jonpais

@sudopera I'm using a GH3, but Sherif points out the banding problem in his video, though it is slight and in the background, not in the talent's face :)

@jcs but... Sherif says if clips aren't denoised before applying LUT, you can get macroblocking and colored noise (actually, I've been shooting with NR at lowest setting and not bothering with Neat Video, and I never noticed these defects when using LUTs- not to say they weren't there), but it's the banding that annoys me. So - add noise first - how? Or are you pulling my leg?

@sudopera very nice clips and nice design too. A pretty talented guy, that Sherif Mokbel. I already have several packages of LUTs, but I may pick these up too sometime. I tried his method with Osiris Jugo, that is, denoising with Neat Video before applying the LUT and adding some grain afterward, and got very good results. But when I tried uploading to YouTube to share, the whole clip was dark and reddish looking. I may try again this afternoon. He also confirmed what I'd already suspected - that LUTS can introduce banding: I'd already seen it in the forehead of one of the musicians in my latest video. I was hoping that adding a bit of grain would help, but not at all.

I've got both the GM1 and GH3 with the 12-35mm and 35-100mm Panasonic lenses. Even though both lenses have built-in stabilization, it's nothing to write home about. It's not as though you can actually walk around and shoot with the camera or anything, unless you've got some awesome coordination. I always use a shoulder rig with the GH3, even with the OIS, and especially when I'm using the longer of the two lenses, since it suffers from jitters. I also shoot slow motion a lot, which naturally reduces the amount of apparent camera shake. But if your primary concern is stabilization, I would go with the Olympus. I should add that I'm a shaky fellow who drinks a lot of coffee :)

Thanks Inazuma, I think I fixed the link, it should work now. If not, just click the wordpress link below.

A sort-of mini-documentary about 30/4 Park in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, this is the first time I've gone out and actually interviewed people in a long while. I don't think buying a new camera is going to make me a better shooter, but I'm hoping that the GH4 won't have the horribly distracting aliasing seen in the guitar strings in some of the shots. I would also like to use some primes like the Nikkor AI-S lenses, so hopefully the peaking function in the new camera will allow me to focus while shooting. I may have to take this video down shortly because it contains copyrighted music. But the two songs signaled by YouTube don't match any of the content in the video.

@Ebrahim Actually, when I first read Juan Guerra's post, it didn't sound to me like he was asking for an opinion about Panasonic's color-science - I thought he was asking about his color grading. Evidently, andrgl, who took the time to grade Juan's clip in Resolve, thought the same. After all, how could anyone judge a camera based on a single outdoor shoot under uncontrolled conditions and then graded, without even anything to compare it to? I am however very eager to hear what Tim Naylor thinks about the GH4's colors once he's had a chance to test it.

Just like actors on set are lit according to the story the director wants to tell, colorists base their decisions on the story, mood and setting to determine how the characters should appear. Is the character gloomy, moody, dreamy, anxious? Is the setting a western, science-fiction... If my skin tone test were a story, people sitting in the post office would be warm if I wanted to convey a pleasant or nostalgiac atmosphere, maybe bluish if I wanted it to appear cold or threatening. And if you look at advertising here or in Korea (the two countries I'm familiar with), Asian actors and actresses have complexions as white as ivory. :)

@Christina Ava, we know you love your Canon, but no need to go attacking Panasonic when a reader is asking for constructive feedback on their video. Also, my understanding of clinical is that it refers to resolution and more specifically to lenses (especially digital correction of lens abberations), not to color rendition, but maybe you're onto something there. Maybe if he did some lens whacking, you'd enjoy it more. Here is a 2-minute test I did with the much-maligned GH3 to see whether allegations of whitewashed skin tones had any validity or not. I'm quite aware of my limitations as far as color correction goes. Hopefully they've gotten better since then. Would you care to post some examples of your results using Canon?

This topic belongs in the Panasonic users films, tests, reviews and opinions thread.

@Olly Your group really produces some outstanding, entertaining stuff. I just bookmarked your website.

