Just got the lumix g6 for holidays and personal use from my weddings and my work horses hfg10s and 60ds, little bit of a play around in Ireland, in the bar iso 3200 grain free to me?? horses 160 iso standard profile all to the o...Wow, this little dslr is amazing...All footage 50p setting, kit lens 14-42 and the 45-150mm kit lens, no colour grading ect straight from the cam//
00030 - YouTube
00054 - YouTube
00074 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0nxqzEBXW8&feature=youtu.be)

I got the g6 on order to complement the gh3 I just got, I had my 550d to compare and the gh3 is a much better camera image quality wise, the g6 appeares to perform about the same as the gh3 so I"m exited to put both to work next weddings. The gh3 can go up to 6400 iso and gives me usable images without the real need for neatvideo treatment

Hey Noa, yep indeed this little beauty is brilliant. The feel of a light weight camera and the ease of use is excellent. Even the focus system is brilliant. Just point n and shoot the exposure focus pretty much takes care of its self, the 60d so hard to keep focus and maintain...It may well be I try for my weddings, but feel the cam don't look professional enough so will keep to my hfg10s and 60ds canon...
Wedding Video Liverpool Photography Liverpool Capture Your Moments Wedding (http://www.captureyourmomentsweddingvideo.com)

...the 60d so hard to keep focus and maintain...It may well be I try for my weddings, but feel the cam don't look professional enough so will keep to my hfg10s and 60ds canon

Steve - congrats on the G6! Fantastic little camera. Seriously, though, you are going to continue to use your 60D and increase the risk of an out-of-focus shot on a paid job because of the way the camera looks? You're kidding, right? :)

Cheers,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com)

Just kidding Bill yes hahaha

Steve, those videos look great "kit" lens and all. I've read that "kit" lens is an improvement over what has been included with the previous G series.

As far as it not looking "professional", the mere attachment of a "proper" lens hood for the lens in use, and the use of even an inexpensive shoulder brace like the SpiderBrace or the Gini rig will take it out of the realm of similarity to "Uncle Joe"s camera.

I sold off a 7D, T3i...AND a 60D once I started trying the GH2.

The Canon's were very good, giving me both good stills and video. But the GH2 was just a tad sharper. Autofocus has matured some in the G6 and GH3.

Hey Bruce... How are you? The g6 is growing on me day by day, I am trying all options these kit lens are great, low light im looking for the 45mm 1,8 and the 20mm 1.7. I have my monopods and the shoulder rig already. Just the viewfinder would be awkward maybe? having said that its ok for now..Is there a cheapo cowboy one that fits on the lcd screen at the back? Pity my 60d zacuto does not fit??? steve

Not sure I'd like to use a loop on my G6. I have found the focus assist zoom to be incredible to hitting focus. It doesn't work while recording as far as I know which is a shame. I tried to hold my lcdvf over the G6 screen and just couldn't see an advantage of it or focus peaking over the focus assist. Focus assist just works that well.

My T3i and host of L lenses have taken a seat on the pine. Even for stills the G6 can be pretty amazing if you have enough light.

Cheers,
Pete

Cheers Pete!!! That's what I was really trying to say, you cannot use the focus assist, you have to stop recording to check or change but like I am finding the tracking system works good so the focus takes care of itself and then you can half press the shutter button and it recfocuses quickly if you are not sure its focused on your subject. The little part of the horses as they go in the warm up cage stays in focus the whole time so that's the advantage over the canons...

Steve! I'm so jealous right now it's hard to describe in words! How come your videos look so smooth? They're not jittery at all, but at the same time it looks like a handheld shot . Is the image stabilizer inside the kit lens responsible for this beautiful video? I get really shaky handheld video with my 25mm lens on the GH3 (no O.I.S.).

PS: I just ordered the 14mm f/2.5 Panasonic lens, which is a great example of another lens without O.I.S., if you tell me your 14-42mm can produce such smooth video I'm putting that one in the cart as well. I'm sorry, I love to be able to take handheld shots, and your videos just look awesome to me. I'm more than willing to pay the $165 for that lens.

