GH13 What are your base settings?

D

DevonH

Well-known member
My GH1 is coming in tomorrow, and I'd like to pull it out of the box with a good idea of where to begin settings wise. I've read through the setup guide and will follow the directions there, but I'd like to know what your basic settings when your approach various situations are. For example, what's your baseline for shooting indoors, outdoors, at night? Obviously these will vary greatly by situation and by lens, but having a starting point would be great.

Thanks!
 
Devon,

I came to the GHs last years from consumer camcorders and knew nothing about photography going in. Today I have three Panny lenses, 3 Tokina legacy glass, a Nikon 50mm f1.8, Vivitar Series 1 Macro zoom and a Rokinon 85mm f1.4. What I have learned in all these months, all these lenses act differently and there is no baseline that is universal.

Last weekend I was down at the river and it was nightfall at the time. The Nikon at f1.8 skewed colors, the tokina was about as bad. Then I tried the 14-140 and it looked real good in both the EVF and the LCD. When I got home I popped the card in the computer and looked at them on my monitor. What looked so nice in the EVF and on the LCD was full of noise on my computer. So what I learned last weekend, "don't believe your eyes after 8PM CDT in Green Bay, WI". :-)
 
Some shooters like to use different color profiles for different situations. I've always preferred to just get to know one really well so I know how it will behave in all situations. I picked smooth with flat settings for that, and it works great in everything.
 
Jester2138 said:
Some shooters like to use different color profiles for different situations. I've always preferred to just get to know one really well so I know how it will behave in all situations. I picked smooth with flat settings for that, and it works great in everything.
Click to expand...

+1
do a lot of testing, and switch between them, and see what works best for your situation. what works best for some, may not be the best for you. part of getting a new camera involves hour and hours of testing-shooting bushes, boats, pets, whatever, in different light situations with different settings, to see what you like.

there is no "one size fits all" setting. I'm partial to standard with -2 everthing, but 0 on saturation. but, I'm still experimenting. gonna try nostalgia tomorrow. normally, it takes me about a month of testing to nail down the settings i need for various shots. but, I have a method I use, including taking notes, and very repetitive shooting, so I have a good idea of where I want to be with the in camera settings.
Ideally, you want to shoot with a profile that gives you the most dynamic range. unfortunately, this usually gives you a rather flat video out of the camera, and requires some color correction/tweaking.
Also, manual white balance is your new best friend. outdoors I like between 5700 to 6500. generally, above 6000 is warmer-like at sunrise.

just experiment, and have fun.
 
Thanks for the input guys, tomorrow I'll do more in-depth testing (hopefully the SD cards that were supposed to be here today arrive). Another aspect for me is learning what changes I need to make in a,b,c areas when I make a change to d.

I've barely used the GH1 and I'm already by surprised by how filmic it looks (-2,-2,0,0).

@havasuphoto What does that process look like? Perhaps...

10 minute shoot time/2 minutes per setting type, then pull it into FCPX/CS5/etc and look at your notes and make additional ones as you see the full scale footage?
 
DevonH said:
Thanks for the input guys, tomorrow I'll do more in-depth testing (hopefully the SD cards that were supposed to be here today arrive). Another aspect for me is learning what changes I need to make in a,b,c areas when I make a change to d.

I've barely used the GH1 and I'm already by surprised by how filmic it looks (-2,-2,0,0).

@havasuphoto What does that process look like? Perhaps...

10 minute shoot time/2 minutes per setting type, then pull it into FCPX/CS5/etc and look at your notes and make additional ones as you see the full scale footage?
Click to expand...

Not even close to 10 minutes of shooting. Maybe 30 seconds, at the most. Pull the different clips into your editing software, and "molest" them as you see fit, render, and see if you like the results.
I'm surprised at how much molesting the MJPEG 1440X816/30 will take(with the 75mb peak performance patch). You can brutally abuse that footage, and it comes out crystal clear, at 1080P.

My advice, that I have gleaned off this forum, and from using the camera, is to shoot Standard, with "flat" settings-this yields the greatest dynamic range. Remember, if the effect is applied in the camera(WB-saturation, etc), it's very difficult to correct in post. You should get your WB correct manually for the shoot-then, expect to saturate or color correct as need in post-don't let the camera do that. You will lose any details you might have had in the shadows. If anything, you want to over expose slightly-histogram to the right of center.

I'm not sure what you mean by this statement;
Another aspect for me is learning what changes I need to make in a,b,c areas when I make a change to d.
Click to expand...
 
@havasuphoto Thanks for the clarification, essentially like when you shoot RAW for stills.

