Re: Panasonic GX85 // A Wedding Film

Really looks great, especially for the harsh sunlight. The shadows are nice and open while holding the highlights.

You mentioned the autofocus. I programmed the rear button on the right for "back button autofocus." I hold that down to grab focus.

Somewhat related, I also turned on the "Half Press" of the shutter button starts recording, and left autofocus on for the shutter button too. So it very quickly grabs focus- much faster when not recording - then starts recording. It works quite well for stills too.

I am also shooting with a Neutral profile, wuth contrast and sharpening dialed down. If you have time, you could work with Paul (is that right?) to have him create a Leeming LUT for the GX85. I haven't had time. Details in that thread, and on his web site.

The video looks great! It is an amazing little camera.

I tested it last night with the Kipon Canon Autofocus adapter. Autofocus with Canon lenses is much faster than with my Panasonic G7. It worked quite well in low light. It is probably as good as my Metabones on my Sony A6300. I haven't tested yet how the stabilization compares versus the Panasonic 12-35 and 35-100 2.8

Your friends should be very happy with the video! That is a great gift. Congratulations! You done good. And so did the GX85. ;-)

I'll try to loop back, supposed to be doing something else. Thanks for sharing!

Best,
Michael
 
Overall 4K resolution for me doesn't add anything to a story unless it has some utilitarian value such as for post stabilization or to gain extra reach.

For me, 4K also comes with a penalty (storage and post processing), so I am also not willing to take on the penalty while gaining zero in terms of story. Just doesn't make sense for me to go all out 4K at the moment.

At the same time the 1080p of the GX85 wasn't bad either. If it was the other way around, and the 1080p was horrendous then yes I would be forced to shoot 4K out of necessity.

Having said that, because I am in the testing phase of the GX85, I will do a project entirely in 4K to see how the production experience will be.

Interestingly the 4K from the GX85 seems easier on my workstation than the GH4 files.
 
Thanks for the reply, yes, I was interested on the technical quality of the 1080, based on your footage, I saw it held up well. It also seemed pleasing in skin tone color. I was looking at the tests done by DPreview on this camera, posted here,http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dmc-gx85-gx80-review/7

And I checked it compared to the GH4, what I was looking for was changes in the color balance that would make it better for skin and the tests they posted confirmed this. Looking at the test,especially the color chart and in particular the swatches containing the skin tones, brown, flesh and orange, I noticed a more neutral and lighter rendering compared to the slightly reddish on the GH4 swatches. These swatches are usually what I tweak in grading skin with gh4 footage and these are also what get tweaked using commercial LUTs.

Keep us posted in yiur future experiences with this camera. Thanks again for sharing.
 
*siggghhh* Panasonic is so good at making you want the latest.

If you hadn't announced it was shot IBIS, it would be easy to conclude physical devices were used to stabilize.
I think the fact that you didn't have any intimidating-looking gear helped with the intimacy of the video.

Although I think the quality had a lot to do with your skill as anyone just picking one up won't necessarily get these results.
 
Thanks guys for the kind comments! Will definitely keep you posted on my future experiences!

GHKAM:
- You're so right, in today's "day and age" I think people are starting to notice even the monopod as being a noticeable piece of gear. So to go handheld with a small M4/3 body and a small M4/3 native lens really helped me to stay intimate with the characters and moment. It was truly a joy to work this way!
 
congrats on a lovely piece.

there is something about panasonic color science which i find appealing.

the color profile you used really worked well, not overly saturated but never dull.

may the bride and groom enjoy many good, happy and healthy years together!

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
Here's another Wedding I shot using the Panasonic GX85 handheld! There was only one shot that we used a locked off tripod (for Bride/Groom speech reactions only), everything else was 100% old fashioned handholding.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-dERVTm_g

Here's my write-up:

Director, DP, Editor: Nicholas Lam
Assistant: Nick Li

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the future of documentary storytelling lies in the technology of IN-BODY STABILIZATION (IBIS). Above dynamic range, iso performance, global shutter, raw, high bitrate, and motorized gimbals. The importance of keeping the storyteller light, nimble and ninja-like trumps any other feature a filmmaking manufacture could create.

Every shot was 100% handheld (the ONLY ONE exception is the Bride/Groom reactions to the speeches, this was a locked off shot on a tripod). If you look at the results, what we get by using IBIS is simply incredible. Not just the shots itself but the type of story we get to tell. Look at how natural and genuine the people are. By staying small and ninja-like with just a Micro 4/3 camera in-hand, none of the subjects were distracted by our presence. Truly amazing.

As wedding storytellers, we try our best to make the most of what is put in front of us. We can't always get what we want (the speech that ended up driving Amanda + Brandon's story the most wasn't even given to me during pre-production). We lost tremendous progress because the Groom's morning hike got cancelled due to the rain, lost compositions because the outdoor ceremony now by necessity needed to be indoors and dealing with a green photographer who decided (intentionally or unintentionally) to allow the Hawethorne Effect to bleed into critical moments were some of a few challenges we faced once the day started. However, IBIS in all of its glory allowed us to gain back lost ground and therefore allowed us to become productive storytellers again.

