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

balazer

Using the Lumix G 14-140 f/4.0 lens you can avoid noticeable automatic stepping of the aperture only by fixing the aperture, or by allowing the camera to select the shutter speed automatically in addition to the aperture (P exposure mode, for example).

rNeil

If there's some way you can avoid using an auto-exposure mode while filming, I suggest doing so. I've tested some shutter-priority auto with my GH3, and got what I realistically expected ... which is to say occasionally spot-on exposure, but if say I panned or something bright or dark moved through the scene ... there'd be that weird mental effect of sudden changes in lightness to everything ... so I went back to manually setting exposure.

Takes almost no time to do, and gives accurate results every time ...

brianl

Take control of your camera, go all manual.

Rambo

Keep it in shutter priority in the creative movie mode, but lock exposure ( and focus) with the AE/FL button or assign just the AE lock to that button. Have a read of the manual.

howardst

Thanks for the info everyone. The thing i.dont understand is im.constantly reading not to mess with the shutter speed but in manual mode its an option along with aperature. Does anyone have consistent success just rolling in P mode or is that too risky for shutter problems? I have a tough time maintaining focus lol like to have less to tend to but i love the camera and ill learn eventually thanks again. Im.still using auto.iso also lol.

rNeil

The three controls of exposure are aperture (diameter of opening), shutter speed (how long light is allowed in to the sensor) and ISO setting (how sensitive to light the sensor is set). Video is a VERY different beast for effects of shutter on the resultant files than still shooting. Which is why when shooting video yea, you're supposed to keep the shutter set for a specific "feel" throughout your shooting.

Google for demonstrations and explanations of cinematic/video such as this: http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/shutter-angle-tutorial

Note that when you see a bar below one of the examples with " 45* 90* 180* 360* " on it, hover over each (or click) and you can see what the above situation would look like with different effective shutter speeds.

A "360" shutter is a shutter-speed the same as your frame-rate or "fps". If you are shooting at 30 frames per second and your shutter is at 1/30th, you've got a "360" shutter. A 180* shutter is double your fps, and is one that our brains are sorta used to because it's the main one we've seen in movies over the years. 90* and 45* shutter "angles" are not used very often, and mostly for effect. Or ... from inexperience. Or at times, because you have to because of light as it exists just to get the shot.

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!!

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

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.

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.

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!!

goanna

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

@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

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!!

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

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

TATZU

@howardst Your a troll right? lol

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