Anyone who doubts what the little sub-$1000 Panasonic G6 can do should look at this wedding video from Vimeo Plus member Jon Wide (https://vimeo.com/oscillian). I'll simply repeat the word in the title of this thread - wow.


Junwei + Daohua on Vimeo


Of course, most of this is Jon's skill as a videographer and editor, but I see a rock solid codec, no compression artifacts and sharp focus with manual lenses enabled by peaking. Very nice.

Maybe I should have gotten a G6 instead of sitting here by the door waiting for my $995 Pocket Cinema Camera (http://www.adorama.com/VDBMCCP.html?kbid=68009) to arrive :)

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com)

Beautiful.

First 'real' shoot with the G6 yesterday and I'm really wishing it had some additional functionality (firmware hack please?). During recording (AFAIK), you can't adjust the ISO, check focus (with manual lenses), adjust WB, audio gain or peaking. Please tell me if this is just an operator error. I'm mostly shooting on the 'video camera' dial mode, and prefer to use my all-manual lenses. I understand that there will always be compromises, especially on a cheap consumer camera. Speaking of which, is it possible to use external power with this camera? I only got about 40 minutes on my battery yesterday (LCD had to stay on throughout the shoot).

I just tried doing what you said on the GH3.

1. I could adjust ISO while recording.

2. I couldn't adjust WB.

3. "Checking focus" - I'm not sure what you mean.

4. I could adjust audio gain. There is a shortcut on the touchscreen in the form of a little microphone icon, you tap that after which you can go from input level 1 all the way to 15.

5. When you say peaking do you mean audio clipping? If so, the camera shows you the audio levels on the screen, there are several white bars after which you get 2 sets of red bars. As far as I know, if the audio level reaches the first set of red bars, you're fine, if it goes all the way to the second set, it's too loud.

However, that being said, I've found that the camera adjusts the audio level according to what it thinks it should be, pretty much regardless of the input level you set for it. The input level you suggest only slightly influences the actual audio level. You can think of the audio levels as being more or less automatic. The manual adjustment matters more if you have a silent environment. If things are loud, it will not let the audio get distorted even if you chose a reallly high input volume. Again, I have limited experience with it, but that's the feeling I got after filming a few events.

Steve! I'm so jealous right now it's hard to describe in words! How come your videos look so smooth? They're not jittery at all, but at the same time it looks like a handheld shot . Is the image stabilizer inside the kit lens responsible for this beautiful video? I get really shaky handheld video with my 25mm lens on the GH3 (no O.I.S.).

PS: I just ordered the 14mm f/2.5 Panasonic lens, which is a great example of another lens without O.I.S., if you tell me your 14-42mm can produce such smooth video I'm putting that one in the cart as well. I'm sorry, I love to be able to take handheld shots, and your videos just look awesome to me. I'm more than willing to pay the $165 for that lens.

Luc, spot on!! Let me tell you I was surprised, the camera just to my eye tight to the view finder arms tucked in but not really tight in. The kit lens 14-42 and the 45-150 both have ois and also the stabilizer in the camera on. This camera is freaking amazing...Standard profile, natural, vivid they are all brilliant, my buddy Bruce Foreman on the hv 20 forum and on here pretty much sold me to the cam. I may just may sell my canons and get the gh3s if they produce the same results as this little cam, god knows what I could do... Its as if I am watching some kind of 3d image when I watch. If you look when I pan to the right as the horse goes past, it looks as if its 3d or like the horse edges sticks out sharp...The only thing I am unsure about is when I need low light, my canon 60ds 50mm 1.4 and sigma 1.4 are both brilliant but im unsure about the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 and Olympus 45mm 1.8 for stability, I am getting used to the results of these kit lens. I wish they would make a low light lens like these with ois on.

