Transitioning from 5D to GH2

[pietz]

everything i learned about video dslr happend on my companies 5D2 and now that i got my own GH2 there still a few things that i find confusing for now. maybe it just different.

1. the LCD and EVF keep adjusting the brightness of the liveview to what it should look like, but not what it actually does look like. so the actual picture might look much darker or brighter. i find this confusing and cant really see the point. i noticed that this doesnt apply for the manual video mode. im not sure if i changed a setting by accident, but i deffinately want this for photo modes as well. how do i do it?

2. do i understand correctly that when im in regular manual mode (M) and i hit the video record button the video bitrate will be lower as in high-bitrate manual-video-mode? and why?

3. is it by any chance possible to have one mode where i can record high bitrate video through the video record button and still take pictures? not at the same time but in the same mode.

4. some of the videos i recorded show a very high level of noise. can i somehow check what the iso was when i recorded that clip?

thank you for your time!

[Julian]

1. Menu - custom functions - scroll to 4 - set 'constant preview' to 'on'.

[QuickHitRecord]

3. Not that I am aware of.

4. The way that the GH2 handles different ISOs is a bit tricky. Stick to the top row and you'll get a cleaner image. Also, take a look at this thread: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/1299-gh2-iso-tests-rethinking-the-iso-bug-iso-320-cleaner-than-iso-160/

[kirk]

I thought the safe ISO thing (if you don't want to step down to your top row ISo setting) is to avoid the top row alltogether??? I shoot mid row now and have had much cleaner results. And if I need 160 I step down to it...

And Re 4: Avoid underexposing, especially in high contrast low light scenes... help a lot.

[QuickHitRecord]

[quote name='kirk' timestamp='1352323640' post='21256']
I thought the safe ISO thing (if you don't want to step down to your top row ISo setting) is to avoid the top row alltogether??? I shoot mid row now and have had much cleaner results. And if I need 160 I step down to it...

And Re 4: Avoid underexposing, especially in high contrast low light scenes... help a lot.
[/quote]

Wait, what? I have not heard this before. I was certain that I read that the increments of 160 were the way to go, like the Canons. I think that I also found a test online that verified that (of course, I cannot find it now), which is why I never the other rows a second thought. Do you have any examples?

[andy lee]

middle row are cleaner
200 400 800 etc like old film asa haha!
I never use the top row ever

[brucker]

yeah, i've also read people saying 100,200,400,800,1600 is better.

[Ernesto Mantaras]

From my own experience, the top row up to 2500 is best, but only as long as you set them coming from the inmediate higher setting (that is, 320 from 400, 640 from 800, 1250 from 1600, etc.), not from the right (I've seen people coming to 640 from 1250, doesn't help).
It's weird as hell, but that's the way it is. ISOs from the second row have more noise than the top row set with the workaround. The top row is the cleanest this way.

[Axel]

I start my custom settings for video all at ISO1600. I dial down to ISO 320 (or whatever, to the top row). Sorry for the somewhat small image and for the german:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57198583/DisplayGH2.jpg[/img]

[pietz]

summarizing what youre saying:

if you only switch horizontally the middle row is best. but the top row is even better if you first switch to the next higher setting in the row underneath and then to the top setting. wow thats weird as fuck.

i think that i was shooting on 1250 and only switched horizontally. is the noise really that bad then?

i remember a sheet for noise of canon cameras. multiples of 160 are best, then 200, then 250. its that big of a difference that iso 1250 has less noise than 250. for that reason i love the iso layout of the GH2, but what you guys just came up with seems really weird.

thank you everybody for your help.

[QuickHitRecord]

Haven't heard of that one either, Axel. I will give it a try. Anything for a clean image. In the meantime, this was bothering me so I did a test which I am going to put in a more appropriate thread: [url="http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/1299-gh2-iso-tests-rethinking-the-iso-bug-iso-320-cleaner-than-iso-160/page__hl__iso+test"]http://www.eoshd.com...e__hl__iso test[/url]

[kirk]

Thanks for the test... looks like middle row is a good choice after all, corresponding with my findings... bottom row a no go...

[Ernesto Mantaras]

[quote name='pietz' timestamp='1352384493' post='21301']
summarizing what youre saying:

if you only switch horizontally the middle row is best. but the top row is even better if you first switch to the next higher setting in the row underneath and then to the top setting. wow thats weird as fuck.

i think that i was shooting on 1250 and only switched horizontally. is the noise really that bad then?

i remember a sheet for noise of canon cameras. multiples of 160 are best, then 200, then 250. its that big of a difference that iso 1250 has less noise than 250. for that reason i love the iso layout of the GH2, but what you guys just came up with seems really weird.

thank you everybody for your help.
[/quote]

I guess the tip is (to make it clearer) that you should use the top row, but always coming from the inmediate middle row. Choose a middle row setting, then go the upper row and leave it at that. Also, this resets everytime you turn of the camera, and I haven't tested if this also happens when you switch modes, but I still repeat the trick. It has become second nature.

And really, it saved my life. I shot a music video 3 days after the camera arrived, and I shot some footage that looked extremely noisy. I was using the Canon rule, multiples of 160, but I didn't know about the GH2 ISO bug, and then I found this solution, used it and have been happy ever since. Oh, and I rescued that noisy footage with Neat Video, lucky me! Although it was mostly even background.