One of the biggest reasons that filmmakers are falling in love with the GH4 is because of it’s amazing ability to shoot at high frame rates internally. No other DSLR/DSLM has the ability to over crank the way the GH4 can, which offers variable frame rates at up to 96 frames per second. This is pretty astounding, and certainly makes the GH4 an incredibly powerful to own – but unfortunately not all frame rates are going to work as well as others.
If you want to overcrank on the GH4, there are two main ways that you can do it. The first is the old fashioned way (as you would have done with a GH3 or any camera that shoots 60p), which is to shoot at a true 60p setting and slow down your 60p video file to 40% (24p) in post. The other option is to use the variable frame rate setting in the menu to shoot at anywhere from 2fps all the way up to 96fps. If you’re using this option, the GH4 will actually adjust the clip internally so that your file plays back in 24p (in slow-motion) as soon as you’re done recording, much like a RED camera or other higher end cinema cameras would. It’s tempting to use the VFR mode on the GH4 all the time as there is so much flexibility with regards to what frame rate you can use, and it also saves time in post since you don’t need to slow down your footage. The caveat however is that the data rate is on the lower side.
When shooting on any of the frame rate settings in VFR mode, you are limited to a bitrate of 100mbps. This may sound like a lot, especially since you may be accustomed to shooting with DSLRs that have very low bitrates (17mbps, for instance), but when you get up into the higher frame rates this really isn’t enough. To put things in perspective, when you’re shooting at 100mbps at 24p you are essentially spreading out that 10mbps of data over only 24 frames, whereas when you’re shooting at 96fps you are getting the exact same amount of data per second, but now you are spreading it out over 4 times the amount of frames, which means each frame gets 4 times less information in it. In the end, this translates to much poorer final image quality than you might hope for.
When 96fps Is Useable
In most instances, I would highly advise against using 96fps on the GH4 as it just doesn’t deliver great results. The images can appear blocky, thin, and they tend to fall apart very quickly when you’re color grading. Trying to do any sort of color work on it makes you feel like you’re working with iPhone footage, or an older camcorder where there is little or no room to play with in post. The image can also be quite grainy and will have compression artifacts as a results of the low bitrate. That said however, there are situations where it is useable – namely in very well lit situations.
If you shoot at 96fps in broad daylight for example, you may just be able to get away with it. Since you need to use a 180 degree shutter (meaning your shutter speed is twice that of your frame rate), when shooting at 96fps your shutter speed is effectively 1/192, which is very high considering you are used to shooting at around 1/48 for 24p footage. This means that if you’re attempting to shoot any type of night exterior (or even most night interiors for that matter), you will have a very hard time getting the right exposure unless you have a very big lighting kit, and know exactly how to use it. In the middle of the day however, this isn’t a problem since you have such a bright natural light source (the sun) working for you. Ultimately this allows you to easily get a bright enough exposure to compensate for your frame rate setting, and you’ll be able to get results that are far more useable… Would I personally shoot at this frame rate though? Very rarely, if ever – even in bright sunlight, since the quality still isn’t going to be as strong as it would be at other frame rates. But I would certainly consider it as an option in a pinch if I absolutely needed that extra speed in camera.
60p vs 48fps
So 96fps clearly isn’t the best option for VFR mode, but how do some of the other frame rate settings hold up to the gold standard of 60p that we are all accustomed to? From my experience, they can hold up pretty well – especially if you’re shooting at 48fps or below. Shooting anywhere near 96fps is going to be problematic, and once you drop down to 60fps territory you are naturally better off shooting in 60p mode and slowing down in post (since you can shoot at 200mbps in 60p, as opposed to only 100mbps in 60fps variable frame rate mode). But once you drop below 60fps, things start to get much more useable, specifically at the 48fps mark. When you shoot at 48 frames per second, you are effectively slowing down your footage by exactly 50% meaning you’re cutting that 100mbps data rate in half, which comes out to 50mbps – not bad at all. It wasn’t long ago that many of us were clamoring for GH2 hacks that would let us shoot at 50mbps since the quality was so much better than the stock options on the camera, and in many shooting situations 50mbps is more than enough.
