Streaking lens advice.

T

the doc

Well-known member
OK.

Newbie to GH1 - grateful for any advice.

Like many new GH1 owners I was a bit concerned at the very visible streaking evident on my first few home vids.

Adter trawling through the 54 page thread on these forums relating to streaking I am inclined to believe Barry Greens comments about the main issue being under exposure (this whole burning in thing just sounds like BS.)

Armed with this knowledge I open up the Kit lens aperture as far as it will go.. mount it on a tripod and use a low shutter speed - but still lots of streaking indoors with just lightbulb illumination.

So... am I right in thinking that this will go away if i use a fast prime lens? I would happily spend the money if this had a good chance of success.

For example... if I splurged out on the official Panasonic pancake...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002PIIQ...de=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002PIIQGU

Could I be reasonably confident that my low light filming will be hugely better?

Lastly... it is a lot of money. Does anyone have a top tip for a non offical lens and adaptor combination that I could buy in the UK that would be a nice alternative (albeit losing the AF ability I guess.)

Cheers.
 
Can you show us pictures of this streaking? Do you mean the FPN, the Color Banding or streaks from bright lights?

The FPN and Color Banding show up when under exposed, the streaks from bright lights happen when that light source is highly over exposed compared to the rest of the shot.

Any lens with a lower F stop number will be better. The pancake lens allows you to keep your autofocus and stability but costs a lot. There are plenty of manual lenses on EBAY that can be adapted without a lot of problems but you lose autofocus and stability.

I'd just start with a 50mm Nikon or Canon lens and get an adapter for the camera. Those are cheap and well built.
 
Hi.

I am talking about bands of colour on low detail flat areas in the main. Very obvious. I could post a vid if that would help?

So a 50mm Nikon or Canon would be a good bet? Any advice on the best place to get an adaptor? Do either have an edge over the other?

If someone has experience of the official panasonic lens can you convince me it is worth the money? I have the cash... just not sure if it is worth it or not.
 
the doc said:
....I am inclined to believe Barry Greens comments about the main issue being under exposure (this whole burning in thing just sounds like BS.)

Armed with this knowledge I open up the Kit lens aperture as far as it will go.. mount it on a tripod and use a low shutter speed - but still lots of streaking indoors with just lightbulb illumination...

....Could I be reasonably confident that my low light filming will be hugely better?

Lastly... it is a lot of money. Does anyone have a top tip for a non offical lens and adaptor combination that I could buy in the UK that would be a nice alternative (albeit losing the AF ability I guess.)

Cheers.
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Tripod+low shutter speed won't necessarily fix your underexposure problem.

Lighting will.

Yes, the 20mm f1.7 will bring in a lot more light...it also utilizes the GH1's laser-beam auto-focus assist for instant focus in low light. But it doesn't have night vision...if you're shooting in the dark...your shot will still be underexposed...even at ISO1600 and a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second.

Cheap and fast manual eBay lenses will also get you more light...just keep in mind that most of these are meant for full frame cameras, and your GH1 will have a 2X crop...so a 50mm that looks like such a bargain might be unusable for home videos. The 20mm f1.7 IMHO makes the GH1 the ultimate home video camera!

Good luck!
 
swyzlstyx said:
Tripod+low shutter speed won't necessarily fix your underexposure problem.

Lighting will.

Yes, the 20mm f1.7 will bring in a lot more light...it also utilizes the GH1's laser-beam auto-focus assist for instant focus in low light. But it doesn't have night vision...if you're shooting in the dark...your shot will still be underexposed...even at ISO1600 and a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second.

Cheap and fast manual eBay lenses will also get you more light...just keep in mind that most of these are meant for full frame cameras, and your GH1 will have a 2X crop...so a 50mm that looks like such a bargain might be unusable for home videos. The 20mm f1.7 IMHO makes the GH1 the ultimate home video camera!

Good luck!
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Curious why a 50mm adapted lens would be "unusable" for home video? I use an old Canon 50mm lens all the time on my GF1 and it's almost criminally excellent for video, home or otherwise.

