Panasonic GH17 + Kowa 2X Anamorphic +Nikon 85mm f/2 Ai-s

[bleach551]

Just messing around with my Hacked Panasonic GH1(7) with my Nikon 85mm f2 Ais and as always with my Kowa 2X anamorphic Lens for Bell and Howell attached.

I used Ipowell's "100Mbps Max Latitude Native 24/25p patch" in Avchd FHD mode.

I also used my "2.66:1"(X=126, Y=67) X /Y de-sqeeze ratio in this video as well.

I used the "Staircase" end-knob in this video..AGAIN!!
to test a couple of different things.

1) To see how sharp I could get the focused "Foreground" image in relation to the "background" image. What I mean is , How sharp can I get the foreground image before the background image goes from soft and out of focus to detailed and distracting.

2) to adjust my In-camera sharpness settings in my hacked GH1(7) as high as I could get it without showing aliasing, moire and "ant-like" noise in the fine striated lines in the end-knob of the staircase.

3) to find out which one of my lenses would give me a very sharp image in my selected "focal Plane" while keeping the background "Un-focused Plane" smoothly defocused with my Kowa 2X anamorphic lens attached.

My findings were:

GH1(7)

"Nature" Film mode

-2--contrast
+2--sharpness
+2--saturation
-2--noise reduction

Lens:

Nikon 85mm f2 Ais
Aperture set in-between F5.6 and F8

I think the images in this video are not as sharp as they could be because I only had the 460K pixel 3' inch lcd to focus with. I wish I could afford a Smallhd DP4, the images would most likely be sharper.

Music:

Harold Budd/ Brian Eno from Album " Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirrors"

Song: Above Chiangmai

http://www.vimeo.com/28287180

[kawasakiguy37]

Very clean footage but there isnt much going on.....

[bleach551]

kawasakiguy37,

Thanks for your comment. It was really meant as a test only to try to achieve The three goals listed in my first post. Other than the "technical" aspect of the video, It's image quality, it's really boring as hell. I think the music that I added made it seem like it was actually going to be an interesting video, sorry about that...Ha ha.

I have been trying to achieve an image that was really sharp in the focused plane and unsharp and out of focus in the non-focused plane with my fairly new GH1 that has been "hacked", Software manipulated change from the default manufacturer's AVCHD setting of around 17mbps in the Panasonic GH1 to a much higher 40, 75, or even 100mbps bitrate.

The lines and striations in this staircase end-post along with it distance from anything else around it, made a very good test subject.

I focused on the lines in the end-post, trying to get them as sharp as I could, with as high a aperture setting as I could use and still keep the "un-focused" area smooth and out-of-focus with no distracting detail added by lens or the in-camera sharpening settings.

With most DSLR's, increasing the sharpness of the lens by stopping it down and increasing the in-camera sharpening settings adds moire, aliasing, "ant-like" moving noise, and an overall distracting overly sharpened look.

by balancing the Nikon 85mm f/2 ais stopped down between f/5.6 and f/8, with the Kowa 2x anamorphic for bell and howell which softens the pixels slightly , and the highest in-camera sharpening setting of the GH1, I was able to achieve the video quality you see in this video,

However, since I was using the 460,000 pixel on-camera LCD screen,
I still think this image is not as sharp as it could have been.

I promise that the next videos I post will not be "tests", I have achieved want I wanted with the Panasonic GH1 or any new DSLR I get, Hoping for a replacement for the Nikon D300s(D400) with much better video capabilities.

[pat donnelly]

Very interesting work!

However the 85mm lens is not the worlds sharpest? On the other hand, you undoubtedly have used it thoroughly and feel it has been better?

Using sharpness does increase micro-contrast at the expense of actual sharpness, but the effect may be small?

I find it hard to believe you could miss focus at such a small aperture on that m4/3 sensor, the equivalent of F11 to F16 on a 135 eq 160mm lens?

[bleach551]

Pat,

The reason I used the 85mm was, as you stated, Its not the sharpest lens ever made. The bokeh from it ,being a medium telephoto lens, and its level of sharpest, not the best, Perfectly off-set the maximum sharpening setting, +2, in the "hacked" GH1 along with the Pixel softening of the Kowa 2x Anamorphic lens for Bell and Howell.

I didn't actually "miss" focus. I just thought that I could have more than likely gotten a slightly sharper image, if not for the 460K dot pixel 3"inch lcd. Also, I was focusing two lenses in unison, the 85mm f2 nikon with the Kowa 2X anamorphic lens placed on the front of it with two completely different, unrelated, focus distance markings "manually". I was trying to focus on the Striations(lines) in the End-knod of the stairs, I think I got it as sharp as on-camera Lcd would allow me to, But I am kind of "Anal" about focusing.