GH4 footage and rig pic

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

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

Never seen something like that before, an underwater dolly!

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

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

I was just surprised about you only having 3

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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)

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...".

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

Cheers,

Chris

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

The colours in the video were great.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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

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

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.

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

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.