GH5s 4k test footage

Hi fellows,

I’d like to share with you my test for the GH5s. The primary focus was to test how would the camera produce colors with just ambient light. The secondary was to test the autofocus in challenging conditions. The clips were taking around 25m in bad visibility and with a lot of particles. Thirdly, I wanted to test the low light performance. The amount of light in summer at 25m in our seas is relatively dim. And it presented a good test for the light sensitivity of the camera which I sat to variable with a maximum of iso 6400. This is a result of two dives on the same day. My rig still needs balancing.

I am quite pleased with the camera ability to produce such good color rendition when white balanced on a gray card with a red filter. My gray gloves which are a shade darker than the 10% gray card produced more pleasing colors and needed little or no color grading in post beside exposure adjustment.

The autofocus, despite the challenging conditions with bad visibility and numerous particles, was really good and definitely much more better than my aging eyes it is fair to say that it can do the job more than 90% of the times.

The low light performance was good which resulted in better exposure, color production and autofocus.

I know many would prefer the GH5 over the GH5s due to the lack of IBIS. Honestly, I have not tried IBIS underwater and I have read mixed reviews. However, the color rendition of this camera in ambient light is beyond the capability of the GH5 and overweighs the IBIS in my opinion.

The setup:

Nuaticam housing with 7” dome,

Dive and See 5.5 monitor,

Panasonic 12-35mm 2.8 version ii,

Red filter,

Standard picture profile,

Variable ISO with maximum 6400

https://youtu.be/X1fKNylMj74

Hey Thani,

personally I find those colours absolutely awesome! I'll definitely try experimenting with a grey card next time out but, as you probably know, I'm actually really happy with the MWB on my GH5 (red filter/grey translucent plastic). Using ambient light like in your video gives everything a much more natural feel, IMHO, plus you avoid having to deal with backscatter and annoying the marine life with thousands of lumens in their eyes. At around 2'50" you were filming inside the wreck, and I'm pretty sure the GH5 wouldn't have handled that anything like as well.

Very nice video!

Matt

I agree, those colors do look very nice, especially for all ambient lighting. Thank you - you just made my decision much harder.

Hey Thani,

personally I find those colours absolutely awesome! I'll definitely try experimenting with a grey card next time out but, as you probably know, I'm actually really happy with the MWB on my GH5 (red filter/grey translucent plastic). Using ambient light like in your video gives everything a much more natural feel, IMHO, plus you avoid having to deal with backscatter and annoying the marine life with thousands of lumens in their eyes. At around 2'50" you were filming inside the wreck, and I'm pretty sure the GH5 wouldn't have handled that anything like as well.

Very nice video!

Matt

Hi Matt,

No other camera can compete with the GH5 at its price point today (I have one). It has built in features such as recording10 bits internal, good color, etc that even beat higher range cameras like the Sony FS5. The 10 bits at 400 mbs bit rate takes a lot of beating before it breaks down. And once MWB correctly, minimal if any color correction is needed in post editing. Yes, try a gray next time for MWB.

You summed up nicely why not to use lights and there are situations where lights are required. But there are also wide angle shots of school of fish or wrecks/structure that are beyond the reach of lights.

I really like the GH5s and the only negative side of it is the higher cost.

I agree, those colors do look very nice, especially for all ambient lighting. Thank you - you just made my decision much harder.

Sorry about that mate. I bought it cause I already had the housing for the GH5. My plan is to use the GH5 above water and the GH5s under. I always feel that the under story needs to be complemented with the above water side to be complete.

Great footage, the GH5s (and GH5) are a great underwater camera setups - real happy here also.

I'm not a great fan (used to be, mind) of Red Filters, I think there is a very narrow window in which they operate - and when they do, they produce great footage - as shown by your video. But outside of that, you get magenta waters highlights, and sometimes, some odd colouring of reefs and plant life and red beams if people are using torches. So prefer now to shoot without and correct in a NLE.

I think if Nauticam (or others) would produce a wide-angle port (or flat port for WWL-1) with user selectable filter (like the older camcorder housings) I would probably still use one for certain things, but knowing I'm stuck with one, I presume to use lights or just ambient.

Some nice footage there mind, really sharp - and steady too

Great footage, the GH5s (and GH5) are a great underwater camera setups - real happy here also.

 

I'm not a great fan (used to be, mind) of Red Filters, I think there is a very narrow window in which they operate - and when they do, they produce great footage - as shown by your video. But outside of that, you get magenta waters highlights, and sometimes, some odd colouring of reefs and plant life and red beams if people are using torches. So prefer now to shoot without and correct in a NLE.

 

I think if Nauticam (or others) would produce a wide-angle port (or flat port for WWL-1) with user selectable filter (like the older camcorder housings) I would probably still use one for certain things, but knowing I'm stuck with one, I presume to use lights or just ambient.

 

Some nice footage there mind, really sharp - and steady too

 

Thank you Richard for your kind words. With lights defiantly you don’t need a red filter. I tried without the filter initially but the camera would not register the red channel especially at depth beyond 20m or even shallower in bad vis. I’m not a good colorist but once the red channel is lost it is really hard to recover the richness of colors. Yes you can readjust white balance in post but that is not going to recover for almost total loss the red channels. In my experience, fixing the red tint in the shallows caused by the red filter is easier than trying to recover the red channel. And yes, I wish Nauticam can bring us back those in house swivel based red filters

Hi Thani,

interesting test. Like Richard, I was actually also wondering why you use a red filter. For my eyes, your footage is often quite a bit on the red side and may have turned out more balanced without filter?