First 'real' shoot with the G6 yesterday and I'm really wishing it had some additional functionality (firmware hack please?). During recording (AFAIK), you can't adjust the ISO, check focus (with manual lenses), adjust WB, audio gain or peaking. Please tell me if this is just an operator error. I'm mostly shooting on the 'video camera' dial mode, and prefer to use my all-manual lenses. I understand that there will always be compromises, especially on a cheap consumer camera. Speaking of which, is it possible to use external power with this camera? I only got about 40 minutes on my battery yesterday (LCD had to stay on throughout the shoot).

Oren, you can change the iso!! Focus afs does it for you or manual I can. wb no but you really would not change wb in the middle of recording? no audio gain, it is only a consumer camera? Spare batteries x 2 needed, got them £12.99 for two.

im unsure about the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 and Olympus 45mm 1.8 for stability, I am getting used to the results of these kit lens. I wish they would make a low light lens like these with ois on.

Allow me to let you in on a secret. I filmed 2 weddings this weekend, and I don't think I used my 25mm f/1.4 lens wide open ONCE. Not when action was happening. I only used it at 1.4 when I wanted to get creative with focus pulls where I had absolute control over the situation. You know why? Because I tried filming at f/1.4, and when I was filming people dancing as couples (slow dance), when they took one step towards me they were out of focus, when they returned back to their original position they were in focus, and when they made a step in the opposite direction they were, again, out of focus. That pretty much sums up f/1.4. It's very nice that the lens can go that far, but it is very limiting in certain situations. I am VERY glad I cancelled my Voigtlander f/0.95 order, it would have been useless for events.

I used to think exactly like you, which is why I refused to buy the 20mm f/1.7 - I was afraid it wasn't going to be good enough in low light. And now I sort of regret it. Could have bought 2 lenses instead of the one Leica 1.4. I used it at f/2.5 most of the time this weekend in low light conditions (to get used to the 14mm f/2.5 Panny lens I ordered today), and at f/8 outside in daylight. When they brought out the cake I was shooting at 1/50 shutter and ISO3200, still f/2.5. No problem at all. With those settings it sees about as well as we humans do in low light. Of course, I'm talking about the GH3 here, I have no idea what the G6 is like. Either way, relax, the 20mm f/1.7 will be FINE. You will thank me later.

PS: I have the 45mm Olympus. It is magnificent. But I don't even dare take handheld shots with it.
PPS: I'm totally ordering that 14-42mm lens by the way, because of you. Just to be sure, the G6 does not have a built-in stabilizer, correct? It's just the lens MEGA O.I.S. that works the magic, yes?

By the way, what is the difference between MEGA O.I.S.:

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-14-42mm-3-5-5-6-Aspherical-Interchangeable/dp/B0043VE28I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377035385&sr=8-1&keywords=14-42mm

and POWER O.I.S.:

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-14-42mm-F3-5-5-6-G-Series-Digital/dp/B005J5TZVG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377035385&sr=8-2&keywords=14-42mm

The g6 has also a built in stabilizer yes for sure just checked and the lens are mega ois, so perhaps it has extra stabilization that's why its so good??? not sure on the difference the power one has the pz but don't think it matters, the mega one is great. Will look for the 20mm cheers

Just checked and the manual says the optical stabilization on the g6 built in to the camera only works with the lens that have the ois, manual lens will not work with the cameras built in stabilization. steve

Feeling better now that Luc pointed me in the right direction. I was trying to do everything with buttons vs. on-screen. Yay! I can control ISO and audio (to a certain extent, at least). Punching in the zoom with a manual lens on-the-fly would be great to help with focus (I know the native lenses do this when you turn the focus ring), but I'll have to deal. Battery life will still be annoying, especially since my other camera is an FS-100 that will go 8 hours on a battery and not break a sweat.
I only bring up these issues because this will often be an unmanned 2nd camera. I need to be able to set-and-forget without worrying that the battery will quit when the display still reads two bars. For the record, it went from 2 bars to one bar to off in the space of perhaps 10 minutes yesterday. Hey Panasonic, how about a 'battery time remaining' display. Even a rough guess would be nice. Three dots don't really cut it for me.
Okay, I've been sour long enough. I really am enjoying this little Panny, all pet-peeves aside.

