@wigginjs, just in case you didn't know, you'll get even higher quality 1080/30p shooting in variable 80% mode. You lose audio recording that way though. It spans in Aquamotion.
Hey, been busy last month with a few things... ready to start testing again. Anyways, just loaded the SeAQuake patch and all I get is gray... with blips of blurry/glitch images... but mostly just a gray screen. Is there some playback method or something I've missed?
@driftwood Just a heads up that I shot SpanMyBitchUp at 80% (30P) tonight for a wide cam and I am thrilled with the results. I used a cheapo card to see what it could handle, opting to rest the Sandisk Extremes and go with a Lexar Pro, locked in MF and used 800 ISO. Despite a theater shoot with predominantly dark areas galore, I can't find a single macroblock. IMO this is a major, major accomplishment and I'll be testing the Aqua v2 with spanning in similar circumstances soon. Very impressed. Great work as usual.
Thanks! And amazing work on the patches! I was almost about to put some money together for a Scarlet, but I looked at my GH2 footage after shooting the beginning of a new project last night... and said screw it. I even pushed the CRAP out of it in post, didn't see any blocking or artifacts, and it retained it's fidelity/sharpness. Scarlet isn't going to make my stuff look much better than this. And it's going to weigh more and be slower.
Amazing work... :) I'll try to do some more technical testing soon. I'm also thinking of doing a GH2 intra grading tutorial... since I just found a way to get great skin-tones with some mid-tone adjustments.
@bhwhitz Don't want to put more pressure on you but, what the hell, now that you've already put the idea out there, if you don't make that "GH2 Intra grading tutorial" cute little kittens will start to drop dead all over the place. Are you sure you can live with that burden? ;)
@atticusd "if you don't make that "GH2 Intra grading tutorial" cute little kittens will start to drop dead all over the place. Are you sure you can live with that burden?"
I can live with that burden... I just don't want to let you guys down. haha.
Anyways... I've never done a tutorial before, so I'll have to do a few tests with screen recording software and such first. But then I'll be good.
Oh, BTW... what are most people using for grading? I can do it in FCP, FCPX, AfterEffects, and maybe Davinci Resolve (but I'm still learning it myself).
With Resolve 8.1.1 lite being free, Now unlimited grading nodes, and no longer a $500 license to use it with DNxHD its a very high end solution for GH-2 footage. Look for a Windows version early next year.
@driftwood Looking at some test footage yesterday I found there is still banding issues. This was with SeAQuake. Was a plain wall that was showing the banding. Is this something that is still with us or should I really not be seeing this in these latest patches?
In the meantime, I'm also looking at the chain, as this was done in 5DtoRGB to see if anything is being introduced there.
Also, what is the current software recommendation for checking bitrates? 5DtoRGB was reporting video to be around 143mb/s which I'm guessing is because these were locked off shots with no movement in the frame.
Banding is an issue related to 8bit color (As far as I know), and in my opinion it becomes even more obvious with driftwoods latest patch, in some situations. (white walls, flat coloured surfaces..) Is it a reason not to use the patch? Hell no, what one must do is take care to avoid it when shooting. Correct exposure and then change picture profile in the camera if you absolutely need a shot with a problematic area.
Id be very interested in what experience people have from using some sort of diffuser filter to avoid banding, though!
@driftwood Shot at ISO320 (made sure to go from higher ISO back to 320), shutter 50. shot on a Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens (only lens I had on me) at 16mm. Had an ND3 on it. If I remember correctly I was somewhere around an F4. Profile was Smooth with everything dialed down to -2
I'll try to simulate a similar look and test again to see what I get with various settings.
@RRRR Banding typically occurs when you go from higher bit depth down to lower bit depth. For example a 12-bit image to an 8-bit. Generally adding some dithering helps with minimizing that banding. So, perhaps something is going on with the downsampling in camera that is contributing. I'm just trying to benchmark when it will most likely occur so I can plan for it.