GH4 footage and rig pic

[Cp 29]

Hi all,

 

Here's a 2 and a half minute video from the Panasonic GH4 in Cat Island last week:

 

 

I also wanted to show this shoulder/stability rig that Ryan made up for me as I was leaving for the airport. It made the whole thing a bit larger and more awkward on land, but underwater it was terrific. I would typically move the monitor higher when I shot, but it was nice to be able to move around as needed for the sun angle.

 

 

Cp

 

 

[thetrickster 328]

How you finding the 3 floats - are they 60 x 250mm or 60 x300mm?

 

Never seen something like that before, an underwater dolly!

[Cp 29]

How you finding the 3 floats - are they 60 x 250mm or 60 x300mm?

 

Never seen something like that before, an underwater dolly!

 

250mm.

 

I'm finding them at my local Nauticam dealer

 

While I cannot give any opinion on them (forum rules), I can tell you that with this rig, they were just shy of adding enough buoyancy. I think a lighter tripod base (instead of the large kessler) might make enough of a difference to get it very close to neutral, or could try difference sized arms.

 

Cheers,

Cp

[thetrickster 328]

Chris, its okay... I have 4x of the 60x200mm ones already...

 

I was just surprised about you only having 3

[Cp 29]

Chris, its okay... I have 4x of the 60x200mm ones already...

 

I was just surprised about you only having 3

 

 

Sometime I added a 4th one at the end of the rig there (hence that 1" ball). I could move it up and down and it helped with fore/aft trim.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Cp

[Nick Hope 151]

Wow, that really is up close and personal!

 

This video gives me a lot of confidence in the GH4 for underwater W/A use.

 

Interesting rig. Personally I'm waiting for the dedicated GH4 housing and will build something when the Shogun housing comes out too.

 

Chris, I'm interested in what settings you used. White balance, ISO etc.. At no point was it obviously apparent that you were using lights, so if you were using lights, you did a great job of balancing them with the available sunlight.

[thetrickster 328]

Nick, as to the shotgun - what a beast!

I'm really waiting/hoping for Atomos to get another Ninja to market - even if its til next year. Not sure I need a 7" screen and SDI In/Out, I also think the housing will be rather large! But good to hear that Nauticam are looking at housings for them.

[Nick Hope 151]

Large stuff on your rig increases the inertia, which improves steadiness. I love large stuff on my rig for non-tripod shots. Plus, 7" should be a dream for u/w monitoring. Size when travelling is the main downside.

[thetrickster 328]

Tell me about it, I'm off to Sri Lanka on Tuesday to dive HMS Hermes with my GH4. Talk about Kit... CCR, Regs, Camera, Dive Kit, Spares, Lights, Chargers it just goes on and on!!

 

Quite agree about the inertia, as to screen size maybe I'll be a convert once I've seen a Shotgun in the flesh

[Pete L 48]

Nick, I'm not so sure you will need a shogun with the GH4, it records ALOT of colour already. Apart from needing a higher bitrate than the 100mbps internally.

[Nick Hope 151]

Yes, I am wondering that Pete. A DP4 might be enough.

[Pete L 48]

I think a housing for a shogun is going to be huge compared to the size of the GH4. Maybe good as a monitor option for a larger housing of a full sized camera but probably very awkward on a GH4.

I will test out the WB & colour grading after a few more dives & considering I was prepared to be using an external device to capture 4K in higher colour space long before I even bought the camera, I am very surprised at how much colour is available for grading so right now I am not going to bother with an external recorder.

Of course I will do some more testing before I make a definite decision on that.

[thetrickster 328]

I think with any 4:2:0 8 bit footage - nail the WB, and the grading 'range' is plenty.

 

I did shoot some footage in AWB and it was blue to the hills - did the colour match thing in FCPX to a some MWB footage - and yes it did get it close - but for sure it aint no RAW / 12bit file

If you want some examples, I'll upload them

My ninja is mainly for Viewfinder (Better position) and Focusing Aids. It does have an SSD in it, but I don't use it (much)

[Cp 29]

Chris, I'm interested in what settings you used. White balance, ISO etc.. At no point was it obviously apparent that you were using lights, so if you were using lights, you did a great job of balancing them with the available sunlight.

 

Manual white balance, ISO usually 800, sometimes 400 iirc, occasional 1600 for cloudy and deeper. I was using Keldan lights... first day I was using the CRI heads, but switched over to the cyan heads plus filter to get the balanced look you mention. I found the manual white balance relatively easy to do and the camera gives you a clear answer as to what is wrong if it won't take the WB, i.e. "the scene is too bright...".