Given our initial trajectory (at the very least 4 important items integral to our story got cancelled due to unforeseen rain) IBIS allowed us to quickly formulate and execute a once non-existent "Plan C" and therefore allowed us to quickly regain lost ground. In short, we were able to improvise more quickly than if we had a traditional rigged setup (monopod, slider, dolly).

Now believe it or not, I initially was going to use a Red Raven to film this wedding. Looking back, the story wouldn't be as rich if I did. The amount of additional support needed to run a Red Raven for a full day wedding would have slowed everything down and not to mention the overall cumbersome of the Raven body as well (try transporting a 10 lbs fully rigged Raven through the pouring rain in mountainous terrain).

I'm sincerely looking forward to the newer cameras coming out with IBIS, namely the Panasonic GH5, Panasonic G80/G85, Olympus OMD-EM1-II, Sony A6500, Canon M5 and whatever else the future holds. One feature I am looking forward to is finally having a mic input and a built-in bigger grip.

With the GX85 I've had to rig it with a Zoom H1 + Sennheiser MKE400 to get more decent audio as well as rigging it with an extra 15mm rod running parallel by the grip in order to a better handle on the camera while not interfering with the micro-hdmi out. And btw ebay sells a very nice vertical right-angle micro-hdmi male to full-size hdmi female cable which works extremely well with the GX80/GX85 and is super tough and has yet to break on me!

GEAR:
2 x Panasonic GX85
- 4K @ 23.976 or 29.97 (delivered in 1080p @ 23.976)
- Standard Picture Profile with custom in-camera curve applied, not graded in post just straight out of the camera.
- IBIS setting: 5-axis + Electronic with Panasonic 12-35 F2.8 OIS, 3-axis + Electronic with Voigtlander lenses.
- Note that 4K + IBIS + Electronic Stabilization gives a 2.4x crop factor.
1 x Voigtlander 42.5 F0.95
1 x Voigtlander 25 F0.95
1 x Voigtlander 10.5 F0.95
1 x Panasonic 12-35 F2.8 OIS
1 x Manfrotto 755XB Tripod with 701 Head (for Bride/Groom reaction to speeches only, every other shot handheld with IBIS).
1 x Zoom H4N plugged into house system via 1/4" to XLR cable for ceremony.
1 x Countryman B6 W5 into Olympus DM-420
1 x Matchstick Lapel into Olympus VN702-PC
1 x Zoom H1N (auto gain) with Sennheiser MKE400 (used with the main GX85 camera, we ran "A" and "B" cam, majority of the shots were from the "A" Cam. All candid audio were from this setup).
1 x SmallHD 501
 
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Nice work on both films!

Can you comment on using IBIS with native m43 lenses with OIS vs. non-native non-OIS lenses? Is the IBIS as effective? Any major glitches or trade-offs?

Thanks!
 
Non-native glass works best on roughly 17mm or above on overall movements. For example with the Voigtlander 10.5 F0.95, you can't do grand movements or you'll see jittering at the corners of the frame.

But the issue has more to do with having POWER OIS or not having it. The built-in POWER OIS makes a big difference for wide angle lenses.

I've not tested any of Panasonic's native wide angle lenses which lack POWER OIS, so I don't know if going native in this case would help either.

I do hope Panasonic makes POWER OIS standard in all of their future lenses.

Note the majority of the shots you see in the film is from the Voigtlander 25 F0.95 @ 4K with IBIS + Electronic Stabilization activated.
 
Looking at your vids, really purswasive argument for IBIS.

Curious how you attach everything on your rig. Would you be able to throw up a picture?
 
goodgoings said:
Looking at your vids, really purswasive argument for IBIS.

Curious how you attach everything on your rig. Would you be able to throw up a picture?
Click to expand...

I've gone through a ton of iterations to rig up the GX85. And for this project I went through two more (Plan "A" and Plan "B").

Plan "A" = If it was sunny and not runny (with 702 SmallHD).
Plan "B" = If it was cloudy or rainy (with 501 SmallHD).

So I ended going with Plan "B" because it was periodically a down pour of rain that day.

The key to both rigs is the SmallRig GX85 cage, this thing was a life saver as I did go through 10 other iterations before it became available.

Here was Plan "A" (what is not shown here is the Zoom H1N as I didn't have it mounted for this shot. It would have been mounted on the bottom left 15mm rail with the H1N's screen facing the operator, and subsequently the Sennheiser MKE400 is also not shown here but would have been mounted on top of the right 15mm which acts as the grip handle):
DSC05257.jpg


Here was Plan "B" (its hard to see, but the SmallHD 501 is mounted upside down so that it can be kept in a much lower profile. This was mainly due to needing it to fit inside a water resistant bag for protection from the rain as we went from cabin to cabin for the bride/groom preps). This is shown in low-mode with the 501 screen flipped up so I could look down on it).
P1000228.jpg

Here's a better angle of my Plan "B" rig, this time with the SmallHD 501 facing the operator (me):

Ceremony, Sync'd - 1080p_23_976.Still004.jpg
 
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