GH4 - Best Video Settings

Azo

Thank you for sharing your findings. This was something that I was going to work on today but since you already did all the testing I will just use your recommended settings.

Best Regards ;-)

LPowell

@edgenumbers Nice work, matching both the shadows and the saturation of the red flowers. Interesting to see how close GH2 Smooth is to GH4 Cine-V at 0 Pedestal. I'd have expected a negative pedestal would be necessary to match the GH4's shadows to the GH2.

SuperSet

@edgenumbers Thanks for posting your results! Do you have a comparison with skin tones between the 2 cameras, using those settings?

lucapasturini

Watch it in Youtube at 4K res

First Test 4K Cinema 24p

settings :

CINE D: Everything at -5, except Hue at +2

SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS: Left at +0/-0 or sometimes +0/-2

PEDESTAL: +15

LUMINANCE LEVEL: Set to 16-235

i.Dynamic: Turned OFF

SHUTTER Angle: Set to 180

RRRR

Ok, I still haven't shot a LOT on the gh4, but I keep it at cinelike D (0-255), with a +1/-1 curve applied. I would advocate against dialing down contrast more than one or two steps, tops, as the camera starts to create some nasty stuff with too little contrast. The curve towards black is very steep in the end so lowering the contrast will not get you more DR in the low end. For highlights a -1 or -2 highs curve will ease highlight roll off a bit (give the maximum latitude), but be extremely careful to add any lower contrast to it as it very easily starts to look dodgy, with unclear highs, smudged mid range and clear posterization when the cam hits black. What that means is that you will struggle to make any use of those camera settings in grading. On the contrary, they will be difficult to sort out if some important detail is on the wrong side of the scale. In flat light I try to remember to dial up contrast to 0 or +1. Likewise, you have to be case sensitive with saturation IMO.

Azo

@Superset

I tested the settings that @edgenumbers provided. I still had to color correct a little bit to try and match the colors and even so it is still slightly off. Here is a quick test that I did I did not spend a lot of time on this just a very quick color correct edit to see how the footage matches up.

What is weird is that for some reason the GH2 seems to be a lot brighter at the same Fstop on the lens that I was using. In terms of skin tones I like the Portrait setting or the Natural setting they are actually really close. The footage looks great right out of the box with very little color correcting in post. Basically adjust black and white levels and bam you are done.

Side note: Notice the difference in moire between the GH2 & GH4... IMO I would rather shoot 1080p with the GH2 rather then the GH4 due to the crop factor and also aliasing and moire.

AdamT

@Azo I noticed that the GH4 appeared darker than the GH3 if used the Cine profiles, but not if I used other ones.

Personally the only time I'll shoot 1080 on the GH4 is if I need slow motion or 60fps.

Azo

@AdamT

I agree. I did not buy the GH4 for 1080p it was for the 4K. The opposite happens though if I shoot in 4K and export to 1080p. So for the GH4 I see no reason to shoot in 1080p except for 60p other then that everything will be shot in 4K not to mention the fact that you have tremendous flexibility in a 1080p timeline.

caveport

I have been shooting 1080 25P almost exclusively on the GH4 and have been VERY happy with the results. I have settled on Cine D with everything set at 0 including highlight/shadow curves. I have created a correction curve in DaVinci Resolve and made a LUT from it to use for final colour correction. Cine V seems to crush the black a little and make the dark grey too dark. I also like the Standard setting with a +1 shadow curve.

valpopando

@edgenumbers & @Azo

I did a similar test too , and I found @Azo setting a little bit better , Natural for GH4 vs Smooth GH2 , with some differences in settings .
as @Azo said GH2 seems to be a lot brighter ( In fact,to get same exposure I set to 160 ISO GH2 vs 200Iso on GH4 , and I had too , to color correct a little bit in post to try and match the colors ( GH2 WB +1 Magenta +1 blue to tone down green colors cast) all shots taken on a tripod same lens ,focal , aperture and shutter , at the same distance from the subject, even to see three different crop factors.

For Me at 1080p GH4 looks better in DR and colors rendition, However, with more moiré .

Just a simply experiment not scientific test.

...sorry my English : )

Vesku

@edgenumbers @valpopando

Have you tried some high contrast scenes. To match GH4 with GH2 you must through away GH4 exellent dynamic range. Also you must shoot very many clips with different colors and lightings to match 2 cameras.

jonsmovies

Thanks for the excellent info on matching GH2. Anyone try to match GH3 yet? I'm trying to decide if the 2 or the 3 is a better B-cam to the GH4. Ideally I'd like to match GH4's Cine-D to a profile on GH3 to keep the maximum DR.

