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GH2 - How to get a constant lens aperture?
  • willianalemanwillianaleman

    Shooting in Movie Mode, no matter what lens I use, mechanic or electronic with GH2, the aperture in the camera changes accordingly with the light source as soon as I pan or tilt up/down. Is there a way to lock the iris within the camera, the ISO, shutter speed or wherever is causing this behavior in the camera? I'm looking for a zoom lens with constant aperture for the GH2.

    Thanks in advance for any help.

    Here is a list of lens used at the moment, they all behave the same:

    Panasonic - 14-42 - 14 140mm

    Nikon: - 135 mm 1:2.8 - 50mm 1:1.8 - 52mm 1:14 - 85-205mm 1:8 - 300mm 1:4.5

  • 6 Replies sorted by
  • balazerbalazer

    With the top mode dial set to Creative Movie Mode (the movie projector icon), go into the Motion Picture menu, and set the Exposure mode to M (manual). That also forces the ISO mode to manual.

    You'll find GH2 camera setting recommendations in the FAQs.  There's a link at the top of this page.

    To get a constant f-number while zooming with the Lumix 14-42 and 14-140 lenses, zoom out all the way and then set the aperture setting to the widest setting available at the longest focal length you intend to use, e.g., 5.8 for 140 mm. It won't be a truly constant f-number, but the camera will approximate it by adjusting the aperture in increments as you zoom in and out.

    There's a list of lenses with constant f-stops here: http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/859/video-friendly-lenses-for-lumix-dslrs/p1

  • willianalemanwillianaleman

    balazer, WOW! Thank you very much. It's working. I have notice that this setting only works in recording mode. In preview mode it gets disengaged. Thanks once again, we were looking for the solution to this behavior for more than three days. Maybe a new patch in the future would address this behavior in preview mode.

  • balazerbalazer

    Manual exposure mode should work the same when you are recording video or not. It sounds like something else is wrong. Try resetting your camera. (Menu, Setup, Reset) And make sure you leave the mode dial in Creative Movie Mode (the projector icon) while you are shooting.

  • sanzadezsanzadez

    @willianaleman I think there is a setting that says something like "constant preview" in the menu options. Don't recall if thats exactly what it is called or not. You want that on. I believe that may fix the problem.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    @sanzadez

    The constant preview setting only has an affect on the Manual stills mode. The manual movie modes always use constant preview. What you see is what you get(minus the slight color and exposure change that happens when you press record).

  • willianalemanwillianaleman

    balazer, sanzadez, and mpgxsvcd, resetting the camera as balazer suggested resolved the problem. Thanks!

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