@maddog15 thanks for your reply! of course, I know it is a broad question and everybody has his/her personal taste but maybe there are some "general rules" i.e. settings, for example: which recording mode is best? mp4 or mov? (I read your post that you accidently recorded in mp4 but even if it has less bitrate it is possible for mp4 to be the better choice? even for post-production?) and I am sure there is a range for the settings of color, sharpness, contrast etc. which most people will agree on? I mean for example saturation: I guess there won't be many people using +5 so most will use -x to 0. I just want to narrow it down to a range used most commonly here is a concert shoot I did with two GH3 cameras, if I recall correctly I set picture to standard and lowered most values to -2/-3 and I always recorded in mov so far, check it out:

now my question is how can I optimize the picture? I am sure I should start with in-camera settings as close to "reality" as possible, of course, I want natural skin tones (often not possible at concerts with bad and changing lights...I know...) and I am not only recording concerts but music videos, too, all my shoots are udner different conditions so I was hoping there is a general rule/setting to apply. I edit with Vegas and this is where I can grade the colors given the possibilities Vegas has to offer. Oh, one last thing: The GH3 offers "clean" picture and I like it. Anyone has a recommendation if I want to shoot a more DSLR-like looking film, for example like the videos from http://www.youtube.com/user/mylesoreilly (high acclaimed Irish music documentarist, I know which lense he is using for his Canon...it's old, maybe hard to get and I would need an adapter...I wodner if there is an MFT lense for this style or can it be done in post?) lots of questions, I hope some find some answers or tips, thanks guys

@olli66 (I tried to answer your personal message to me but the system was down.) Your question is a bit broad. That's most likely why no one's responded. It would take quite a while to outline settings for everything you've requested above. Can you narrow it down? Are you color correcting in post? This alone is a huge factor that dictates what settings you shoot with. What style are you going for - Documentary, Reality TV, Cinema? Generally we do our own trial and error tests with a setting first. Post the results with the settings used and go from there. "Best Video Settings" is a VERY subjective preference so most likely no two people will agree completely. What one likes, another may not prefer. (Hence the 22 pages in this thread.)

I have been following this thread almost from the beginning and have gone back to review the first post and replies.

Basically I am now thoughly confused.

I've tried every profile in my GH3 and every setting from all 0 to -5 with little visable difference. I messed with the settings so much that I wonder how to reset them to default?

It can't be really compared, his LUT is a really specific one which acts on a specific range. He studied and made efforts to create it, I just exported some grades which include filmconvert

Guys if you want to try this LUT I generated, which I'm using as basic correction for GH3 footage. Yes, it does affect the overall image colors and constrast but does very good for skintones in my opinion. No particular technique or merit to me, basically just a rip

For you Premiere users, you can also look at the Cineon Converter (Linear to Log) video effect, if you want to flatten the hell outta your image.

@Mistas

I don't see how a rec709 to log would do anything good for the GH3, unless the LUT was made for the GH3 and takes into account the GH3 colours... but once again, that would be a useless step because you won't gain more details.

@Matthew, for Osiris you can apply a LUT designed for Rec709 directly - with Sony RX100 and older Canon camcorders, I have tried both ways and doing it direct seems to be a bit more intense in color, so I still prefer converting to LOG first. But there are other film emulations besides Osiris which are LOG only, some kodak stuff comes to mind. I think its the M31 LUT that does an exaggerated orange/ teal, which then needs correction overall to make it look more or less normal. Vision 6 LUT handles skin tones nicely.

I haven't tried any of these on GH3 yet, it will be interesting.

@rNeil, there are lots of LUTs available, commercially and free, which are designed for use with high end cameras (RAW, Red, Alexa, etc). Search Google for Osiris LUTs to see some examples. They emulate film stock. The problem with GH3 and other cameras using rec709 is that simply turning down saturation and contrast is not the same as the muted colors of LOG.

Anyway, many LUTs are designed for Log color spaces. But there are LUTs that will convert Rec709 from "lower end" cameras to LOG color space and then a secondary film LUT can be applied downstream.

This can all be done on the free Resolve Lite software. I'm no pro but I like to tinker. I've tried this with avchd from a Sony Rx100 and it works pretty well, considering it's not high bit rate.

I haven't had time yet to mess around with my new GH3 but eventually I will. With certain LUTs you can, for example, bake in the "orange/ teal" look in mainstream movies. It's better that way, than trying to push/ pull shadows into blue and highlight into orange.

As a noob, how does one do a rec709->log conversion in a LUT?

Neil

@Mistas I for one would like to see your results from above mentioned test on skin tones. Post your results if you can find the time and thanks for your comments.

Thanks, @yak ... :)

Neil

@yak ...

Interested in trying out your LUT ... thanks.

Neil