GH2 Shooting video at night with the GH2

L

lakotawolf

Active member
So last night i had to shoot an incident, i was half asleep and forgot to grab my HMC150. I arrived and noticed i only had the GH2. The video i shot with the GH2 was horrible with noise. Before last night i have only shot with in the day time and everything looked great. Does anybody have any tips for shooting at night, what settings i should use ect.
 
What aperture and ISO were you set at? Those are the two most important settings for low light esp. a fast F Stop and a moderate use of ISO (because it will add noise)
 
To be honest i`m not sure what it was set as, it was a run and gun situation. I shoot spot news. Do you have advice on what i should have set as? In case i do something stupid again like run out my door without my HMC150 and have to use the GH2. My clients still bought it but it absolutely looked like s**t to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdJFc8ytio&hd=1
 
For low light you definitely don't want the camera to take control....it'll F it up! If you have some fast glass, you'll probably want to be as wide open as possible while maintaining your shot...then if you need to up the ISO, just treat it like you would gain....very carefully.
You have to remember the HMC150 can be at 1.8 and it's native ISO is 500, so even though the sensors are smaller...it can do pretty well for itself compared to the GH2 set at a slow F stop. and/or
the cameras settings not being done by you. The GH2 with a fast lens in theory should rock in low light.
Hope this helps...good luck next time!
 
Yeah whatever mode i was using i think the camera took control last night. I was seeing auto iso. What is a good mode to use to shoot with?
 
Try IA mode with the 20mm pancake. I find the noise and banding is much much lower than if i try to shoot on the optimal manual settings in low light.


I discovered this by accident as i had never used IA before, but for an emergency shoot like the one above where you might not have time to setup, IA works well.


I'm not sure why this is, can others confirm IA eliminates almost all of the black lines and banding? (This was on a GH1)
 
lakotawolf said:
Yeah whatever mode i was using i think the camera took control last night. I was seeing auto iso. What is a good mode to use to shoot with?
Click to expand...

I would shoot in the full manual mode most of the time...I can't say I've had rambooc1's luck with the IA (also on GH1). But his advice for the 20mm I can COMPLETELY agree with. It's a 1.7 lens so you're camera even in IA would not NEED to dial up the ISO...I also should say I never tried the pancake on IA, but with other lenses I did better dialing in the ISO, opening up the aperture, etc.
If I were you I'd experiment and come up with a custom setting for lowlight and save it on your camera...so you're ready to go!
 
pulpfiction007 said:
I would shoot in the full manual mode most of the time...I can't say I've had rambooc1's luck with the IA (also on GH1). But his advice for the 20mm I can COMPLETELY agree with. It's a 1.7 lens so you're camera even in IA would not NEED to dial up the ISO...I also should say I never tried the pancake on IA, but with other lenses I did better dialing in the ISO, opening up the aperture, etc.
If I were you I'd experiment and come up with a custom setting for lowlight and save it on your camera...so you're ready to go!
Click to expand...

Great Idea thanks. I`m going to out some place and just experiment and come up with a low light setting tonight.
 
The IA adds something to the exposure that i can't get with full manual even when the shutter speeds match, it's just very noticeably cleaner.

Try it.
 
Interesting what you say about the IA mode being clearer. I wonder if that has to do with the intelligent resolution or dynamic range controls that kick in? I'll have to try it on my GH2 to see if it gives the same results as on the GH1
 
rambooc1 said:
Try IA mode with the 20mm pancake. I find the noise and banding is much much lower than if i try to shoot on the optimal manual settings in low light.


I discovered this by accident as i had never used IA before, but for an emergency shoot like the one above where you might not have time to setup, IA works well.


I'm not sure why this is, can others confirm IA eliminates almost all of the black lines and banding? (This was on a GH1)
Click to expand...


This is amazing, I did try that.

Did first choose 3200 ISO and well it was noisy of course, but with iA I had really less noise with the same exposure. HOW ? In manual cinema mode I could not get such a clean output, except i missed something.

Anyone else did test this and what is your result ?
 
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moxrox said:
This is amazing, I did try that.

Did first choose 3200 ISO and well it was noisy of course, but with iA I had really less noise with the same exposure. HOW ? In manual cinema mode I could not get such a clean output, except i missed something.

Anyone else did test this and what is your result ?
Click to expand...

Try and match the shutter settings to get a more accurate comparison.
 
I just tried it with the GH2 and yes, iA reaches way deeper into the dark with less noise. Great find, rambooc1!

I also found that when you're pushing the limit of low light, MJPEG mode gives the best picture. There's just too much mud with AVCHD.
 
This isn't due to that one more stop of ISO that you have available when you're at an exposure mode other than Manual?
 
hi tony its a stock GH1 i used 720/50 put the camera on the P mode and just hit the record button,a friend of mine watches the speedway on foxtel and he said my footage was clearer to watch,here is a ling to a vid i made at work on nightshift useing the GH2 and 2mm some was filmed in the EXT TELE mode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ik3jHpkvU0 also this video was shot on P mode 1080 50i and looks fantastic on my plasma

tcarretti said:
rogieAUS,

Wow, that looks really very good! Is the GH1 running the hack or is it stock? Also, when using iA mode, does it record in 1080 or 720? Either way, very promising!

Thanks for the post.

Tony
Click to expand...
 
The GH2 can be a way better low-light camera than the 150, which I also own, if you have some fast glass out there. When I have to shoot at night, I grab the voigtlander .95 and it's absolutely awesome for this kind of shooting. WAY WAY WAY better than the 150.... Now, If I have an F 2, I still think it's better, but when I have to shoot with the F4 kit lens, it's really lacking and almost impossible...

I would also never shoot auto anything for this kind of stuff for the simple reason that you want to be able to repeat it, and or match it instead of letting the camera make that decision for you.... One other thing that I like to do if possible is to get a manual white balance under the lighting that's there.... That helps with lots of stuff...
 
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