Personal View site logo
Make sure to join PV on Telegram or Facebook! Perfect to keep up with community on your smartphone.
GH4 - Best Video Settings
  • 753 Replies sorted by
  • maddog15maddog15

    @JLemos I've tested at 84 fps and the result is the same. VFR mode seems to record at a fairly low bit rate regardless of which frame rate you choose. Disappointing as VFR seems to feel like a trivial add on when compared to the bit rate of the "regular" frame rate modes. I didn't expect the quality of the regular 100-200Mbs modes - but 20-26Mbs average....is less than impressive.

  • fredfred27fredfred27

    @maddog15 You have to remember that when RECORDING at 96fps, the bitrate would be a max of 104Mbs if it is max 26 Mbs during playback at 24 (23.98) fps.

  • nopacnonenopacnone

    The 60fps footage looks like actual 1080p, but 72, 84 and 96fps all look like uprezzed 720p. On another note, I was very impressed with the cinema 100mb/s 4kc mode compared to the 200mb/s 1080p mode. I brought both into after effects for some color grading, and the 4k footage grades and keys a LOT better than high bitrate 1080p. Macroblocking is far less visible in 4k, but for some reason, the recording time available on my card shows a lot more time remaining when in 4K cine mode than in 1080 200mb/s; nearly double the amount of recording time!

    There's something about how 4k compression that just works much more efficiently than 1080p, giving much more color depth and resolution even at lower bitrates.

  • maddog15maddog15

    @fredfred27 Yep, I see your point. Regardless, I certainly wish the VFR modes weren't so "Canon MkIII" in detail.

    @nopacnone Yeah, that's a good analogy. Uprezzed 720. Also I agree with the 4K compression. And you can't beat the space savings of IPB Long GOP apparently even in 4K! It's looking more like I'll be shooting most everything in 4K and then editing in 1080. When needed, I'll switch to shooting in 1080 60p if I want great slo mo shots reinterpreted to 23.97 in Premiere Pro. Otherwise it's 4K shooting and editing.... for now.

    Bit Rates: To this day I absolutely love the way my GH2 shoots with Driftwood's Moon T5/T7 (All-Intra @ 158Mbs). As far as the 200Mbs mode on the GH4 I'm a bit taken aback. Though it's early in my testing - the noise level seems a bit crunchy/staticy vs smooth and creamy. I'm becoming a Long GOP IPB fan on the GH4 as the 100Mbs modes are quite wonderful in 1080 as well as 4K/C4K. Drew at the DREWnetwork - who's opinion i respect and have learned much from - has stood by "IPB Traditional Long GOP Inter-Frame" even through the high bit rate, GH2 hack days.

  • maddog15maddog15

    4K 100Mbs detail at full resolution. Pretty impressive IMHO.

    4K_Anderson.jpg
    1557 x 1844 - 2M
  • nopacnonenopacnone

    @maddog15 I just did some 1080p tests in both 200mbs ALL-I and 100mbs, and the 100mbs shots actually grade a lot better! Not sure why it's operating this way. I'm using a panasonic USH-1 card - could it be that the 200/ALL-I only operates on those USH-3 cards?

    Or is 200/ALL-I just a complete gimmick based on bitrate theory, but actually degrades image quality?

  • maddog15maddog15

    @nopacnone Fear Not: I bit the bullet and purchased two of the new UHS-II Class 3 280Mb/s Cards from B & H. (A 64GB and a 32GB.) The visual result is the same even on these two "bad-ass" cards.

    FWIW: The one thing about All-I footage is NLE editors, like Final Cut and Premiere Pro, LOVE All-Intra. Doesn't bog the machine down as much as IPB Inter-frame when editing/playback.

  • maddog15maddog15

    Color Profile test from @Magnus13

  • AdamTAdamT

    Based on my tests I've determined that the variable frame rate feature is pretty much worthless. You can get much better looking footage by shooting 1080p 60 FHD and time stretching. It looks much better than VFR even using AE's built in time stretch function.

    The only reason I'd use VFR is if I absolutely had to deliver footage straight out of the camera ... and that's not going to happen.

  • maddog15maddog15

    @AdamT Ditto that.

    FYI: In Premiere Pro - if you right click on the footage in the bin and "reinterpret" the 60p footage to 23.97 BEFORE you drop it in the timeline - you get outstanding slow motion.

  • AdamTAdamT

    Even pushing the 60fps clips to 96fps looks a lot better than VFR 96fps. To be honest, VFR doesn't even look as good as upsampled 720p.