Essentially, if I change say, my f-stop, what else should I change? Regardless, I found it's not that complex last night after reading through some posts a few pages back.
 
DevonH said:
@havasuphoto Thanks for the clarification, essentially like when you shoot RAW for stills.

Essentially, if I change say, my f-stop, what else should I change? Regardless, I found it's not that complex last night after reading through some posts a few pages back.
Click to expand...

Depends on where you're shooting(indoors or outside), etc. I like shooting in Creative Movie Mode-and I have it set to "manual" in the settings. I prefer to set the ISO at 100, shutter speed is almost always going to be 2X the frame rate(1/50 for 24P, 1/60 for 30P, and 1/125 for 60P). Then, the aperture will depend on what depth of field I desire for the shot. If I'm outside in bright sunlight, I will use an ND8, or ND4, or both, neutral density filters to help me achieve the proper exposure. I use Hoya HMC(multi-coated) ND filters, as I've found they are the best at their price point(around $40), and really don't affect the color. I would avoid anything with the word "polaroid", or "Tiffen", as I have used both, and they are both junk. Also, avoid like the plague, these chinese made "faders". Some may have had great success-but, the only variable ND filters I'm comfortable with, are Singh Ray, or Heliopan, and both are more than $300(I prefer the Singh Ray). To re-iterate; don't use junk filters on your expensive lens. You will end up chasing your tail more often than not, and they will ruin the shot. Get quality ND filters, and quality polarizing filters(circular, and linear), and use them, when appropriate.

Let's say you're outside doing a shoot, and you've got both ND filters on the camera, you're at wide open on the lens, and the shutter is set to 180 degrees(2X the frame rate), and the exposure is to dark. Rather than taking one of the filters off, I prefer to increase the ISO a bit, knowing that it will have the least impact on the video-to a point.

Another method to use, is to shoot in "shutter priority", the S on the mode dial. Again, set your shutter at 2X the frame-rate, set the ISO to "auto-ISO", and let the camera sort out the ISO and f/stops. This works great for outdoors, run and gun, or rapidly changing light. The single most important thing, in shooting video with these camera's-IMHO, is shutter speed. If you screw that up, you will either get mud(shooting at less than 2X frame-rate), or, you will get jittery video(faster than 2X frame rate). However, there is a caveat to shooting at higher shutter speeds-that is, if you are shooting at 60 frames per second, and you intend to do slow-motion in post production, and, the object your shooting is moving fairly fast-then, go to a higher shutter speed. This will give each frame a nice sharp "crisp", video look, that you are aiming for, when doing slow-motion.

Also, it is "permissible" to use 1X the frame rate, in a pinch, in low light. But, you cannot move the camera, and your subject cannot move. This is only for very static scenes.

As far as comparing it to shooting RAW still images-yea, it's sort of like that. There's a fine balance between what can be done in the camera, and what you want to do in post-processing. Sometimes, you just don't wanna mess with it-you want to go out of the camera, edit, render, and post. That is when you start fooling around with saturation, Nostalgia, and some of the other settings. Realize you will give up at least 1 stop, in the shadows, and that information is un-recoverable in post.

The GH1 can be a very easy to camera to use. The settings are not that complex. You just have to get used to looking at the "shot", and deciding what combination of setting you will need for that situation. And, that takes practice and experimentation.

Others on here have already tested just about every setting and permutation this camera is capable of-so I would advice going to the GH1 section and reading the chapters on "settings", and some of the other posts, that are stickied. There is some very useful information in there. That is where you can decide what setting are going to work best for your situation. Because, only you know who you're going to use your camera.

OH, in the settings, make sure you turn on "Historgram", and use the little four way switch to place it in the lower right corner(works best for me). Expose according to what you see on that, not on what you see in the EVF or viewfinder.
And, set your AF/AE button to "lock both", and "hold". That way, you can punch that button, and it will hold exposure and focus, in place, and not adjust anything. Great for when you have the shot exposed the way you want, and focused correctly. Especially if you are using auto-focus with the lens you have. Once it's focused, push that button, and it will stop the hunting. As long as nothing moves, you're good to go. It's a very valuable button to have.
At other times, you may set it to just lock auto-focus(and hold)-same reason, keeps the auto-focus from hunting.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your detailed responses havas, I spent some time working with the camera tonight and feel like I'm already getting the hang of it. I did a short silly interview with my fiancee which turned out surprisingly crisp (it'd need some color correction), though I noticed when taking it full screen in Final Cut Pro X that there was a lot of grain. (1k light kit, iso 100, -2, -2, 0, 0). That may have to do with the computer itself (last years i5 27in model). Do I need to render the footage out to see the true quality level? I'm just using the "preview/live view" box right now. I am shooting on a set of Canon FDs.

