GH5 GH5s Dual Native ISO Usability Questions

H

Hugh DiMauro

Well-known member
Please help me understand the best native dual ISO settings for the GH5s. Here is what I understand so far:

1) There are three menu settings: Auto, High and Low.
2) Auto gives you the choice of all ISO setting numbers in manual mode.
3) High starts at ISO 800 and goes up.
4) Low ends at ISO 800 and goes down.

For low light city street scenes where I need high ISO settings, which is the best native setting to use in the High category? Also, what is the official high and low native ISO numbers for the GH5s? For example, if one native ISO is 800, should I be shooting all my daytime shots at that setting and slap ND filters on the lens to cut down the light because that native ISO level will yield best dynamic range and resolution?

Or am I all wrong here?

Thanks for your help.
 
Hugh DiMauro said:
Please help me understand the best native dual ISO settings for the GH5s. Here is what I understand so far:

1) There are three menu settings: Auto, High and Low.
2) Auto gives you the choice of all ISO setting numbers in manual mode.
3) High starts at ISO 800 and goes up.
4) Low ends at ISO 800 and goes down.

For low light city street scenes where I need high ISO settings, which is the best native setting to use in the High category? Also, what is the official high and low native ISO numbers for the GH5s? For example, if one native ISO is 800, should I be shooting all my daytime shots at that setting and slap ND filters on the lens to cut down the light because that native ISO level will yield best dynamic range and resolution?

Or am I all wrong here?

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

400 and 2500 for most profiles or 800 and 5000 for v-log

The auto is really for convienance so you don’t have to worry about it and it will adjust what native ISO is used as you adjust the ISO level.

You use the other two options when you want to force the camera to stay at a particular ISO level. So even if you are shooting ISO 6400 you could keep the camera at the low ISO base. Not a very practical thing to do but it’s there an an option. For low light you can either use auto or the high. The results will be the same. With the high you just have to make sure when you have a lot of light to switch it to low. I could see setting manually if you just don’t trust the camera or if you prefer a little more noise in the image for a specific look.
 
Use auto.

Basically, the farther away you are from "native" the more DR you lose. That's the real value of Dual ISO - maintain proper DR at higher ISO.

So in standard mode 400/2500 (800/5000 for vlog as Thomas said), let's say you want to shoot at 1000 ISO.

You want to be base 400, ISO 1000 - you are closer to 400 and maintain better DR.

But lets say you want to shoot 1500 ISO. Now you want to be at base 2500, stopped down to ISO 1500. You are closer to native @ 2500, so better DR. Plus, stopping down the ISO from 2500 nets you a cleaner image.

And obviously, at that point, everything above 1500 should be at base 2500, and everything below at base 400. So why not use auto?

Auto handles this for you.

There are very few, rare times you would want to deviate and even then the differences would be so minor as to be near pointless (for example, you are shooting in a low contrast situation where DR is not needed, and want a cleaner image, then you might set to base 2500 and stop down to ISO 800... *maybe*... but really... just use auto).

PS Mitch Gross if you are reading this... ADD AUTO TO THE EVA1 already!! It's a royal PIA in fast paced situations :)
 
Whoaaaa! Okay, let me backtrack. When I say "Auto," I don't mean shooting with auto ISO on. I always shoot totally manual on my GH5s. That being said, you gentlemen confused me with your answers (not your fault. My fault. This is new to me). Here's an example: I want to shoot a nighttime city street with alot of neon, traffic lights, etc.

1) Shutter 180 degrees
2) F stop anywhere in the 1.5 to 2.8 range
3) ISO (and this is where my lack of intelligence will surface) Which ISO number should I choose? Normally, during daytime shoots, I keep it at 200 always. But you gentlemen mentioned two separate values, like "base 400, ISO 1000." How do I set a "base" ISO and a "1000" ISO? I thought you can only choose one ISO number and that's that, like 200, 400, 1600, etc.

Sorry for sounding daft! I guess you have to explain it to me like you would explain the dangers of playing with matches to a five year old.
 
Hugh DiMauro said:
Whoaaaa! Okay, let me backtrack. When I say "Auto," I don't mean shooting with auto ISO on. I always shoot totally manual on my GH5s. That being said, you gentlemen confused me with your answers (not your fault. My fault. This is new to me). Here's an example: I want to shoot a nighttime city street with alot of neon, traffic lights, etc.

1) Shutter 180 degrees
2) F stop anywhere in the 1.5 to 2.8 range
3) ISO (and this is where my lack of intelligence will surface) Which ISO number should I choose? Normally, during daytime shoots, I keep it at 200 always. But you gentlemen mentioned two separate values, like "base 400, ISO 1000." How do I set a "base" ISO and a "1000" ISO? I thought you can only choose one ISO number and that's that, like 200, 400, 1600, etc.

Sorry for sounding daft! I guess you have to explain it to me like you would explain the dangers of playing with matches to a five year old.
Click to expand...

We didn’t man auto ISO. We meant the auto you mentioned for the dual native ISO. You asked if the three choices between auto, high and low were a better choice and we explained what each of this does. Has nothing to do with auto ISO.

As to what ISO should you use? Well the one that looks the best...

When you no longer have aperture at your disposal then you need to use whatever ISO levels gets you a correct exposure. A wide open aperture is optically not as good and will be softer and have less contrast so if possible get closer to ISO 2500 and keep the aperture as close to f2.8 to f5.6 as possible do best results. It’s a trade off between optical detail and noise.