So why would you shoot at 48fps at a lower bitrate when you could shoot at 60p with a higher bitrate? There are many reasons for this, ranging from saving time in post conforming the footage (on quick turnaround jobs), to matching the frame rate with other cameras (maybe your GH4 is acting as a b-cam for an EPIC which is shooting at 24fps). Or in my case this past week, I used it for a music video shoot. As many of you know, often times when you shoot a music video you want to increase the speed of the song during playback so that you can overcrank your shots in camera, and get a slow motion effect in post while the band/singer is still sync’d up to the track. This was exactly what was done on my shoot last week… The music track was doubled in speed and so was the frame rate, which allowed for some nice in camera slow motion without going overboard. If we had attempted to speed up the song even more to match with my 60p setting, it would have been impossible for the band to keep up with the speed. So even though I would have preferred to shoot at 60p as I am always trying to get the absolute best possible image quality, 48fps ended up being a happy medium and gave us some great results. Here’s one of the frame grabs from the shoot, shot at 48fps:
48fps in this case worked very well and I was really happy to see that the images not only looked nice in camera, but graded well too. That said, I still wouldn’t recommend using this setting over 60p unless you are shooting in a situation like this where you absolutely need to. 60p is always going to give you slightly better quality, and in my opinion it is well worth the extra few minutes in post that it takes to slow down the footage. Not to mention that you can get some really nice slow motion with 60p since you’re able to pull the footage down to only 40% speed, which isn’t really that far off from the 25% speed you would get while shooting at 96fps (which is very slow!).
Over the next little while I will update this post (or add a new post) with some screen grabs comparing 48fps, 96fps and 60p, so be sure to check back soon.
66 Comments
Jacques
atIf I’m shooting 60p for band performance daylight ..
Should I speed up my song to 200%?
Im going to mix 48fps (narrative scenes) and 60p band performance..
What would you recommend should my sequence settings be?
Will 25p be fine for final export?
Thanks!
Noam Kroll
atHi Jacques! If you are outputting to 25p, I would recommend shooting at 50p for the performance and playing the song at 200%.
Bodie Larden
atHello! I hope this is still active, I shot on my G4 at 60p 1/120 shutter and slowed it by 40% in post at 24p but it was still jittery i was wondering what it could have been, i made a video using both the VFR setting at 60p which was pretty smooth slow motion opposed to the footage i slowed down in post.
I was thinking it could have been the shutter speed setting nut im not sure, can you offer any advice or ideas on what i could do, Thank you 🙂
Noam Kroll
atSounds like maybe the shutter speed was not right. Are you 100% sure it was at 1/125?
salomons
atHi Noam,
No matter what SS i use, the 25p shooting looks terrible on my TV, a lot of stuttering effects (a lot of studders). On the other hand, the 50p shooting looks gorgeous but found it like a “Soap Opera” streaming but I could slow it down indeed, right..
Do you have a standard setting for 25p so it won’t stutter? Should i increase SS or slow it?
Thank you for your help 😉
Noam Kroll
atThe trick is really in your panning speed. If you can slow down your pans, your images will be smoother. I wish I had a better answer for you, but that’s always been the challenge for us when shooting 24p!
Darren Bye
atActually, I’ll take the using NLE for slow motion back. I showed an audience footage of slow motion direct from camera and slow motion from Slowed down on NLE. Camera motion won.
I will now compare the GH4 slow motion with the FS700 slow motion. However, GH4 seems to win in terms of ease and speed when using slow motion.
Noam Kroll
atInteresting to hear… Appreciate your input, Darren.
Darren
atHi Noam,
I guess this thread has been exhausted, so I don’t expect any reply. However, just wondered if the GH4 is a bad idea at 96fps, then I would imagine that a Sony FS700, recording to internal media at 28mbps, at a 100/120fps would be far worse? The FS700 being the king of budget Slo-Mo cameras.
Thanks,
Darren.