Just checked and the manual says the optical stabilization on the g6 built in to the camera only works with the lens that have the ois, manual lens will not work with the cameras built in stabilization. steveThe G6 does not have IBIS in any way. It simply is a quirk in the wording of selecting IS on or off in the camera. You can simply turn on and off IS from the camera without having to use the switch on the lens, if it has one.

I have shot my G6 with a 12-35 f/2.8, 14-42 II and a 100-300 all with OIS. It's quite good and if you are steady you can even shoot at 42mm and ETC for an effective focal length of 210mm hand held quite nicely.

Just making sure that you understand that the cam has control of IS from the body, but doesn't have any IS in body at all.

Cheers,
Pete

you can even shoot at 42mm and ETC for an effective focal length of 210mm

Is there much loss in resolution in that mode?

Never mind, just discovered etc on my gh3, "only" 25p but very usefull.

This sunday I got bored during the wedding and tested ISO 3200 & 6400 in low light, plus ETC at those ISOs. Hopefully I will have the time today to upload the test, but from what I saw the ETC footage is usable, even though slightly grainier. I'm guessing you'd really get away with using it if you had to film in 720p.

With the GH2 there is definitely a degradation in video quality when using ETC. However the videos that Pete Carney has posted using ETC on the G6 look amazing e.g. Oracle Team USA on Vimeo

Also here is no such thing as a free lunch & while the ETC mode does give extra reach it is in effect reducing the size of the sensor so it's like you are using a small sensor camcorder with get deep DoF rather than putting a big telephoto lens on your large sensor camera.

Also here is no such thing as a free lunch & while the ETC mode does give extra reach it is in effect reducing the size of the sensor so it's like you are using a small sensor camcorder with get deep DoF rather than putting a big telephoto lens on your large sensor camera.

If a 600 euro camera body can magnify the lens range by 2.5 without any visible loss in image quality and produce results Pete has shown, who would care about having a deeper dof? I don't see that as a negative at all, some of Pete's footage looks amazing.

I first thought he was using some kind of extender but when I found out today my gh3 has the same function I just quickly tried a 300 mm canon lens on it and while I can imagine there has to be some image degradation, in daylight at least I couldn't see artifacts of any kind, all detail was there, that opens up opportunities to be shooting with my samyang 85mm f1.4 lens at a reception from a stealthmode position :) Can't wait to try this feature next wedding.

*ahem*

do you mean THIS?

Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical Lens for Olympus 4/3SY85M-O B&H

I have one with a canon eos mount but use a adapter for my panasonic.

If you would get one, be sure you get the cine version:

Rokinon 85mm T1.5 Cine Lens -First Impressions- - YouTube

If a 600 euro camera body can magnify the lens range by 2.5 without any visible loss in image quality and produce results Pete has shown, who would care about having a deeper dof? I don't see that as a negative at all, some of Pete's footage looks amazing.I agree the images look great which is why I linked to Pete's video. In fact I believe that the ETC on the G6 gives a 4.8X crop & what I was trying to convey is that the image won't look the same as if you really had taken off a 100mm lens & put on a 480mm.

If you would get one, be sure you get the cine version:


I did. Got it in Nikon F mount as I had the adapter and a couple of Nikon lenses on hand. So far all I've been able to test it with has been on stills and seeing what it does with exterior lighting on my house from the front yard.

I've been having cataract surgery and for the first few days after each eye is done I stay inside so stuff blowing around in the wind doesn't get in the eyes. I can see anything past arms length far better than I ever remember.

But I think I'm liking the Rokinon 85mm T1.5 Cine lens.

I agree the images look great which is why I linked to Pete's video. In fact I believe that the ETC on the G6 gives a 4.8X crop & what I was trying to convey is that the image won't look the same as if you really had taken off a 100mm lens & put on a 480mm.Now that I actually own a G6 & have read the manual I need to correct this. WIth 1920x1080 mode ETC is 2.4x. It's s shame that there is not a way of simply toggling ETC On/Off as on the Olympus OM-D as the Panasonic requires several button pushes to engage/disengage ETC.

