GH5 Grain Issue Lumix GH5 all of the time...

tokun1

tokun1

Well-known member
Hello Group.

I'm having grain issues with the Lumix GH5 I've owned for 2+ years now and it seems to be worse. No matter where I shoot indoors with lots of light, or outdoors I always have a least a small amount of grain in the image, always it is NEVER crisp. I'm mainly shooting projects at natural color profile (no change to the presets) 1920x1080 at 29.97 and 400 ISO or lower to 200 ISO if I'm outdoors, I NEVER go above 500 ISO cause I know this camera is crap in low light and it will add grain, also and if I want slow motion I shoot at 59.94 10 bit 100mbs then slowing it down in post to "automatic speed" in FCP for slow motion, which makes the grain look worse of course. I was wondering if there may be something wrong with the camera, I did a reset to factory settings and that doesn't seem to help the issue. I watch video all of the time of video people on YouTube shooting crisp and beautiful images with this camera but I can't seem to get a totally clean/crisp image, like ,ever! I'm shooting with the Panasonic Lumix Leica DG 12-60 f2.8, and other good lenses so I never shoot with a cheap lens on this camera. Forget about Panasonic tech support they are the worst, they say two things: factory reset, or send in the camera, that's it.

I'm so very frustrated I about to sell and buy a Sony and I just don't know what to do, any help would be much appreciated!

Thank you!
 
IMO, Panasonic MFT cameras are simply terrible with noise (besides maybe the GH5S to a certain point).

There's always a chance there's some hardware issue (or you require a black balance from a lot of sensor wear-and-tear), but I think maybe your brain/eyes could also be getting better at noticing it.

I discover all kinds of image issues/quirks with cameras years later when sometimes going through hundreds of my mini-clips and tests.

As far as YouTube, a lot of people use noise reduction.

That's pretty much it...camera's malfunctioning, your attention to detail has improved, and/or noise reduction is helping others' videos.
 
Thanks for your reply NorBro. I don't see a way to black balance the camera, we used to do that with my old Panasonic camcorders.
 
Most likely can't do it manually...Panasonic would have to diagnose the sensor and do it on their end.

A nightmare to send in when you don't have the time (or just don't want to, lol).

Sometimes ignorance is bliss and what we don't know we don't know, but compared to a Sony full-frame camera - and especially a low-light one - you'd be flabbergasted with the difference and would surely think your Panasonic is broken after getting comfy with the aforementioned.
 
I guess the only way to find to if it is a camera issue try and find another GH5 to line it up with under the same lighting condition and with the same lens if possible. Try and get one a similar age as yours. If there is a startling difference in image quality between the two then it could quite likely be a camera issue. If not? Who knows? It might indicate yours is displaying normal behavior or that both cameras have issues. The drying out of some SMD capacitors in a lot of electronics can start to raise the dark current noise levels of the circuits. A common problem on Panasonic studio VTRs and quite a few of their 2/3" cameras. I know I've been down that road quite a few times. As NorBro said. It could be time conditioning on your part as an observer as you notice more quirks and details about your imaging tools. Time to do a comparison test I think.

Chris Young
 
I have both GH5 and GH5S and tend to agree with Morgan. They need to be well exposed to get the best out of them. A few other things to note. They do not like reds that tend to come out a little orange. I now shoot Vlog all the time and this seems to correct this red issue. I tend to expose as high as possible without clipping the highlights. As a test, set exposure setting to the highlight mode, fix shutter speed, auto gain, and set to shutter priority mode. Even leave it on auto focus or set with touch focus on something. Shoot UHD 60P. Do some shots and see what that looks like. Even if you want 1920x1080 it is better to shoot UHD and downscale in editing. That is what I do all the time.
 
Not to take away from the other advice here since they're all valid points. You definitely don't want to underexpose. ETTR as much as possible. 60p needs a lot of light. 120 even more. I've never had issues with noise when exposed correctly. But I'd also recommend double checking all settings in camera. I've never had it happen with any of my GH5 bodies, but certain other cams switched settings or even reset after a battery died, FW change and even after random lock ups that forced a restart. DJI stuff is notorious for this. 4k or UHD and 10Bit as whenever possible. And try to avoid auto anything too - since you'll have no way to know what happened when reviewing footage or trying to figure out issues.
 
For info I do not follow the 180 rule. I shoot all my 60P at 1/60sec. I playback at 60fps too so I do not shoot to slow down where having 180 angle may be needed. I like the smooth motion of 60P. I shoot indoors and I am after all the light I can get. The only thing I have on auto is gain with an upper limit set too. I want everything I can get without clipping but when the stage goes black I want it black too. I have max gain set at 12db and usually AE shift at -2.
 
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