Should i buy panasonic gh2

This means when both cameras are set to record photos or video, their viewfinder images are roughly the same size. But switch them to and the GH2 image expands in height, whereas the A33 image becomes horizontally cropped, making the former look much bigger. Overall, the combination of a larger apparent image when shooting , a slightly higher resolution and less visible tearing made the GH2 viewfinder preferable to the Sony.

Die-hard fans of optical viewfinders however may remain unconvinced. The GH2 sports an effective resolution of 16 Megapixels, up from the While the total pixel count gradually reduces as the aspect ratio widens, the GH2 genuinely captures more of the view widthways with a higher number of pixels in that dimension too as quoted above.

This is in contrast to most cameras which simply crop strips from the top and bottom to deliver wider aspect ratios, thereby reducing the resolution and field of view. Also new to the GH2 over its predecessor is Intelligent Resolution which applies selective sharpening to images. In the example above, Intelligent Resolution has done a good job of applying fairly significant sharpening while minimising the usual artefacts. Like most new Panasonic cameras, the GH2 also features I. To put it to the test we photographed our standard low-light test scene with each of the settings; this composition feature both dark shadows in the roofing, along with brightly backlit windows.

Dynamic disabled on the left and set to High on the right. Dynamic set to Off or High; the histograms confirm this. We repeated the test on another day and found the same result. Either I. Note, the GH2 can only record still 3D photos with this lens, not 3D movies. You can see a 20 second exposure of a starry sky in our Gallery. This not only delivers a smoother result for motion, but crucially gives the GH2 more frames per second for its autofocus system to work with.

You can alternatively set the camera to capture full resolution stills while filming, but doing so will briefly interrupt the footage. In contrast, AVCHD may be tougher to edit, but creates smaller files and can keep recording until you run out of memory. The only caveat for maximum recording times as always concerns cameras destined for the European market, which for tax regulations are limited to 29 minutes and 59 seconds. You can set the sensitivity to auto, or manually set it to any value.

Basically you have complete control over the exposure, sensitivity and depth of field. As its name suggests, 24p Cinema records progressive video at 24fps, which will delight independent film makers. Like the GH1 you can connect an external microphone for better sound quality albeit still using a 2. These are all very considerate additions, but the icing on the cake for pros is the ability to output a clean i output over HDMI while recording video; this is very useful when connecting and composing with an external monitor.

While the accelerated modes are fun, we also believe anyone who really wants to speed up footage is more likely to do so in a software editor after the event. Indeed software tools can also be used to deliver surprisingly good slow motion effects. The bottom line though is the GH2 cannot be classed as a proper slow motion video camera. In contrast, the Lumix GH2 manages to focus quickly and quietly even with its kit lens, and especially so with the mm super-zoom.

But on the whole the Lumix GH2 locks-on quickly, quietly and without fuss. This is great for pulling-focus between subjects without recomposing the shot. As we panned around, the stabilisation did a good job at ironing out most wobbles. Finally towards the end of the clip we zoomed the lens all the way in and back out again.

Like all cameras with manual zoom rings, this process is nigh-on impossible to perform handheld without twisting the body, and the result looks pretty bad. We filmed a similar clip moments later with the mm zoom for comparison — you can view and download it here. Our second clip was filmed under stricter conditions, mounted on a tripod with a fluid head, smoothly panning from left to right; stabilisation was disabled for this clip.

Our third clip demonstrates how quickly and effectively the GH2 refocuses when zooming. We used the mm lens for this clip and if you adjust it fairly slowly, the camera manages to keep the image in focus pretty effectively. Crash zooms in or out inevitably trip the system up with a little searching, but not for long on the GH2 which locks back on again fairly swiftly.

The camera was then panned handheld with stabilisation enabled, although we disabled Continuous AF to avoid unnecessary searching. The result seen here is pretty good, without any detrimental noise or banding artefacts, despite the relatively high sensitivity.