Noam Kroll
atHey Darren – I haven’t shot with the FS700 in a very long time, so I couldn’t compare it to the GH4… That said, it may use different compression and still appear cleaner than the GH4, despite the differences in bitrate.
Darren
atThanks, Noam. I now have a GH4 and am impressed with the slow motion performance, in that the performance is good enough to integrate with normal speed images. I did need to tweak the camera settings a bit and am using a fast prime lens. However, I’m now thinking, hey, why not just use my NLE to do the slow motion. I have more control and less stress with having to switch the camera to slow motion. The image performance being as good using NLE. Just need to take care with motion artefacts.
I will still keep the GH4, as for the size it is a very powerful image performing camera.
Noam Kroll
atAwesome to hear, Darren! Glad it’s working out for you.
Clare @traveltheworldfamily
atThis is great! Thanks so much!
Noam Kroll
atAny time!
Peet Gelderblom
atHi Noam! Your articles are always very insightful–keep ’em coming! I was just wondering: Will the image quality at 96fps be acceptable if you shoot in the Monochrome picture profile? You’d think the lack of color information would leave room for a better image at a lower bitrate.
Noam Kroll
atThat’s a great question… I never thought of trying this, but theoretically you might be on to something. I would give it a try and see! Please let me know your thoughts if you do test it out.
Keith Hammond
at1. I read that Peter Jackson used a 270 degree shutter when filming the Hobbit so he could use footage at both 48 and 24 FPS. His DP thought the 270 looked good on the 24 footage making a little crisper and the 48 looked really smooth. What are your thoughts? Im currently using synchro scan set to 270 which means my shutter can’t accidentally get changed by much. Mostly doing this when Im filming without knowing how I’m going to edit in post –
2. Have discovered that panning with 29.97 is SO much smoother than 25p. At first I thought it was because my iMac refresh rate is 60hz but thats not the only reason. Any way you know of, of smoothing 25p panning other than the 7 second rule?
Thanks for advice
Keith
Noam Kroll
atHey Keith! Interesting about Peter Jackson shooting at 270. I would be interested in trying that myself, however even at 180 degrees, the motion should still be smooth, since that is the standard for cinema.
As far as panning, unfortunately I wish I had better advice for you! The only thing is really the slow panning/7 second rule as you mentioned, and ensuring you have a camera that handles motion well. Some digital cinema cameras do a much better job than others.
Ron
atHi Noam,
I will be making a commercial soon. We will be making various clips and some footage must be slow motion (jump into the water, throwing ball while letting the dog out). I want to film in 4k and in post downscale it to 1080p. I like the looks of 24p but here we use PAL (Netherlands). What is the best way to combine the slow motion shots and the normal ones at 24p? Should I set it to NTSC and film the slow motion scenes in 60p?
Noam Kroll
atHey Ron! If you are able to master to 24p, I would definitely recommend following the steps you outlined (shoot 4K at 24p and 1080 at 60p). Alternatively, I believe you can also record in the PAL variations on the GH4 (I haven’t tried myself as I am in the US),but that of course would be 25p and 50p. Hope this helps!
Bernardo
atHey Noam,
If all my footage is in 1080 50p, should I edit in 25p timeline and slowdown the parts I want and keep the other ones at normal speed?
Or should I start recording normal speed footage at 1080p 25p and slowmotion footage at 1080p 50p?
Noam Kroll
atGood question, Bernardo. Either option could give you acceptable results, but personally I would recommend the latter (shooting slow motion only when you need to), so you are always maximizing your bit rate.
LargeScaleAscent
atThanks Noam – and my apologies for the typos.
So it sounds like I should get the full 100 mbs, which should be good quality!
For my purposes, I would need a smaller interval of stills than the one second minimum offered by the Time Lapse function on the FZ2500 to maximize smoothness. And the notion of a 360° shutter angle is appealing to effectively have no gaps in my capture (I am shooting full frame DSLR for high quality stills while the FZ2500 is running at 2 fps).