Haha. In FCP, just select the clip and type the shortcut Command - shift - Y. Now your clip will have a tiny triangle in the upper left corner. Click on it and you will now see two versions of your clip. You can hit 'add' and create as many versions as you like. To see how different LUTs or effects appear, just drag them from the effects pane into the audition window. Now that I've used it, I couldn't do without it.

Also, it's half the price of the AX-100, which, as SlashCAM points out, Panasonic is also in direct competition with. But yeah, Panasonic is really spitting on us! :) Incidentally, this Pietz, who says Panny should screw themselves, is the same one who started a thread about quirks and problems with the GH4, even before the camera was in most people's hands. Very weird!

For those interested in color grading, I neglected to include a link to Juan Melara's excellent blog: http://juanmelara.com.au/kodak-2393-lut-alex-montoya-real-world-example/

I've been using the adjustment layer that comes with the LUT Utility + Osiris package over at CGC when I have many small clips side-by-side. For comparing the results of different LUTs on a clip, I find audition in FCPX an excellent tool.

I'm really glad that Panasonic is confident in the future of 4K. I seem to recall when they came out with 1080 60p, a lot of people were disgruntled that their computers (or NLEs) couldn't handle the AVCHD files. Now, just about every NLE can, but thankfully, we've moved on.

First of all, very nice blog, Yojimbo. Hope you keep up the good work! While I haven't tried 'nesting', I still find the results I get using LUTs in FCPX far preferable to those without. I've been using LUT Utility and Osiris LUTs, and there is no question in my mind that they help produce a more pleasing tonality. The LUT Utility and Osiris package is also very affordable, compared to say, Film Convert. The problem I'm running up against is that even with my 2013 iMac, 16GB doesn't seem to cut it for LUTs: but even when just adding subtitles, it dies on me. I'm beginning to wonder whether there is something wrong with my computer, because even editing with my 8GB rMBP, I never got a message saying I was out of app memory after only rendering a couple minutes' worth of files. hmmmm... So, anyone serious about color grading should first off make sure they have enough RAM.

Haven't you tried using LUTs in your workflow yet? Then I would suggest looking at some other websites by directors and colorists who do, including those of Matthew Scott, Frank Glencairn and Oliver Peters. You can also listen to the podcast of the 'Coloristas'. Seeing IS believing. If you enjoy color grading, you might bookmark them.

Are we absolutely certain now that Panasonic's camera doesn't have any weather sealing? I thought that wasn't determined yet. But I do admit a preference for constant aperture lenses. Whether that's worth paying $400 more for, I'm not sure...

Why not a fan of these two cameras? In what way does 4K suddenly make everything before it obsolete, including 2.5K? Are you saying there isn't any difference between a smartphone that shoots 4K and a camera that does the same? And just how is the RX series 'melting down'?

I'm not quite sure what these images at 20,000 ISO are supposed to reveal, except highlights that look like they are overblown 10 stops. However, at the lower ISOs, they look much cleaner than the Canon.

Nice work. But how can anyone advise you on the Sony until we have more information?

There sure seems to be a lot of pent-up hostility here - or just plain ignorance. If handled properly, 28mbps can yield beautiful 1080p images. Nobody's forcing anybody to buy the camera. If you want higher bit rates, there are plenty of other options. And Panasonic are hardly caught up in the 70s - in fact, I'd say they are on top of their game at the moment. According to most reviewers who've had a chance to look at the camera or the specs, Panasonic has outdone Sony - and the RX10 was no mean achievement. 4K video? check. 4K HDMI output for viewing stills? check. 12 fps burst rate? check. tilt/swivel LCD? check. 2,359K dots OLED EVF? check. 16X zoom range? check. Oh, and did I mention, it's $400 less expensive than the overpriced RX10? Incidentally, I lived through the 70s (when, believe it or not, we had to screw filters on our lenses), and I'm not so sure that the days before the Internet weren't a little more civilized.

Apparently nobody told Panasonic that 4K won't go mainstream until 2020. :) In their hands-on look at the FZ1000, Imaging Resource prefers to think of 4K video as a burst mode for extracting 8 megapixel stills.

For what it's worth, it looks as though the public beta of Lightworks for OSX is now available.