jaypass
Well-known member
So, thanks in part to the help from this forum, I finally took the plunge and bought an LT at the end of last year. I love this thing...spent the first couple weeks testing and playing with various settings, and wrapped up January with a few paid shoots, each one a different style of shooting. Here's my initial impressions, and a few questions along the way....
-This thing is built like a TANK. Nothing plastic-y or cheap feeling on the body itself. I feel like I could throw it down a flight of stairs and it would survive the fall. It's definitely heavier then the FS7, but it balances well on my shoulder...I didn't shoot a ton of handheld but when I did I didn't feel like it was too much to handle. Although getting it on and off my shoulder can be a bit of a pain, especially since the way I had it rigged made the top handle a little difficult to hold onto(More on this later). I'm using Zacuto's shoulder mount right now. Half the price of the Panasonic, and it works great for me.
-The locking EF lens mount is another thing that I love - You don't realize how valuable a locking mount can be until you have one, I guess. Really amazing to not have to deal with lens wobble like I did on my GH4. I can even pull focus cleanly without a follow focus..my fingers can get a little jittery on subtle focus pulls so this is huge for me. I'll need to work on my lens kit this year though. I definitely need some better glass for this thing. Right now I'm shooting everything on my Sigma 18-35 ART. I don't know how I've gone this long without needing a long lens. I have a Canon 24-105 but it's not on Panny's approved list and works a little funky on the LT.
-I'm still diving into the user buttons and how to best set them up. Most of my user buttons are assigned to focus assist functions. The direct audio control function is a nice touch, but i haven't used it much. It's frustrating that it controls both channels at the same time. For the most part I've just left the audio controls up on the control panel and adjusted it there when needed.
-Speaking of the control panel, I love it. Very useful....Does the mount turn though? I feel like I'm missing something because I'm pretty sure I've seen pics of the LT with the control panel facing one side or the other. Would I need to get a separate mount for that? It would be much more convenient if I could rotate it in addition to tilting.
-Mounts - I was surprised at the lack of mounting points on the body. I ended up getting the Wooden Camera top plate, but I'm still struggling with the best way to rig my accessories. For run&gun stuff, I'll usually have a shotgun mic and a wireless receiver mounted to the plate, one on each side of the top handle. This makes it a little frustrating to get to the handle though, since they both block the space I need to reach into to grab it. Is anyone else using a similar set up? Any suggestions on where to place these accessories so that they're not in the way? I had a sound guy mount his wireless receiver on the USB door on the right side of the camera using velcro, but I'm not sure that's a good permanent solution?
-In terms of image, I can't ask for more out of the LT. VLOG is beautiful, and the codec allows for plenty of push and pull in post. Color reproduction can be very subjective, but the LT certainly does it for me. And 5000 ISO is a dream when you don't have a light kit. One of my shoots was in a diner kitchen during operating hours...No room for lights. I brought a small LED to hit the faces of cooks and servers, but 5000 ISO was huge in that tiny space with bad fluorescent lighting.
And a few notes about post...
-Proxy recording isn't compatible with Premiere. Premiere requires proxies to have identical audio tracks as the original files, and the proxies only record 2 tracks as opposed to the 4 on the main files. Panasonic is aware of this but I don't know if Adobe is. I'm going to try to reach out to Adobe to see if they can change this in an update. Luckily, I've found that my computer doesn't struggle with the AVC Intra files too much, so I've gone without proxies for now.
-There's one weird quirk I've noticed in Premiere, but I haven't been able to nail down exactly what's going on. It's hard to describe, but I'll give it a try - Basically, my audio tracks are getting these weird hits on them. The track will be playing fine, and then suddenly it'll play a quick snippet from another portion of the track before jumping back to where it's supposed to be. The waveform doesn't reflect this anomaly, and the skip might happen at the same spot for a few playthroughs before moving to another spot on the track. The worst part about this problem...the skip will export when I render out my .mp4 or .mov for delivery. And since it moves, sometimes it exports in a different spot. So weird. I would call this a Premiere problem, but it's only happening with my Varicam files. Hasn't happened with any other audio I've used in Premiere 2017, so I think its something between the AVC Intra and Premiere that's funky? Unfortunately it's so spotty and hard to replicate on command that I don't know how to demonstrate it. Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm sure I'll have more as I work more gigs with the LT, but I'm going to stop here for now. I have 0 regrets with my purchase right now. Love this camera! I hope to be able to post some footage soon, but unfortunately the best stuff I've shot so far was for an internal corporate vid that I'm not allowed to share. I'll do my best to get some stuff online ASAP!
