GH3 Viewfinder Comparison

[TJB]

I tried out the GH3 yesterday and side by side, found the viewfinder on my GH2 sharper, brighter and slightly larger. As soon as I put the GH3 viewfinder to my eye I immediately corrected the diopter. Still, the image looked soft and I was not able to manually pick sharp focus as I can with my GH2.

 

I went across town to another camera store and checked out another sample with a different kit lens. Same thing. Viewfinder (to my eye) much softer, dimmer and slightly smaller than my GH2. The VF image shooting 4:3 aspect ratio in stills mode is like looking down a tunnel. Awful. 

I use the GH2's viewfinder a lot and find it really good - in fact easier (and more convenient) picking focus than the Zacuto Z-finder on my Canon cameras. The Sony and Panasonic viewfinders are for me the number one reason not to use a flapping mirror camera for video.

 

Maybe the advantage the GH2 has over the GH3 in this regard is the small amount of aliasing in the viewfinder LCD image on sharp focussed areas. This acts like a form of peaking. The GH3 doesn't have this as much. It's there but not as clear as the GH2.

 

Deal breaker? For me - probably. I need to be able to (at least as easily as the GH2) keep moving subjects in sharp focus using the viewfinder.

 

Any thoughts?

[/p/]

Just wait for the focus peaking? Before the GH3 was released, after everybody found out tht it wasn't going to have focus peaking people would constantly ask the Panasonics reps about it (there's videos of this, they were all posted on 43rumors etc) Te reply was always along the lines of it not being a hardware issue but a firmware one and that since it is such a requested feature to expect it in a firmware update at some time.