 

Interesting rig. Personally I'm waiting for the dedicated GH4 housing and will build something when the Shogun housing comes out too.

 

I saw drawings of the GH4 housing yesterday. And that's all I can say about that

 

Cheers,

Chris

[thetrickster 328]

Chris. You say Cyan head + filter. Can you tell more?

The colours in the video were great.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Interceptor121 719]

 

Manual white balance, ISO usually 800, sometimes 400 iirc, occasional 1600 for cloudy and deeper. I was using Keldan lights... first day I was using the CRI heads, but switched over to the cyan heads plus filter to get the balanced look you mention. I found the manual white balance relatively easy to do and the camera gives you a clear answer as to what is wrong if it won't take the WB, i.e. "the scene is too bright...".

 

 

I saw drawings of the GH4 housing yesterday. And that's all I can say about that

 

Cheers,

Chris

 

Why such a high range of ISO? Did you want to ensure the apertures were small to have corner sharpness? Seems like the conditions in your video were ideal

[peterbkk 110]

Hi all,

 

I also wanted to show this shoulder/stability rig that Ryan made up for me as I was leaving for the airport. It made the whole thing a bit larger and more awkward on land, but underwater it was terrific. I would typically move the monitor higher when I shot, but it was nice to be able to move around as needed for the sun angle.

 

Cp

 

 

 

Can you please tell us how much the whole set up weighs: camera, lens, housing, port, lights, arms?

 

Is it small enough to carried in pieces in a big backpack onto a plane? (if one ignores the carry-on weight limit)

 

Regards

Peter

[Pete L 48]

I weighed my housing with the GH4 body, 12-50mm lens & port/gear to suit & it weighed 3.2 kilograms!

So you would still need to add arms & lights to that.

[peterbkk 110]

Sounds like a manageable weight. My current rig weighs 14kg, double the carry-on allowance - and that does not include the battery chargers for camera, lights and monitor. I get away with carrying it on to planes in Asia but it's not doing my back any good...

 

 

Regards

Peter

[Pete L 48]

Chris, what did you use to WB off? A white/grey slate or your hand or something similar?

I am off to dive with the Great Whites in South Australia in 2 weeks so i'll be shooting with the 7-14mm also.

Cheers Pete.

[Cp 29]

Chris, what did you use to WB off? A white/grey slate or your hand or something similar?

I am off to dive with the Great Whites in South Australia in 2 weeks so i'll be shooting with the 7-14mm also.

Cheers Pete.

 

Mostly the palm of my hand, but the shark belly works too. The hand is nice because it has a little bit of yellow and magenta in it such that the WB doesn't go too far. I am trying to come up with a good white balance card that would be good for different depths; I made one up last year and it worked well for some depths but not all.

 

Why such a high range of ISO? Did you want to ensure the apertures were small to have corner sharpness? Seems like the conditions in your video were ideal

 

Shooting at 96fps mean the shutter speed should be about 1/200, and I also wanted to be able to shoot at f/8 or f/11 to make focus easier. For a static subject, not to important, but you can't exactly place the sharks where you want them.

 

Cheers,

Cp

[Cp 29]

Chris. You say Cyan head + filter. Can you tell more?

The colours in the video were great.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks. The Keldan LUNA 8 lights have an interchangeable head; several heads are available including the two I used here:

CRI - high color rendition index (light "quality")

Cyan - high color temperature (for use with filters)

 

Cheers,

Cp

[Cp 29]

 

Can you please tell us how much the whole set up weighs: camera, lens, housing, port, lights, arms?

 

Is it small enough to carried in pieces in a big backpack onto a plane? (if one ignores the carry-on weight limit)

 

Regards

Peter

 

HI Peter,

Sorry, I didn't weigh it. And I carried two complete kits (GH4 and 70D) which were inter-mingled, so not sure about the fitting into a backpack. But I carried almost all of the two rigs in a roller and a backpack. Roller of course got gate checked on the little puddle jumper to Cat Island.

 

Cheers,

Chris

[Interceptor121 719]

even if you shoot at 96 fps what is your final output format? What can play 96 or even 48 fps properly?

[thetrickster 328]

Thanks Chris,

 

What lenses were you using with filters?

 

As to frame rates.

Wasn't it proved that recording at 60fps and slowing down in FCPX or Premier actually produced a much shaper image than using the VFR features.. (Using optical flow blending).

 

 

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