I need to delve deeper into Final Cut X color correcting so I can have a firmer grasp on what can be fixed. I'll head on over to the software section and check the tutorial suggestions there.

My final question would be on the Histogram. I've had it enabled from the get-go per the GH1 video setup instructions, but my levels seem very high. The tutorials I've seen all have the meter peaking around 1/4 of the way up the graph, mine is consistently at 3/4s. Is this typical in video?
 
DevonH said:
My final question would be on the Histogram. I've had it enabled from the get-go per the GH1 video setup instructions, but my levels seem very high. The tutorials I've seen all have the meter peaking around 1/4 of the way up the graph, mine is consistently at 3/4s. Is this typical in video?
Click to expand...

While I can't help you with the FCP X questions, I can offer some advice when using histograms. I don't know how much you know about them so I'll start at the beginning. The horizontal axis (x) is the exposure gradations, left being pure black (underexposed), right being pure white (overexposed). The vertical axis (y) is the "amount" of pixels in the image that are at said exposure level. So usually we want our histograms to be a bell curve, with the most information in the midtones and a little pure black and white to give it contrast. Not all images will look like a bell curve when properly exposed but that's the general idea.

And always remember: if you know how to read it and know what you want, the histogram is always more accurate than the cameras monitor. Period.
 
Hey Jester,
Thanks, that confirms my thought that there has to be something up. I'll attempt to take a photo with my iPhone to show you guys what I'm seeing. I did know the "basics" as well as about the bell curve, but the tuts I looked over all related to photography, not videography
 
The historgram may tend to "peak" clear off the screen. You may want to dim the lights a bit, or try an ND filter. However, in my experience, it does that most of the time. As long as you have the "curve" in the center, or slightly toward the right, your good to go.
As far as the video you shot at ISO 100 with the 1K light looking grainy-that's probably just the preview screen in FCP in Draft mode. Depending on your computer horsepower, you may not be able to see the final results, until you render.
Also, remember you are working on a highly compressed file(h.264/AVCHD). You should transcode the MTS file to Apple Prores 422, then import into FCP. Warning; when you transcode from MTS, it can take hours, and the file size can be well north of double digits of Gigabytes. I think I had a 3 minute video end up being something like 13 Gb!!!! Did I mention you need really big/fast hard drives?? Welcome to the wonderful world of video editing.
I recommend you to go the FCP forum(s), and start reading-most of it is pretty intuitive. But, there's an easy way, and a hard way. Editing in AVCHD is the hard way ;)
However, once you've transcoded, you're working with the "pure" video file, and color correcting will be a breeze, and should show up without rendering in high resolution.

Basically, what is happening is this; your editing program is working with a highly compressed file. In order to correct the color, or add an effect, it needs to transcode that file to an intermediate coded, apply the effect, then re-encode it. That takes massive computational horsepower, and it's why I don't recommend anyone edit h.264/AVCHD files in that format.

Don't misunderstand; you can edit natively in what comes out of the camera(MTS file)-but, you need a fairly fast computer to do so. Also, AVCHD is a Pansonic/Sony Codec-therefore, it seems to edit smoother/faster, in Sony Vegas Pro, than FCP. However, once you transcode to an Apple native Codec, you'll be just fine. That's just one of the downsides of using AVCHD.
 
Hi Hava,

I have GH1 and GH2 and I tried changing the settings so it wont hunt focus but to no avail.
I have been trying to push the lock button at the back but it seemed to be not working, user error hahahaha.

Would you mind giving the steps you changed in the menu so I can just press the lock button at the back
and stopped this focus hunting. Thanks again!
 
Custom menu, page 2, AF/AE lock, set to AF/AE to hold exposure and focus when you press the AF/AE lock button, or AF lock, when you push that button.
Below that setting is AF/AE Lock Hold, set to on. This way, when you push the AF/AE lock button, you don't need to hold it-you need to push it again, to release.

Since you mainly want focus to be held, once focused, I would just set it to lock focus, and hold.

Also, in video mode, it does not matter whether you set the camera's focusing mode to AF-S, or AF-C, it will always be continuous-so these settings don't effect video mode.
The only other way to prevent the hunting, it to set focusing mode to M-Manual, and do it yourself.
 
Havas, thanks for all of your input in this thread! I've got a firmer foundation now, and I plan on heading out tomorrow when my good SD cards get here to put it to use at the park. I'll make sure to share :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top