Panasonic G6: MP4 vs AVCHD

[pietz]

hello everybody,

 

i recently got my G6 and i have been loving it so far. i can only recommend every GH2 owner to get one as well, since you can sell your used GH2 at a price, for which you can almost get a new G6. but thats a different topic.

 

Andrew has been talking about little to no differences in using MP4 instead of AVCHD with the new G6 and i would like to hear your thoughts on this. i used Media Info to look inside what these two file types bring to the table and would like to share it with you (i'm referring to the european model at 25fps):

 

What I dont understand to this very day is the naming of both recording options. AVCHD is the codec used to compress the file, whereas MP4 is the container file in which everything it put together. to me these are completely different things and not opposing options, since you can put a AVCHD coded video in an MP4 container.

 

when i open sample files in media info i can see that both files use the AVC codec. There are only 2 technical differences with these. the first one being that the MP4 option records at 20Mb/s whereas AVCHD goes up to 24Mb/s. thats a 20% increase which should bring little improvements.

 

The second difference is that MP4 uses the "Baseline" profile where AVCHD uses the "High" profile. the High profile enables something called CABAC, which in short compresses files better than than the CAVLC option used in the MP4 preset. you could say that MP4 uses H.263 whereas AVCHD uses H.264. H.264 is known to be 20-40% more efficient than H.263 (XviD, DivX).

 

so all in all there should be a visual difference between the two recording options, but until now, i havent been able to spot them. this also means one thing if im not completely mistaken:

 

if there is little to no difference using a 20% higher bitrate at 20-40% higher efficiency, i dont think there is a reason to hack the camera for even higher bitrates. the only reason to look into that, would be for All-I-Frame encoding, which i personally dont see the point of if you have a fast workstation.

 

Any thoughts?

[andy lee]

yes the g6 is great I only use it in AVCHD mode as I dont like mp4

[nvldk]

hmmm, dont know why, but i dont like the images of avchd, they seem to look more videoy to me...

[midloch]

Comparing to this: http://vimeo.com/77921309

 

 Videoy is my HDV camcoder not G6 :-)

[andy lee]

midloch

it looks superb very filmic ,

the G6 is a very filmic looking camera ,

its AVCHD files are great and very very detailed , better than my hacked GH2

you can make any camera look like video if you stick it on deep focus with a wide lens

its all about how you use the camera its not the AVCHD files as they are great

[nvldk]

Well, today I tried my g6 with olympus om lens and the footage looks much better.

https://vimeo.com/79387606

[nigelbb]

The advantage of MP4 vs. AVCHD is that you have a single easily accessible file rather than having to negotiate a complex file structure. The disadvantage is that you are limited to 30 minutes recording time.

[maxotics]

midloch

it looks superb very filmic ,

the G6 is a very filmic looking camera ,

its AVCHD files are great and very very detailed , better than my hacked GH2

you can make any camera look like video if you stick it on deep focus with a wide lens

its all about how you use the camera its not the AVCHD files as they are great

 

 

Yeah Andy, if only you could shoot this well! ;)  Seriously, a very watchable short, don't know why.  Looks like midloch has a girl, a dog and a g6.  He's living!

 

On the AVCHD, as nigelbb pointed out, AVCHD is saved in a the bluray file structure, something like that.  MP4 is really for people who want to email a clip, or shoot something that will appear in their DCIM folder.

[andy lee]

haha yeah maybe one day Ill try and learn what all those buttons do - doh!

[nvldk]

Comparing to this: http://vimeo.com/77921309

 

 Videoy is my HDV camcoder not G6 :-)

 BTW did you try your old canon FD lenses?

the vedeoy look is made by the kit lens not by g6 itself

[midloch]

I have 3 FD lenses but my adaptor FD-m4/3 has not arrived yet :-) The short is shot on Panasonic 25mm f 1,4 and a new kit 14-140mm f 3,5-5,6. When I have the adaptor ready I will try to shoot a new test.

[andy lee]

FD lenses on my G6 are great

best one is the Canon FD 24-35mm L series f3.5

it is a very very sharp lens aspheric elements and is very cinematic

50mm f1.8 , 24mm f2.8 , 35mm f2.8 are all great lenses

The 35-105 f3.5 zoom is very usefull as is the 28-85mm f4 zoom

[nvldk]

FD lenses on my G6 are great

best one is the Canon FD 24-35mm L series f3.5

it is a very very sharp lens aspheric elements and is very cinematic

50mm f1.8 , 24mm f2.8 , 35mm f2.8 are all great lenses

The 35-105 f3.5 zoom is very usefull as is the 28-85mm f4 zoom

Would you mind share some clips shot with these lenses?

I can recommend Olympus OM 28/2.8 and 50/1.8

Any other recommendation for some other lenses? thx

[maxotics]

The best lens I have ever bought was $30.  The Fujian c-mount TV lens.  So you need a c-mount adapter.  I shot many of these photos with that lens on my EOS-M last week.(all photos with blurry background).

 

It has a 1.7 f-stop, which means you get thousand-buck blur for pennies.  On the downside, few markings on lens, no electronics, and the image is distorted at higher f-stops.  

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxotics/sets/72157637618422775/

[nvldk]

The best lens I have ever bought was $30.  The Fujian c-mount TV lens.  So you need a c-mount adapter.  I shot many of these photos with that lens on my EOS-M last week.(all photos with blurry background).

 

It has a 1.7 f-stop, which means you get thousand-buck blur for pennies.  On the downside, few markings on lens, no electronics, and the image is distorted at higher f-stops.  

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxotics/sets/72157637618422775/

Thank you...the images look good