We've been using Panasonic's new Lumix S 35mm F1. Panasonic has announced the Lumix S 35mm F1. Panasonic has released firmware version 1. The Hubble Space Telescope is in safe mode as engineers work to investigate what's wrong with the telescope's onboard instruments. This is the second time the venerable telescope has faced extended downtime after being offline for a month earlier this year. Panasonic China has posted a pair of images to various Chinese social media sites that tease what appears to be a new lens launch.

Gordon Laing is back at it again with another Retro Review. In this episode, Laing goes back 25 years to provide an in-depth overview of Nikon's unique Coolpix camera, which was half compact camera, half PDA. The adapter includes optics to help offset the crop factor of APS-C cameras. OM Digital Solutions — the company that's bought the Olympus imaging division — has just launched the M. Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1. Click through for a closer look.

Chris and Jordan tease-out the differences. After quickly selling out of its first batch back in , Lomography has announced that it's re-releasing its color-shifting LomoChrome Turquoise Film in 35mm, and format. Submit a News Tip! Reading mode: Light Dark. Login Register. Best cameras and lenses. Previous 1 Introduction. Although it follows conventional DSLR styling, the considerably smaller size and bulk of the GH2 is obvious in this view - one of the advantages of a mirrorless and comparatively smaller sensor design.

Compared to GH1 - key differences The GH2 might look very similar to its predecessor at a casual glance but there are some major differences between the two models. From the front, the main difference between the GH2 and G2 is that the former is slightly taller, and more of a 'classic' SLR shape. The G2 is a noticeably squatter when viewed in direct comparison, but the family resemblance is unmistakable. From the top, the GH2 is very similar to the G2. The most obvious difference is the stereo microphone which dominates the top of the flash housing of the GH2 the G2 makes do with a single, tiny mic aperture just forward of the AF mode switch.

Both cameras have a button for direct movie shooting, but whereas the G2 has a dedicated iA mode button, in its place the GH2 has a customizable 'Fn' button.

Panasonic GH1. Panasonic G2. Tags: review , panasonic. Next page. We are retrieving offers for your location, please refresh the page to see the prices. View Comments 2. Comments All 2. DesmondD I've just bought one of these in August with a bunch of other gear - after doing some research it's interesting that there are "Is the Gh2 worth it in ? You may also like. Camera ready in two shakes: Motorola Moto X camera review. More about gear in this article. We've had a pre-production GH2 in the office for a few days, so click through to read all about it in our hands-on preview.

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She was getting nauseated, and the glasses hurt her eyes. To be fair, she said she was nauseated before we got there, and it turned out she had a stomach flu after all.

But the boys also said the glasses bothered their eyes after a few minutes of viewing, and when their sister freed up her glasses, they were not interested in coming back to see more my youngest son refuses to watch 3D movies at the theater, so it's impressive that this Panasonic TV held him as long as it did.

Publisher Dave who's notoriously sensitive to motion sickness also reported some queasiness when viewing 3-D images. He thinks it's caused by the way the scene position appears to shift when you move your head. If you don't easily become seasick or just don't move your head much while viewing, this may not be a problem for you. This shot of the small truck should show what I mean with the lack of depth going back when viewed in 3D. My eyes were slightly bothered by viewing the images at first, but I think I could get used to the glasses and TV.

I was surprised that you could still see 3D fairly well as much as 45 degrees off-axis, unlike the passive 3D glasses I've used in the past. Each of the lab viewers experienced more or less 3D effect depending on the person. People with a very dominant eye might see no effect at all. I tended to see more than most, but I noticed a limitation: backgrounds often seemed to wrap back up toward the camera, rather than continuing cleanly back as I knew they should.

As a result, you get the effect of paper cutouts against a steeply sloping background, rather than full depth. The 3D experts around me say it's likely the small millimeter separation between the lenses that causes the perceived compression, not so much the 65mm-equivalent lens.

