Help! Camera Settings!!!

I

Indyreel

Well-known member
I posted a few days ago, asking for a list of the best settings for the camera (i.e. the launch sequence) to get the best film look and quality for post/cc etc.

I pretty much got "check out the FAQ section". Sorry, but I still haven't found a list of optimum settings. Could someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks.
 
You didn't get a list because there's no such thing. You need to understand what the settings do, and when you do so you can figure out what works best for your needs.
 
Nice one Illya. But indeed having used such a guide as a starting point, if you don't get a complete understand through your own experimentation of what each setting does and what the effect of varying it is, you won't be getting the best from the GH1.
 
With regard to your last para of your guide, Illya, I seem to be getting better results with OIS on the stock lens after I upgraded the firmware. It might be worth mentioning the firmware upgrade in the guide??
 
Ozpeter said:
With regard to your last para of your guide, Illya, I seem to be getting better results with OIS on the stock lens after I upgraded the firmware. It might be worth mentioning the firmware upgrade in the guide??
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That's a good point. I'm yet to upgrade the firmware on either camera as I'm in the middle of shooting a little Travel project for broadcast. Upgrading firmware mid-project, is never a good idea, doubly so on a camera as rare as the GH1. Next Friday is the last shoot day so I'll have an opportunity to upgrade after that.
 
Ozpeter said:
Nice one Illya. But indeed having used such a guide as a starting point, if you don't get a complete understand through your own experimentation of what each setting does and what the effect of varying it is, you won't be getting the best from the GH1.
Click to expand...

So true. I tell people to test all day long- but do they? Yes and no. Some don't know what to test, how to shoot a test or how to read charts, so really testing is to a certain degree wasted on them. With that kind of person they definitely won't be getting the most of out the tool, so you just point them in the right direction and give them enough information to (hopefully) not harm themselves. The ones that do test and know how, usually don't need to be told, they test anyway.

I won't name names of some of the shoot first-figure it out later (quote-unquote) DPs out there, but as long as they keep working and making $ (usually in cable and reality) who am I to tell them what they are doing is at best flawed and at worst dangerous to themselves and the production.

Several years ago, I sat in $600/hr color correction suite with one of the DPs of a top-10 rated reality show. He convinced the producers to shoot with the DVX100A camera because 2/3" professional SD/HD cameras (in his words) "have blacks that don't look right and the image just looks like plastic". Working for the rental house I just kept my mouth shut and listened to him string a long line of bull$h!t together, while the 3 producers nodded their heads half listening to him and texting on their crackberries. Turns out the DP owned 6 DVX100s and he just wanted to get them on the show for a 3-month rental. It's one of those surreal moments you watch and think at any moment someone (the colorist, maybe one of the producers) will call him on this flawed logic, or actually just look at one of the screens and say "those blacks look fine to me", but it never happens. The result is that 1/3 of a giant network show has a portion that looks nothing like the rest of the show (although it's supposed to) because the DP convinces the producers not to shoot HD or even 2/3" SD, not for ergonomic reasons, cost reasons, or any reason founded in the real world other than "plastic".

If you're still reading after that story you've probably surmised the "DP" didn't know how to shoot a test either.
 
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I'd be very interested in your opinions on (a) OIS and (b) on the issue of un-sought-for exposure change during zoom, after you've upgraded - though this will need you to use the bundled lens for once! I did mean to do some before and after tests myself but got distracted and blew the chance without completing the tests.

Item (a) seems to show itself as less or even absent lateral jerks of the kind that you've mentioned and (b) shows itself as a non-darkening of the image as you zoom in with the aperture already maxed in full manual. Here I'm sure that it somehow lightened or stayed the same during such a zoom, which isn't what you'd expect. Now I can't reproduce that behaviour, which is probably good.
 
I still think it does it even if you stop down to f5.6/6.3, maybe there is a problem matching up the shutter speeds with the ap, even if expsoure is locked? would be interested in more expert opinions though too.
 
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