GH4 on Ronin & Low light conditions

[O photo]

Hello !!!

I will be shooting with a 4 axel gimbal (Ronin M) a gala evening event on poor light conditions, but I believe i can hold the ISO below 1600, hopefully. I will be filling  in with a led light if I its not to annoying.
I have two questions:

What settings are recommend so I can reduce maximum the noise and leave a nice file to work on post production?.

Which focus mode would be recommend since I won't be able to do it manualy. I heard that the APP you can touch the screen & focus ??
Thanks!

[John Palmer]

Ive had to shoot a lot of things at 1600 and I have the best results if I shoot in 4k and downsize to 1080p. Natural profile, master pedestal: +5, -1 highlight and + 1 shadows, contrast -5, saturation -4, noise reduction -4, sharpness - 5, and use a lens that is f2.8 or less

I personally like the noise from the gh4 and downscaling definitely makes it look a whole lot better. sharpening will make the grain stand out more. In most situations where I know it will be pretty low light I use my c/y zeiss 50mm f1.7, which is sharp enough wide open to help with most extremely dark situations

I also have Neat Video but dont really use it that much unless its a shot that wasat 1600 ISO but is still like 2 stops under exposed. It may be better to just go higher in ISO to expose properly than to under-expose and try to lift in post (in terms of grain)

 

[JazzBox]

If you expose to the right (ETTR: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/7922-ettr-the-ultimate-exposure-technique/ ) GH4 gives back really good images, even at 1600 ISO.
I also like the grain of the GH4, it is very filmlike. For the profile I would use Natural (with contrast, saturation and sharpness all the way down) or Cinelike D with just the saturation down, because it is very flat. I would not mess with master pedestal or shadows/highlight, you can see the problems here: http://noamkroll.com/the-best-gh4-settings-for-video-why-you-shouldnt-be-tweaking-things-too-much/

My 2 cents

[j.f.r.]

Hello !!!

I will be shooting with a 4 axel gimbal (Ronin M) a gala evening event on poor light conditions, but I believe i can hold the ISO below 1600, hopefully. I will be filling  in with a led light if I its not to annoying.
I have two questions:

What settings are recommend so I can reduce maximum the noise and leave a nice file to work on post production?.

Which focus mode would be recommend since I won't be able to do it manualy. I heard that the APP you can touch the screen & focus ??
Thanks!

​

Rent another camera, I simply would not use ANY Small sensor camera if I could not light my scene. This is just another reason why smaller sensor cameras are simply not god for run and gun work and why SO MANY people I know own 5D's but are slowly switching over to Sony with the A7s. Imagine having a base level of 3200 iso as your starting point with the Sony A7s, just think about that for a second...... 

 

 

Now to answer your question DO NOT underexpose at 1600 and if you have to shoot at 4k 3200 iso and use a de noise plugin when downscaling to 1080p.

[O photo]

Thanks I'll test  that?

[TSV]

the Ronin cannot balance correctly the GH4 with a basic lens (Been there, done that, waisted a lot of money). The Ronin M is, apparently, better suited for light cameras like the GH4.

[O photo]

TSV I belive you made a mistake on your sentence  , il shooting with the Gh4 with a 14-35 lens it works well.

im planing to shoot with the ronin and Gh4 and  my iPhone 6 attached using the Panasonic App to focus. Have you tried that ? I have been training  and so far it works well. I made some test and I belive I can shoot at 800 ISO although I'm not really impressed with the quality shoot at 4 k. Please any advice on the settings ? 

[O photo]

​

Rent another camera, I simply would not use ANY Small sensor camera if I could not light my scene. This is just another reason why smaller sensor cameras are simply not god for run and gun work and why SO MANY people I know own 5D's but are slowly switching over to Sony with the A7s. Imagine having a base level of 3200 iso as your starting point with the Sony A7s, just think about that for a second...... 

 

 

Now to answer your question DO NOT underexpose at 1600 and if you have to shoot at 4k 3200 iso and use a de noise plugin when downscaling to 1080p.

I own a Nikon D800 I will test it, but I belive it is not great either on high ISO, anyways I made my test and I believe I can shoot at 800 ISO, maybe max at 1600 that I will try to avoid .  