-This thing is built like a TANK. Nothing plastic-y or cheap feeling on the body itself. I feel like I could throw it down a flight of stairs and it would survive the fall. It's definitely heavier then the FS7, but it balances well on my shoulder...I didn't shoot a ton of handheld but when I did I didn't feel like it was too much to handle. Although getting it on and off my shoulder can be a bit of a pain, especially since the way I had it rigged made the top handle a little difficult to hold onto(More on this later). I'm using Zacuto's shoulder mount right now. Half the price of the Panasonic, and it works great for me.
-The locking EF lens mount is another thing that I love - You don't realize how valuable a locking mount can be until you have one, I guess. Really amazing to not have to deal with lens wobble like I did on my GH4. I can even pull focus cleanly without a follow focus..my fingers can get a little jittery on subtle focus pulls so this is huge for me. I'll need to work on my lens kit this year though. I definitely need some better glass for this thing. Right now I'm shooting everything on my Sigma 18-35 ART. I don't know how I've gone this long without needing a long lens. I have a Canon 24-105 but it's not on Panny's approved list and works a little funky on the LT.
-I'm still diving into the user buttons and how to best set them up. Most of my user buttons are assigned to focus assist functions. The direct audio control function is a nice touch, but i haven't used it much. It's frustrating that it controls both channels at the same time. For the most part I've just left the audio controls up on the control panel and adjusted it there when needed.
-Speaking of the control panel, I love it. Very useful....Does the mount turn though? I feel like I'm missing something because I'm pretty sure I've seen pics of the LT with the control panel facing one side or the other. Would I need to get a separate mount for that? It would be much more convenient if I could rotate it in addition to tilting.
-Mounts - I was surprised at the lack of mounting points on the body. I ended up getting the Wooden Camera top plate, but I'm still struggling with the best way to rig my accessories. For run&gun stuff, I'll usually have a shotgun mic and a wireless receiver mounted to the plate, one on each side of the top handle. This makes it a little frustrating to get to the handle though, since they both block the space I need to reach into to grab it. Is anyone else using a similar set up? Any suggestions on where to place these accessories so that they're not in the way? I had a sound guy mount his wireless receiver on the USB door on the right side of the camera using velcro, but I'm not sure that's a good permanent solution?
-In terms of image, I can't ask for more out of the LT. VLOG is beautiful, and the codec allows for plenty of push and pull in post. Color reproduction can be very subjective, but the LT certainly does it for me. And 5000 ISO is a dream when you don't have a light kit. One of my shoots was in a diner kitchen during operating hours...No room for lights. I brought a small LED to hit the faces of cooks and servers, but 5000 ISO was huge in that tiny space with bad fluorescent lighting.
And a few notes about post...
-Proxy recording isn't compatible with Premiere. Premiere requires proxies to have identical audio tracks as the original files, and the proxies only record 2 tracks as opposed to the 4 on the main files. Panasonic is aware of this but I don't know if Adobe is. I'm going to try to reach out to Adobe to see if they can change this in an update. Luckily, I've found that my computer doesn't struggle with the AVC Intra files too much, so I've gone without proxies for now.
-There's one weird quirk I've noticed in Premiere, but I haven't been able to nail down exactly what's going on. It's hard to describe, but I'll give it a try - Basically, my audio tracks are getting these weird hits on them. The track will be playing fine, and then suddenly it'll play a quick snippet from another portion of the track before jumping back to where it's supposed to be. The waveform doesn't reflect this anomaly, and the skip might happen at the same spot for a few playthroughs before moving to another spot on the track. The worst part about this problem...the skip will export when I render out my .mp4 or .mov for delivery. And since it moves, sometimes it exports in a different spot. So weird. I would call this a Premiere problem, but it's only happening with my Varicam files. Hasn't happened with any other audio I've used in Premiere 2017, so I think its something between the AVC Intra and Premiere that's funky? Unfortunately it's so spotty and hard to replicate on command that I don't know how to demonstrate it. Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm sure I'll have more as I work more gigs with the LT, but I'm going to stop here for now. I have 0 regrets with my purchase right now. Love this camera! I hope to be able to post some footage soon, but unfortunately the best stuff I've shot so far was for an internal corporate vid that I'm not allowed to share. I'll do my best to get some stuff online ASAP!
