Panasonic GH1 w HD

[com300]

hi guys,

wanna get a video cam for HD work. Thought the new pana GH1 with HD recording in AVCHD is quite interesting. Can change lens, big CMOS sensor for DOF control, full manual control (unlike 5Dmk2), can add external mic, good high iso performance, full HD.

Sounds like a good package. Do you guys reckon that this could be a platform for professional or at least serious amateur HD work?

How is editing AVCHD? Is the format troublesome/problematic?

thanks!

[jaegersing]

Originally Posted by com300 hi guys, wanna get a video cam for HD work. Thought the new pana GH1 with HD recording in AVCHD is quite interesting. Can change lens, big CMOS sensor for DOF control, full manual control (unlike 5Dmk2), can add external mic, good high iso performance, full HD. Sounds like a good package. Do you guys reckon that this could be a platform for professional or at least serious amateur HD work? How is editing AVCHD? Is the format troublesome/problematic? thanks!

Nobody really knows what the GH1 is like yet, because it is not for sale. Need to wait until "summer 2009" according to Panasonic.

And still the best way to edit AVCHD is to convert it to another format first.

[tkmloh]

Hi Jaegersing,
Which lossless format would you recommend converting the avchd mts file to prior to editing in sony vegas pro? My files are 24bmps avchd from canon hfs-10.
Thank you.

[jaegersing]

Originally Posted by tkmloh Hi Jaegersing, Which lossless format would you recommend converting the avchd mts file to prior to editing in sony vegas pro? My files are 24bmps avchd from canon hfs-10. Thank you.

I normally use the Canopus HQ codec which is not exactly lossless but it looks pretty good and is easy to edit. You could also try the Cineform Neo Scene solution which probably works better with Vegas. Or if you want something truly lossless (and free) then you could try Lagarith but I think the playback in Vegas may not be that smooth.

[tkmloh]

Thanks for your advice Jaegersing. I've tried converting the mts files to all three, cineform, canopus and lagarith. The files sizes are quite huge after the conversion using either one of them in avi format, something like 10 times the original mts files. Is that normal? I use tmpg enc express to do the conversion.

[jaegersing]

Originally Posted by tkmloh Thanks for your advice Jaegersing. I've tried converting the mts files to all three, cineform, canopus and lagarith. The files sizes are quite huge after the conversion using either one of them in avi format, something like 10 times the original mts files. Is that normal? I use tmpg enc express to do the conversion.

Yes the files are huge. Did you try editing with them? If you agree that the editing becomes easier and more responsive, then I suppose the good news is that hard disks are cheap nowadays. On the other hand, if you don't see much difference it may not be worth the effort for you.

Personally, I would not want to edit anything more than a few simple cuts in AVCHD format. And even that would be pushing it if I needed to sync to music. But other people apparently don't mind working with AVCHD, so maybe it depends on what you do with the video files and what you are used to while editing.