Partly as a result of seeing these posts singing the praises of the G6 I have now bought one. It's a PAL model but bought from Hong Kong & is without that pesky 30 minute recording limit so I can use it to replace my recently sold Canon XF105 as a locked off wide camera when shooting weddings. However the G6 is far more than that as it is a very capable camera. I used to own a GH2 but disliked using it as it was so small & fiddly. The G6 is just as small but feels much better in the hand because of the grip & the textured feel of the whole camera is more like my Canon 5D3. Even with the 14-42mm kit lens the still & video images are great while the ability to operate the camera remotely over WiFi (even the zoom lens) is great for a camera intended for unattended use. This is the first camera I have owned that does 1920x1080 50p so I have been experimenting with slow motion. I don't see any lack of resolution when using 50p as reported in some reviews.

Snail - some experiments with slow motion on Vimeo

A snail is not exactly the best subject to test slowmotion on :)
I don't like the way the camera lies in my hand at all, I constantly activate one of the buttons on the back with the palm of my hand, very annoying, never had that issue with my 550d which has a much better layout of the buttons and where you hold the camera. The gh3 is also a much better camera in that respect.

Also the etc mode on the g6 and the gh3 is just brilliant, have been shooting talking heads at a very dark reception with my g6 and a 85mm at f1.4 with etc enabled, I guess you get a 200mm f1.4 equivalent with that etc mode, the resulting images looked very good and where perfectly usable.

It's s shame that there is not a way of simply toggling ETC On/Off as on the Olympus OM-D as the Panasonic requires several button pushes to engage/disengage ETC.

I have assigned the etc mode to one of the preset buttons, so I just press the preset button and the etc menu pops up, then I tap on the screen to activate the etc mode so that's pretty quick to turn on or off.

A snail is not exactly the best subject to test slowmotion on :) My little joke although it does show that the slo-mo is pretty smooth even at 25%:-)
I don't like the way the camera lies in my hand at all, I constantly activate one of the buttons on the back with the palm of my hand, very annoying, never had that issue with my 550d which has a much better layout of the buttons and where you hold the camera. The gh3 is also a much better camera in that respect.It's certainly not as ergonomic as my 5D3 but it's not too bad & is vastly better than the GH2 that I couldn't get on with at all. TBH I only got the G6t to use as a locked off wide angle camera & as such I won't need to handle it much. In fact using WiFi I won't need to touch it at all once it's in place. The fact that it is only 5/8 of the price of the GH3 means that if it's a success I'll probably buy another so that I can use it for another locked off angle.

I did a test earlier today with a cheap non-Panasonic battery that lasted just 81 minutes while recording. I am currently repeating the test with a genuine Panasonic battery & it has been running 130 minutes & still hasn't died so I guess paying 3x the cost for genuine Panasonic batteries is worthwhile

Nigel I to have started to use it for my weddings, the kit lens are great but I need to save for a micro thirds lens 1.7/.8 to give me bokeh that my canons give me... I am slowly but surely loving the g6, dead light hold in your hands and steady......Still unsure on picture setting, I like standard toned down in sharp contrast sats -2, but just natural is good...

I have assigned the etc mode to one of the preset buttons, so I just press the preset button and the etc menu pops up, then I tap on the screen to activate the etc mode so that's pretty quick to turn on or off.
It's not terrible. It's just that I know it could be better. With my OM-D I have ETC mode assigned to a function button & it's press once for on & press again for off. I do keep forgetting about using the touch screen which us something that I do need to get used to as it does work very well.

I did a test earlier today with a cheap non-Panasonic battery that lasted just 81 minutes while recording. I am currently repeating the test with a genuine Panasonic battery & it has been running 130 minutes & still hasn't died so I guess paying 3x the cost for genuine Panasonic batteries is worthwhile
I tested with the Panasonic battery & it filled the 32GB card recording over 2.5 hours & there was still battery left.

