Can someone please help explain the Shutter Speed settings on the GH1

tflak said:
Well, then it couldn't properly be called video, could it? :)

Seriously, not sure why you would want to do that anyway.

The intervalometers are meant for stills.
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Well, I was thinking to do that for a while and then you put the scenes together and have your timelaps video. With videotapes in worked that way with some cameras.
 
dvbrother said:
The intervalometer is designed to take a series of STILL pictures at a desired shutter speed at a desired interval.
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Yes, I thought so. But I wanted to give it a try with video as well.
Didn't work the way I hoped.

You can use Quicktime to create an image sequence from these stills which effectively turns them into a video.
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I haven't worked with Quicktime yet. I think I have nly the Quicktime player though.
I used to edit with Liquid 7.2 and now I have Edius, but very recently only.
So I have no experience with it yet.
With Liquid, I can tell the program only to show the picture for 1 frame.
Unfortunately I did not find out yet, how to make it play 50 frames a second. Only 30p.
The cool thing about this is that it is a 12 megapixel still vs. a 1080p AVCHD still. The size and resolution is huge so the quality is amazing. Bring this image sequence into your editing software and scale it down to size...voila! You've got a timelapse movie! And since the image size is huge, you can zoom and crop the image without losing perceivable image quality.
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Yes, sounds great.
 
AKED said:
Well, I was thinking to do that for a while and then you put the scenes together and have your timelaps video. With videotapes in worked that way with some cameras.
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dvbrother covered the details nicely.

With some NLEs all you need do is select the first still in a folder and it will import as a sequence. You can usually select the frame rate that you want during import.
Maybe Edius will allow you to do that.

You might also consider shooting RAW for maximum adjustment of the images.
 
OK, I know now how it works in Edius.
I will do some tests tonight.

And since the image size is huge, you can zoom and crop the image without losing perceivable image quality.
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But when you have imported it to the editing software, that size has been rescaled already or am I wrong. How do you zoom in and around then?
 
AKED said:
But when you have imported it to the editing software, that size has been rescaled already or am I wrong. How do you zoom in and around then?
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I can only speak for how it works in Final Cut Pro, and the explanation would be a bit lengthy. In principle, you can zoom and pan the image around once it has been placed and scaled in the timeline. If you want to animate these zooms and pans, you can set keyframes at the start and end of the move. I'm not sure if most NLE's can do this or not. If not, motion graphics programs like Adobe After Effects are designed to do this.
 
I just had a try.
I took a time laps "movie" of our martial arts class, (Modern Arnis) with 1 picture every 10 seconds with 1 second exposure time for 90 Minutes.
I took the pancake lens, aperture 16, 100 iso.
I imported the frames to Edius and made an .avi out of that.
The size of the pictures stayed the same (some 4000 x 2000) so I could zoom in.
Have not used keyframes yet. The program is too new for me yet.

Of course the pictures are blurry. Any suggestion, how to use the JJC remote control to make the same just with shorter shutter times?

Tomorrow I will try to film a class with medium (1/20 of a second) and long exposure (like 1/4 of a second) and then speed it up. See, what the time-laps effect is with this version.
 
AKED said:
....Tomorrow I will try to film a class with medium (1/20 of a second) and long exposure (like 1/4 of a second) and then speed it up. See, what the time-laps effect is with this version.
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At 1/20th of a second, exposures of dudes whooping each other are still going to be blurry. I'd think a little grain wouldn't be a big problem with a "video" like this....so bump the ISO up as high as you're comfortable with (I'd even use ISO1600 for something like this...it's just a demo video, right), and set the aperture as wide as you can if setting the focus to infinity will be okay...which for a martial arts class...seems like it would....then you should be able to get your shutter speeds a little higher....and not just a total blur. Just crank the house lights up to full blast. You could even get some cheap industrial floodlights on stands at the hardware store (or Harbor Freight) to get your shutter speeds higher on a budget. Sounds interesting...you could do some cool stuff zooming in using your NLE!
 
swyzlstyx said:
At 1/20th of a second, exposures of dudes whooping each other are still going to be blurry. I'd think a little grain wouldn't be a big problem with a "video" like this....so bump the ISO up as high as you're comfortable with (I'd even use ISO1600 for something like this...it's just a demo video, right), and set the aperture as wide as you can if setting the focus to infinity will be okay...which for a martial arts class...seems like it would....then you should be able to get your shutter speeds a little higher....and not just a total blur.
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Thanks for the hints.
But at the moment I am not looking to get them non blurry.
I want to get some time laps effect and a little blurry is ok for that.
Usually when I film (not timelaps) it with a 1/50 of a second, which gives the smoothest movement.
1/100th of a second already has a little "high speed shutter" effect

Just crank the house lights up to full blast. You could even get some cheap industrial floodlights on stands at the hardware store (or Harbor Freight) to get your shutter speeds higher on a budget. Sounds interesting...you could do some cool stuff zooming in using your NLE!
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Thanks for the hints again. Yes, usually I use halogen lights. 2000 - 6000 watt to have enough light.