Another flaw in the viewing experience was that dark objects against a light background tended to show ghost images overlaying the dark portions, especially noticeable in people and tree trunks. This is likely the result of the glasses not completely blocking light when in the "off" state: Some of the other eye's image leaks through, making the ghost images appear where a dark foreground object is next to a light one or vice versa.

The images were realistic enough that I found myself shifting my head to see if I could see more of a scene by moving to peek around a real opening into 3D space. When you do that, though, the 3D background just appears to float, unmoving, behind the foreground objects, an odd, somewhat unsettling phenomenon that caused a couple of viewer's queasiness. Lab shot. Here's a tighter-than-usual shot of the INB indoor test target that should also show some depth.

Results were good, with perhaps a bit more depth. But because the images are stitched from multiple images, it was really obvious where the stitching errors were made, because things like bunches of trees, which are considerably more difficult to stitch, would stand out as not conforming to the 3D world; one tree even popped out from the background to appear to be in front of the trees it was most certainly behind.

While I enjoyed looking at the 3D images for the novelty, I don't think it's something I'd do very often. Those same users might also see it as additional reason to buy into the whole Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera lineup as a whole. Still, I'm glad I have some photos of the kids playing in 3D, because someday the technology may be as ubiquitous as the once-futuristic flat panels are today. Indeed, some of what we saw at CES , especially glasses-free 3D, made even the most skeptical 3D doubters among us start to wonder.

Perhaps instead of continued confinement to the iconic reels of the year-old Viewmaster stereoscopic viewer, 3D might finally stick around, what with electronic capture and electronic display technology finally becoming the mainstream method of image creation and consumption. Meanwhile, if you want to start capturing 3D now, the Panasonic 3D lens is available for current or future G2, GF2, or GH2 shooters at a reasonable price.

Recent advances in sensor technology have made ISO 1, look a lot more like ISO , but there are still cameras whose quality starts to fall apart at this setting. I also choose 1, because I like to be able to shoot at or above this level when indoors and at night. Be sure to check our Thumbnails and Gallery pages for more image quality samples, and don't miss our more in-depth analysis on the various tabs, especially the Video , Exposure and Optics pages. The megapixel GH2 has one obvious advantage over its megapixel brother, the GF2: Resolution; hence the larger size and greater detail.

Color is more distinct and rich at ISO 1,, but it's not hard to see that they're from the same manufacturer. The GH2 is a step up in image quality.

While the Canon T3i does have more resolution with its megapixel sensor, it also renders crisper detail overall; all except for the red leaf swatch, where the GH2 does better with the detail, while muting the red. And that olive oil bottle is about that golden, and the lighter band around the mosaic is closer to the Canon rendition than the GH2's mossy interpretation.

It's valid also to note that the Micro Four Thirds sensor in the GH2 is smaller than the Canon's APS-C sensor, and the camera and its lenses are a lot smaller, too, so that's one of the tradeoffs these crops reveal.

Of all the cameras we compare, Nikons tend to render these three elements the most evenly. Good color, good detail, with nothing standing out as sharper or better rendered than any other element, as we saw in the Canon T3i. The Pentax K-5 uses the same sensor design as the Nikon D, so though its interpretation of the images is different, it still resolves more detail.

Sony's A takes a more aggressive approach to both noise suppression and sharpening, so some areas of its JPEGs look very soft, even out of focus, while higher-contrast areas look super sharp. Still, the Sony does a better job rendering the overall effect of the red leaf swatch, and gets the color closer to reality. Panasonic's GH2 handles color in high ISO much better than its smaller counterpart, the GF2, which drops most subtle color in an attempt to maintain some detail.

That's a battle it loses in the red leaf swatch, too, while some impression of the leaves remains in the GH2's image. The Canon T3i's chief advantage here is in hue accuracy, even though it's a bit artificially pumped.

