Yaron Y. Dahan

If anybody on this forum still has the manual in English, i would be much obliged to get a copy

Thoughts anyone?

Hey folks, I just recently got my GH3 set up and am looking for some sort of basic sound set up that would get me through the day. Any thoughts on what I should get for a total budget of 400$? It would be either a decent gun mike, or a cheap gun mike + ext. recorder I guess. I know there is a Panasonic made DNW-MS-2 kind of "Designed for" the GH3, but I don't know if it has any advantages/benefits. And actually maybe its not so great becuase of its very short cable. In sound I really know nothing about nothing, so I am open to any of your helpful thoughts.

Hey folks, So after all these discussions, I just wanted to thank everybody for their thoughts, and write back here about what I decided and why, so maybe it will help out others who are considering the same decision as myself. So, finally, after much hesitation I went with the Panasonic GH3. I'm not yet 100% sure it was the right decision and only time will tell... First and foremost, I think that although with my approximate budget of about 5000$ I could have gotten some "better" video camera, this budget when applied to the GH3, really allowed me to do a lot in terms of lenses (mostly) and accessories. Ultimately I bought the GH3 with the new 12-35 2.8 lens and the very pretty 17mm nokton .95. I also got a c-mount to MFT adapter, which should allow me to get some nice cheap fantastic lenses that basically nobody uses anymore. With the thousand or so left over, I am thinking of (maybe, and not yet immediately) buying a 16mm camera). I think that it really simply didn't make sense for me to get anything biggest and better. I was looking at the Sony f100, which looks and feels pretty sweet to be honest, but then, the logic goes, why not just buy an f700? and then why not an f3? And what about tripod to hold them? And lenses? And a monitor? It just becomes a black pit of spending, for something that is certainly more worthwhile to simply rent. Daily rental fees for the F3 are like 300 euros (in a kit, sometimes less, sometimes more), plus you don't have to be stuck with a worthless brick in five years. Besides that, the qualities of the GH3, esp. the autofocus and its low-light performance make it a really attractive offering. That, plus the fact that anyhow I wanted a good still digital camera pretty much decided it for me. The fact that it allowed me to buy a few nice lenses didn't hurt either. The GH3 certainly does have its disadvantages, but I think that in my case, a "split strategy" works best because it allows me to make the most of the Gh3's plusses - namely to use its compactness as an advantage for things that require freedom,smallness, discretion, etc. And if I want to do anything more, shall we say "Serious" it's always possible to rent (at this point anyhow, I'd be making either relatively short films for lack of budget, or shoot with funding) So anyhow, there are my two bits... hope this helps out anyone else thinking about purchasing a camera...

Thanks Andries and Reinhardt, Actually I ran a few films throuhg the camera anyhow, and all seems to work. So lucy there, even if not on the lens. Better not to fix what aint broken, yeah? In the meanwhile I will keep my eye out for a pristine lens from some sort of reliable dealer... better than spending all that money I think.

Hey Reinhard, I'm in Germany, so I'd love to hear where I might get the fungus cleaned. If you have any addresses that would be most excellent. If it's too expensive, I'd just buy another camera (bought the last one for 160 euros!)

Not so much caught up as lost.... but like I wrote, I'm more interest in final look, in feel of the color, etc. than in bitrates and color specs and pixel size... I want to buy a camera at this time cause I need soemthing I can have at home and use at will (although when I do "bigger" projects, I will for sure rent)

@Matthew - Maybe I'll just give up all this video nonsense, and just get myself a proper 16mm film camera and burn through my savings... :) Kidding aside, it may even (at least at the start) be cheaper... I remember I bought my still Nikon FM3A for like 500$ brand spanking new when people were paying 5000$ for the Canon 5D. At 10$ for film + processing (even with scans) I'd have to run through 450 rolls of film befrore it was worth it for me to buy a digital camera... okay okay, movie cameras run through a LOT more film (and I have a slight fear of being absolutely ignorant.. you know loading the film backwards or something), but I am also considering this (not sure if as an and or an or)... But otherwise, I have no problem with video looking like video. I think the days of trying super hard to make video look like film are ending...(okay usually with people shooting on the Alexa or Epic... but still....) I quite liked Inland Empire and Lynch squeezed that video look for every last drop of "uncinematic imageness" to make a fascinating film (and boring too, very very boring). On an aside... Nobody has written anything about the Sony NEX 20/10s.. Anybody have experience/thoughts here?