    Here are some comparisons I did:

  • dracoredracore

    Does changing highlight/shadow curve actually expand the DR range? Or it more of a post-adjustment that the camera applies after the footage has been captured?

  • SuperSetSuperSet

    @AdamT You convinced me. Shoot in 1080/60p and use Time Stretch in AE. I'm not that familiar with doing that in AE. What stretch factor do you use for it?

  • maddog15maddog15

    Great Comparison of the GH3 and GH4 highlighting the GH4's new features and benefits. By Griffin Hammond.

  • tinbeotinbeo

    Shoot in 4k and down convert is best setting of gh4? Premiere auto scale to frame size of sequence bring down the resolution that would be effect of cropping or zooming?

  • maddog15maddog15

    @tinbeo Premiere's "auto scale" doesn't bring down the resolution of 4K when auto sizing to a 1080 sequence. It just makes it "fit" within the 1080 sequence I believe. You are compressing twice the information (4K) into a 1080 edit. This allows you the ability zoom and/or crop in (roughly up to 200%) on the 4K footage or clip without loosing anything in a true 1080p HD edit. Hope that made sense and answered your question.

  • rNeilrNeil

    @tinbeo

    One thing that isn't apparent ... taking the 4K footage and down-converting to 1080 gives you a final file of 4:2:2 color "scale" rather than 4:2:0. Which, coupled with the ability to 'warp-stabilize' and other things, gives a very nice set of "tools" to apply to getting a better final-appearance file.

  • Xenocide38Xenocide38

    Even without down-converting/transcoding into 1080p 4:2:2, the 4K files have more color info to play with.

    Sure 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 or even raw are better but the extra resolution of 4K means more color information from pixel to pixel. 4K 4:2:0 grades much nicer than 4:2:0 1080p. Those extra pixels also help for stabilizing and sharpening. 4K, while not everything, does offer more than some people give it credit.

  • Xenocide38Xenocide38

    As for best settings, I haven't done enough testing with the highlight/shadow features but so far have preferred the standard curve (0,0).

    I do like cinelikeD and have been shooting with all settings at -2 or all -5 depending on the content.

  • maddog15maddog15

    @Xenocide38 I couldn't agree more. At first I thought 4K would be "bonus" to have just incase I needed it. But the results I'm getting from 4K are pretty amazing in post. Especially 4K rendered out as 1080p. The noise is smaller. Gradients have less or no banding. With CINE D (my setting of choice) caucasian skin tones are such an improvement coming from color profiles of the GH3. No more of that "pink, plastic" color rendition. CINE V is rich, vibrant and flat out sexy - IF that's the style you're looking for. That said, CINE V @ 4K still does retain much more information in post than I expected. Blacks my appear slightly crushed.... but they're not. Nice. Screen grabs of CINE V attached. These are straight out of the camera - no color correction.

    Screen Shot 2014-05-10 at 11.08.50 PM.jpg
    2513 x 1411 - 1M
    Screen Shot 2014-05-10 at 11.09.32 PM.jpg
    2520 x 1416 - 2M
  • maddog15maddog15

    C4K (DCI) 17:9 - CINE D profile tweaked even flatter to maintain dynamic range.

    Screen Shot 2014-05-10 at 11.48.37 PM.jpg
    2559 x 1348 - 2M
  • EliasDEliasD

    Hey guys, just got mine! any ideas how to set a custom name at mov files? or how to remove from lcd display the 3 icons at right during shooting?

  • rNeilrNeil

    @maddog15

    Um ... that's real skin there ... and from a Panny GH-X. Great to see ... :)

  • mrbillmrbill

    @EliasD - you can't do custom naming in-camera. I rename my files when I back them up using one of the free file naming utilities out there, and make further backups from the newly named files (the free app I use is filerenamer basic)

  • nobbystylusnobbystylus

    I'm finding that my ideal settings currently are Cine D with highlights dialled down -5. Leaving contrast at 0, sharpness -5, NR-5 and Sat @-2. I've played around with dialling contrast down to -5 but when you colour correct back to nice black levels the image becomes washed out, needing extra saturation dialled back in and becomes noisy. Cine D at contrast 0 feels flat enough for me to get a nice grade from with contrast at 0. The highlights dialled down just stops blown out windows etc.

    4K is absolutely rocking though. Wow what a leap from the GH3.

Add a Comment