Gh2 shutter priority in 24p

howardst

Im filming with a gh2 in 24p using shutter priority. Im using the 14 to 140 lense. Im getting alot of aperature stepping. I wish i could film in program mode but i understand this is undesirable because of floating shutter. I use auto iso. In program mode will yhe gh2 let shutter go all over the place? Any workaround for this noticeable aperature stepping? Thanks

greenshift

Alright, vari ND is next. Set up the shot. Shoot manual. Adjust ND to accommodate lighting changes.

blazer003

I have to say that in my experience, a good variND solves a lot of problems. It doesn't affect image sharpness but just a smidge (with a good one). I still get sharp stills, let alone 1080p video. Now you can set your shutter speed to what you want (usually twice your frame rate) set your aperture to what you want, and your ISO to what you want. Then you just twist the variND to get the exposure you want. Now in practice it's not quite a catch all. You can only darken so far before you need to stop down your aperture. But with practice it all becomes quite natural. You can go from a bright situation to less light and make a smooth transition.

Vesku

@greenshift

why in some instances does the brightness change slowly and naturally, and other times does it change instantly and repeatedly?

With GH2 and other Pana G-cameras:

-if camera changes aperture automatically it is stepped. I cant understand why because aperture mechanics can do stepless change. It is also weird that camera is not showing which aperture it is using automatically. Result in sunshine: shutter 1/50s, aperture f22 and soft video and many are not understanding why.

-if camera changes iso or shutter speed automatically then exposure is smooth. Again not showing what it is doing. Result: strobo video with 24P due to too high shutter speed or very noisy video in dark. Iso limit for video would be nice to have.

-if you shoot 60i (GH2) or 60P (GH3) you can use P because high shutter speed is not a problem.

-GH3 automatic exposure is slower to react and thus jumps less than GH2. I dont know about GH4.

GH cameras are after all consumer products and it would be nice if a casual shooter without extensive knowledge of video techniques could get nice results without jumpy exposure or illegal shutter speeds. 24P mode is dangerous because it is so difficult to use properly. I recommend red video button if one dont understand 24P limitations. It would be nice if that red button video could use slower shutter speeds. In GH3 there is handy flicker removal setting which locks shutter to 1/100, 1/120 or 1/160s but then we meet again stepping aperture. How they can make stepless aperture in camcorder but not in Lumix high end HD video lens?

greenshift

I have searched this website recently and in the past but haven't found an answer to my question. Can someone suggest where I can get find another thread on this question?

greenshift

Perhaps a better question is this: why in some instances does the brightness change slowly and naturally, and other times does it change instantly and repeatedly?

greenshift

Getting back to the original question (since this seems to be one of the most recent discussions of this topic), what is the best shooting format to avoid sudden aperture / brightness shifts? I'm using a GH2 with the Sanity hack and the original 14-140 "video" lens, which looks great for most applications where lighting is even. Works well even for indoor darkly lit industrial video. But when following action that goes from dark areas to light areas the problem of sudden brightness shifts are most noticeable. I'm not as concerned for the "look" of the footage as I am concerned about the annoyance of the brightness shifts. I need to follow the action (often it's dogs on leash with their owners), so auto focus and zooming with the lens is usually required. Shooting manual is not an option, I don't expect the problem to go away entirely, and shooting at 24p in Program mode seems to give me the better results than any other mode.

TATZU

@howardst Your a troll right? lol

howardst

No i wasnt prompted i loaded ini file. Is this wrong? I only checked the letters to see what they said but the camera settings changes must mean the patch is installed right? If it was justvfirmware i would have much more room on my card and not 30 bit file suzes

balazer

I don't know what your letter A is. You either coped some seta.ini file to the PTool folder by yourself, or clicked letter A and was prompted to open an ini or zip file with settings, which PTool then copied to seta.ini in your PTool folder. Hold the mouse pointer over the A button and you'll get a tooltip with some notes about the settings.

howardst

Omg!! I clicked the letter A. What settings are they? My record times on my card went down bitrates went up. Ill reload the firmeare by selecting C. What should i expect to be the difference? Why did the letter A allow the patch? I realize how ignorant this is to a guy like u lol. I love learning though and u have been very kind!!

howardst

@balazer. Yes im a novice. I.know your hack works for me. My last comment was probably ignorant lol. Just trying to figure out why the a through j letter choices and i always use the letter a. I suppose i

balazer

If you downloaded Cake, it was setc.INI which means you click C to load those settings. You can't easily change the bit rate by yourself. You need to download someone's settings that do what you want.

howardst

So what letter would correspond to a 720 bit rate of around 70. Are u saying i can manually put in a number. I dont trust myself doing that lol

balazer

Thanks. The letter just tells PTool which INI file to load - A means seta.ini, B means setb.ini, etc. The settings in the file (or whatever settings you manually set in the PTool GUI) determine the bit rate.