What I would be interested in would be pictures with no blur for the timelaps.
Just to see how the effect would be.
I just don't know how to do that at the moment with the remote control, because the shortest exposure time I can set is 1 second only

Of course I can film normally and then speed it up to get the time laps effect.
I am in the testing phase, so any hints are welcome.

Thanks
 
Here is a clip made with the GH1 that shows some fast motion with no blur.

http://vimeo.com/groups/gh1/videos/8190760

I used a 1/50 of a second shutter speed. I did not need the sticks to be sharp during the motions, this is why I left the shutter speed ion 1/50th of a second. Gives a more natural movement than with a shorter shutter speed.
 
I just don't know how to do that at the moment with the remote control, because the shortest exposure time I can set is 1 second only
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Are you setting the exposure time on the remote? I don't have the same brand remote as you but they're essentially the same. You can set your shutter on camera and just don't set anything at all for the exposure time on the remote. The only thing you need to set is the interval between shots, say ten seconds or so.
 
AdrianF said:
Are you setting the exposure time on the remote?
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Yes. The manual said, I should set the shutter on Bulb so that the remote can control it. So I did not thinking about another possibility.

I don't have the same brand remote as you but they're essentially the same. You can set your shutter on camera and just don't set anything at all for the exposure time on the remote. The only thing you need to set is the interval between shots, say ten seconds or so.
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OK, this is a great hint. I will try it straight away.

Ha, great, it works.
I could have thought of it myself or at least could have tried it, but I didn't.

Thanks a lot, that was a very good help.
 
I agree with AdrianF, the best and easiest wayto set shutter speed for time lapse is to set the speed on the GH1 and NOT on the remote. Regarding motion blur of your martial arts class, if your shutter speed was 1 second, then you should speed up your video 1200 percent in order for the blur to look correct. If the motion isn't looking right, perhaps it's because there's too much of a gap between images. If your shutter is 1 second and you only take a photo every ten seconds, there's a gap of nine seconds where nothing is happening. To be more realistic with a one second shutter speed, I'd set my camera to take a photo every two seconds, or at the very longest, 4 seconds.
That being said, a 1 second exposure may just be too long to see meaningful detail of martial arts moves.
Ignore what a previous poster said about opening up the aperture and bumping up the ISO. One of the advantages of a long exposure for time lapse is that you can shoot at low ISO's which makes the final image quality much better.
 
I do not want to film a martial arts technique.
I don't use time-laps then.
See here

http://vimeo.com/8190760

and here

http://vimeo.com/8192488

I wanted a real time-laps video.
I have just uploaded it. This way, see the explanation under the video, I fit 90 minutes of training in 21 seconds.
Watch the video and you see the effect I wanted. The blur is good in that context.

http://vimeo.com/8198006

Tonight I will try to make some more. With shorter gaps, perhaps 4 seconds.
And as a video also with longer exposure, to get the movement blur. I will speed that up up in post to get the time-laps.
See how they will look like.
 
Yes, I like it too.
Especially for it was my first try with time lapse.

See how the other settings that I will film tonight will turn out.

So I want to try the same thing with
4 pictures also long exposition,
then the same with normal shutter speed, so that there are no motion blurs
and in real time with long shutter speed, again motion blur but then speed it up in post
and with normal shutter speed, also with the time lapse produced in post..

I will post the results.
 
I think either the first setting (1 second shutter every four seconds) or the 1/4 second sped up times 100 look the best. But they all look decent. It depends on the effect you're after.
Time lapse with human beings usually looks comical (not in a bad way...it's just that fast-moving people are funny). Time lapse with people seems more difficult than with objects like clouds or stars, which move much more slowly in the frame.
 
Glad you got it to work. I prefer the longer exposures, maybe because it looks more surreal, but yeah, it really depends on what look you're trying to go for.
 
I think if you do a time lapse like that, a good m motion blur gives it a better look.
It was interesting to do.
I will try tonight something funny together with the time lapse.
That will be my last test, bacause then I know how it works and what I can do with it.
 
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