I got lucky and got my hands on a Panasonic Lumix GH3 back in early January. Since I've had it, I've put it through its paces in a number of different shooting circumstances: freezing winter cold, hot indoors, hours of video and a few thousand stills. I'm still relatively new to the Micro 4/3rds format, my previous experience limited to a few dozen hours of video off of a hacked GH2. Despite being green, it didn't take long before I felt comfortable enough to plug my GH3 into a professional shoot. The results were applauded by the producers I worked with, but I'd be lying if I said the GH3 was a flawlessly designed camera. Frankly, it's not. Regardless, the video and the stills are impressive. Very impressive. I'm impressed so much by both, my Canons have done nothing but collect dust since the new year began.
What I do love about this camera is the build. It feels solid in my grip, is nicely weighted and has completely done away with the plasticky feel that plagued the GH2. Despite being a smaller camera (in comparison to the 7D and 5D), it feels professional. I've also learned to love the less shallow depth of field thanks to the M43's smaller sensor size which makes shooting documentary and reality TV much easier, providing me cards crammed with usable footage and a lot less wasted MBs hunting for focus. I also love the added length of the M43 2X crop factor when I'm shooting with a long lens, a bonus I had the pleasure of indulging on a recent shoot with a number of exotic animals.
The RAW images I've shot on the GH3 have made me a believer this camera can do anything my Canons could, perhaps with better results. At higher ISOs (800-1600), I was pleasantly surprised to discover the GH3's noise has a film grain-like quality I've grown to love. As a result, where the M43 sensor lacks in sensitivity over the larger full-frame and APS-C sensors, I've found the gap was considerably narrowed by my comfort shooting wide open on my Voigtlander 17mm f0.95 at ISOs I typically avoided on my Canon 7D, 60D and 5DM2.
The video on the robust 72mbps ALL-I codec looks great, but with no C-log-like picture profile currently available, there's not a flat enough profile available to take advantage of the GH3's impressive dynamic range. You can shoot video in the Creative Control Mode in High Dynamic Range, but frustratingly, you can't manually control the shutter or the ISO (making this option practically useless). Relegated to shooting manually with the Natural picture profile, the details in the highs and lows are significantly better than anything I've ever shot on anything else in the HDSLR/mirrorless realm.
Despite the many positive strides Panasonic has made with the GH3, they've also committed a number of design gaffes. My first gripe: the memory card door. You barely have to breathe on this thing to pop it open and -- no surprise -- anything that brushes up against it seems to do just that: hands, fingers, camera bags, stray cats, etc. This is an annoyance that can be remedied with a little gaff tape, but do I really want to ugly up my camera, or do I want Panasonic to beef up the locking mechanism on this thing? Definitely a rhetorical question.
The next design niggle to get under my skin is the Control Dial. Being a mirrorless camera, there isn't as much real estate to work with as there is with the body of a DSLR. I love the Control Dials on the Canon 5D and 7D, and how it's placement allows you to grip the camera / quickly wheel through shots with your thumb. What Canon inspired, Panasonic failed at copying by putting their Dial right in the middle of the area where your hand grips the camera. As a result, you constantly jog the Dial when shooting, an annoyance that also has a tendency to botch compositions.
As a pro shooter, I'm accustomed to setting everything manually and --as expected-- there was a slight learning curve when it came down to wrapping my megalomania around the GH3's settings. For the first few hours of video operation, I was fighting the camera and had to remind myself this isn't a professional video camera like the F3 or a C300. I also had to remind myself I paid $1,300 for the GH3, not $13,000. Some times a little perspective goes a long way. Not unlike the 7D and the 5D, this is a stills camera and in the same way the 7D and the 5D were a back door way to get film-like video, you learn to tolerate --and work around-- shortcomings.
Regardless, there's a number of video features I can't live without. Peaking is one of them and as of today, there's no peaking on the GH3 (please Panasonic, give us the firmware upgrades you know we all want). Why Sony is the only company to figure this one out is beyond me. Also important to me is the ability to always be able to monitor what I'm shooting: shutter speed, ISO, f-stop, format, histogram, time code, etc. You can get these up on the display, but for some stupid reason the GH3 display overlay is timed to go away after 10 seconds. Why? If I select the display to be on, what makes this camera think I want it to disappear after a few seconds? If I wanted the display off, then I'd turn the damn thing off. The fact is: I don't want my camera making decisions like this for me. Perhaps I should mention I never crack owner's manuals and I suppose if I did, I might find a solution to this problem. On the other hand, I also believe I should be able to figure out anything on a camera with enough man hours. I'm now a few months into operating my GH3 and have had no luck figuring out a solution for this issue.
I've got an early call tomorrow so Part 2 of this review (with sample video and pictures) will have to wait until I get some more down time.
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