gh3... any typical problems?

[Noa Put]

I have the etc mode assigned to fn1, when I want to use it I first place the camera in stdby, then I press the fn1 button and the etc menu appears, then I tap the lcd screen to activate the etc mode and I half press the shutter button to confirm.
You do know etc mode doesn't work in 50p? I found out only last week.

I slowly am getting to speed with the gh3, used it during a fashion show yesterday and had to do some behind the scenes, shot handheld with the 12-35 f2.8 lens and saw the results on my pc yesterday evening, the footage looks very stable and I only used a varavon loupe, I still find it difficult to set correct exposure, I have the histogram on all the time but I do miss the extra zebra's my ea50 gives me, with that cam my exposure is spot on all the time, with the gh3, like my 550d, it's a bit more a guessing game. I know you can make overexposed parts flash but that's really distracting and also not that precise.

[Nigel Barker]

I didn't realise that ETC doesn't work in 50p mode on the GH3 as it works OK on the G6 (which I own). I also have an Olympus OM-D & have one of the function buttons allocated to ETC & that allows me to toggle ETC on & off with one push of the button. The extra step on the G6/GH3 of needing to access the menu to select ETC off/on is irritating.

[Ron Fabienke]

Nigel
Are you saying in the stop mode you can actually toggle the "effect" Off and On? Or that you get two boxes to choose from and have to do one more step and select one? That's what I see. And it does not work either way.

Am I supposed to be On in he main menu with the ETC? That's how I have been trying, but also I (think) with it Off as well. That so far is the only place I can change it. ???

[Nigel Barker]

Ron, I have to do the extra step. It's my OM-D that I can just toggle on/off. On the G6 there is the option for ETC when taking stills but as this uses the central portion of the sensor it only works if you have the camera set to take less than full resolution JPEGs which seems a bit pointless. I don't see why you would ever want to shoot less than full resolution stills.

[Noa Put]

Yesterday I almost had a heartattack, the day before the wedding I performed a format on my cf card through the camera menu system and the next day started filming, no problems, at a certain moment I had the camera in standby and when I wanted to shoot and when I looked at the viewfinder I couldn't see a live view but the format screen was opened with "delete all data from the memory card?" selected and luckily 'no" was highlighted. (it defaults to "no" when you open that screen.)

What happened? When the camera was in standby I accidentally pressed the "menu set" button (small button in the scroll wheel) twice with the palm of my hand while holding the camera. Because I had formatted the card the format option screen opened as that was where I left it at the day before and the second press of that button went to the actual format choice.

Lesson learned is to now leave the menu in a screen that has no destructive options but it is another example that the button layout on the GH3, just like on the G6 which I own as well is pretty bad because I have been activating the menu screen several times by accident, never had this kind of behavior with my 550d.

[John De Rienzo]

I am getting to dislike the GH3 a little more with every shoot I undertake. Really, Really fed up with thinking I am recording, only to find out the camera is still in standby mode because of the disappearing info on screen leading you to have to press the 'REC' button twice (once to bring the screen info back and then again to start recording)

Come on Panasonic, sort this out please!

[Noa Put]

How is that? Even after most info disappears the most critical part, the recording info, is still visible on my screen, I get a red blinking dot and the time it has been recording and the time remaining and that doesn't dissapear.

[William Hohauser]

I have finally gotten into the the double click habit. Now I have to remember not to do that with my other cameras!

[Ronald Jackson]

You could always buy a shutter release cable. I have Panasonic's own rather expensive one but prefer to use a cheapo version I got via Amazon UK for about a tenner (£10).

Ron

[Gabriele Sartori]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I"m just like you about to get a gh3, in my case to replace a 550d on a steadicam mainly but for other purposes as well. Eventhough I don't have the camera yet I just looked at the many videos on vimeo and for me it's clear the camera is a very solid performer.

One of my favorite videos is this one, shot handheld using just one lens:

bali on Vimeo

Great video, did you use the 550D or the GH3 ?

[Noa Put]

It was not one of my videos :) Mine can be seen in below link, the video I was referring to is from Igor.

[Les Wilson]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

How is that? Even after most info disappears the most critical part, the recording info, is still visible on my screen, I get a red blinking dot and the time it has been recording and the time remaining and that doesn't dissapear.

John is correct. When the display info disappears, pressing the record button once does not start recording and you will miss the shot. That press brings the displays back. Pressing it a second time starts recording. If you get into the habit of pressing twice, you can also miss recording if the displays were still on for the first press because then recording will start e.g. displays on, recording starts. So the second press will actually stop recording and you will miss the shot.

It's an egregious error to anyone with human factors skills and reflects poorly on Panasonic development acumen.

I missed some great footage in Africa learning this lesson. I disable the record button and use the shutter button with the camera in Movie mode instead. That button works properly. YMMV

[Noa Put]

I actually use both shutter and rec button to start or stop recording but I still don't get how you can miss a shot, yes, you have to press twice to start recording but if it is recording you always do get the info on screen so if there is no info visible at all there is also no recording going on or do you mean something else?

[Chris Duczynski]

Why does Panny even have the seperate record button ??
The shutter release button does it all without having to go through the display on/ press once, display off/press twice routine. I never use the record button and havn't missed a shot yet. Seems a dumb option (for Panny), when the natural instinct is to use shutter release.

[Noa Put]

I can't understand why they haven't fixed this with a firmware update to at least get the dedicated rec button function like it should, but anyways, by using the shutter button there is no issue at all, you press it once and it activates the record mode, you even can get a beep sound when it does and when all info disappears on screen the rec button is still flashing and the counter is still running so I don't understand why people keep missing a shot thinking it's recording when it's not.

To get all info back on screen I also press the shutterbutton slightly, it's annoying most info disappears and when I started using this camera it was quite a shock but after some time of use I start to get used to it and actually find it better to have all clutter removed from screen when I"m recording so I can concentrate on what's going on. I only keep an eye on the rec button to assure it's recording and I press the shutter button a bit in from time to time to confirm other settings.