GH2 + 16mm Tri-X B&W reversal trick

[hunter richards]

I love the look of 16mm tri-x and today I stumbled on a way to get an amazingly realistic grainy 16mm tri-x look strait in camera on the GH2 (for video!).

Pulled strait from the .mts files, no grading, no adjustments, just strait of of camera video grabs:










Pretty cool huh? Its like an entirely new look for a digital camera!

Here is how to do it:

1. Shoot with EX telephoto crop on (makes your active imaging area more along the size of 16mm- exaggerates the grain and lengthens your dof)

2. Set up your camera to dynamic Black and white mode +2 contrast, - 2 sharpness, noise reduction -2

3. Set your iso to at least iso800 (I used iso1000 in those video grabs up top)

4. Enjoy your Grainy 16mm tri-x look strait in camera!


I dont think any other digital camera comes close to replicating the look of 16mm tri-x, the way the noise even moves when you play the video looks like film grain. Awesome!

[hunter richards]

You can download an .mts here:
http://vimeo.com/17472698

(sorry its so shaky, I literally just figured it out as we were walking around)

[roei z]

how much do i need to pay for this ? ;)
this won't work for color will it?

MTS? where?

[hunter richards]

Shooting in color looks a little strange because what looks like grain in black and white, its noise in color. You can just pay me in high fives.

[hunter richards]

ok new .mts added

[roei z]

but that BW look will work only on crop mode ? this will get claustrophobic after a few minutes

[hunter richards]

Yes, thats why you use wide lenses (wide c-mount or 16mm lenses?). It doesnt have any grain outside of EX mode, too clean and too shallow dof to look like 16mm. Give it a try!

[Lpowell]

Great work, Hunter, those frame grabs look totally vintage. I'm looking forward to trying this trick on the G2's telecropping mode as well. Since it has the GF1's sensor, the G2's noise grain may be interesting to compare to the GH2's.

[roei z]

what lens did you use exactly? 16mm lens? how cheap i can get those?

[hunter richards]

Oh I just used the 20mm pancake. What I meant was you can use lots of wide c-mount lenses made for 16mm cameras (like bolex). Tons on ebay.