GH2 best shooting mode to match 1080 25p

naavt

Well-known member
Hi,

I will begin shooting next month for a project which is being shot at 1080 25p.

I'm going to participate in that project (wild life documentary), as a B roll camera operator where the main image team is shooting with AF100s.

I have a hacked GH1 which shots 25p but I'm planning to use my PAL GH2 as well. Can someone assist me in the best way to deliver 25p shots from my GH2?

I've been reading about this and many seems to prefer to shoot 720p since it has no sound sync problems and it is true progressive. 1080 24p to 25p conform in Cinema Tolls seems a good option for me since I'm not dealing with sound.

Also, 1080 24p uses 24Mbps bitrate. What about 720 50p mode?

Any other tips will be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
Yes i prefer 720P to 50i,i also miss 25P as my software will only edit 24P with a slight jitter but i know that is a software problem,but i find 720P VG on my GH2.
 
If you don't need to sync to sound I'd personally go for 24p and speed it up in post. The quality difference between 50i/p and 24p is massive... not so much that the 50i/p modes are bad, it's just the 24p mode is so good. :)

If you shot 50i/p you'd have to either de-interlace or drop every other frame anyway, so it might not be much more work just to speed up 24p instead.
 
On the GH2 I would use variable movie mode 24p 24Mbps ( no sound), you can conform it later to 25p. You will get the footage 83% slowed down.
But why not use GH13 ?
 
If you shot 50i/p you'd have to either de-interlace or drop every other frame anyway, so it might not be much more work just to speed up 24p instead.

I was under the impression that GH2 720p mode was true progressive! Are you saying that it is really a 50p in a interlaced container?

On the GH2 I would use variable movie mode 24p 24Mbps ( no sound), you can conform it later to 25p. You will get the footage 83% slowed down.
But why not use GH13 ?

Why variable movie mode? Doesn't 1080 24p record at 24Mbps as well?
I want to use both cameras. I will be shooting mostly wild life animals so 2 cameras will give me twice the chances of capturing an event. One can be on a tripod catching some action with a wider shot and the other I can use to close up, or even concentrate on another subject.
 
If you conform 24p to 25p you speed up the action. Variable movie mode conforms inside the camera 30p to 24p, so even if you conform later to 25p, you actually are not speeding up the action! The quality is the same as 24p and you have the footage slowed down a bit, which is nice IMO, just try for yourself and see if you like it.
If you have both cameras, I would shoot the wide shots, or the unattended camera with the GH2 where it has some advantages over the GH13 (stability), and for the closeups I would go with high bitrate GH13, but than again it depends on the lanses you intend to use, as the GH2 has 2.6 X the reach of GH1.
 
If you conform 24p to 25p you speed up the action. Variable movie mode conforms inside the camera 30p to 24p, so even if you conform later to 25p, you actually are not speeding up the action! The quality is the same as 24p and you have the footage slowed down a bit, which is nice IMO, just try for yourself and see if you like it.

That is new to me and sorry if I do need some more information about that workflow. So... What speed do I need to choose in variable movie mode? My GH2 only has 1080 24p (not 30 because it isn't a NTSC model). You are saying that in Cinema Tools I can conform it to 25p bringing back the original action speed? If I understood right that is awesome!!!

If you have both cameras, I would shoot the wide shots, or the unattended camera with the GH2 where it has some advantages over the GH13 (stability), and for the closeups I would go with high bitrate GH13, but than again it depends on the lanses you intend to use, as the GH2 has 2.6 X the reach of GH1.

I was planning to use the ETC feature to catch the close up shots. I'll be using Nikon primes all the time.

Massive ---- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duKU_weL3q8 none of my tests show massive differences even playing the raw clips.

Actually I can see some i artifacts on the moving people even if the movement shows up much more fluid IMO. At 25p all moving objects seems a bit jerky to me, but it could be from the heavy compression for streaming purposes... Perhaps you will not notice that kind of differences in the RAW clips as you stated.
 
That is new to me and sorry if I do need some more information about that workflow. So... What speed do I need to choose in variable movie mode? My GH2 only has 1080 24p (not 30 because it isn't a NTSC model). You are saying that in Cinema Tools I can conform it to 25p bringing back the original action speed? If I understood right that is awesome!!!



I was planning to use the ETC feature to catch the close up shots. I'll be using Nikon primes all the time.



Actually I can see some i artifacts on the moving people even if the movement shows up much more fluid IMO. At 25p all moving objects seems a bit jerky to me, but it could be from the heavy compression for streaming purposes... Perhaps you will not notice that kind of differences in the RAW clips as you stated.

There is no 25P there ,the artifacts are on the 50i which show on mixed frame rates with my set up,24P does also have jitter with my software but not on direct file play,the test was to show resolution,my ordinary films made in 720P & 50i dont have artifacts but 50i can have jaggies.
 
...the artifacts are on the 50i which show on mixed frame rates with my set up,24P does also have jitter with my software but not on direct file play,the test was to show resolution,my ordinary films made in 720P & 50i dont have artifacts but 50i can have jaggies.

Good to know. So you prefer to shoot 720p to 50i is that correct? Is 720p recorded at 24Mbps?
 
I was under the impression that GH2 720p mode was true progressive! Are you saying that it is really a 50p in a interlaced container?


It's true progressive. I inserted a slash between the i and the p, and I was saying that you'd have to either de-interlace the interlaced, or drop every other frame of the progressive. ;)

Sasi is recommending that you record in the variable movie mode. This basically records at 30p, saving it in a slightly slowed down 24p file. I don't personally recommend doing this unless you want a slight 20% slomo... conforming 24p to 25p will not be perceptible, even by a pixel peeper. Whereas having slight slowmo might be a bit jarring when you mix it with other footage.

The slowmo records at the same bitrate as 24p, which is 24mbps.
 
Good to know. So you prefer to shoot 720p to 50i is that correct? Is 720p recorded at 24Mbps?

Only 24P Records at 24mbps,yes i prefer 720P at sh to 50i,if i could edit 24P with no problems it may be different but as i said i dont see that much difference ,all the best
 
Only 24P Records at 24mbps,yes i prefer 720P at sh to 50i,if i could edit 24P with no problems it may be different but as i said i dont see that much difference ,all the best

The 1080p @ 30 FPS 80% slow motion mode also records at 24 mb/sec.
 
Hi,

If sound is not an issue then shoot 24p and conform in cinema tools to 25p, I do this on my GH2 when sound sync is not an issue and it works beautifully and is utterly simple, you will be shooting in the highest bit rate this way,

Olly
 
Back
Top