Noam Kroll
atGood point! In that case, I suggest keeping it at the full 100Mbps and moving ahead with your original plan. Best of luck and I hope it goes well for you!
LargeScaleAscent
atHi Noam,
I wonder if the bit rate-divided-by-frame rate works the other way? I just picked up the FZ2500 specific to use it at 2 fps 360° for meteorological time lapse (using 360° to hopefully eliminate any rolling shutter issues with lightning, and to maximize smooth motion whit the 30 fps output).
Will each have of the frames in a given second have that much more info packed into them, or dose the firmware limit this?
Noam Kroll
atGreat question, Patrick. I haven’t used this camera myself, but if I had to guess I would assume that you will still have the same bit rate per second of recorded video (since it is likely going to compress your file into a standard frame rate that just stretches every 2 frames over each second). That said, you could also consider shooting a stills time lapse to really maximize your image quality…
slawek_r
atHello! I record movie at 96 FPS (100 MB / 24p – 4K) – How many % must I set in the Premiere (speed / duration) to make the movie speed normal?
Or how to record in slow motion and then speed it up to 100% of normal speed?
Noam Kroll
atHey there! On the GH4, if you record at 96fps it will automatically slow it down in camera, so you don’t need to adjust anything in post. If you want to speed it up to regular speed, I believe you would need to adjust the speed to 4x (400%).
Peter Jan Hoekstra
atThanks Noam,
Stupid i did not think of that (filming at 25p do slowmo 60p with 50% at 25p timeline).
I testet it at 50p and set the whole movie to 25p that was not ok for the ‘no’ slowmo part :).
Thanks for the tip!
I learn a lot more thanks to you. I also set out the autofocus. Set the ISO to 800 inside filming and outside about 200. Shutter 120/125 and it looks a bit better inside filming but not what i hoped. I must film very slowly to get not blurry faces which a thougt that will not happen with GH4.
I hope you are right with 24/25p in 4k will be also ok for filming because 50p more frames does not matter always (when it does matter?). I must test that if the wheater gets better and so. Inside at a birthday party it looked so that the 50p full hd was better than the 4k filming. But i will test that more with the 800 ISO and shutter speed. Slowmo in 4k will be difficult than so than i must go to 25p timeline full hd and film slowmo at 50p. Or just take the less qaulity for a bit slowmo at 50p timeline or 4k.
I do have 2 questions 🙂
1. i noticed somewhere that GH4 you can set shutter angle to 180 degrees so it always takes the good shutter speed. Do you agree to that too? Or do you reccomend still 50p set shutter to 125/120.
I did test it and it look maybe a bit better inside filming at 180 degrees. But ok maybe its only in my head.
2. at full had or 4k you can set it to 100 Mbps bitspeed. I thought that was great (older interlaced camera was 17 Mbps).
Steps i do take to make the movie is:
-look at the mp4 file at details: it says Video data speed 92934kpbs and total bitprocesspeed 94444 kbps.
So i think thats that thing of 100 Mbps….?
-in my render program i can set the normal variable bit rate. (normally it says 24.000.000 max bps en average 12.000.000 bps). I do think there i have to set it to max 95.000.000 and average 47.000.000 because i filmed at 100 Mbps and the file mp4 did say also about that.
After rendering the file of the film is bigger than a 24/12 and at details the file says:
max speed 43572kbps and average 43765kbps. So it did not make that 95/47.
But ok its more than the standard 24/12 at the end.
Do i talk about the same thing? The video did look a bit better than the 24/12 standard.
On YouTube i thought i did read they set it lower so it maybe does make not any sence i film at 100mbps i can also go to film at 50mpbs than because my program does not make it 100 and maybe also YouTube does not make it that high.
What is your meaning about the higher Mpbs filming and can i better film 100 (or 50?)Mbps and leave the rendering at standard 24/12 or must i set it higher at rendering as above (looking at details mp4 file and set max and average to 50%)?
A lot of questions again. Learning more and more. Did not think so many things you must know for a simple filming thing. Big respect for your work!!!!
