided excellent information in their responses. (I am especially interested to learn of the improvements in LR3.4). I am a great LR fan. I've used it since V1 was in Beta and for me it is the RAW processor bar none.

When I mentioned the sliders, it really is all down to taste. I use the zoom window above the Sharpen and Noise sliders to adjust both to taste. There is no straightforward answer, you just have to experiment. I actually think that perhaps the raw image from the GH-2 is really, really raw which is why it always needs a tad of sharpening or noise reduction, which is not necessarily a criticism.

Uwe & Ken: "Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3" changed my life. It is the one book I recommend to anyone who asks. Never used a LR book, it has such an intuitive interface, I've never needed to have someone explain to me how to use it. You can judge from my pictures whether or not I should be reading a LR book!

Tony: enjoy your GH-2, per the Dpreview conclusion, it is the best mirrorless product to date, imho.

Louis
 
T

Tonygamble

Member
I forgot to say Thank You for the book suggestions.

I bought the Kemble yesterday. Partly on the reviews and partly because I could put the Kindle version on my iPad. I think a tablet might be a good way of having the manual handy whilst working at a PC - books often are bound in a way that makes it different to keep them open at the page you want on a work surface.

Tony
 
Amin

Amin

Active member
GH2 high ISO is more than adequate up to ISO 3200 in my experience processing the files with LR3.

ISO 3200, 45mm, f/2.8, 1/50s:



The read noise is on the high side compared to the state-of-the-art APS-C sensors. That makes a real difference when trying to push up the shadows in an image like this one:



That was ISO 3200 in a dark room, pushed during RAW coversion. With a K-5, I could probably push the shadows and show you something closer to what I could see with my own eyes/brain in that room, eg the girl in the foreground and the pattern on the table cloth. It's not often that I have such needs, though.

GH2 delivers plenty of image quality for me. I also have no issues with skin tones or colors in general (shooting RAW and processing in LR3).
 
D

Diane B

New member
Thanks Amin. Good to know from real life shooting. i do a very small bit of shooting as you mentioned but not much either so I'm expecting the GH2 to be fine for my needs now.
Diane
 
biglouis

biglouis

Well-known member
Ron

Awesome! That is so clear and so clean. Amazing lens on an amazing camera.

Louis
 
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