Let me append my standard tag line for fora queriae which seem pissy but are actually, if you could see my face and hear my voice, open-mindedly curious and sincere: am I missing something here?
 
Home video with a 50mm on gh1 is 100mm and that's pretty long for using inside house. I agree to get a 20mm pancake lens. Trust me, it might be a little expensive but it'll keep a nice price if you need to ever sell it.
 
I agree 100mm is rather long for home video shot in a typical room. You do get that head-fills-entire-frame thing if you're not a bit more distant from your subject. But frankly, these are my kids I'm shooting. I want their heads to fill the frame, so I can remember how cute they were before they stopped talking to me. I'm not submitting the videos to Vimeo's Shallowest DOF Video, Preferably Shot With Vignetty As Hell Russian C-Mount Lens As Linked To On Instructables.com, of People Who Look Like They Own The Movie Helvetica contest. I just want super-detailed HD video of my kids' faces. And really, unless you're right up on your subject, 50mm glass on a m43 is perfectly usable in a living room. Looks amazing to me, but then, see above.
 
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Addendum to above:

I got a Canon 50mm lens to shoot video with in the days before the manual video firmware hack for the GF1. Before this, the 20mm pancake's shutter speed couldn't reliably be controlled during video, so results were mixed. With legacy glass, you can lock to 60fps or 120fps or whatever's twice your video framerate. At least that's what the 180-degree shutter rule says, and I always blindly follow stuff I read online that I don't fully understand but the guy seemed to know what he was talking about and I like his Tumblr theme.

Now that I can lock the pancake to 60fps, I'm starting to use it more and more for video, so maybe it's just a habit of always reaching for the 50mm for video that makes me defend its use. I still get amazing video with it, but you're right, 20mm makes more sense in a living room.
 
shaveblog said:
Addendum to above:

I got a Canon 50mm lens to shoot video with in the days before the manual video firmware hack for the GF1. Before this, the 20mm pancake's shutter speed couldn't reliably be controlled during video, so results were mixed. With legacy glass, you can lock to 60fps or 120fps or whatever's twice your video framerate. At least that's what the 180-degree shutter rule says, and I always blindly follow stuff I read online that I don't fully understand but the guy seemed to know what he was talking about and I like his Tumblr theme.

Now that I can lock the pancake to 60fps, I'm starting to use it more and more for video, so maybe it's just a habit of always reaching for the 50mm for video that makes me defend its use. I still get amazing video with it, but you're right, 20mm makes more sense in a living room.
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I'm guessing where you say 60 fps and 120 fps, you are actually talking about shutter speed, unless Vitally figured out a way to overcrank the GH1 as well.
 
Auto-focus in video mode, especially wide open, is a tricky affair to say the least, so a manual lens will do quite nicely from that perspective. On the other hand, to at least match pancake's FOV you will need to find a lens with focal length of 20 mm or less. Very few such photo lenses (if any) out there that can open up to f/1.7. There are some movie lenses, but they are either the vignetty-as-hell (on m43 sensor) c-mount lenses or expensive-as-hell PL-mount lenses. So, yeah, for your average m43 camera owner that needs standard or wider fast lens Panny pancake offers incredible value. I am one and I approve this message :thumbsup:
 
I hate you guys... you just persuaded me to drop almost 300 quid on another boys toy that I can't really justify :cry:

Nah... cheers. Can't wait to try it out.

If there is still loads of streaking at low F numbers I will be crying though :undecided
 
the doc said:
If there is still loads of streaking at low F numbers I will be crying though :undecided
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Make sure to enable live "Histogram" when shooting; it's an invaluable tool for judging whether you have selected correct exposure settings or not.
 
Yes, thanks for the catch. I do mean shutter speed. 1/60 for 30fps, 1/120 for 60fps. Though to be honest I don't see a difference compared to 1/30 and 1/60 for those framerates. At least on my GF13.

blazer003 said:
I'm guessing where you say 60 fps and 120 fps, you are actually talking about shutter speed, unless Vitally figured out a way to overcrank the GH1 as well.
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