Advice for shooting family videos indoors using zoom

S

sdinet

Member
I am a new GH1 owner!! Just got it from Amazon warehouse for $985 with the 14-140 Lens, it was an open box in BRAND NEW condition and FULLY complete!

I previously was using a Nikon D60 with a 1.8 35mm lens for photo and a Canon hf10 for video, but wanted a DSLR that does video to minimize my equipment and to gain a large sensor as well as DOF, and thanks to all your posts I was convinced to pickup the GH1.

I do most of my shooting indoors at my loft (huge windows and lots of light), my biggest issue with the camera is I find myself zooming in and out alot to chase after my 2yr old twin girls, and the picture gets really dark when zoomed in (for obvious reasons) and when zoomed out I get over-exposure due to my huge windows which let in WAY too much light (not using a ND filter yet). I use the histogram to set the aperture, ISO, etc... But these settings are only good if I am zoomed out, or zoomed in, not good when constantly zooming... I use creative mode, but have been thinking about shutter mode, as I could set my shutter and let my aperture and/or ISO change to compensate as I zoom in and out. Since I am indoors and have plenty of light ISO should not be an issue (although the effect may be noticeable in the footage), but if I zoom wide and shoot the window with the sun beaming in the aperture might instantly close up and mess up my footage...

Any advice for a GH1 newbie??

Nick
 
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Try the standard red, intelligent auto, it has face detection too! for this typ of stuff will be great.

As an alternative I only ever use shutter priority and lock exposure ae when I have found white histo. Depending how dark you are I use my fader vari-nd to manually tweak exposure. Note, if you lock exposure you may get some exposure bumps as the camera looks for new ap-shut settings at the various zoom lengths, in intelligent auto you cant lock the camera down but it does a good job, especally indoor at seemless exposure changes and maintaining things as you zoom in-out, give it a go? You can also try one of the std ap-shutter setting ie non CMM mode.
 
Aperture mode might be a better solution, as long as the frame rates stay over 60 right?

I hate to use the Intelligent Mode as I believe I lose all control and can't even use Film Mode (smooth setting)
 
:2vrolijk_08:congrats on your GH-1 purchase!! And welcome to the forum!!

quite honestly, if your chasing your 2yr old twins chuck the GH-1 into iA mode.

I shoot everything in full manual control. But I've realized lately - (especially with all the family vid stuff--which I'm starting to chase my 7.5 month old around who's learning to crawl!)- that instead of fumbling around to get the right exposure, shutter, zooming(kit lens), focus-- I started messing with the iA and actually does a great job for run-n-gunning with your kids/family functions!
You want to zoom and focus on new subject in the frame, hold down the shutter half way and boom right into focus.
Again, I'm a full on- FULL MANUAL dude, but this is a great tool for the quick moments and milestones that these little ones bring on in a moments notice. Plus it's easy to hand off to the wife or uncle jobe to just say "here ya go- point-shoot" and the cam handles the bulk of the work.

Happy shooting:beer:

Z
 
Kids are always in motion so you need to use a fast shutter for your stills unless you like blurry. I'll use iA in a rush but iA prefers low shutter speeds so if I have time to set up then I use shutter priority when taking pictures of my kids. If there's not enough light for a fast shutter, then I'll bounce a big flash (Olympus FL50R). I've found its a lot easier to get a good indoor picture with a powerful bounce flash and TTL metering.

For taking video of kids with the kit lens, there's many ways that iA can screw up so I use creative movie mode (full manual) and set the shutter to 60 and the fstop to be no less than 5.6. That makes sure that when I zoom in or out the aperture won't change while I'm zooming and screw up the shot. To get the right exposure, I adjust the ISO between 100 and 800 (trying to stay at 400 or below) and also will increase the fstop as much as necessary if there's too much light. If there's not enough light at 800 iso and 5.6 fstop, then I switch to my 20mm/f1.7 lens and set the fstop to no less than 2.8 so that the DOF isn't ridiculously small. I have gone down to f1.7 in really low light but then only one face can be in focus at a time and the autofocus is continually hunting. I've also gone above 800 iso and have often regretted that as well.
 
thnx for the feedback every. And you are correct, in iA mode I am getting blurry video when the kids are running around. I will have to do some testing in aperture mode and a higher f stop to avoid the aperture changing/darkening when zooming.
 
sdinet said:
......I use creative mode, but have been thinking about shutter mode, as I could set my shutter and let my aperture and/or ISO change to compensate as I zoom in and out....
Click to expand...


Unless I'm reading wrong...


DON'T take your camera out of Creative Movie Mode...if you're shooting video. If you want to shoot with Aperture, Shutter, Manual, or Program modes, use the Q.MENU....NOT the dial on top of the camera...that is for taking pictures.

If you want to make it easy/auto when shooting home videos, then stay in Creative Movie Mode, use the Q.MENU to put it into S (Shutter Priority Mode), and set the shutter to 1/60 (or whatever you want). Then the camera will automatically adjust the aperture and ISO to suit the lighting conditions and zoom. Shooting with the kit lens indoors, even in a bright loft, you shouldn't need an ND....but you won't have control over the DOF.

If you want more control over DOF, then put it in Creative Movie Mode, set it to Manual using the Q.MENU, set your shutter to 1/60 (or whatever you like), set your Aperture to the DOF you want, then adjust the ISO and ND filters to set your exposure (using the camera's meter). More than likely, with the kit lens, you won't need any ND filters...since the kit lens is so slow, you'll mostly want it wide open indoors even in a brightly lit loft. If you want a shallower DOF, you'll want a faster lens, and if you use it outdoors in the Sun...you'll want some ND filters...or better yet a FaderND...so you can dial in the aperture and shutter speed you want...THEN just rotate the FaderND to dial in proper exposure.

That's assuming you are turning the dial out of Movie Mode. If you do, you're at the mercy of the camera...instead of being in control.

Good luck!
 
I had no idea what Qmenu did, and I owe you a HUGE thanks, using Creative mode with Shutter set to 60 is exactly what I was looking for, thnx!!!!!!
 
The trouble with shutter priority mode is that the camera's changes to aperture (and ISO if set to auto) tend to be abrupt and show as sudden changes in exposure.

But I confess that for most family situations I just use idiot mode and that way I'm pretty sure of getting some kind of result and grabbing the magic moments. Also the subjects are not distracted by me fiddling with camera settings.
 
Ozpeter said:
But I confess that for most family situations I just use idiot mode and that way I'm pretty sure of getting some kind of result and grabbing the magic moments. Also the subjects are not distracted by me fiddling with camera settings.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly--I'd rather not annoy my family/friends w/ fumbling around w/ cam, and lose the moment. If I want to set up the perfect shot- manual it is... all the way. I'm just finding myself grabbing the gh1 faster and faster for these little milestones in my little guy's life. Much easier for me to go into full on idiot mode:2vrolijk_08:
 
Well, I did some testing in creative mode, and using shutter priority is NOT ideal as the aperture changes pretty significantly while zooming and panning and is VERY noticeable.

Aperture priority however seems to fit the bill, and keep zooms and pans at more of a constant exposure. While manual mode suffers from significant darkening while zooming, and is NOT ideal for those zoomed shots.

I assume as long as the room is well lit, in aperture mode the shutter should not drop below 60, and instead would simply increase the ISO when zooming in? Is there anyway to see the frame rate when using aperture priority in creative mode?
 
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