Looking for the ideal settings

D

dominichicks

Active member
Hi everyone
I just got my GH1 out of the box and I'm having a great time finding the best settings to improve the picture quality, colour and sharpness.

I'm just curious - for the filmic look, what sort of settings are recommended? Obviously i'm in Manual movie mode, 1080 25p, smooth setting... but what about the shutter speed, contrast and brightness settings etc etc?

Thanks, Dom
 
Film cameras have a 180 degree shutter (which makes the shutter speed double the framerate, or 1/48th). So the closest on the GH1 is 1/50th (or 50 as it is shown in the display). For the other settings I do -2 on everything but I don't know if that's the best. Somebody mentioned that putting saturation at +2 and dialing it down in post may actually be better?
 
dominichicks said:
Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...


In 1080/24, with a new firmware update, you can now set shutter speed to 1/30. This helps in low light as you can shoot at a lower ISO. People here also recommend it, and I have not heard any complains and it works well for me. There are a lot of discussions over the pros and cons between 1080 vs 720 and which shutter speed to use. You should just do a search.

Check this out if you have not yet done so:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/gh1.shtml
 
dominichicks said:
Hi everyone
....Obviously i'm in Manual movie mode, 1080 25p, smooth setting...
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't care for the "smooth" setting. Just because one person suggested it on an internet forum and everyone copied him, doesn't mean it's what YOU will like best and what you should default your camera to. Try every setting, make videos with them, and see what you like the most. Personally, I like the "nostalgic" film mode, and have shot several weddings in that mode for grins...and didn't touch the color in post. ;)

I usually keep the shutter speed at 1/50, but indoors I often go to 1/30 if it's nearly pitch black (the 20mm f1.7 doesn't require much light for a clean image). This doesn't require a firmware update...the original firmware does 1/30. However, if you really wanted to go lower, you CAN drop the shutter speed lower (if you have firmware 1.1) by putting the camera in MJPG mode, setting the exposure to Manual in the creative movie mode, and switching the focus switch to manual. Then just use the exposure wheel to drop the shutter speed as low as you want. However, I've really got not use for MJPG, and mostly shoot run-n-gun events in shutter priority, so that setting is pretty useless for me.

Good luck! One thing about this camera, the more you actually get out and learn to use it, the more you'll like it....despite its problems. :thumbsup:
 
swyzlstyx said:
However, if you really wanted to go lower, you CAN drop the shutter speed lower (if you have firmware 1.1) by putting the camera in MJPG mode, setting the exposure to Manual in the creative movie mode, and switching the focus switch to manual. Then just use the exposure wheel to drop the shutter speed as low as you want.
Click to expand...

You can do that also in AVCHD, not only in MJPEG.
And the lowest shutter speed in 1/2 of a second.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top