My first paid live event with my GH13

[Nitsuj]

The picture looks good but I started to see the benefits and problems using the GH1 for events like this. Not just the GH1 but HDSLR's in general. The benefits were the small size. I had a lite panel and the H4n mounted on the rig but everything fit really well and was compact. However having to use the H4n during a live event like this was a pain at times. You have to make sure you are recording your sound and picture, I lost a clip because during the crazy things going on in the packed college bar I didn't hit the record button on the zoom. It wasn't going to work using my slate board in the cramped area as a guy running solo. Next time I might get one of the girls to slate it cause that might make for some interesting content anyway. The other thing is keeping the camera steady along with focus. I put on the stock lens to give it a try but as suspected was way too dark even with the lights. I had a nice Nikon Nikkor 50mm AIs f/1.8 that has great mechanics that allows me to pull focus. However I can see how having a focus puller would be great to have. I've got to get a wider lens for sure. One day I will get more gear to keep it more steady and even a wider fast lens. But for now I barely pulled it off. So those that are looking to get an HDSLR for events, keep in mind that there needs to be a lot of other elements attached to it just to make it work properly and even still it is going to give some headaches. But this was my first paid live event and the client likes it so I consider it a success.

The turnaround was a day so there was no grading done. The LED panel has an amber gel that gave them a nice skin tone but would have been great to get more time to do some CC. Any suggestions or feedback would be great!
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[Nitsuj]

Oh and the client wanted the girls just doing things at the bar and look like they were hanging out having fun while going around and interacting with the crowd.

[Psynema]

Nice, yeah I can see a wider lens would come in handy, I was in the same situation when i first got the GH1 using only the 1.4 asahi 50mm. Just a few suggestions -

1. cam movement can be too much, but prolly cuz it's a long prime lens. A bit dizzying at times, but no big deal.

2. Zoom - honestly, just LEAVE IT RECORDING THE ENTIRE NIGHT. That thing takes ten years to start up.

3. Do you have the kit lens? It may be slow, but Lyric Shadow Highlight, Bloom filters, and your light panel would go a long way. What ISO/F stop were you at with the Nikon?

[Nitsuj]

I was at 320 ISO at times and I'd go 640 to 800 at others. Yeah I have the kit lens however it was way too dark. It was making the light panel look like a flash light. I didn't want to push it over 800 and I would have had to in there. Wasn't very good lighting for the kit lens.

See but if I left the zoom recording the entire night I probably would have been faced with a lot longer post production time. The client wanted a day or two turnaround. I have never left it recording like that, I will give it a try sometime to see what kind of post trouble it might give me.

Yeah I really need to get a shoulder point of contact for the setup. In that situation there were lots of people behind me bumping me at times and just holding it by hand is pretty shaky. I would have kept it on sticks the whole time but it was so packed in there. I am eventually going to have to get a rig with more points of contact if I start doing more things like this.

Thanks for the input.

[Psynema]

I was at 320 ISO at times and I'd go 640 to 800 at others. Yeah I have the kit lens however it was way too dark. It was making the light panel look like a flash light. I didn't want to push it over 800 and I would have had to in there. Wasn't very good lighting for the kit lens.

See but if I left the zoom recording the entire night I probably would have been faced with a lot longer post production time. The client wanted a day or two turnaround. I have never left it recording like that, I will give it a try sometime to see what kind of post trouble it might give me.

Yeah I really need to get a shoulder point of contact for the setup. In that situation there were lots of people behind me bumping me at times and just holding it by hand is pretty shaky. I would have kept it on sticks the whole time but it was so packed in there. I am eventually going to have to get a rig with more points of contact if I start doing more things like this.

Thanks for the input.

WHy would recording the whole night lengthen editing? Don't you have pluraleyes?

Gorillapod Focus makes a nice and CHEAP rig.

[Nitsuj]

Hmm interesting, I don't have nor have I used pluraleyes. I know a little about how it functions. So are you suggesting that you would keep the audio and video going? I guess I couldn't see how pluraleyes could sync if just the audio was going and not the video as well. Unless it places the video clips on the timeline at specific points. Either way I will look into that method and see how it works for me. Thanks.

Oh yeah and Gorillapod is also a great little thing I would like to pick up at some point. I've got a nice fluid head tripod and just kind of put a gorillapod lower on the totem pole but I can think of some situations it would come in real handy that night.

[Psynema]

Hmm interesting, I don't have nor have I used pluraleyes. I know a little about how it functions. So are you suggesting that you would keep the audio and video going? I guess I couldn't see how pluraleyes could sync if just the audio was going and not the video as well. Unless it places the video clips on the timeline at specific points. Either way I will look into that method and see how it works for me. Thanks.

Oh yeah and Gorillapod is also a great little thing I would like to pick up at some point. I've got a nice fluid head tripod and just kind of put a gorillapod lower on the totem pole but I can think of some situations it would come in real handy that night.

huh? No, shoot video as you need, not constantly. It will synch up just fine.

[alignment1]

Unless it places the video clips on the timeline at specific points.


yes pretty much, that is what it does.
It's pretty helpful--once it's in the timeline just cut all the excess audio out, (in between vid clips).

However, I find myself not completely trusting the software's judgement, and still like to manually slide certain clips a frame or two. But it's great at getting everything where it needs to be-- then you can fine tune, relatively quickly

[Nitsuj]

Sounds great. Thanks for the info peeps.

[cam123]

I'm wondering about this too in low light.
How hard is it to use the manual focus lens in events like this?

Do you think the 20mm Pancake would be useful instead?
Since you have an external mic then noise would not be a problem anymore.

[Psynema]

I'm wondering about this too in low light.
How hard is it to use the manual focus lens in events like this?

Do you think the 20mm Pancake would be useful instead?
Since you have an external mic then noise would not be a problem anymore.

I had the 20mm pancake, while it's a great image, found the focusing, both manual and auto, to be poor for documentary work and pulling focus during a shot :(

I will await the new 25mm uber primez.