GH4 Is it faulty? Low light noise at low iso

[astromann]

Thanks. I white balanced using a white balance lens cap. I find it more reliable than a white or grey card, although in mixed light its problematic.

We are probably getting a bit off topic here, but this is very interesting!!
Would that be one like this...
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/535317-REG/Dot_Line_DL_2577_77mm_White_Balance_Lens.html
or this?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1008986-REG/expoimaging_expod2_77_expodisc_2_0_77mm_white.html

And do you manually set the balance after using this cap...or auto?

Also I did an A/B with your settings compared to modified portrait settings based on these settings
http://www.supertone.dk/#!GH4-Optim...oo/c24o4/8E18836A-F271-4A14-AF0D-C575B9D5F4B6
I modified his for Panny lens cause the contrast is too extreme ...I think he mainly used Navitar lenses.

Anyway I think I liked your settings better for my setup cause the skin has a bit more color...more fleshy tones, and therefore more pleasing, his are a more drained (and thats with less push/pull parameters than he uses)
I did notice tho...that although your settings are very natural looking in the skin, the contrast is more intense (blacker Shadows etc..) I think a few minor tealks woud fix this tho, I really like the tone of these settings.
I definitely dont like Cine-D for skin stuff that much, it always has a pinkish crayfish look about it, but your settings seem to strike a really good balance.
Very nice work

 

[Batutta]

I have a white balance disc like the first one, which is simpler and works pretty well. The ExpoDisc is supposed to be better though. The cool thing about the caps too is that you don't have to struggle placing the card right, which can be a challenge on a wide lens. Be careful lifting the shadows too much. You get more noise that way. I've found there is still some clean, useable detail in those blacks if you lift them a bit in post. Also, don't totally trust your monitor. Throw it up on scopes. You'll see with these settings, the blacks just tickle the bottom like they are supposed to and aren't unnaturally elevated. You'd be better off adding some fill to bring up the shadows if you need to. Also, my unscientific guess on why Cine D renders such pink, salmon skin is because it is so flat. It compresses not only the luma information but the chroma as well. Skin is a combination of yellow and red. What color do you get when you squish together yellow and red? Salmon pink!

 

[Bern Caughey]

Huge fan of the ExpoDisc. Their great for establishing a neutral baseline with artificial lighting.

Imagine the less expensive versions work well enough too. Prior to these off-the-shelf solutions some videographers used small squares of white plexiglass for the same purpose.