GH2 Flow Motion v2 - 100Mbps Fast Action Performance & Reliability for Class 10 SD cards

L1N3ARX

@peternap, I made sure not to include any footage with the exposure trail / judder symptoms; I was only mentioning it as an anomaly that I noticed in some of the footage later in the day, after the GH2 had been cooking in my camera bag under the sun.

@LPowell, never noticed any frame rate issues / judder, or anything out of the ordinary in your footage after it was baking in the sun for a while?

peternap

@L1N3ARX I didn't see the trails but didn't download it either....but I sure loved that video. What lens did you use? That's one of the reasons I keep coming back to FM. There's something special in it that I can't put my finger on, but it shows in the finished product.

LPowell

@L1N3ARX I've seen the GH2 malfunction after sitting in direct sunlight for a few hours. Mine shut of spontaneously and the firmware update feature stopped working for a while. After it cooled off it was fine.

robbin

Read review of sigma lense on bhphoto that it had what he called ghosting trails. Might be what you describe as exposure trails? Here is copy and paste of reviev:

This lens is overall great. fast, sharp focus, very sharp image overall. The only problem i noticed right away was a blue ghosting on high contrast objects, such as black and white text, or even outdoors where a light wall meets a darker colored background. This only occurs within the f/1.4-2.8 range. Sadly, i bought this lens specifically to use in that range. The ghost color is not particularly noticeable at 1:1 or less, but if you need to crop to a certain area, you'll be out of luck.

L1N3ARX

Another flow motion test here. I noticed for the first time after my GH2 had been sitting in intense heat for a few hours that there were are times where the framerate got a little wonky and there were exposure trails which normally would not be there. Don't see how the 2 are connected at all though. I did this video to test low light and a higher 1600 iso to see how well it holds up. You have to download if you want to see what the shadows actually look like.

L1N3ARX

Hmm, no matter what setting, AF100 just seems inherently soft. Great thing about the GH2, is that with just the right pick of the lens and an ND fader, sharpness at -2; it achieves that perfect level of sharpness, very much like film. Af100 is a vastly superior tool when all options are considered... but for pure iq, it seems so far behind at this point it just makes you shake your head.

robbin

I have af100 camera and gh2 and i consider af100 to be the better camera on overall performance. Gh2 has better resolution but not so much as in the video. Af100 has a lot more settings than gh2 to tune to get the picture you like. If you film a closeup of a woman you usually make the picture softer, on af100 you can adjust the detail level to make that shoot. In gh2 you have to do the softening in post. LPowells video was filmed with -3 on detail and i think that is a little to soft. I seldom go under 0 detail because then picture starts getting soft and i dont like it since i use gh2 as b cam

L1N3ARX

Wow... I almost thought you added blur to the AF100 footage or did something to down-res it in a way to make it inferior... but I know you would never do that. This is kind of slap in the face for anyone considering the AF100... yikes.

robbin

@LPowell if you wanna match the gh2 on resolution, turn it up. Try resolution and v resolution to +2 and start from there. I would also lower master ped a little since af100 seems to have darker blacks

LPowell

I recently revised my settings and got much better results from the AF100:

GH2 Daylight Settings

Film Mode Smooth

Contrast -2

Sharpness -2

Saturation -1

Noise Reduce -2

WB Daylight

A-4

M-2

AF100 Daylight Scene File

Gamma CINE-LIKE D

Matrix NORM2

Detail Level -2

V Detail Level -2

Detail Coring -7

Chroma Level -1

Chroma Phase 0

Master Ped -9

DRS OFF

Skin tone DTL OFF

LPowell

Here's a more clinical comparison the AF100 (left side) vs Flow Motion v2 (right side):

Lens: Leicasonic 14-50mm f2.8-3.5

ISO 200; f6.3; 1/60 second

AF100 Scene File was matched to GH2, using CINE-V with NORM2, WB 5.6K

GH2 patched with Flow Motion v2, in Smooth Film Mode, WB Sunlight A-4 M-4

AF100 footage was shot in 1080p30 PH mode.