Nose suppression is ramped up sufficiently that if the GH2 had better color, they'd appear much closer. The T3i fairly mungs the red leaf swatch in a sea of suppression. Nikon's larger sensor and more balanced approach to noise suppression wins out again at this setting. There's a little more chroma noise left behind in the shadows as a result, but overall I'd take this result over the softer image of the GH2.

Likewise, the Pentax does very well at ISO 3,, all except for the red leaf swatch, which loses almost all sense of the red leaf pattern. Again, Sony's aggressive noise suppression brings the A's image elements closer to the GH2, but better color management makes a better image, and the larger sensor brings out more detail. ISO shots are a bit soft at 24 x 36, but look quite good at 20 x 30 inches, with good detail but slightly muted color. ISO shots start to soften a little more at 16 x 20, and colors darken a bit.

Results look better printed at 13 x 19 inches. ISO 1, prints are good, if a little soft, at 8 x 10 inches.

Colors are a bit darker still, and reds start to lose detail. ISO 3, shots look better at 5 x 7 inches, though the shadows and mids do appear somewhat dark. In terms of resolution, the Panasonic GH2 does quite well, with good detail at very large print sizes from ISO to When shooting in low light, however, we recommend capturing a RAW image as well, as color muting and inaccuracy intensifies as ISO rises.

Panasonic hasn't significantly tweaked the design or features of the original, but it has made some across-the-board improvements. Most noticeable for still photography is the blazing-fast Contrast-Detection autofocus system and the Panasonic GH2's faster operational speed overall. Much of this improvement must be credited to the camera's new Venus Engine FHD processor, which keeps everything humming along at a good clip.

This is pleasantly surprising considering the bump up in megapixels on the Micro Four Thirds sensor from the previous model. As a video camera, the Panasonic GH2 also showed improvements in HD image quality; i HD was quite good, and 24p, cinematic-style video looked great thanks to the faster 24Mbps recording rate.

Meanwhile, stereo sound from the built-in mic was crisp and the Wind Cut feature helped reduce that breezy whoosh during outdoor shooting. We're also fond of the Panasonic GH2's Continuous Autofocus feature for HD capture, which our tests show is among the best in the business. But for all its improvements, the Panasonic GH2 is not without a few quirks.

We weren't crazy about the touch control features on the 3-inch vari-angle screen, finding them distracting and unnecessary note that we thought using touch-tracking to pull focus was an ideal use of touch technology. We also found the Panasonic GH2 to be an overcomplicated and confusing camera to use, and had to continually consult the manual to figure out some of its features. Considering its more technically inclined target market, its overall still and video image quality, and its smooth and rapid autofocus earn the Panasonic GH2 a bona fide Dave's Pick.

GH2 vs GH4. GH2 vs G GH2 vs G7. GH2 vs GH5. GH2 vs GX8. GH2 vs G9. GH2 vs sd Quattro. GH2 vs GH5S. GH2 vs GX9. GH2 vs E-M1X. GH2 vs X-T3. GH2 vs X-H1. GH2 vs GX GH2 vs X-T Imaging Resource rating 4. Detail comparison. High-contrast details are often sharper as ISO rises, so they're worth a look as well. All of these cameras do pretty well in this series, though the blacks in the GH2 are a little lighter than the others, which doesn't help in this high-contrast contest.

All considered, the Panasonic GH2 does surprisingly well with high-contrast detail, maintaining more of the Pure Brewed lines at ISO 6, than most of the others. Its aspect ratio is part of the advantage, which is why the image appears larger than the others, which have aspect ratios, but we're still impressed, especially given the lower contrast.

Though there's some hint of sharpening halo in the GH2's rendering of the letters, the GF2, T3i, and A have significantly more dramatic halos. The Panasonic GH2 does very well with high-contrast detail. Buy the Panasonic GH2. Similar to the GH2 but smaller lighter larger sensor cheaper But Panasonic GH4. Panasonic G