I think i can now film with only these important basic things and leave everything for what it is :).
Just for normal basic filmer/filming:
-autofocus out
-shutter speed 120/125 or angle 180
-ISO check inside about 800 outside about 200;
Than testing outside once againg 4k, 4k cinema?, 1080. Hoping 4k and only 25frames is good (and better than 1080p 50p) enough and no 50frames needed with speeding cars.
Thanks again and greeting from Holland and big sorry maybe a lot of stupid questions but for me important i think 🙂
PJ
Noam Kroll
atHey PJ! I definitely suggest using 180 degree shutter just to be safe. That will always be your best bet (so you don’t accidentally forget to switch it).
Also – I’m not sure what software you are using, but I typically don’t adjust the bitrate of my files while editing… That’s usually something done in camera. You can however use an external recorder (like a Shogun) to record at a higher bit rate if that’s what you’re looking for.
And all the rest of your settings in terms of turning off autofocus, setting shutter speed, etc. look great!
Peter Jan
atHello Noam,
One more thing i just ask myself.
The shutter at record 60p in a 24p time must set to 1/120. Is that only if i want to record for slow motion? If so where to set shutter wenn normally record 60p?
Thats my last question. Than i fully understand what to do thanks to your advice!
Greetings and thanks
PJ
Noam Kroll
atHi PJ! The shutter should be set to 1/125 if you are recording 60p, whether you are slowing it down or not.
Peter Jan
atThank you so much Noam!
I understand that if i want to do some slowmotion in a clip i better can record in 50/60p than. And better not in 4K because slowmotion is not ok than.
1.
Is 50p or 60p for youtube any difference? Because if the more frames its better than i simply record in 60p.
2.
Does it matter if you film 50p and do editing on the timeline 25p that it will look less nice instead of 50p editing? Or won’t you see any difference?
I think than i film racecars always in 1080 50/60p and edit 25/30p. With some slowmotion maybe in it at editing it will be perfect. And with no slowmotion at the end i can edit also at 50/60p but if no difference i can do also 25/30p editing.
With 4k and only 24p with gh4 it maybe will not look as good as 1080p 50/60p for speeding cars. Or ofcourse if the season starts i just have to test it.
Thanks again for the help!
Greetings
PJ
Noam Kroll
atNo problem! My answers are below:
1. More frames isn’t always better, however 60p is generally the standard for NTSC countries (like the united stated) and 50p is more standardized in PAL countries/Europe. Either way will look good, so you might want to choose based on where you are located.
2. If you are going to edit on a 25p timeline, it is totally fine, so long as you are slowing your 50p footage down by 50%. If you are keeping your footage at real speed, then you may as well shoot 25p in the first place, or edit 50p footage on a 50p timeline.
Hope this makes sense…
Peter Jan
atHello Noam,
I just bought the gh4 14-140mm.
It is for racecars and teams to film a bit.
I did film with a cheap JVC Camera Interlaced 25i. It was terrible with a little movement….
I have a few questions i hope thats ok for a starter….
1)
Is it right that i understand that the 4k mp4 LPCM, 100Mbps, 50hz PAL with this camera and movement is good enough? ( i know i must test it).
2)
Is it so that if i want to do slow motion i better do that myself with my sony movie studio suite with the original file as above than to do 96fps fullHD?
3)
Is it so that its not ok to make 4k movie and full hd or and 96fps on same timeline-project in sony moviestudio suite? Because to make the project the time do must have exactly the same record files ( must be all 4k and all 25frames)
4)
If the movie will not look ok with speeding cars i will film in Full HD 1080p 50frames. Than also its better to do slowmotion with the sony program instead of the 96frames that brings it back to 24 frames (there we go again: on the timeline in the sony programm it will have 50 frames and a 24 frames file where i think it should be the same than better record Full HD also in 25frames so its the same as 96fps slowmotion.
5)
Is it better in al ways filming speeding moments to set the ‘continu autofocus’ out? Because i think it will not make the film smooth if its on because the camera will try to focus all the time.
