We're still picking up our jaws (and eyeballs) off the floor at Panasonic's announcement of the many wonders the new
Lumix DMC-GH1 has in store for us, but some lucky folks out there
on the internet have actually handled the new camera and have a few impressions up for us poor GH1-less souls. The camera has an easy-access video button, to let people record right away without the voodoo associated with recording like on the D90. Panasonic samples the stereo mic at 46Khz for audio recording and along with the Wind Cut function the GH1 gathers what
Lets Go Digital calls "impressive" results. Panasonic's iA functionality for automatic scene detection and face recognition is much improved in this camera, and the new VENUS Engine HD processor (one of two processors in the camera) apparently improves noise on ISO 1600 shots. The camera also has a new sensor which allows it to shoot in multiple aspect ratios, with a total of 14 megapixels to play with, though the camera is still rated at 12.1 megapixels. We're looking forward to a review, but things already sound very promising!
Read - DMC-GH1 at Lets Go Digital
Read - DMC-GH1 at Digital Photography Review
posted March 3rd 2009 1:17PM
46kHz? That's weird, it's usually 44.1 or 48.
I know absolutely zilch about it, but what if the slightly higher sample rate gives the noise cancelling tech the chance to knock those frequencies back out of the sound while still maintaining CD sample rates? Bury me, don't mind, like I said, I know nothing about it. This will hopefully get some answers regardless.
Nah, while that makes sense, sample rate is the absolute number of times per second it records the signal. So if you knocked out, say, 8-10kHz for wind whistling/noise, it would still keep the other frequencies - it doesn't actually change the sample rate. Probably just a typo, though.
Engadget's comment system is awful. I clicked on the link from the email that someone replied to my message, and when I tried to reply from that page it didn't submit anything at all, so I had to retype this.
46kHz sample rate is enough for for upto 23kHz sound. You can resample it to 44,1k or 48k easily.
More intresting would be to know if its 16 or 24 bits, and what the noise figure is. Alltho if you use the internal mic none of these matter as it will be the limitin factor for spectrum, dynamic and noise.
Resampling causes errors, and usually most chips are built to sample at 44.1 or 48kHz.
Wow, that seems like a well thought out camera. A real game change.
Who thinks it'll sell millions?
I do! It makes samsungs announcement seem laughable (no specs/info on compatibility/etc..)
Feature set is quite impressive!! Hopefully Canon / Nikon sees the video options and decides to improve their own.
"Voodoo" to record with the D90? You hit the "OK" button to start/stop while in Live View mode. That's it.
This camera is exciting both for what it can do, and what it is: a dSLR without the SLR. From what I've read of the G1 so far, it sounds like it's a bit of a trade-off. For every advantage there's a downfall compared to dSLRs, but this is only the first (I guess technically the second now) camera of it's kind. My hopes are that Panasonic sees positive results and persues the market further. It may not be the best prosumer camera on the market, but where dSLRs have mostly reached the peak of major technical advancements, the sky is the limit with technology advancements for this Panasonic and any similarly designed cameras yet to come.
did this REALLY NEED A SEPERATE POST?
couldn't you have just included the reviews at the bottom of the OTHER GH1 post?
it would save me time, which is quite valuble these days
did you really have to comment? Seems like that took some more time out of your jam-packed day.
Hey! Lets rather play I-never instead of did-you-really!
Gray,
This the most significant camera of all year. It deserves more coverage.
This camera is "almost" my dream camera - add GPS location tagging (that transfer to iPhoto/Picasa/Flickr) and I'm buying it, immediately - my Canon Lens collection be damned. I read someplace that this camera had a mic input as well - I'd like to know more about that and/or any microphone accessories. 720p at 60fps (progressive) is AWESOME! This will be the perfect mate to my AppleTV for home movies - just drop them on iMovie and they'll autosynch up to my HDTV.
Sweetness! (using a Casio Exlim for that now, but the lenses make all the difference - and I love the Lumix's I have - I hope Panasonic is going to H.264 for video on all their cameras...
I agree with LloydChiro - this camera deserves more coverage.
So any word on price, bitrate on the video, and is it possible to manual focus while in video?
also, to any users of a micro four thirds camera, whats the depth of field like?
i.e. how easy is it to make the background of your shot blurry?
well, the bitrate is 17mbps, which isnt too bad seeing as how thats what the Canon HV20 maxes at pity its not the AVCHD max of 24mbps
I need this camera. Almost bought the G1 when they came out. I will definitely be buying this. Please find out a release date for this engadget!!!!
Is panasonic cameras still producing grainy and noisy pictures with bad colors? I've used Lumix FZ-7 and FZ-30 back in the day (which is a DSLR want-to-be class of cameras), and the pictures usually suck donkey balls unless its a perfect day outside with plenty of lights. Their point-and-shoot Lumix fails in the same way -- noise (even in low ISO setting) and disappointing color. Don't know how their DSLR stands.
I don't own any Panasonic cameras yet, but I understand that their image quality is getting better exponentially with every new generation. The point and shoot LX3 is garnering a large following of users, and apparently is regarded as one of the best all around point and shoots you can buy.
I am not about to claim the D90 video mode is worth pressing any buttons for but what voodoo is needed to press TWO buttons to record video?
You press the live view button, then when you want to record you press OK. Press OK again to Stop, press OK again to start, hmm, yeah, thats pretty complicated....