@LPowell - KUDOS and Question on BIG SCREEN theatrical treatment:

Hi Lee.

I haven't been on this site for a while - I have mixed feelings about the jousting between you and Nick Driftwood, but I also understand that while collaboration can create excellence, so can individualism and competition! My hunch is that the specific scene that is to be shot in a given situation might determine which hack/patch/setting between you two (who I suspect may be the best or certainly of the best developers) is the "best". One thing I'll say in your favour Lee is that despite one comment I read that you complicate explanations, I find the exact opposite - you have actually bothered to communicate and literally illustrate the relevant (and not always "easy") concepts and have done so wonderfully, and you stick to a well-organized presentation instead of a perplexing clutter both in terms of what you communicate and what patches you release to the public. You've addressed the moire/aliasing/banding checklist that so many of us GH2 users (and 8-bit HD video camera users in general) are concerned about beyond whether an extra pixel of detail will be seen or not (when its absence most surely would not be noticed). All that just makes me trust you and your approach more. So my kudos to you, but also your sparring partner, for what you've both done, and of course so many others here too, including Chris Brandin for inspiring so much of your work and Nick's, and of course that wonderful Russian man we all know who started it all.

So to the question: I have a friend who wants to try using a hacked GH2 to shoot a commercial for the BIG SCREEN - "Digital Cinema Package" is what we're talking about. It's a car commercial with the gradient homogenous/monochromatic colors of the cars often filling the screen with similar shots of the sky behind - in other words, an invitation to challenges that come with both motion and potential banding at least on a non-hacked GH2. The odd thing is that the "pro" camera he used with I-Frames and 10-bit color latitude gave "too soft" results for the DCP people, and the GH2's sharpness by contrast seems be superior - NON-hacked. Also there is the creative approach of using not just video, but stills (sometimes taken in burst mode) as well that I would suspect allow 12-bit color depth that more completely fulfill the potential of what DCP can handle. But what do you think about the theory I'm hearing that the image should NOT be "cinema soft" but instead take advantage of Panny's sharpness (with my Panny lenses) so that it would better scale up to a large multiplex screen? We can't afford a RED that easily, and the new "less expensive" cameras that go beyond 8-bit color are rumored to not pass that checklist I mentioned - maybe not even the GH3 as of yet.

It seems your Flow Motion patch would accommodate the sharpness and of course smooth motion we seek (if we film 24fps VERY carefully of course), and I think it would offer deterrents against banding (that would otherwise have occurred due to both 8-bit constraints and I think other factors even more so). My hope is that any noise will look like a fine film-like grain and perhaps assist in reducing banding. In all honesty I might take my second GH2 to shoot simultaneously using dare I say the AN Nebula settings since this seems to be a good compromise for a "sharp" setting as well, and then take the best of both worlds. But honestly I am just getting into taking the plunge for "hacks" - never have before. Two GH2's for HD Youtube productions are one thing after all (not in my opinion needing a hack), but now I have a chance to truly "experiment"! Exciting and scary - someone get a 10-bit (or 12-bit available?) monitor!

Thanks for your consideration, and making me understand that I-Frames-only are not the be-all or end-all necessarily.

-- Stacy.

I use Standard -2 for nearly everything just because It works the best in post for me. Sorry, ColorGHears is only for AE right now but I understand he's working on Final Cut. I keep forgetting the world doesn't revolve around Adobe.

@david_d Cinematic is more in the method than the settings david. If you're looking for slow or dream like movement, you can do it in post. The GH2 does have an 80% mode that works perfectly well in FM2.2 I think.

A shallow DOF is considered cinematic but that's in the lens, not the setting. Film grain, lighting, color grading, Etc. all go into it.

Instead of trying to get settings, you'd be way ahead to get ColorGhears and watch the tutorials that come with it.

People spend their entire lives becoming good cinematographers, you can't just change a few settings and be there....and no, I'm light years from a cinematographer.

@david_d how do YOU define "cinematic". IMHO 24P is cinematic, the rest is what you do with it... Thanks for reporting which cards worked ....BTW

@peternap

The Tiffen "ENHANCING Filter" is a combination of rare earth elements in glass. It completely removes a portion of the spectrum in the orange region.

Orange is detected by the sensor as a combination of red and green components. In daylight conditions with a high natural color temperature, this filter may tone down the red and green channels a bit, leaving you with a hot blue channel. In that case, the camera may be prone to over-saturate the blue channel, which can turn blown highlights yellowish. In addition to taking care with highlight exposure, you might want to examine the RGB channels in post, and try adjusting just the blue channel gain to get the color balance you like.

The second of the five songs recorded that day and shot with FM:

@mirorkisser, @rambo: Yep but only the Sandisc 'Extreme" version not the "Ultra".......

Ok cool, I have been using the Scandisc Extreme version on both cards. I have read that the UHS-1 cards have technology that causes problems with spanning. It all is a little confusing. The price doesn't matter, all I'm looking for is what exact card works best with flow motion 2.02 while in the 1080 24p mode at the highest bit rate. It is my goal to record till the card is full without the camera stopping. If there is a card that works best I am all ears. Thank you.

One more video with flow motion 2. Hope you like.

I realize that the artifact (lines running in the vertical) is my iMac.

@CFreak Thanks! I`ll study what you said. And yes,I always forget my reflection on this kind of scene! lol

@LPowell Thx

I even forgot this: how is it that the Driftwood Hack GOP1 metadata displays 25p native normal

@livada What you're seeing in Stream Parser's report is evidence that the GH2 fails to tag HBR files with the correct metadata to indicate that they contain a progressive video stream in an interlaced wrapper (aka psf format). As a result, GH2 HBR files are formatted in exactly the same way as GH2 FSH files, and Stream Parser has no way to distinguish between them. As an aside, the Panasonic AF100's 1080p25 and 1080p30 MTS files are correctly tagged by the camera, and can be properly identified as progressive video streams stored in interlaced format.

The GH2's failure to properly tag HBR files creates a post-production hazard when shooting in 25p or 30p. After importing these files into a video editor, you must make sure that the footage is correctly interpreted as progressive rather than interlaced. In Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, this is done by setting Separate Fields OFF in the Interpret Footage dialog. If you don't take this precaution, you may see spurious interlacing artifacts in HBR footage.

i use the same settings, 99% of the time i shoot 24p in the same settings...