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G3 drops 3 frames when spanning. Suggested alternative Settings please?
  • sadanorakmansadanorakman

    I just bought a G3, hoping to use it for recording club music concerts (I'm in the UK). I hacked it with pvdogs (King of tweaks) setf.ini for hopefully reliable recording and spanning at up to 48Mb/s. I'm using a Transcend Premium 64GB Micro SD card (300x, UHS-1).

    I just recorded a couple of hours of footage at a concert (the files averaged 32Mb/s), with separate sound using a TASCAM DR-40. When I bring these all together using Plural-eyes to sync, it's showing on average three dropped frames between each video clip.

    Can anyone confirm if this is common with all spanning on Panasonic m4/3's please, and/or suggest reliable 25 fps settings.ini that will not drop any frames when spanning on a G3?

    On a separate note, I was really hoping the camera would do better in low light recording, but ptools does not seem to remove the high ISO limit for the G3 at all. Has anyone managed to get the High ISO removal to work with the G3, or is this dependent upon a manual exposure hack for the G3?

    I assume that there will be no further ptools features for the G3 now, as Vitaliy seemed to last be active on it all a couple of years ago now?

    All advice gratefully received. Regards Craig

  • 8 Replies sorted by
  • balazerbalazer

    How are you merging the files? For AVCHD, you want to concatenate the binary files, and not simply drag them all onto your timeline as independent clips.

  • sadanorakmansadanorakman

    Thanks balazer,

    What do Iyou use to concatenate the clips? I've found a free 'AVCHD Merger' will that do?

    I've been using premiere, dragging all clips into the timeline including the separately recorded audio, exporting a project xml file, which is then opened by pluraleyes. pluraleyes then matches the sound between the camera footage and separate audio track, then creates a new synchronised xml file, which I import back into premiere. this shifts all the clips around on the timeline to become synced. There's three frames missing evry time the clips spanned a 4gb file limit.

    I'll try to concatenate the clips which I know should be contiguous, then bring them on to the timeline to see if the missing frames really exist or not, then report back here.

    Thank you again!

  • sadanorakmansadanorakman

    PERFECT!!! Just used file joiner to merge the AVCHD clips, and the missing frames are back!!!! Thank you so very much balazer!

    Can anyone shed any more light on possible manual exposure control for the G3 please? is there any way to at least perform exposure compensation when recording video, as my footage is coming out under-exposed by a full stop. I assume we will never now get manual exposure control for G3.

    regards

  • yskuntoyskunto

    The best thing that we could do with Lumix without hacked manual control (G3, GF2, GF3, and GX1) is by locking the shutter speed to 1/50, 1/60, 1/100, or 1/120 via menu and using manual legacy lens that have aperture ring. You almost get full manual exposure control with this setup.

  • sadanorakmansadanorakman

    Thanks yskunto. I locked the shutter to 1/50, and was using a manual aperture lens, but the camera was still setting ISO automatically, and I'd got a back-lit subject, so there was nothing much I could do. I thought I'd just ask in case anyone knew of a way to dial in some exposure compensation on the G3 whilst shooting video.

    In the end I had no other option than to shoot with the subject underexposed, as I couldn't minimise the bright background any more, and then push the shadows and mids up later in post-process. Footage is not so great though, as that brought out a fair bit of noise, but less than perfect footage is better than no footage at all!!!

    Last time I shot one of these concerts it was with two 5Dii's running magic lantern. They were (almost) a pleasure to use, apart from the fact they only recorded in about 12 minute bursts due to no spanning. It took some concentration to make sure that one camera always had enough run-time left to cover one song, if I had the other camera set for a wider view, or focussed on another musician. unfortunately I've sold my two 5D's now as I no longer have time to photograph weddings outside of my day job.

  • yskuntoyskunto

    Well, then may be a good option is to sold your G3 and buy yourself a GH1, GH2, GF1, or hackable G2. Using PTOOL, these camera can control the shutter, iso, and aperture.

    Or you could buy a new Panasonic body that can control the three exposure variables. I think a new G6 is the most affordable option for your needs.
  • sadanorakmansadanorakman

    Thanks yskunto. Unfortunately, the GH1, GF1, and G2, only shoot 720P unless I'm mistaken? So I'd be swapping full HD to gain manual control... of course I'd rather have both.

    I certainly understand why GH2's still fetch so much money used... very frustrating indeed!

    It almost makes me want to save for a GH4, or a proper AG-AF101 video camera... these are popping up on ebay for around £1000-£1200 used (body only), and have all the features I could want, like focus peaking, zebras, they even have proper balanced XLR line inputs.

    Now if only I had a couple of grand laying around to play with!!!

    What about a used Panny FZ1000, is it any good for video with it's 1" sensor? has it been hacked for a higher bit rate yet? Do I really want to look at shooting 4K, when absolutely nothing I own will play 4K? (currently own: 1080 projector, 60" 1080 LCD TV, 42" 1080 Plasma, 15.5" 1080 laptop, 10" 1080 android tablet, 24" 1920 x 1200 wide colour-gamut computer monitor). I don't plan on changing any of these items out in the next three years to be honest.

  • yskuntoyskunto

    GH1 able to shoot 1080. I do not know if you seriously considered to make a living from videography. I considered myself as a beginner and only do video for hobby. Therefore, a very capable 720p devices is enough to serve me as it is fast to do editing using an old hardware and software for HD video.

    But if you seriously want to pursue video editing, you already know the answer: GH4 or something that capable of 4K (FZ1000 or LX100), XLR audio, latest software and hardware for editing, etc.
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