GH2 and once more: SMOOTH vs CINEMA ???

I like smooth at 0, maybe dial sharpness down. Cinema is nice too but I think for different situations, maybe for darker, less light shooting.
 
I don't believe that one size fits all. I don't want to set all parameters at -2 all the time. As Blackout said, the sharpness setting can be varied depending on the situation. e.g. I will set it to 0 or +1 on kids and -2 on my wife. Haha. Usually I set the contrast and noise correction to -2. Then the color parameter... I guess it really depends on personal taste.
 
GH1 gave little bluish color on skin tone. So I changed Color setting to be little more red. This setting is not from the film mode setting. There's a separate setting just for Color. Simply I moved it 1 step closer to Red from the default value. For GH2, see the user guide page 104.

I verified that affected photos, but I wonder if that can affect video as well.
 
Doesn't the smooth and nostalgia modes from GH13 have the overblown exposure issue on light reflection? I hope GH2 doesn't have the same issue.
 
GH1 gave little bluish color on skin tone. So I changed Color setting to be little more red. This setting is not from the film mode setting. There's a separate setting just for Color. Simply I moved it 1 step closer to Red from the default value. For GH2, see the user guide page 104.

I verified that affected photos, but I wonder if that can affect video as well.

In the white balance settings?
 
Just a side note, since "cinema" renders somewhat darker, it might be a good option in case you would rather have ISO 125, as opposed to the GH2's lower limit of 160.
 
Ben_B, it's My Colour settings.

See the page 104. It says "During Motion Picture Recording, settings for My Colour Mode are used."

Hmmm... never mind. The page says [FILM MODE] cannot use the custom My Colour Mode. I guess we don't have such fine control in color for video.
 
I ran a quick picture profiles test last night which can be viewed below. I tested Standard, Cinema, Smooth and Nostalgic with the default settings and -2,-2,0,0 for each to see the difference it makes.

To my eye, I like the Cinema setting best, it's the most "film-like" and natural looking image to me, thought it looks like you have to light for the shadows or they will disappear. So this setting would probably be good for normal to low contrast lighting conditions.

I find the Smooth setting looks a little flat and over-lit, which would probably be great for very contrasty lighting conditions, where you need to tame the overall contrast of the shot.
 
The best setting is "ferret ninja stealth ultracolor ultimate extreme cine" look for it it's deep deep deep deep in the menus....
 
The way I am looking at it is this, there is no way about, cinema has better highlight falloff, and it's not because it's darkening the image, it's simply not, it's because the others are brightening the image. If I want to do that I'll do it in post. Cinema gives a more filmic and pleasing look to highlights, skin tones, and color in general, and it reduces banding etc by not pumping up the highlights artificially. Same thing was true on GH1 with the more contrasty modes, which reduced banding at the cost of exposure. You're not really getting a brighter image with smooth and nostalgic, nor are you actually getting a flatter image...you're just getting a computer brightened image. I trust my control and post software more than I trust the camera to do that, but I want to have something nice to start with in terms of color, falloff, and skin, and cinema gives me that. The only thing smooth and nostalgic get you are brighter, noisier shadows, with blown highlights...I can make that in post if I want it thank you very much.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?232886-GH2-Picture-Profiles-Highlight-Clipping-Test
 
Ok, now I made some small tests too. I definitely prefer "nostalgic" the most. Its a piece of cake to fix the yellowish tint in post. My personal order:

1. nostalgic
2. smooth
3. standard
4. cinema

But, as you know, there is no accounting for tastes...
 
oh, come on guys !!!
not nostalgic and standard into consideration again :(

i tend to stick with Ben on this. i also think that smooth etc are just brightening the picture. but i could be wrong. ;)
 
I don't have the cam as yet but on the GH-1(3) Nostalgic's problem was it blew out too easy. I liked it early on and I even liked the yellow cast (made it warmer in post). But the whites were often too white and clipped.

So far i like what I'm seeing from the Cinema mode (at least in outdoor shots).
 
... Nostalgic's problem was it blew out too easy...

It still does. For sure "Cinema" has more detail in the highlights but at the expense of crushed blacks (shadows) and pretty heavy green-reddish noise, banding, artefacts... I don´t know how to call it. Take a closer look at Ben´s own test images:

left side: cinema
right side: nostalgic



So, what about the blown highlights in nostalgic? To my mind it could be quite easily fixed with under-exposure while shooting... hopefully. Nothing else does "cinema". But at the end of the day, if I personally had to choose between

a) slightly blown out highlights
b) crushed blacks, green/reddish banding + artefacts

most likely I would choose "a" so far...
 
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