Panasonic lumix g6, wow

[Steve Bleasdale]

Originally Posted by Oren Arieli

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.

[Luc Spencer]

Originally Posted by Steve Bleasdale

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-14-4...ywords=14-42mm

and POWER O.I.S.:

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-14-4...ywords=14-42mm

[Steve Bleasdale]

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

[Steve Bleasdale]

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

[Oren Arieli]

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.

[Pete Carney]

Originally Posted by Steve Bleasdale

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

The 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

[Noa Put]

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

Is there much loss in resolution in that mode?

[Noa Put]

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

[Luc Spencer]

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.

[Nigel Barker]

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.

[Noa Put]

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.

[Luc Spencer]

*ahem*

do you mean THIS?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/859134-REG/Samyang_SY85M_O_85mm_f_1_4_Aspherical_Lens.html

[Noa Put]

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

[Noa Put]

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

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

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

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.