Saturday, May 16, 2009

Panasonic GH-1 HD DSLR


Like Canon, Panasonic is releasing a Digital SLR camera that outputs 1920x1080 video.


Panasonic's GH-1 will output video using the AVCHD codec used in a lot of consumer camcorders.


You can read about it here with various specs:


http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030315panasoniclumixdmcgh1.asp


http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Cameras-Camcorders/Digital-Cameras/Lumix-Digital-Cameras/model.DMC-GH1K.S_11002_7000000000000005702#tabsection


The camera is available for pre-order on Amazon for $1499:


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001WAKSCW/


The camera is a Micro Four Thirds, so it's not a full 35mm sensor, but still can have shallow depth of field.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Four_Thirds


There is a part you may find curious:


NTSC: [Full HD] 1920 x 1080, 60i (sensor output is 24fps)


This means that the file that is created is at 29.97 then needs to be reverse telecined to 23.976.


This isn't normally a problem since Panasonic DVX100, Canon XL2 and other tape based cameras need to be reverse telecined when capturing from the 24P mode.


The issue will be on how to reverse telecine it. The camera is out in Japan so there is raw camera footage to test with.


Final Cut Pro on an Intel Mac only can handle AVCHD footage, so I converted to ProRes first using Toast 9.


I tried Compressor, and it doesn't do the reverse telecine well.


I tried a free app called JES Deinterlacer, and it did the reverse telecine, but there were interlace artifacts.


If any of you want to try to test out the footage yourself you can find it here:


http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=170685



There are discussions about the issues with the compression.


http://prolost.com/blog/2009/5/9/would-you-like-a-little-camera-with-your-mount.html