Hmmmm, well the question is (and this is the one I've asked myself) if it has so many ergonomical issues that can for the most part only be solved with buying a whole lot of extra gear (after all the point of the DSLR is that they are cheeaper alternatives)... then I can't help but wondering if they are the right tool... But, I guess it can't hurt to play with one for a day and test it...

Very wise advice...

Hey Alan, Thanks for the thoughts. Maybe I am being unnecessarily prejudiced against DSLRs, but my feeling is that they always felt too small for me. I know tons of very beautiful stuff is shot on them, but I guess it's also important for me for the camera to feel good in my hands, as the more comfortable I feel with it the more I'll use it (for the personal stuff). and you are right that when I do fiction anyhow, I would have an external recorder. As for the follow focus thing, it's on the lens I know, but I always get the feeling that when there's a crew with a DSLR that to follow focus you practically have to poke the cameraman's eye out. Again, I've only used DSLRs two or three times and seen them a handful more, so maybe there are some awesome accessories or something that help out there. I am still worried about all the going into menus in order to do stuff, but you have made a good point, and I'm definitely going to test one of these Panasonics along with the others. I mean the price is certainly right.

Will, I started looking into fixed focal length as your ecommended, and was thinking that even if I do find a good zoom I should have maybe a pair to begin with of wide and normal as you recommended. I lookes at this list here:http://us.c-mount.passion.pro/ And I was wondering if you had any speicfic recommendations for one of the wide lenses: Angenieux 15mm f1.3 Bell et Howell 10mm ANGENIEUX BOLEX Bolex Switar 10mm f1.6 AR Canon TV Bolex PHF 12mm f1.2 Century 9mm f1.8 Cine Paragon 1,5 8mm Computar f1.3 12mm Computar f1.3 12.5 Computar f1.3 16mm Cosina TV LENS 12.5mm f1.4 Cosmicar 12.5MM f1.4 Dallmeyer f1.3 12mm Elgeet 12mm f1.2 Cine Navitar Wide angle lens Elgeet 13mm f1.5 Prime Wide Angle Elitar 13MM f1.5 Kenr Paillard switar 16mm f1.8 Kern Paillard Switar 10mm f1.8 R21 Kinotar Professional 12.5mm 1.4 Kodac cine ektar 15mm f2.5 Schneider Cinegon f1.8 10mm Som Berthiot Cinor f1.5 15mm Som Berthiot f1.9 10mm BOLEX Switar 10mm 1.6 Lens Bolex Beaulieu Switar Bolex H16 RX Lens 10mm f1.6 Tokina 8mm f1.3 Wolensak 1inch f1.9 25mm Cine-Velostigmat Lens Zeiss Biotar 1,4 16mm Also two other things that weren't clear for me and maybe you can shed some light: 1. If the lens is listed as bolex does this mean that there is anythign special about the mount or lens? or just that they were produces for the bolex? 2. Is there any difference between the cine-lenses and the TV lenses? thanks a lot!

Cool. thanks folks for the recommendations. Looks like I'm gonna have to add some "Saved searches" to my ebay :)

I'll keep that in mind. I don't see so many of them here (Germany)...

that's pretty much it. Basically I bought an 8mm camera to try it out, liked and used that, so bought a better 8mm camera. Now I'll give 16mm a shot, so need a camera to play with/practice on, and when I use it enough, well then, I'll go out and buy something super fantastic... what I would like now is something that 1. I can play with/learn on 2. Will still give me pretty decent images If I use it for hours and hours, then I can find something fancier. If not, well then, it's less of a loss @Gregg. Thanks for the list. I'll keep exploring from here, and keep my eyes peeled.