Are you shootijg v-log or a regular profile like Natural? This is important for us to know since the numbers will be different. Also hard to say without knowing your exact situation and what your noise and image quality threshold actually is.

How far you push the ISO is really up to you. Just know that for a regular profile the camera is at its optimal at ISO400 and IsO2500. After that try to compensate with aperture or better yet lights if possible. You can deviate from the ISO2500 is small amounts and the color and contrast still maintain accurate results up to ISO6400. I personally wouldn’t go higher than that and honestly if you need to you need to rethink the shoot anyway.
 
Ahhh! They were the answers I was looking for. Thank you! Yes, I've noticed with my particular prime lenses, my image looks great at 4.0 so I would love to keep my aperture at that for most of my shooting and control daylight with ND filters and low light with ISO. I prefer the Cinelike D profile and don't really monkey around with V-Log. For now I use MOV, FHD, I-Frame , 200 Mb/s 1920 x 1080. May I throw a few more questions your way?

1) If I understand you correctly, I should keep my GH5 and GH5s cameras at 400 ISO for daylight shooting since the 400 ISO level is considered native?
2) What is the difference between 2500 ISO setting when my exposure menu is set to "AUTO," the 2500 ISO setting when my exposure menu is set to "HIGH," and the 800 ISO setting when the exposure menu is set to either "HIGH," "LOW," or "AUTO" since the 800 ISO choice is present for all three menu items? Does the different menu setting affect its performance or is 800 ISO always the same no matter if u use it under AUTO, HIGH or LOW? the same questions for the 2500 setting in AUTO and HIGH.
3) And why does Panasonic give you the three levels of ISO choices? Why would I not just keep the AUTO menu on and have my choice of every ISO setting from 64 all the way to 5100?

Mr. Smet, I re-read your first post and I believe that answered my above questions, correct?

Thank you for fielding my incessant questions.
 
Last edited:
filmguy123 said:
Use auto.

Basically, the farther away you are from "native" the more DR you lose. That's the real value of Dual ISO - maintain proper DR at higher ISO.

So in standard mode 400/2500 (800/5000 for vlog as Thomas said), let's say you want to shoot at 1000 ISO.

You want to be base 400, ISO 1000 - you are closer to 400 and maintain better DR.

But lets say you want to shoot 1500 ISO. Now you want to be at base 2500, stopped down to ISO 1500. You are closer to native @ 2500, so better DR. Plus, stopping down the ISO from 2500 nets you a cleaner image.

And obviously, at that point, everything above 1500 should be at base 2500, and everything below at base 400. So why not use auto?

Auto handles this for you.

There are very few, rare times you would want to deviate and even then the differences would be so minor as to be near pointless (for example, you are shooting in a low contrast situation where DR is not needed, and want a cleaner image, then you might set to base 2500 and stop down to ISO 800... *maybe*... but really... just use auto).

PS Mitch Gross if you are reading this... ADD AUTO TO THE EVA1 already!! It's a royal PIA in fast paced situations :)
Click to expand...

Can u clarify how I maintain a "base ISO?" I want to shoot 1500 ISO, okay, so how do I be at a "base ISO" of 2500? Is the answer "Auto handles this for you?"
 
How's this for an oversimplified definition of dual ISO: Shooting at 400 and anything close to 400 gives great results. Shooting at 2500 or anything close to 2500 gives great results. Am I close?
 
filmguy123 said:
Use auto.

Basically, the farther away you are from "native" the more DR you lose. That's the real value of Dual ISO - maintain proper DR at higher ISO.

So in standard mode 400/2500 (800/5000 for vlog as Thomas said), let's say you want to shoot at 1000 ISO.

You want to be base 400, ISO 1000 - you are closer to 400 and maintain better DR.

But lets say you want to shoot 1500 ISO. Now you want to be at base 2500, stopped down to ISO 1500. You are closer to native @ 2500, so better DR. Plus, stopping down the ISO from 2500 nets you a cleaner image.

And obviously, at that point, everything above 1500 should be at base 2500, and everything below at base 400. So why not use auto?

Auto handles this for you.

There are very few, rare times you would want to deviate and even then the differences would be so minor as to be near pointless (for example, you are shooting in a low contrast situation where DR is not needed, and want a cleaner image, then you might set to base 2500 and stop down to ISO 800... *maybe*... but really... just use auto).

PS Mitch Gross if you are reading this... ADD AUTO TO THE EVA1 already!! It's a royal PIA in fast paced situations :)
Click to expand...

When you say "stopping down," do you mean set the ISO to 2500 then use the lens aperture control dial to expose properly?
 
Every time you double or half the ISO it’s a stop. All I meant by stop Down was reduce exposure by a stop - in this particular case I used that term to reference reducing your ISO.

Regarding how to set your ISO to 1500, just set it. All choosing “auto” under the dual native ISO setting does is let the camera choose the optimal internal processing for any ISO that you manually choose. That’s it. You still control the iso manually, the camera just automatically selects HOW it will process your chosen setting to ensure it looks best.
 
filmguy123 said:
Every time you double or half the ISO it’s a stop. All I meant by stop Down was reduce exposure by a stop - in this particular case I used that term to reference reducing your ISO.

Regarding how to set your ISO to 1500, just set it. All choosing “auto” under the dual native ISO setting does is let the camera choose the optimal internal processing for any ISO that you manually choose. That’s it. You still control the iso manually, the camera just automatically selects HOW it will process your chosen setting to ensure it looks best.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your patience and expertise. I am grateful.
 
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