So I bought one of these to use my many arri & C mount lenses & I can’t get past the notice that says check lens for proper mounting. So how do I program the camera to accept these lenses. Got nowhere w Pana. or B&H where I bought it. Can you help or anyone else? Frans filmit2001@yahoo.com THX!!

I bought a GH1 and the 20 mm lens and a Rhode mic (all at B & H). Love it. Tell Panasonic all because of you. I picked it over the Canons you recommend because of the EVF, articulating screen, smaller size and less $$$. Maybe I should have waited for the new Canon T2i, but then I would have needed the Zacuto VF and then it gets bigger. Took it to Spain and hit the streets of Madrid – not quite “Madrid’s People” but fun none-the-less.

The one annoying thing is the weak 1080/24P video, I see interlacing all the time. It’s not really ‘p’ is it.

If I were the god of firmware upgrades I would fix that, drop the silly motion JPEG stuff (way too much memory), and add more frame rates at 720p, especially for travel.

You seem to be in touch with Panasonic – any hope of getting these firmware upgrades?

Cheers,

Lance

Shooting at much lower shutter speeds (24th, 12th, 6th, or half of a second) will give you a steadily increasing amounts of motion blur and make the video look unnatural. (but will also give you a cool effect if that’s what you’re going for.) Of course, be aware that 24th of a second will be the bottom limit unless you want to mess with the frame rate.

Shooting at much higher shutter speeds (500th, 1000th, what have you.) will elliminate motion blur almost entirely and can give you a disconcerting strobe effect.

If you have a strobe light you can try this as an experiment: find a willing accomplice and have them tear around your room for a bit. Then Turn out the lights and set your strobe light to flash 24times per second and repeat.

Even though the strobe light is illuminating your compatriot at 24 times per second (same frame rate as movie film) the movement will appear unnatural. Why? Because the extremely fast flash of the strobe has eliminated motion blur.

Most of GH1 users are having problem with banding noise when record HD video. This problem is actually discusing at http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=174654 but we have not got any solution yet. I have seen your videos with GH1 and I don’t see any noise. Did you have the ‘banding noise’ problem? How did you solve it?

Thank you. Regards from Barcelona.

Both the 5DmkII and GH1 have a preposterously bad AGC. For me, the issue is most pronounced when recording interviews in a quiet environment. When the person stops speaking briefly, the AGC pumps up the background noise. The best solution I found is the Beachtek adapter for the 5D mkII. It also fits on the GH1 if you remove one of the mounting pins. It allows you to use professional mics and has a switch that defeats the AGC by directing an inaudible tone onto channel 1. I’ve used it for a few interviews and it seems to work well.

The Beachteck also provides phantom power, which is nice. Plus is has a headphone jack which is missing on both these cameras. Unfortunately, the headphone monitoring is upstream of the camera so you will not know if you have a bad connection to the camera, but at least you can monitor for wind noise, popping p’s etc. You need sensitive mics for this device though, -35db or better, for it to work properly.

I also sometimes use a Zoom H4N as Philip does. With the Zoom, you need to take the time to sync the video and sound files in post. Getting your settings correct with respect to drop frame and non-drop frame are essential. But for the most part I use the HMC150 cameras for interviews because of the complexity and risks of the other options with the 5DmkII and GH1. These DSLR’s are great b-roll cameras as you can see in Philip’s movies.

I have a few other quibbles with the GH1 that are unrelated to sound, but mostly I love it. I particularly love the articulating LCD viewfinder.