6)
I did read its a worth to try if 4k filming is ok to record it with the sony program to 1080P. I will try that to. There you go than if you record 4k 24frames you have to burn the project in Full HD 1080p in to 25 frames? Or can you burn it to 50-60 frames or is thaat stupid?
Sorry for the many questions. I hope you do not mind. It would help me a lot with the slow motion and the differences on the time of the sony program where i do think the whole time must have the same files with same frames and nit a 24 fps and a 50fps….
Many many thanks for answering already
Greetings
PJ
Noam Kroll
atHi PJ! Here are my answers below:
1. For slow motion, you want to record at 50p or 60p.
2. I suggest recording in 60p in camera, and then slowing the file down to 40% in a 24p timeline.
3. I’ve never used Sony Movie Studio, so I’m not sure if you can mix and match frame rates in a timeline.
4. If you want your final product to be 25fps, then you can shoot your footage at 50p in camera and slow down to 50% in your timeline. Just make sure your shutter is set to at least 1/125 in camera to get the best results.
5. I don’t recommend using autofocus at any time.
6. I think you are asking if you can record 4K 24p and then master to 1080/25p. I wouldn’t recommend that, since the frame rate conversion might look a bit funny. Either record 25p or 50p for best results!
Robert Boxer
atHi
Hope you can help
I have a GH4
shooting weddings
camera set on MP4 (LPCM) 200M 50P
when i slow down footage in prempro CC it is jerky
How can i fix this
robert
Noam Kroll
atHi Robert – how much are you slowing down the footage? Also, what is your timeline set to? I would recommend editing in a 24p or 25p timeline and slowing it down by 50%. If you try to slow it down in a 50p timeline, it will look jerky. Hope this helps!
fabio
atHave you seen Amalfi in slow motion, 96fps Gh4? Look brilliant, isn’it?
Noam Kroll
atNo, but I will check it out! There are exceptions to every rule, and I’m sure 96fps can look good under the right conditions… But in my opinion it’s hard to achieve great results under many common shooting scenarios.
Abdullah
atHi Noam,
Is it possible to shoot 96 fps or 75 fps with the digital extender on. I have tried but cudnt configure, to get both working at the same time, namely the VFR and EXT.
Noam Kroll
atI haven’t tried this myself and unfortunately don’t have a GH4 to test it on anymore… But I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t possible.
Tom
atHi Noam, I have read on the web (not remember where exactly), that you can film in 96fps, then upscale that footage to 4K, and then downscale in the render to fullhd. It seems the conversion works magic! Sure, the footage have to be well lit.
I do not have the GH4, maybe can you make some test?
Noam Kroll
atHi Tom, thanks for the comment! You can certainly do this, however the quality will never be the same. The amount of compression/artifacting in the 96fps slow motion footage will be apparent whether you go to 4K or not, so I always recommend sticking with 60p.
Damian
atThanks for the very easy to understand article – I just did a drone test flight ahead of a very important (and unrepeatable) shoot tomorrow where I thought I’d use 96fps for added smoothness – but freaked out when I saw my test shots. A quick google brought me here – I’ll be sticking to 4k now even though the project is only 1080 in the end!
Noam Kroll
atGlad to hear it helped! Thanks for letting me know Damian.
Carlos
atHello,
How much should I increase music speed to have sync in a music video in the following frame rates: 48fps/ 60fps/ 96fps? Thank you!!
Noam Kroll
atJust answered – sorry for the delay!
Carlos Faria
atHey Noam! Great post man.
Please, can I ask how much I you have to increase “%” speed of the music regarding each frame rate:
48fps = ???%
60fps = ???%
96fps = ???%
Thank you!
Noam Kroll
atHey Carlos! It would be:
48fps = 2x
60fps = 2.5x
96fps = 4x
Keep in mind, that’s based on a 24p project.
