GH3 GH3 basic setting advice

D

deckitout

Member
Okay so I will be using my GH3 in anger for the first time tomorrow for a 21st Birthday Party of a family member.

I have a GH3 with Rode mic.

What recording quality should I be using, I am thinking record mode mov at 1920x1080 25p 50 mps

If I want to add some slow motion of say people dancing would I just up the frame rate to 50p


I will be editing using iMovie with the aim to burn copies to DVD for viewing

Any help appreciated

Phil
 
If you are using a Rode VideoMic, then set the GH3 audio level to 1 and set your Rode VideoMic to output at +20 dB. This results in the best quality sound with the GH3. ( make sure you test to be sure everything is set correctly )
 
TheDingo said:
If you are using a Rode VideoMic, then set the GH3 audio level to 1 and set your Rode VideoMic to output at +20 dB. This results in the best quality sound with the GH3. ( make sure you test to be sure everything is set correctly )
Click to expand...

Would you recommend setting the audio level to 1 even if the microphone dosen't have any audioadjustment (say a lavalier)? Of course the audio will get to low but you can fix that in post, or is it better to set it higher if you can't adjust the volume on the microphone?
 
I'm experimenting with audio input on the GH3 and it seems not as simple as I had thought. With one of my mics I can crank the preamp gain to 19 with no excess noise or limiter artifacts. With another rig I have to keep the mic gain down to 1.

This is a long winded way of saying that you have to experiment before shooting for real so you can learn the limits, identify problems, and solve them.

Fran
 
Admir said:
Would you recommend setting the audio level to 1 even if the microphone dosen't have any audioadjustment (say a lavalier)?
Click to expand...

The Rode Video Mic Pro ( and perhaps the Shure equivalent ) are kind of special cases because they can output a +20 dB "Mic" level signal ( -30 dB Mic level ). If the mic you are using does not offer this, then you need to add a pre-amp to get the signal to the -30 to -20 dB signal level that the GH3 camera works best with. ( I do the same with my Sennheiser UHF lav system by setting the receiver to output a "hot" signal that works with the GH3 audio level set to 1 )

The whole reason for setting your GH3 audio level to 1, is to minimize the effect of the GH3 AGC and limiter, so in almost every case you want to set your GH3 audio level to 1 and feed it a "hot" -30 dB to -20 dB audio signal.
 
TheDingo said:
The Rode Video Mic Pro ( and perhaps the Shure equivalent ) are kind of special cases because they can output a +20 dB "Mic" level signal ( -30 dB Mic level ). If the mic you are using does not offer this, then you need to add a pre-amp to get the signal to the -30 to -20 dB signal level that the GH3 camera works best with. ( I do the same with my Sennheiser UHF lav system by setting the receiver to output a "hot" signal that works with the GH3 audio level set to 1 )

The whole reason for setting your GH3 audio level to 1, is to minimize the effect of the GH3 AGC and limiter, so in almost every case you want to set your GH3 audio level to 1 and feed it a "hot" -30 dB to -20 dB audio signal.
Click to expand...

Can the Zoom H1 be used the same way. I tried hooking it up to my GH3 with the level set to 1 on the GH3 and it sounded surprisingly great compared to some of my other mics. Plenty of level and had a much more full sound compared to the onboard mic. In fact it sounded much better than my Audio Tecnica mic which barely has any audio levels when the GH3 is set to 1. Is the Zoom H1 a good alternative to a stereo mic when it is plugged via the line out?

Does the H1 output audio at a level similar to the Rode Video Mic?
 
Thomas Smet said:
I tried hooking it up to my GH3 with the level set to 1 on the GH3 and it sounded surprisingly great compared to some of my other mics
Click to expand...

You've pretty much answered your own question. If it sounds good to your ears, then it's probably a good solution.

I own a H1 recorder, but I'm working on location until Wednesday. ( the H1 is back at the office )

I'll give it a shot on Wednesday and post my results.
 
TheDingo said:
The Rode Video Mic Pro ( and perhaps the Shure equivalent ) are kind of special cases because they can output a +20 dB "Mic" level signal ( -30 dB Mic level ). If the mic you are using does not offer this, then you need to add a pre-amp to get the signal to the -30 to -20 dB signal level that the GH3 camera works best with. ( I do the same with my Sennheiser UHF lav system by setting the receiver to output a "hot" signal that works with the GH3 audio level set to 1 )

The whole reason for setting your GH3 audio level to 1, is to minimize the effect of the GH3 AGC and limiter, so in almost every case you want to set your GH3 audio level to 1 and feed it a "hot" -30 dB to -20 dB audio signal.
Click to expand...