howardst

Hi balazer. Love the reliability of your cake 2.3. Im a novice when it comes to hacks. Im wondering if i selected a different letter in the settings instead of selecting the letter A would selecting other letters through j give me higher bitrate settings? Or are they all the same bit rates on A thru J? THANX

fastfinger

I shoot sports type video and found it nearly impossible to use the GH2 due to this problem. I do allot of panning and use shutter priority to blur the background. It also helps to avoid the strobing effect. I had to use the AE lock but as the camera moves I found my video constantly over or under exposed. I found no way around this. Other problems I had, the in lens stabilization would jump around during panning so I would have to turn it off and on all the time. I went back to the HMC150 & now shoot with the Panasonic AC90. I really like the GH2 but it's not great for the type of video I do.

howardst

The only problem I have with going manual is the exposure comp is constantly telling me to dial up or down when filming in outside changing lighting scenarios. I just want the camera to take care of it for me so I can concentrate on shot composition and keeping a steady hand lol. My song fx1 video cams were so much easier to video with but im committed to learning these gh2s. I have no choice I made the switch to dslr sold all my video stuff lol. Its tougher than I thought it would be. focus and exposure are a bitch with these cams lol

brianl

+1 for what rNeil says. Go all manual. Take control of the camera, don't let it control you. It's a philosophy of shooting. I even think manual focus is better for video. I don't think they're using autofocus in Peter Jackson movies. GH cams have good vf's.

goanna

Thanks, @balazer @rNeil @Rambo I think we all need these back-to-basics reminders :-)

howardst

Thank you all for your insight. I truly appreciate you taking the time to help me. I have alot of info to digest and learn. This is a great forum and i.hope to someday learn enough to be able to help others as you have helped me. Time to shoot and learn. Next time i post i will know more because of your help. Have a great day!!

howardst

Thank you all for your insight. I truly appreciate you taking the time to help me. I have alot of info to digest and learn. This is a great forum and i.hope to someday learn enough to be able to help others as you have helped me. Time to shoot and learn. Next time i post i will know more because of your help. Have a great day!!

balazer

P mode won't cause "shutter problems" usually. It's just that the shutter speed has a big effect on the look and feel of the video, and if you use automatic shutter speed, you lose control of it. But sometimes auto exposure is useful, and on the GH2 the only way to get auto exposure in 24p using an automatic lens and without visible stepping of the aperture size is to let the camera control the shutter speed. So go ahead and use P exposure mode. Set ISO to auto also. Someday you'll want to learn how to use manual exposure.

rNeil

@howardst ... if you shoot in ANY auto mode, the camera will constantly mess with exposure during the filming. Period. Unless you do get good at doing an AE "lock" but in my testing the camera un-locks itself about anytime you do anything, like tap the LCD to re-direct focus or breath on it too closely.

So ... we're back to why you are so worried about shooting with the cam in manual mode? I would highly recommend setting your viewing area so the histogram is on all the time, maybe in the lower left corner. Set the camera to manual exposure. Zoom in on your main subject area before starting to shoot, and set your shutter speed to twice the frame-rate (fps) ... if you're shooting 24/25fps, use 1/50th, 30fps use 1/60th.

Start with your ISO set down to 800 or below, and adjust your aperture until the histogram is "full" left to right for most things, especially starting out. If your scene does not have major dark areas you'll not have much stuff "high" on the left side (the dark side, low-light levels). If you don't have much light area in the scene the histogram will have low stuff on the right side (bright light levels). Adjust either or both (as needed) your aperture and your ISO settings to move things around in your histogram. Again, at first keep your histogram "filled" side to side without much of anything spilling off one side or the other ... at that point my histogram turns from white to yellow, indicating my GH3 thinks the exposure is optimal.

Then zoom to where you want to start shooting, press the button & 'GO'. If the lighting on your subject changes, you'll see it on the histogram ... re-set aperture &/or ISO, and shoot some more. It's rather easy to do, and you won't get sudden surprising exposure changes to your video footage.

howardst

To balazer i love p mode but im being told filming in it is risky business with shutter speeds varying so much. I wish i could film in p mode with shutter locked that wouldvbe awesome lol

howardst

I hope im not irritating you all with all these queztions. The manual is confusing for me. In the most simplest terms can u answer me this. If im filming in shutter priority how do i control aperature changes with the 14 to 140? Is it done with ae lock? I dont seem to be able to film in anything other than p mode without aperature swings. I dont think im ready for full manual mode yet. I want to shoot in shutter priority with auto iso and not have aperature have such noticeable swings. Boy i wish i could just film im p mode but i know it will mess up with weird shutter. Thanks so much for all of your help. Im just switching over from video cameras and im finding it very challenging. Lastly does anyone have a link to what the best in camera settings are. Theres so many things like pre af af ae lock etc etc that i dont know what to do with. Have a great day!!

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