Nano
athi i wonder if you ask my questions. 24 fps = 1/48, 30 fps = 1/60, and if 60 fps = 1/120. my questions are when we use between 24 fps and 30 fps? and if we want to make footage slow and normal in 24 fps sequence, what’s shutter speed should i use on 60 fps? cause when i’m using 60 fps 1/120 the sequence in 24 fps its doesnt look normal, looks jitter. thank you so much
Noam Kroll
atYou are correct that you are supposed to use 1/120 shutter for 60p footage. It may look jittery because you haven’t yet slowed it down. Essentially it is playing back at 24fps but with a 1/120 shutter. Once you slow it down, it will play back at 24fps with an equivalent of 1/48 shutter. You just need to reduce the speed to 40%.
Yuri
atCan i record video from HDMI on external recorder (Shogun, Ninja 2) with higher bit rate at 96fps ?
Noam Kroll
atI haven’t tried this myself, but I believe that those devices top out at 60fps.
Slow Motion Work On The GH4 & Why I Always Overcrank at 60p | Noam Kroll
at[…] I wrote an article a while ago about why I don’t shoot in the 96fps mode on the GH4. Essentially my point was that the data rate at 96fps is spread so thin that the image quality can suffer. I still feel that way. I know many of you out there have shot some great 96fps material, but for my needs it usually doesn’t work as well. I tend to need to grade my footage past what I would consider the GH4’s breaking point at 96fps, so to play it safe I like to stick to a lower frame rate. That said, although I prefer to have more information in the file so I have maximum color flexibility in post, there are also some times where I will break that rule. […]
Peter
atYou mentioned a follow up with screen grabs comparing the quality between shooting in 60p and conforming to slow motion vs shooting with the in camera slow motion. Im curious to see this comparison.
Noam Kroll
atThanks for the reminder Peter. I really do need to get around to this. That said, I am releasing an article in a few minutes focused on the slow motion 60p mode on GH4. You might like to check that out too!
Alison S
atWe just bought a GH4 and the vast array of settings and options for shooting video is staggering, exhilarating and daunting, all at the same time. What would you recommend for aerial video of fast-moving subjects … say race cars or motocross? Video will end up on the web.
Noam Kroll
atHi Alison, thanks for visiting!
I would recommend shooting 4K whenever possible (or UHD) as that will give you more detail in the fast moving subjects you’re shooting. You can also consider turning up the shutter speed a bit higher than you normally would (for instance maybe going to 1/60 or 1/80 instead of 1/50 for 24p video, as that will create an interesting effect with the race cars.
Eli
atI’ve had the same thoughts as far as usage of these features go. My one question is about the 200 Mbps setting. Besides using it for shooting 60p for slowing down in post, is there any advantage to shooting in this format for normal speed stuff over shooting in 4k? You are essentially paying twice as much in storage space for half the resolution, no? I haven’t found any tests online that claims it grades better…and even still, why not shoot 4k and run it through that DPX 444 script that came out a while back to get 444 color (using pixel averaging) for hd footage? Thoughts?
Noam Kroll
atHi Eli, great question. I’ve found that shooting in 4K at 100mbps is a far better option than 200mbps at 1080p since the image resolves more overall detail in the end. That said, some people want to shoot HD and get 1080p files straight from the camera, and in those cases it is the way to go.
Steven
atHaving the ability to undercrank has also been a great benefit. I’ve used 22fps and it’s really an incredible way to make fight scenes much more intense when working with less experienced actors in a run and gun fight scene.
Noam Kroll
atAnother good point! I haven’t used it much yet, but will on my next shoot.
Steven
atI totally agree with all of this. One thing worth noting, and a big plus when editing in Premiere (although I know you aren’t a fan of Premiere’s h.264 exporting abilities), is how fast you can conform to other frame rates. When working with a multitude of clips and some are 60fps I usually just view my clips organized by frame rate, highlight all of ones I need and you can interpret footage in a pinch. No need for messing with any speed settings unless I’m ramping.
Noam Kroll
atGreat point Steven, and that is definitely an important point if you are doing a lot of over cranking and need to slow down many clips at once.
Thomas
atWould be interested see this music video. Can you post a link?
Noam Kroll
atI definitely will once it’s all done!