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In this Personal View thread AndyS mentions that Gh4 footage is not at all filmic:
Others disagree. Thankfully, @AndyS gives us an example of Filmic Footage shot on his hacked GF2 here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/54430#Comment_54430
It helps to refer to concrete examples of Filmic Footage to keep the discussion from becoming too theoretical.
@AndyS also made this comment on that thread Someone posted a "cinematic" Gh4 clip above. Not bad - but not truly "filmic". A lot of grading clearly went into it, and still it does not look truly 'organic' Again @AndyS that cinematic video you discribe was taken with the GH4 and it came straight from the camera with no grading. What you gotta say about that?? Or are you gonna say you didn't say it? Imagine if a lil grading was done to it. You say you are an indie film maker just show only any 30 seconds of any of your indie films to demonstrate film organic look.
There was a reason we all stopped using video cameras and went to DSLRs or m43. It was the "look" and the image "quality". If I see a new camera looking "video-ish" I would like to be able to say so without being called a 'troll'.
I wanted to buy a GH4. The whole reason I write this is because I want someone to give me a good reason to trade my GH2 for one. I have not yet seen such "filmic" GH4 footage. Please show me I am wrong.
@AndyS There are many reasons to buy a camera, all of those who have purchased a GH4, I guess have done so by gathering their own evidence and making a judgement based on "their" own needs. If you don't see what you are looking for in this or any other camera, moving on is probably advisable. You are not going to find that others who have decided that this camera is right for "them", rejoicing in reasons why this camera is not right for you. You will also find (and may have found already) that when you question other people's judgement, this is often misunderstood as inferring that other's judgement is wrong, this isn't in fact the case, it is only that other's reasons are different to your own.
I think that is your problem right here.. "I want someone to give me a good reason" nobody here is able to give you a good reason.. Because simply, your reasons are not our reasons.. Remember that questioning other people's judgement will lead you in a less than positive direction. Enjoy your GH2 until a camera comes along that satisfies your own reasons to change :)
I actually kind of agree that gh4 does not have "filmic" look. I can't really define what that is. I don't think it's only oversharp, but more complex not easily defined things like highlight roll-off, how it handles colors, is contrast too much on object's edge, etc.
Now can most of this be "fixed" with proper lighting and grading? Absolutely. For me, I'm holding off on a gh4 until I see the shogun recorded 4k with 4:2:2 color. Same with a7. I don't thing there's enough A7 footage out there to really judge just yet.
I have a BlackMagic Cinema Camera. With all its limitations ad quirks, the BMCC it's way more filmic out of the box. And grades way better than a gh4 or a7 probably ever will. When I look at the footage, non-filmic never pops into mind. But a gh4 is miles better for eng-type filming and media gathering. I would never even think about using Black Magic for that. It would be like being beating myself on the head with a baseball bat.
This filmic, not filmic thing is like the difference on your TV between DEMO and FILM. All the settings together make the difference.
I think a gh4 can look filmic, but probably not without a fair amount of work in post. And that should be easier with more color info.
If you really want to know what the difference between the video of any given camera and filmstocks, talk to the developers of, say, filmconvert. They can tell you what the objective differences are. It ain't voodoo.
Of course, there a million other factors: light film the way a lot of video gets lit, and film will look like video. Content also affects perception of "filmic" or "cinematic".
Another issue is projection: film-originated material projected on film is different from the same material projected digitally. Quentin Tarantino claims digital projection is killing cinema, but even if you don't go far, there are objective differences.
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