I have also been experimenting with the smartphone app connecting over WiFi. It is possible to connect & disconnect the smartphone to monitor the recording which just keeps on going. This means that you could have multiple cameras all controlled from one smartphone. It's a little cumbersome & not as slick as the GoPro app that easily toggles between multiple cameras but it still looks usable.

Nigel I to have started to use it for my weddings, the kit lens are great but I need to save for a micro thirds lens 1.7/.8 to give me bokeh that my canons give me... I am slowly but surely loving the g6, dead light hold in your hands and steady......Still unsure on picture setting, I like standard toned down in sharp contrast sats -2, but just natural is good...
I have the Panasonic 14mm F/2.5 for use when it's a locked off wide shot. With the maximum ISO of 3200 it's going to be good enough for all but the darkest of venues. The only wide MFT lens available with a larger aperture is the Olympus 12mm F/2 which is much more expensive & while it is a little wider it's light gathering ability is only marginally better. The Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 is not as wide but does have a better low light.

I am not too bothered about shallow DoF & bokeh from my MFT cameras as I am using my Canon 5D3 as my A camera for all the beauty shots.

There is an Israeli guy shooting some amazing wedding videos with a GH2 & an OM-D that are as good as any that I have seen. When I saw what he achieves with MFT cameras it inspired me to try for myself.

Shani & Yaron Highlights on Vimeo

Check out all his videos as there is some fantastic work there both camera work & editing.

Yes, great camerawork and editing though he probably could do that with any type of dslr, there are some great looking shots in there and some not so great. Especially outside there are several very overexposed shots.

I have a wedding this Friday where everything will be on one location which gives me much more time to prepare and setup, was really thinking to use my gh3/g6 and my ea50 for the ceremony which would be the first time. For the ceremony I always use my small handicams for their ease of use and great image quality but they don't have that dslr look. I am quite nerveous though about using the g6 as I haven"t used it for longer continuous recording before. Might take the risc if I have easy access to all 3 camera's.

Noa, did a wedding Saturday. Canon 60d morning prep, 60d arrivals, ceremony main cam hfg25, Panasonic g6 b-roll on bride another angle, 60d on guests parents. 60d exit and photo shoot, reception hfg25 on glidecam and also using on the glidecam on thigh when needing static shots.used to use the 60d but focus was every where. Entrance g6 locked of on tripod one angle, hfg25 glidecam in... Speeches g6 one angle hfg25 main cam 60d moving around 50-150 sigma...close ups. Mingling into dance sigma 30mm 1.4 on the 60d, 50mm 1.4 locked on tripod. glidecam and hfg25 dance. g6 coped well. steve

Steve, don't you have problems matching up the look of three very different cameras? What picture styles do you use?

Nigel, canon hfg25 p mode settings all down -1 apart from brightness, 60d neutral contrast down -2, sharp down -2 sats down -1, Panasonic g6 neutral all down -1 or -2, leave in auto white balance all three and adjust in prem pro cs6 on the white balance and I move the colour sliders if any adjustment is needed. Seems to be working great. This was the other week same cameras. Regards Steve
Gemma + Shaun on Vimeo

Nice highlights reel, Steve. Very good job of "blending" camera looks. I could not pick out any specific cameras.

Thanks Bruce... Hope your well...

low light lens micro thirds but the 45mm 1.8 has no stabilization, the 25mm 1.4 has no stabilization, so what gives, what lens can I get then for low light, I don't think the 12-35 2.8 will cut it? Anyone

You do have autofocus on some fast primes but no stabilisation as far as I know. Don't think that even other manufacturers have this, I guess stabilization is only possible with lenses from f2.8 and slower?

Cheers Noa, see this is my point holding back on a gh3, if I get the 5d mark iii I can use a 24-70 vc with 3200 iso and get a clean result. Surely there must be a low light lens with is os vc. The gh3 does not seem to get results low light? am I wrong?