GH4 What monitor for the GH4?

B

blando3

Well-known member
So I'm starting to shoot 4K with my new GH4 and I'm having trouble hitting critical focus with the LED. I want something bigger that I can use for focus as well as for the client to see. Nothing too big though. I'm looking at the Convergent Design Odyssey7 or the Small HD AC7 OLED. Somehow I'm leaning toward the Odyssey, but not sure why. Any pros and cons? Or is it six one way, a half-dozen the other?
Thanks!
Andrew
 
I can't advise you on any monitors, but are you using focus peaking? I've found this to be extremely helpful for hitting correct focus most of the time! There are also two different settings regarding the sensitivity of the peaking.
 
zwubel said:
I can't advise you on any monitors, but are you using focus peaking? I've found this to be extremely helpful for hitting correct focus most of the time! There are also two different settings regarding the sensitivity of the peaking.
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I have tried both Peaking settings and different colours and find it next to useless on the GH4. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Its no where near as useful as the peaking on my C100. I'm in the same boat as Andrew in that hitting critical focus is hard on the builtin LCD and EVF and so I'm also considering a good monitor.
 
If anyone has any experience with either the Small HDs or the Odyssey7, I'd love to hear it. I've heard great things about both but the Odyssey7 seems to have a few more features. Also, is 1280 x 720 high enough resolution for 4K focusing? I'm not in the market for a 4K monitor.
 
I've noticed the sharper my lens the better the focus peaking works on the GH4. Seems obvious but some of my lenses, while acceptably sharp to my eyes, barely show any peaking when in focus. Also, lowering the sharpness to -5 and using NR has a negative impact as well.
 
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I set peaking to Fn4 on the back. With two push it goes from strong to light and one more push off. I like this set up a lot because having it on all the time is annoying. I trust it and find it to be invaluable with both the EVF and LCD. If you shoot very flat then it's harder for peaking to work. Peaking needs contrast to work best.

Setting the GH4 to manual focus and having the lens pop in when you turn the focus barrel works great too. Unfortunately you need to use native lenses for this to work.

Two good monitors that are also recorders are the Atomos Ninja Blade and the new Shogun. I would get one of those before a dedicated monitor only. The NB cost $995 and is a fantastic monitor that is capable of being calibrated. Also has waveform, Peaking and a few other tools too. Same goes for the Shogun plus it's a ProRes 4K recorder.
 
Batutta said:
I've noticed the sharper my lens the better the focus peaking works on the GH4. Seems obvious but some of my lenses, while acceptably sharp to my eyes, barely show any peaking when in focus. Also, lowering the sharpness to -5 and using NR has a negative impact as well.
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Yup, that's why my leica M mount lenses work so well with focus peaking while my low contrast helios lens does not.
 
I use a Zeiss 25 and 50 on mine with sharpness at -5 and peaking is mostly non existent. Surely turning sharpness up goes against all recommendations for the GH4?
 
Have you tried using peaking with the LCD/EVF set to "Monochrome Live View". I found peaking pretty difficult to use until I tried this. Much better.
 
I use the SmallHD 7 OLED. I *really* like this piece of gear. To me, it is just the right size (anything smaller seems pointless, as there is already the flip-out) and it has a lot of features. I keep one function button set on peaking and one set on false color. The one to one pixel mapping is also a great feature. Between those three I always know I can hit focus. And that OLED screen is crazy gorgeous, and calibrates perfectly. I know I can trust the color.

I found that any of the cheaper options just didn't do the job...they didn't offer more than the built-in flip-out.
 
Erik Naso said:
I set peaking to Fn4 on the back. With two push it goes from strong to light and one more push off. I like this set up a lot because having it on all the time is annoying. I trust it and find it to be invaluable with both the EVF and LCD. If you shoot very flat then it's harder for peaking to work. Peaking needs contrast to work best.
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I'd second that. I have peaking set up to turn on and off the same with Fn4 and I use it all the time. Love it. With the 12-35 peaking has served really well.
 
it100 said:
Have you tried using peaking with the LCD/EVF set to "Monochrome Live View". I found peaking pretty difficult to use until I tried this. Much better.
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No i haven't. I'll test it today. Great advice chaps. Thanks :)
 
Kit said:
How did you get on Curnsie ?
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I tried Erik's suggestion and turned sharpness down to -2 and it definitely helped. Peaking is now a lot more useful. I've also set it to fn4 like others described here which is really handy.

One thing I'd love to see in a future firmware update is the ability to zoom in when recording just to check things are ok - I use this a lot on the C100.
 
monitor wise, I have a PROAM 7", that works but is not amazing or calibrated at all. Does NOT work at 24hz AT ALL, works fine at 23.97 and 29.99 just fine
 
joe12south said:
I use the SmallHD 7 OLED. I *really* like this piece of gear. To me, it is just the right size (anything smaller seems pointless, as there is already the flip-out) and it has a lot of features. I keep one function button set on peaking and one set on false color. The one to one pixel mapping is also a great feature. Between those three I always know I can hit focus. And that OLED screen is crazy gorgeous, and calibrates perfectly. I know I can trust the color.

I found that any of the cheaper options just didn't do the job...they didn't offer more than the built-in flip-out.
Click to expand...


Would you mind sharing your calibration settings for your AC7 OLED? I'm having a tough time getting mine matched up with what I'm seeing in my GH4.
 
Curnsie said:
I have tried both Peaking settings and different colours and find it next to useless on the GH4. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Its no where near as useful as the peaking on my C100. I'm in the same boat as Andrew in that hitting critical focus is hard on the builtin LCD and EVF and so I'm also considering a good monitor.
Click to expand...

Set peaking sensitivity to "low", which is totally counter-intuitive, but much more sensitive. I find blue the most reliable, and when using manual lenses such as my classic Nikkor 50/1.4, which is soft wide open, going to f/2 for focusing brings out the peaking much better.

Peter
 
blando3 said:
If anyone has any experience with either the Small HDs or the Odyssey7, I'd love to hear it. I've heard great things about both but the Odyssey7 seems to have a few more features. Also, is 1280 x 720 high enough resolution for 4K focusing? I'm not in the market for a 4K monitor.
Click to expand...

i have the SmallHD DP6 and DP4. in general i like them although not good for judging color since they are very warm in color tone but thats ok since they are mostly for focusing. the DP4 is a very large view almost so big/wide that you really have to press your eye on the eyepiece to capture the full frame. i also have the Zacuto EVF but prefer the DP4 for critical focusing. the Zacuto if ok but not as much detail as the DP4 and smaller screen. by the way...i don't usually use the "color peaking" which was a firmware upgrade quite awhile ago. i just use the "crispening" where the edges have a slight highlight to aid in focusing. I've always found this effective enough and you don't have the bombastic color peaking over your whole image which when shooting acting related shots i like to see a more pure image than red fringing that i find distracting.

my negative is that on "both" the EVF & LCD monitor the main "dial" for going thru the menu is really funky. its very erratic with not advancing much of the time as i roll the dial but eventually it gets there but its annoying to say the least. I've had mine for quite a few years but will say that they have not been heavily used and for both dials to be erratic with conservative usage i will be reluctant to buy from then again because of this.

its unfortunate because i like everything else about them.

david
 
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