GH1 Very new to video, need to use a GH1 on a simple project, help appreciated

[JCT]

Hi All,

This should be straightforward, but as my video knowledge is not high, so any advice would be great.

Task: I need to shoot some simple "How-to" videos. I work in a lab and we need them for training purposes. Most of the rooms are well-lit. They will be mostly "talking head" shots with some detail shots showing how to work a piece of equipment. I'm sure there will be screw-ups, etc, so some editing will be necessary.

Output: Stored on DVD for play on a computer, I doubt anyone will watch these on their TV :grin: .t

Tools: A GH1 (it's one of the older ones and is hackable, I'm willing to do so in order to have better quality or ease of post-production.), I have some manual legacy lenses, the 14-45, the 14-140 and the 20mm f1.7 . I have an ext mic and one of the new fast SDHC cards.

Computer: A MacPro with 16GB RAM. I have iMovie (latest version) and my bro has offered his machine that has Neoscene on it if necessary. I used Vegas years ago, wished I still had it because I still don't love iMovie, but oh well.

I've read through many threads, but most folks seem to be shooting heavy-duty motion, might be overkill, but I am unsure.


Could anyone some basic settings / parameters to shoot these how-to videos that will provide good quality and ease of post-production? I don't have much time to experiment as the students (actors) are busy trying to finish their dissertations and are ill-tempered.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

JT

 

[pulpfiction007]

Well the GH1's IA is pretty good for simple point and shoot videos, otherwise just play with your aperture/wb/color modes until you get the look you want. For VERY easy editing motion jpeg mode works great and I think the quality is actually very good as well....esp if you're just going to DVD. Saves you the hassle of working with AVCHD.

 

[JCT]

Well the GH1's IA is pretty good for simple point and shoot videos, otherwise just play with your aperture/wb/color modes until you get the look you want. For VERY easy editing motion jpeg mode works great and I think the quality is actually very good as well....esp if you're just going to DVD. Saves you the hassle of working with AVCHD.

Yup, I figured that when I had to hand it over to someone else (some of the shooting will be in areas I cannot access) I would flip it to IA. But I am too much of a tweaky photographer myself to use that setting.

I figured mpeg would be the smoothest, but huge files -- will likely run out of card space, but that will be the fallback, I can have them dump the cards periodically I suppose.

I'm toying with using AVCHD at the 720 60p (SH mode) -- gives me 2 hours on the main card.
Is there a *reasonably* straightforward workflow that anyone can suggest if I go that route?

Thanks,

JT