I tried this with an interview. Used my rode lav directly to the camera without any preamp stuff.But the sound got way to low, I had to raise it a lot in post to get it to the right levels. So the question is is t better to raise the levels in cameraand live with the AGC or should I record it at level 1 and raise the levels afterwards?
 
TheDingo said:
You've pretty much answered your own question. If it sounds good to your ears, then it's probably a good solution.

I own a H1 recorder, but I'm working on location until Wednesday. ( the H1 is back at the office )

I'll give it a shot on Wednesday and post my results.
Click to expand...

Yeah I kind of did didn't I. Well I guess my question wasn't so much will it work but how well compared to the Rode mic or other mics. I did a bunch of tests last night and the Zoom H1 blew away everything else I had for audio. Not surprising since everything else I have is low powered. One thing was for sure it smashed the internal GH3 mic.

If the Zoom H1 can get close to the Rode mic it may be a good alternative for the original poster. Much cheaper option and has so many other practical uses and one heck of a good recorder.
 
Admir said:
I tried this with an interview. Used my rode lav directly to the camera without any preamp stuff.But the sound got way to low, I had to raise it a lot in post to get it to the right levels. So the question is is t better to raise the levels in cameraand live with the AGC or should I record it at level 1 and raise the levels afterwards?
Click to expand...

That's pretty much the conundrum of a low signal and AGC.
In almost any circumstance, you don't want to record low and boost levels in post because low recorded levels have inherently low signal to noise ratios.
Meaning, your recorded material is sitting close to the noise floor of the preamp (which are never going to be great on todays DSLRs).
When you boost that signal to an acceptable volume in post, you're also boosting all that noise.

So you really have to experiment and decide whether the additional noise is worse than the potential "pumping" of the hotter recorded levels using the fixed AGC of a camera like this.
Ultimately the answer, with the GH3 at least, is to feed it a signal that's hot enough keep the input volume on the GH3 at 1 in order to get both good S/N and to "limit" the limiter.
 
jimagine said:
That's pretty much the conundrum of a low signal and AGC.
In almost any circumstance, you don't want to record low and boost levels in post because low recorded levels have inherently low signal to noise ratios.
Meaning, your recorded material is sitting close to the noise floor of the preamp (which are never going to be great on todays DSLRs).
When you boost that signal to an acceptable volume in post, you're also boosting all that noise.

So you really have to experiment and decide whether the additional noise is worse than the potential "pumping" of the hotter recorded levels using the fixed AGC of a camera like this.
Ultimately the answer, with the GH3 at least, is to feed it a signal that's hot enough keep the input volume on the GH3 at 1 in order to get both good S/N and to "limit" the limiter.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Well in this case I'm lucky to have music on a separate track while the interview is being held so in that way most of the noise is hidden. I also added som bass to the interview audio to make the sound a bit more "heavy" because it sounded quite thin when raised that much that I had to do to get a good volume.

I will test it out, I mean I'm satisfied if I stick to 2-3 on the GH3 mic. level and boost the rest as long as the AGC dosent kick in to much....
 
am surprised you get low levels using rode lav into gh3 - I do it all the time at level1 on the gh3 and get decent levels - wouldnt want to record any higher for fear of clipping on 'loud' voices
 
ade4all said:
am surprised you get low levels using rode lav into gh3 - I do it all the time at level1 on the gh3 and get decent levels - wouldnt want to record any higher for fear of clipping on 'loud' voices
Click to expand...

In most cases I had to boost the audio +6 db and then add additional 1-6 db of gain (rightklicking on the audiofile on the timeline and clicking on the "Audio gain..." option... This way I get nice levels that wont trigger the red indicator on the audio levels but still giving me a good signal...
 
hmm where are you placing the lav - I am getting peaks at -6db with most people with mic normally placed a tad above the nipple line
 
ade4all said:
hmm where are you placing the lav - I am getting peaks at -6db with most people with mic normally placed a tad above the nipple line
Click to expand...

I placed the lav facing towards her about the same height as you describe, maybe a bit closer. I should mention that I have the Rode extension cord giving me a total of three meters of cable, don't know if this does anything to the signal. It was also a girl speaking and usually I need to boost the audio a bit more with a female voice vs. male voices...
 
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