Azo

@valpopando

Very good job I can't tell the difference between those clips. I think I will use your settings for matching the GH2 to the GH4. I guess if you are super anal you could tell the difference but for the most part looks great, I think only people that shoot video would be able to tell any difference for most people they would think it was shot on the same camera. Buy the way where do you live? I always see you filming these really nice old buildings that have great architecture.

I also have a question for you. On the interior shot you have the white balance listed as manual. Is this a custom white balance that you performed with a 18% grey card? The reason I am asking is because this will change the results if there is a different workflow.

valpopando

@Azo ! Thx bro ! I'm living in "the old country" LOL in Italy near to volcano Vesuvius in Naples ! and yes there are a lot of interesting place ,

chauncy

@azo

I think you need more charts in your video. You only have, what SIX, with only another FIFTY sub charts.

Azo

@chauncy

LOL, I was actually performing some tests to see how sharp some of my lenses are in the corners. I know it looks getto but it works ;-) I picked up a Canon V6X17 17-102 F/2 just to see if it would cover the sensor on the GH4 so I just left this up and figured what the heck...

@All @valpopando

My latest findings in regards to matching the GH4 to the GH2. IMO using the natural picture profile on the GH4 and the vibrant picture profile on the GH2 yields the best results for matching the colors etc. The colors are not an exact match but it gets you pretty close.

GH4= Natural Picture Profile = 0 0 -5 0 0 GH2= Vibrant Picture Profiel = -2 0 0 -2

The methodology for conducting these tests was to test everything at the base settings in terms of the picture profiles then adjust from there.

kikojiu

Hi all: I left a comment which was not answer it seems it was deleted. I am a Panasonic user since GH1 and still have GH2, GH3 and now of course the GH4. I am rather annoyed as I can´t have a clean image in low light at as low as 800. I tried all the profiles and combinations but I can´t seem to come to a consclusion about this subject. Can anyone help? Or I might have gottten a damaged sensor?

Azo

@kikojiu

Wow something must be seriously wrong with your camera, can you post a link with the video via dropbox. I am extremely happy shooting with the GH4 in 4K. The noise pattern is really fine and way cleaner then the GH2 IMO.

maddog15

@kikojiu Ditto @Azo comments. My GH4 4k shots @800 ISO look good. Noise is much "smaller". Of course it's not as clean as at ISO 200, BUT definitely acceptable in a final edit for a commercial project or film. Please do Drop Box the clip in question if possible. I'd like to take a look at it.

valpopando

@Azo thx for your further test , I will try Vibrant on GH2. and yes in the indoor shoot I performed with a 18% grey card ! but the result of the color of GH2 is always a little different! @kikojuu @Azo About ISO noise , I too have had very different results, sometimes the noise is very loud , otherwise almost imperceptible, I always suggest to overexpose instead of open shadows in camera setting

Vesku

@valpopando

GH2 has yellowish/greenish color cast compared to GH3/GH4. GH2 has also less color and much worse dynamic range. GH3/GH4 standard profile is nearer to Canon/Nikon colors than GH2.

5thwall

Shot Monday and Tuesday with a white backdrop. GH4 on A-Cam with the 12-35, Cine-D 0,0,0,0 and curve was +1, -1. GH2 on B-Cam with the 35-100 set to Standard 0,0,0,0.

I white balanced both with the white board on the back of the DSC One Shot Chart. Then I shot the chart from both cameras.

Next up, I imported the two chart shots into Davinci Resolve 11 beta. I used the chart auto-balance feature and set it to the DSC One Shot chart. This got the two images very close.

I exported the 3D LUTS from each shot and imported those into LUTutility. From there, on to FCP X where I applied the LUTs to each respective camera. I tweaked it a little bit with the color board and, boom, perfection.

This was a seriously quick and easy way to balance the cameras. I think I'd probably shoot at all 0's next time if I knew that I'd be able to shoot a chart with both cams.

Uploading some stills from the shoot. Blanking out his face since he's SAG and I don't want to piss off the client. Point is, this was crazy easy to do. If you can afford a chart, I highly recommend getting one and using it when matching any cameras.

SeekingHeartwood

fyi, adobe's speed grade does this with a couple of clicks, no color chart needed

EliasD

cineV, graded at premiere cc w/ filmconvert

sorry got to delete it. thanks

maddog15

VFR mode 96 fps? Is it a viable setting? It's fun but I'm not "wowed." More of a trival afterthought than an additional broadcast quality setting on the GH4. IMHO.

CINE D -1 -2 -1 0 0 All else on factory defaults.

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