Not to happy with the quality of the Gh4 so far shooting at ISO 800 or 1600. Any advice or reliable link on an article about settings on the GH4 , I have been Googling and got very different opinions.

thanks 

[TSV]

TSV I belive you made a mistake on your sentence  , il shooting with the Gh4 with a 14-35 lens it works well.

im planing to shoot with the ronin and Gh4 and  my iPhone 6 attached using the Panasonic App to focus. Have you tried that ? I have been training  and so far it works well. I made some test and I belive I can shoot at 800 ISO although I'm not really impressed with the quality shoot at 4 k. Please any advice on the settings ? 

​The Ronin (not the M) will not offer you a silky smooth stabilisation with just the GH4 and your lens (12-35??). It will stabilise it yes, but not perfectly smooth like you can see on YouTube or Vimeo. Put a heavier Camera on the Ronin (MKIII and 24-70) and you will have silky smooth video. Believe me I tried for 3 month with different settings and cameras. I ended up selling it to a guy who shoot with RED and he had a flawless experience with my Ronin. 

[TSV]

Not to happy with the quality of the Gh4 so far shooting at ISO 800 or 1600. Any advice or reliable link on an article about settings on the GH4 , I have been Googling and got very different opinions.

thanks 

​I love the GH4 and use it everyday, but it is just terrible above 800. The best is to get a fast lens.

[j.f.r.]

I own a Nikon D800 I will test it, but I belive it is not great either on high ISO, anyways I made my test and I believe I can shoot at 800 ISO, maybe max at 1600 that I will try to avoid .  

Not to happy with the quality of the Gh4 so far shooting at ISO 800 or 1600. Any advice or reliable link on an article about settings on the GH4 , I have been Googling and got very different opinions.

thanks 

​Ronin will defintley not stabilize perfectly with a GH4 and any lens, I believe Sony A7s is slightly larger (?) and I still couldn't get a perfect balance either, which is the reason the "M" version was just released. One thing you can try doing is attaching a ring light (about 10-12") around your camera so you can get some nice soft lighting wherever you point your camera to record.

 

GH4, NX1, etc are very poor cameras in high iso, heck any Panasonic camera is. This is the main reason why people who shoot now run and gun work still use Canon but are slowing switching over to Sony a7s and other Sony cameras. You can rent a 5D, A7s, etc for about $100 for a weekend, honestly that's what I would do if I couldn't light my scene.

 

Now if you could light your scene and you're doing a production then yeah any modern HD camera will be fine as you can control lighting.

[O photo]

 I have the Ronin M and it works fine with the GH4, great not to have so much zait on theshouldersm but still heavy for long shoots.

My only disapointment so far is the GH4 at 800 ISO and above , I see no diference between the 4 K and 1080, actualy 4 k looks worse;

But I read and saw footage that GH4 in low light can be really good with the right settings I just cant get to tune it right. Any of you could?

Please share

Thanks

[O photo]

​Ronin will defintley not stabilize perfectly with a GH4 and any lens, I believe Sony A7s is slightly larger (?) and I still couldn't get a perfect balance either, which is the reason the "M" version was just released. One thing you can try doing is attaching a ring light (about 10-12") around your camera so you can get some nice soft lighting wherever you point your camera to record.

 

GH4, NX1, etc are very poor cameras in high iso, heck any Panasonic camera is. This is the main reason why people who shoot now run and gun work still use Canon but are slowing switching over to Sony a7s and other Sony cameras. You can rent a 5D, A7s, etc for about $100 for a weekend, honestly that's what I would do if I couldn't light my scene.

 

Now if you could light your scene and you're doing a production then yeah any modern HD camera will be fine as you can control lighting.

​I live in Paris its around 450 USD with the lensm  and Im shooting for a charity with no budget. I just bought the GH4 and saw really nice footage with low lights

[j.f.r.]

​I live in Paris its around 450 USD with the lensm  and Im shooting for a charity with no budget. I just bought the GH4 and saw really nice footage with low lights

​I would definitely suggest shooting with a more "baked" in profile. Cine V would be good, also see if you can attach a ring light to your rig as that should help tremendously with any under exposed areas you might run into.

 

Shooing with F/2 lens and iso 1600 should give you great results, remember it is better to bump the iso in camera than to record an underexposed image. I definitely wouldn't shoot above iso 1600, but if shooting at 4k and down-resing your footage to 1080p - 720p  + using a noise reduction plugin you should get some pretty good results.