GH2 footage was shot in 80% Slow Motion in 24H mode, and conformed to 30p.

Footage was cropped and composited in After Effects CS5.5, rendered at 50Mbps.

GH2 Film Mode settings:

Smooth

Sunlight WB

A-4

M-4

AF100 Scene File settings:

Detail Level: -3

V Detail Level: 0

Detail Coring: -4

Chroma Level: -2

Chroma Phase: 0

Master Ped: -2

DRS: OFF

Gamma: CINE-V

Matrix: NORM2

Skin Tone DTL: OFF

peternap

Thanks for doing this Lee. I'm considering an AF-100 and this is a good example.

robbin

@LPowell what resolution setting and master ped setting did you have on above shot?

bwhitz

Wow... is that seriously what the AF-100 looks like? It looks like my iphone, no joke.

LPowell

Lens: Leicasonic 14-50mm f2.8-3.5

ISO 200; f6.3; 1/60 sec

Rambo

What was the shutter speed Lee?

LPowell

Sorry for the delay in production, but I finally updated the first post at the top of this page with a video comparison between the AF100 and Flow Motion v2. What was challenging was matching the AF100's dynamic range and color balance to the GH2. While I'm not completely satisfied with my settings, I think it's close enough to judge the motion picture quality of the two cameras. I'm actually quite pleased with the GH2 color balance:

Smooth Film Mode: -2, -2, -1, -2

Sunlight White Balance: A-4, M-4

On the AF100, I used CINE-V gamma and the NORM2 matrix. While I like the look, I think it has a bit more contrast than the GH2 in Smooth Film Mode. As expected, AF100 details aren't as sharp as the GH2 using Flow Motion v2. I'd like to see how much I can sharpen the AF100 before noticeable aliasing sets in...

Here it is again, AF100 on the left, Flow Motion v2 on the right:

LPowell

@wilcovdakker Yes, you can combine anamorphic MJPEG settings with the AVCHD settings in Flow Motion v2. Here's a link to a downloadable PTool patch file for the anamorphic version of my GH2 100Mbps MJPEG Low Light Patch:

http://www.personal-view.com./talks/discussion/479/gh2-mjpeg-100mbps-low-light-1080p-settings/p1

bwhitz

@L1N3ARX "Having fun grading some flow motion V2.02 footage. Trying to go for an organic film-like look here."

Both videos look great! It's almost a better look than film IMO. Organic, yet hyper-real. What lenses are you using here?

Edit: Oh ok, Simga 30mm 1.4... just looked at the vimeo description. That's my "go-to" lens on the GH2 as well. Love it.

Mckinise

Thanks @LPowell I will check it out.

LPowell

@Mckinise Yes, Flow Motion v2 AVCHD videos will play back directly in-camera, and it includes Per Lichtman's Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2. For more details and download instructions, see the first post in this thread.

Mckinise

I read somewhere that flowmotion would allow me to have immediate in-camera playback and allow me to cut down or turn off the AGC via the Pasadena settings. Is this true?

Basically, I am looking for a stable patch that provides a high bit rate and the ability to directly playback in cam without the need to switch it off first. I am also wanting to implement the Pasadena sound settings.

I am more interested in stability and direct playback than push the camera to its limits. As far as the sound hack goes I am just trying to limit or eliminate the Automatic Gain Control (AGC).

LPowell

@peternap Excellent job in difficult back-lit exposure situations. I'd be interested to examine some of your original GH2 footage as well - YouTube's compression pretty much obliterates the fine details.

peternap

I spent the day in the swamp today. Terrible light but it FM 2.2 did fine, Color ghears and you tube,=.

LPowell

@Cavemandude I'd be interested to examine a sample of your original GH2 footage if you can make it available for download?

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