GH2 has the most inflexible color engine of all DSLR's

ghosttv said:
Yes of course, maybe that orig footages not Even
Gh2! Maybe betamax! Lol! How can you guys argue! No science here! Macrofrog must post it with setting lol.
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Yes yes no science, no clues to how GH2 handles color levels and contrast in many cases, no example videos from other folks (yeah yeah bad settings as ussual).. yeah it's very easy to dismiss that Panasonic somehow created its own GH2 unstandard video look that is so visible in shots with colored lighting (very important point) - in neutral light it looks good and very usable - the detail even on 720p is insane. As a relative video veteran I never had this kind of a problem with any other device not to mention not even old camcorders or old broadcast cameras.

Sadly I can't post the video online since it's still unfinished and I wasn't given green light by the contractor to post anything on the net.

But lol macrofrog.. that made me laugh.. anyway .. makrofag = macrophage .. nothing about a big gay dude.. anyway my contractor is a gay rights organisation... :)

color neon flatness example #2

the video is full of examples where colored lighting completely flattens and neonizes the appearance skin and other surfaces.. it is maybe a desirable outcome to give a characteristic look but to my eyes it's an artifact that is not welcome when it's not a result of post processing but simply straight out of camera. Simply there had to be someone to point these things out so don't get all touchy.. GH2 is overall a very very good camera for a number of situations.. but sadly for some it behaves too exotically.
 
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What you're seeing is merely the high-sensitivity that the GH2 is capable of. Those lights won't have been so pronounced in real life because it would have been darker to your eyes! All the GH2 is doing is being too good. If you don't like the look, just reduce the ISO level to match the image exposure to what your eyes see, simple as that.

The reason you've not encountered this visual look previously is because no camera is really as good in low light as the GH2!
 
Let's keep this professional and civil. Next person to post an insult after this warning will earn a handful of vacation days (aka a temporary ban until you chill out).
 
Zak Forsman said:
Let's keep this professional and civil. Next person to post an insult after this warning will earn a handful of vacation days (aka a temporary ban until you chill out).
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Yes please, keep it about the color. If you think the OP is trolling, don't feed him. He's allowed to address specific concerns about the camera not doing what he hoped it would do.
Makrofag said:
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color neon flatness example #2

the video is full of examples where colored lighting completely flattens and neonizes the appearance skin and other surfaces.. it is maybe a desirable outcome to give a characteristic look but to my eyes it's an artifact that is not welcome when it's not a result of post processing but simply straight out of camera. Simply there had to be someone to point these things out so don't get all touchy.. GH2 is overall a very very good camera for a number of situations.. but sadly for some it behaves too exotically.
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I must be misundertsanding, because it seems like you'r saying that the GH2, when lit with extremely stylized neon lighting, makes it impossible to get good skin tones in post? That seems like a predictable and normal result. If anything the above footage looks like it just needs black to hit zero. Maybe some gamma / contrast tweaklng.
 
Omg even Red One or 35mm would have a weird color in that disco. Are you joke me? You want to sell your gh2? I will bought it. Lol
 
Thank you to the moderators for keeping discussion open.
Dvxuser is a cut above the rest. :)
 
I am really really considering the GH2, (except I want 1080/30p!) and I hope it's less saturated than the Canons. I just shot a video with tungsten lights and a Canon T2i. Well my buddy actually shot me for a music video. He did white balance and I found the footage to have a red shift I didn't like. More orange really. Skin looked yellow, and darks got red. Even changing scenes to outside had too much red in the darks. I hope this complaint about the GH2 is a user error situation. I found the footage of the little girl with the popsicle to be great looking, though a bit oversaturated for my taste if it's right out of the camera. I too like a mellow picture profile to leave room for grading in post. But man, I really had to wrench that canon footage to get it looking like I wanted, and even then I gave up and slathered some magic bullet looks on it to conform it to some standard. Problem is, I don't know how good my buddy knows how to use his camera. Anyway, I'm keeping my eye on this thread to see if there is anything to the GH2 color actually lacking.
 
I've been calling that yellow skin tone the "Canon look". It makes everyone look jaundiced! Gotta love Panny mojo. =)

Chadfish said:
I am really really considering the GH2, (except I want 1080/30p!) and I hope it's less saturated than the Canons. I just shot a video with tungsten lights and a Canon T2i. Well my buddy actually shot me for a music video. He did white balance and I found the footage to have a red shift I didn't like. More orange really. Skin looked yellow, and darks got red. Even changing scenes to outside had too much red in the darks. I hope this complaint about the GH2 is a user error situation. I found the footage of the little girl with the popsicle to be great looking, though a bit oversaturated for my taste if it's right out of the camera. I too like a mellow picture profile to leave room for grading in post. But man, I really had to wrench that canon footage to get it looking like I wanted, and even then I gave up and slathered some magic bullet looks on it to conform it to some standard. Problem is, I don't know how good my buddy knows how to use his camera. Anyway, I'm keeping my eye on this thread to see if there is anything to the GH2 color actually lacking.
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Makrofag said:
color neon flatness example #2 : The video is full of examples where colored lighting completely flattens and neonizes the appearance skin and other surfaces.. it is maybe a desirable outcome to give a characteristic look but to my eyes it's an artifact that is not welcome when it's not a result of post processing but simply straight out of camera. Simply there had to be someone to point these things out so don't get all touchy.. GH2 is overall a very very good camera for a number of situations.. but sadly for some it behaves too exotically.
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Dear MF,

Since this is NOT your footage, and you know NOTHING about how it was shot, and you know NOTHING about the lighting at the venue where it was shot, your statements are essentially of NO value at all.

