First time shooting video = Please Help

N

N.E.S.

Carbonite Member
First things first, thank you for any help someone provides.


I was looking for an HD camera so I can shoot personal videos and decided on the GH1 because of price point and videos I seen captured by this camera. I am a beginner in shooting video. I just got my camera and I'm trying to learn as fast as possible.

I have been reading these forums trying to soak it all in. The problem I have as of now is when shooting handheld all of the footage is very "shaky". Also most footage comes out to dark as well. I am shooting at the highest resolution possible. Does this camera have an "iris control" so I can adjust gain?

Also should I leave all settings on Auto until I learn? Which is the best mode to record in?

Just basically if anyone can give me any helpful information I will gladly thank them. I have shot several little clips and I must say they look horrible. Please someone help me
:dankk2:
 
Like you I started shooting video with my GH1 coming from no prior video experience. Since I normally shoot stills in the P mode what I did was just push the red video button to start shooting. This worked surprisingly well for me in typical outdoor daytime situations.

I quickly learned that shakiness is affected by 2 things: (1) the zoom setting and (2) the care I took to hold the camera still.

If your zoom is set to more than about 30 any shaking you do starts to get magnified. On the other hand, a zoom setting of less than 30 tends to reduce shaking. Of course it all depends on what you are shooting.

Holding the camera still takes practice. I've gotten pretty good at holding it still for single shots, but video is a totally different beastie (of course.) There are numerous devices you can buy to help keep the camera steady but these can get both expensive and bulky. I opted for a self-modified $100 stabilizer that I am still practicing with (info at website below).

Keep in mind that the videos you see on TV etc. are done by professionals wtih professional level equipment. In my mind it is simply unrealistic to expect to produce comparable results. So set your expectations realistically and with some more practice and experience you should do OK.

PS: at some point you will start doing video editing. This is a separate issue, and a big one. For editing GH1 video I opted for Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum ($85) since it handles GH1 input directly.
 
Yes, you are incorrect. Both Vegas & PowerDirector accept full HD input from the GH1 directly with no need for transcoding. Pulldown is a separate issue - it has to do wtih converting 30/50/60fps video to 24 fps video. This (fps) is independent of the video resolution.

In my case I only show video on a TV so I expect it to look like video, not like film. But if you are a film buff pulldown will be a big deal for you. Fortunately there are many folks here who know all about that.
 
bbinnard said:
Yes, you are incorrect. Both Vegas & PowerDirector accept full HD input from the GH1 directly with no need for transcoding. Pulldown is a separate issue - it has to do wtih converting 30/50/60fps video to 24 fps video. This (fps) is independent of the video resolution.

In my case I only show video on a TV so I expect it to look like video, not like film. But if you are a film buff pulldown will be a big deal for you. Fortunately there are many folks here who know all about that.
Click to expand...

Sorry if we are moving away from the op's question but I wanted to make sure about this because I am not clear on this...

If you drop a 1080p file (which has to be 24fps on the GH1) onto a Vegas timeline of 60i (which is what Sony interprets it as) then the file will look jumpy because pulldown has not been removed and unfortunately Vegas will not do it for you.

Are you saying that non film buffs won't notice the jumpiness?

Thanks in advance for clarifying...
 
Thanks for the link I will start reading more. Also regarding the Pull Down I own Final Cut Express on my Mac Book Pro and just use Log and Transfer to capture the video ( it worked)


When I dropped it on the timeline Final Cut automatically gave me a pop up screen to switch the settings to match the clip ( did this automatically do pull down?)


I am actually learning to shoot video and edit at the same time, crazy right....... Well I don't have a choice and must learn!
 
N.E.S. said:
Thanks for the link I will start reading more. Also regarding the Pull Down I own Final Cut Express on my Mac Book Pro and just use Log and Transfer to capture the video ( it worked)


When I dropped it on the timeline Final Cut automatically gave me a pop up screen to switch the settings to match the clip ( did this automatically do pull down?)


I am actually learning to shoot video and edit at the same time, crazy right....... Well I don't have a choice and must learn!
Click to expand...

If you recorded your clips in 720p (SH on the GH1) then you don't need to remove pulldown and if you recorded in (1080p FHD) then you have to remove pulldown. I am not sure if Final Cut pro will do it. I believe the older versions will not and maybe the new one does? If you find your video is jumpy every so often then it didn't remove it. You can use a program called Neo Scene before you edit (for more info check out the GH1 Worflow section in the forum).

Hope this helps!
 
What I've done is copy the MTS files straight from my GH1 SD card onto my PC and then plopped these right onto a Vegas Timeline. After editing (which in my case means merging videos with stills a la Ken Burns) I render them as full HD/5.1 stereo output. These play on my TV (via my PS3) smooth as silk. I've never encountered any "jumpiness" at all.

I re-renderd 10 of them as DVD quality and uploaded them to birkbinnard.shutterfly.com where they show fine. Of course I have no idea what Shutterfly does to them on their system.
 
N.E.S. said:
First things first, thank you for any help someone provides.


I was looking for an HD camera so I can shoot personal videos and decided on the GH1 because of price point and videos I seen captured by this camera. I am a beginner in shooting video. I just got my camera and I'm trying to learn as fast as possible.

I have been reading these forums trying to soak it all in. The problem I have as of now is when shooting handheld all of the footage is very "shaky". Also most footage comes out to dark as well. I am shooting at the highest resolution possible. Does this camera have an "iris control" so I can adjust gain?

Also should I leave all settings on Auto until I learn? Which is the best mode to record in?

Just basically if anyone can give me any helpful information I will gladly thank them. I have shot several little clips and I must say they look horrible. Please someone help me
:dankk2:
Click to expand...

I suggest you take the time to read the manual. I read it to and from work on the train. It helps to have the camera by your side but you just fold what you find interesting and check it at home.

This will inform you about shutter speeds, frames per seconds, aperture, exposure, special features and functions, ect. The gh1 is different from your normal hd camcorder so to get the best results you have to understand how it works, its strengths and weaknesses.

You get the shakes because the camera is so light and small, you will get the same shakes if you were to use a small hd camcorder also. Practice makes perfect or invest in some stabilisation like tripod/monopod/gorillapod.

You get dark images because you do not have enough light to expose the shot and your kit lens is too slow at f4 so it does not let enough light it. bumping up the ISO can compensate it to a degree but if you go above 640/800 you will get banding/noise. You will get banding/noise anyways if your shots are underexposed. To work around this get a faster lens or throw some more light into the shot or pick angles where natural light lights up the subject the most.

Best mode is manual. this way you will see how each setting affects the shot. This is my first video camera and I have only ever shot in manual out of the box to learn more.

The GH1 is not a point and shoot cam that few people mistake it to be....well it can be but don't expect hollywood if you do =)

Hope that helps a little
 
When I first got my GH1 I was not pleased with the video results. Keep working with the camera and read the manual. Take some stills in manual mode and use the red button to record some video in that mode. Click the film mode button and try Smooth mode, modify the settings, experiment. I have only recently gotten consistent results, it takes some work. Use the meter/histogram gridlines and experiment. This is a great little video camera.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top