Anyway, its a matter of taste and personal preferences. I look forward to trying out my GH5s in Polynesia next month. I take the GH5 as well, but intend to use it mostly for above water shots.

In terms of the autofocus, (1) what lens were you using for this (at what aperture) and (2) what auto-focus settings? A lot of the shots (especially the close-ups) exhibit a fairly narrow depth of field with the critical focus somewhat off. For example in the eel shot at 2:24 the focus is somewhere mid-body with the head and eye clearly out of focus. Almost as if you've got continuous auto-focus set for the centre point. I also noticed a fair bit of autofocus pulsing/hunting (e.g. nudi at 0:44, puffer at 1:06 which would make that part of the shot unusable).

As for the color, I'm going to have to experiment a bit more with custom white balance with a red filter below 10 meters. Generally I find that above 10 meters the red filter isn't necessary, and below that not enough of the warmer light penetrates to make boosting the red signal worthwhile/natural. Since you lose a couple of stops of light when using red filters and you need to set a corrective white balance if trying to combine them with video lights, I generally prefer to leave the filter off. But I'll give it another try to see if there's a range where it really does improve the results over just a CWB. You said you're balancing off your grey glove which is a stop darker than 10% grey? Did you mean 18% (middle) grey?

In terms of the autofocus, (1) what lens were you using for this (at what aperture) and (2) what auto-focus settings? A lot of the shots (especially the close-ups) exhibit a fairly narrow depth of field with the critical focus somewhat off. For example in the eel shot at 2:24 the focus is somewhere mid-body with the head and eye clearly out of focus. Almost as if you've got continuous auto-focus set for the centre point. I also noticed a fair bit of autofocus pulsing/hunting (e.g. nudi at 0:44, puffer at 1:06 which would make that part of the shot unusable).

 

As for the color, I'm going to have to experiment a bit more with custom white balance with a red filter below 10 meters. Generally I find that above 10 meters the red filter isn't necessary, and below that not enough of the warmer light penetrates to make boosting the red signal worthwhile/natural. Since you lose a couple of stops of light when using red filters and you need to set a corrective white balance if trying to combine them with video lights, I generally prefer to leave the filter off. But I'll give it another try to see if there's a range where it really does improve the results over just a CWB. You said you're balancing off your grey glove which is a stop darker than 10% grey? Did you mean 18% (middle) grey?

1) I am using the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 II as I described above. It is really a good sharp lens. I find the 24-70mm full frame equivalent to be a good overall focal length for medium-wide to portrait shots.

2)The camera was set to "Creative Video" mode with a "P setting" i.e. Program AE

3) Autofocus: AFC and in the menu "Continuous focus is ON". I think with the default "225-Area". I am not quite familiar with Panasonic cameras and still learning.

Keep in mind it is a "test" and I wanted to share the result good or bad. I totally agree that few shots are not usable. For the nudi and puffer fish the focus went hunting due to particles coming in the path. As for the eel shot, I think I was either to close head or the camera missed up focus. I am not sure if I touched the screen by mistake and changed the area of focus during setup. FYI this is my first time to use autofocus underwater and I like it because it does much better than my eyes/hands can do

For the red filter use, I will be posting another reply.

Hi Thani,

 

interesting test. Like Richard, I was actually also wondering why you use a red filter. For my eyes, your footage is often quite a bit on the red side and may have turned out more balanced without filter?

 

Anyway, its a matter of taste and personal preferences. I look forward to trying out my GH5s in Polynesia next month. I take the GH5 as well, but intend to use it mostly for above water shots.

Hi,

I am certain you will like the GH5s especially if you are shooting in ambient light. Please share with us your findings.

Let me make a confession, it is my first time to use a red filter and I have never been a fan As for the colors having a red tint (not to my liking), I think this is how the camera saw them after being MWB with the red filter. I had two consecutive dives at two wrecks with similar depths and approximately 300m apart: a barge which is an old wreck starting form 00:28-01:34 and the Car Cemetery which is few years old starting 01:35-4:50. Both dives were MWB the same way. I know the use of a filter is a debatable subject and there are situations like in the shallows where they are not needed. Actually, I think it is the visibility and the availability of the ambient light are both more of determining factors rather than the depth.

Let me share some files that might shed more light . These are un-edited files.

in order: Glove, Glove RGB parade, chart, chart RGB parade

Hi,

I have been looking at the GH5. What lenses do you recommend for wide angle that work well with the GH5?

I am moving away from my GoPro as below 30 feet it is dreadful. I want to shoot 4k underwater video and like the fact that the GH5 will shoot 60fps. I was impressed with the light sensitivity in you video.

Hi,

 

I have been looking at the GH5. What lenses do you recommend for wide angle that work well with the GH5?

 

I am moving away from my GoPro as below 30 feet it is dreadful. I want to shoot 4k underwater video and like the fact that the GH5 will shoot 60fps. I was impressed with the light sensitivity in you video.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi,

 

I have been looking at the GH5. What lenses do you recommend for wide angle that work well with the GH5?

 

I am moving away from my GoPro as below 30 feet it is dreadful. I want to shoot 4k underwater video and like the fact that the GH5 will shoot 60fps. I was impressed with the light sensitivity in you video.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Thani

Thanks for the post, excellent video and information, much appreciated.

Will be doing a little more video since getting a SmallHD Bright monitor, started working out kinks. Used a white card for balancing and worked well. Love the MWB of your rig, I am using an OMD 1 Mk2 and feel its close but not as good regarding WB, in the price range, the GH5s is king.

al