Panasonic DMC-GH1K Panasonic DMC-GH1K 12.1MP Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Camera with 1080p HD Video

Buy discount Panasonic DMC-GH1K 12.1MP Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Camera with 1080p HD Video

Panasonic GH1 Review (revisited)By Glenn PrzyborskiWith the GH1, Panasonic has succeeded in creating a digital "SLR" for people with tiny hands. The camera looks and feels in perfect proportion if you're a third grader or a very, very tiny adult. As a 6' 2" male, with average sized hands, it's very hard to pick-up or handle the GH1 without inadvertently pressing a button.As a director/cinematographer who primarily works in TV, I purchased the GH1 to shoot inconspicuous "B-Roll". We use larger cameras and multi-person crews to shoot in controlled situations, such as studios or planned locations. However, it's not unusual to need quick, available-light cutaways. For example, actors crossing a busy street with lots of out-of-focus pedestrians walking by. On a recent shoot in Washington DC, I needed to grab a 1080P cutaway of our actors walking near the steps of the US Capitol building. A quick and easy shot with the GH1, a very paperwork intensive and costly cutaway though normal channels.My comments that follow relate to my personal GH1 camera, serial # WE9HB0014xxThe camera takes very good quality stills, but my comments relate to the camera's ability to shoot 24P 1080 HD video.Here's what I like about the GH1's video capabilities...The Panasonic's Micro 4-3 is an excellent sized imager. It yields a depth-of-field that's almost like academy aperture 35mm motion picture film (with the top & bottom cut off to yield a 16 x 9 image.) It's a good, practical size compromise and more than twice as big as 2/3".The 14mm-140mm lens that's included with the camera is very sharp, but it's only an F4 (wide) to F5.6 (telephoto.) If you're shooting quality indoor or low-light cinematography, you'll want "bigger glass." NOTE: I have noticed that the GH1's 1080P AVCHD encoded picture seems to look better with fixed (non-Panasonic) lenses. The GH1 has sophisticated digital signal processing to help correct optical short falls in Panasonic lenses. Based on focus and zoom settings, the camera modifies the image to minimize pincushioning and barrel distortion. Several people on the web theorized that all these complicated, processor intensive corrections use up much of the camera's processor capability and the video encoding suffers. At first I thought the argument was impossible, but now I think there maybe something to this. What's great about the physical size of the sensor & mount is that almost any lens can be easily adapted to the GH1. Without the space normally occupied by a mirror box, the flange distance between the lens mount and imager is shorter than any other 35mm SLR or 35mm movie camera. Ebay has many vendors who sell inexpensive adapters to allow Nikon, Canon, Arriflex, Minolta, Olympus... virtually any lens, including some C-mount models, to be adapted to the GH1 without any loss in image quality or F-stop. Remember that adapted lenses need to have manual iris and manual focus control. As far as I know, this camera is the only one of its kind to incorporate a very high quality electronic viewfinder in addition to a good quality, articulating LCD screen. On all the Nikon and Canon D-SLR models, once you switch to the "liveview" or movie mode, the mirror flips up and only the LCD on the rear of the camera is usable. LCD's are hard to ... »» Read more about Panasonic DMC-GH1K 12.1MP Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Camera with 1080p HD Video.

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