In case you are not aware of new lighting tech, many venues are now using new LED lighting packages to light both the stage and the room where events are taking place, and these new LED lighting packages are PARTIAL SPECTRUM lights, thus all you can record with a camera is the light frequency that the LED light generates. These lights CANNOT be balanced. PERIOD. It's like trying to shoot a beautiful full color portrait under highway SODIUM VAPOR lights that ONLY record as ORANGE light. It just ain't going to happen...

Now if you want to shoot your OWN video, and make sure you cover it with at least ONE alternative DSLR camera to the GH-2, like say a Canon 7D, and then post your footage with a full breakdown of all the camera settings, THEN we will have something to talk about. Otherwise your posts are just more p*ssing in to the wind.
 
Chadfish said:
I am really really considering the GH2, (except I want 1080/30p!) and I hope it's less saturated than the Canons.
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The color saturation of both the GH-2 and Canon DSLRs can be hugely adjusted in camera and in post. I find that many new DSLR video enthusiasts are not familiar with the concept of shooting "flat" ( low contrast, low sharpness, low noise-reduced, moderately color saturated ) video which is then modified in post to take it in any direction you like.

I also find that setting color balance via degrees Kelvin ( if you know the light-source well, or are able to properly judge the color temperature ) to be a more reliable way of recording neutral color. Unfortunately the Canon T2i does not allow you to set the white-balance by degrees Kelvin ( like the Canon 5D MK2, 7D, 60D cameras do ), so getting good color from this camera can be a little tricky, unless you're prepared to correct the color in post. ( I almost always tweak the color in post for everything I edit, I can do it in my sleep )

The main thing is to understand your equipment and how to get the most out of it. Every piece of gear has it's flaws, but there are always many ways to get around these issues, so that in the end nothing prevents you from achieving the look you are after.
 
AlexanderC said:
it's misleading. Makes me scratch my head wondering what in the world they did to the GH2 footage to make it that soft?
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Fwiw, the first time I looked at that I distinctly felt they shot it with a Canon. I suspect they may have called it gh2 footage because its the hot item and they wanted the traffic. After all, the camera is difficult to get right now. It really looked to me like what I get out of my Canon...
 
TheDingo said:
The color saturation of both the GH-2 and Canon DSLRs can be hugely adjusted in camera and in post. I find that many new DSLR video enthusiasts are not familiar with the concept of shooting "flat" ( low contrast, low sharpness, low noise-reduced, moderately color saturated ) video which is then modified in post to take it in any direction you like.

I also find that setting color balance via degrees Kelvin ( if you know the light-source well, or are able to properly judge the color temperature ) to be a more reliable way of recording neutral color. Unfortunately the Canon T2i does not allow you to set the white-balance by degrees Kelvin ( like the Canon 5D MK2, 7D, 60D cameras do ), so getting good color from this camera can be a little tricky, unless you're prepared to correct the color in post. ( I almost always tweak the color in post for everything I edit, I can do it in my sleep )

The main thing is to understand your equipment and how to get the most out of it. Every piece of gear has it's flaws, but there are always many ways to get around these issues, so that in the end nothing prevents you from achieving the look you are after.
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I'm used to shooting with one picture profile (for 99% of my stuff) with my EX1. The Sony EX1 comes pretty flat & milky, and I use a Vortex Media recommended PP that just gently boosts/cuts a few things so it looks OK out of the camera, but nothing hyped - exactly the way I like it. It could pass untouched, but there's plenty of leeway to grade the stuff. If I can get a profile to match that in the GH2, which I'm sure I can, I'll be happy.
 
Been super happy with the color results of the Gh2... and its considerably sharper than anything I got out of the 7D... So for color, I find it a suitable camera and with all of the other pro points... hey it's a winner...

Not everyone is going to be happy.... but maybe it's a matter of expecting things to be perfect all the time.... I've been so impressed with the WB options and I'm now sold on setting it with the kelvin and the leaning options...
 
TheDingo said:
I also find that setting color balance via degrees Kelvin ( if you know the light-source well, or are able to properly judge the color temperature ) to be a more reliable way of recording neutral color.
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Setting the correct color temperature is crucial for obtaining the widest latitude for color grading in post. What's important to bear in mind is that the white balance used to encode a video is permanently burned in and cannot be shifted in post-production to a different color temperature.

If you examine how color temperature is applied post-facto to a RAW still image, you can see why this is the case. In RAW image processing, the histograms of each of the R, G, and B channels can be individually manipulated to impose any desired color temperature. Once a video is encoded, however, the R, G, and B histograms are merged and can no longer be separated into the original RAW components. While you can still apply a variety of types of color correction to an encoded image, what you cannot alter is its underlying color temperature.
 
@ Makrofroggy

Simple story of boosting black levels as previously stated and having more latitude for grading to work with in post.
 
lpowell said:
Setting the correct color temperature is crucial for obtaining the widest latitude for color grading in post. What's important to bear in mind is that the white balance used to encode a video is permanently burned in and cannot be shifted in post-production to a different color temperature.

If you examine how color temperature is applied post-facto to a RAW still image, you can see why this is the case. In RAW image processing, the histograms of each of the R, G, and B channels can be individually manipulated to impose any desired color temperature. Once a video is encoded, however, the R, G, and B histograms are merged and can no longer be separated into the original RAW components. While you can still apply a variety of types of color correction to an encoded image, what you cannot alter is its underlying color temperature.
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Hmmm....this probably explains why in some footage I see a real nice cinematic look but then in other areas of the very same footage it screams video. Not just for GH-2 but for any camera.
 
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