Testing the GH2

If you haven't already noticed- I've had a new electronic appendage by my side the last week or so... a new digital camera. It's a Panasonic GH2, which is best described as a mirror-less DSLR. Picture a DSLR operating in 'live view' mode, all the time. By removing the mirror, the camera is considerably smaller and lighter than a traditional SLR or DSLR.

It's a small and light package, but it's feature-rich. It takes 16 MP photos (15MP when set to 3:2 aspect ratio, the standard for DSLRs)... but the big upgrade over my previous camera is the video capabilities! This little camera records beautiful full 1080 HD video at 24 frames/sec... or 720 HD at 60p- perfect for slow motion effects. The other really nice thing is that this camera allows full-manual control over video recording- something my last camera lacked.

The more I play with the video, the more I am impressed. I've begun to think of this little camera as a film-like VIDEO camera, that also takes photos. Here's a quick sample of how sharp the video looks:

Wing-mounted GH2 shooting 1080 HD @ 24 fps

But for me, the question has remained... how good of a PHOTO camera is it? I had some spare time yeserday, so I headed up American Fork Canyon to see what I could find to take some test photos of. I noticed the river that follows the road (or does the road follow the river?) was still quite high- and I had my sticks in the car, so I thought some slow shutter speed water shots might be a good test.

Because it was very bright (direct sunlight in some cases), I had to stop down to F/22... this meant everything was in focus... which isn't my favorite effect. In some of these shots, particularly ones where I was lazy and zoomed in, rather than get closer, the foreground has very little separation from the background. I figure with was about the lens and shooting parameters much more than the camera... but I'll have to do more testing...

Click an image to see it larger

All of these photos were taken with the 14-140mm Panasonic 'kit' lens. I believe they were all at f/22, with shutter speeds around 1/6 sec, all at ISO 160.

Obviously, this little camera is capable of taking some nice images! I'm not convinced that it takes better images than my Nikon D300s- which I have absolutely loved everything about, except for it's video capabilities. The GH2 photos require a quite a bit more 'developing' to get the colors how I like them (or even how I remember it looking in real life). GH2 photos also tend to favor a cooler tone, versus the Nikon favored warmer photos- I prefer warmer, looks less 'digital'...

The Nikon D300s is only 12.2 MP, but the color reproduction seems much better, and much more true-to-life. I'm not really surprised by any of this, the D300s is a fairly pro-level camera, and the GH2 is clearly consumer oriented. I had originally planned on selling the Nikon... but now I'm torn... When I ordered the GH2 I was ready to trade some photo quality for vastly better video capabilities... but now I'm having a hard time biting that bullet....

Here are some Nikon D300s images for comparison (different location, different day)...



Also worth mentioning- I'm editing the GH2 images using Photoshop RAW... and I edit the Nikon images using Nikon's Capture NX2 software. I absolutely love photoshop (for some things)- but I have been very, very impressed with Nikon's software, and feel it is a better tool for developing digital photos. Unfortunately, although not that surprising, the Nikon software does not support the GH2's raw file format...

Over the Top

Too much? ;-)

Compilation of a few aerobatic flights. Pilot is Ryan Voight, flying a Wills Wing T2C 144 ("Sundancer")

Chelan, cont

Des and I spent 4th of July weekend up in Chelan, Washington. Neither of us had been there before... what a cool place!

Launch is a 'butte' with a good road all the way up... it's paved about 1/3 of the way, then it's dirt. We took the Subaru Outback 'cause it gets twice the MPG of my truck, and it was able to go up and down no problem at all. There are several launches, and you can fly there in pretty much any wind direction!

Being on vacation, we were going up pretty early and doing late-morning flights, leaving the rest of the day for other activites. It's one of the only sites I've ever flown that can be thermal-soarable at launch, and still super-smooth and mellow out over the LZ.... which made it perfect for some aerobatic routines each day

On one side of launch is Lake Chelan, which is a beautiful blue lake... kind of reminded me of Tahoe... on the other side of launch there is a big river that runs through the valley. The 'soccer field' LZ we were using is in this valley, right next to the river. After flying you could take a dip in the river to cool off if you were so inclined (our dog, Jackson, a black lab-mix was very appreciative of that!).

After flying there's tons to do.... there are wineries all over the place, and my wife and I enjoy some vino from time-to-time... so we did some relaxing wine tasting while we were there. The town is small, but we found several funky little eaterys that we really enjoyed, and look forward to returning to...

Last but not least, all of the people there were super nice! A group of pilots there took us in and treated us like family! On top of having a great time, getting good flying, etc etc, we feel like now our extended flying family has grown a bit more, and that's always cool.

We're already hoping to do the same trip next year....

Here's a quick video from some of my flights there:

Did some most excellent relaxing and unwinding in Chelan this past weekend. What a cool place, and the people there are all awesome!

The flying was great, too! We did some mellow-morning flights, with some thermals, but still smooth conditions out over the river/LZ... perfect for some freestyle practice!

Chelan

I'll post more about Chelan in a bit... but for now, a frame grab from my GoPro video :-)

Another taste

A couple frame-grabs from a North Side video session:

Me and "3D" (Dangerous Dave) doing a little in-flight communication

A different view of the North Side Flight Park

North Side footie

I haven't had time to do a real edit yet, but check out some of the cool shots from the North Side the other night...

Just a taste of the footage I got on 6/20/11

Boomin'

Nose boom test-fly on the South Side. Dangerous Dave flew with it all last year, but then I had to go and "improve" it (read: change it)... so it needed RE-testing... I also hadn't flown with it yet, so this was a bit of a double test. I lived, so I guess it passed!

Here's the video from the REAL first nose-boom test shoot (re-post):

A quick edit of some test-footage of a new camera mount. Pilot is "Dangerous" Dave Gibson, at the South Side, Point of the Mountain UT.

Camera is an HD GoPro

Utah Mountain Playground

Damn I love Utah!

This is a 6 minute summary of a 2.5 hr flight over the Wasatch mountains of Utah. I lauched from Inspiration, in Orem UT and flew North to Point of the Mountain in Draper, UT... flying over Mt Timponogos (summit ~12,000 ft), Box Elder Peak (summit ~10,000 ft), and Lone Peak (summit ~11,000 ft).



The "Inspo" to the Point XC is only about 12 miles, but it is one of the most scenic routes ever... I'd even say it rivals flying through Yosemite National Park!

Hell Hath Frozen Over

'Nuff said...

South Side Speckin'

Had an excellent South Side session today, and it was was just what was needed after weeks of rain. It started out light, but quickly picked up and continued to build throughout the day. In the lighter stuff I took the opportunity to test-fly my new Falcon 3 Tandem (which flew sweet). Then I set up the Sundancer for some free-play :-)

I invited Dangerous Dave out, and offered him the use of my wing. Dave is one of the few I trust completely with my hang gliding equipment- and for good reason. He's pretty talented, pretty experienced... pretty amazing I must say.

As much good ribbing as we give eachother, I step up and admit when I'm beat... and today Dave took me to school... on my own glider. Click on the shot below to see it bigger...

3D specking out in the Sundancer

It would seem we have discovered the first (and possibly only) flaw with my new glider... the custom inlay artwork is absolutely useless because the glider climbs too well. I haven't had a bad flight on it since I got it... unless you count tagging the summit of Lone Peak, from the North Side, and freezing my tuckus off...

All kidding aside, Wills Wing did a FANTASTIC job on the new wing, and I am deeply grateful (as was Dave after flying it too)