The Panasonic GH2, DSLRs, and Funky Frame Rates For Creative Effect
Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 6:52PM 
Many folks wrote in the comments of my Canon 60D article something to the effect of “what about the upcoming Panasonic GH2?”
The GH2 is not yet available. Despite having been briefly up for pre-order on both Amazon and B&H, it is now listed as unavailable on both sites. That, and that it is not a DSLR, excuse it from inclusion from an article titled “HDSLR Shopping.”
However, the GH2 does look very exciting. I had been thinking of selling my 7D and buying a 60D, but I might wait and get a GH2 instead. My only real trepidations about that are covered in my post about the Panasonic AF100, where I discuss the slightly-smaller-than-35mm imager and the dearth of fast motorized lenses.
In brief, if you’re not familiar, the GH2 is a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera in the Micro 4/3 format. Being mirrorless, it is not a DSLR — but the desire to compare them is natural. Like our Canon HDSLRs, it is a stills camera with a video mode. What it promises over the Canons and Nikon HDSLRs are cleaner, higher-resolution video images and Panasonic’s signature attention to the needs of video shooters, with features like touch-to-focus, on-screen audio level monitoring, “Cinema Mode” color profile, clean HDMI out, and even a 1:1 crop mode — which allows you to take an HD crop out of the center of the frame, effectively acting as a digital tele-extender with no light loss.
The predecessor to the GH2, the GH1, broke my heart by suffering from compression artifacts so egregious that I resorted to rhyme. By all accounts, the GH2 does much better in this area, although it joins a sadly crowded category of cameras that seem to do everything right and then commit all your hard work to a codec just barely sufficient for the task.
One of the things that piqued my interest about the GH2 was its “Variable Movie Mode,” which purports to allow over- and under-cranking. Turns out this feature is not very exciting in practice. Panasonic’s site shows what looks like a broad array of speed options, from “80%” to “300%.” However, it soon becomes clear that the increments, 80, 100, 160, 200 and 300 percent, are significant in that they represent frame rates likely to be available on almost any camera.
If your base, 100%, is 24 fps, then 80% is 30 fps, 160% is 15 fps, 200% is 12 fps, and 300% is 8 fps. My 7D has 24 and 30, and if I wanted 15 fps, I’d just shoot at 30 and double in post. Same with 12 and 24. And if I wanted to shoot at 8 fps for some unprecedented reason, I’d shoot at 24 fps and speed up 3x in post.
The 7D and 60D shoot at 60p in a heavily artifacted 720p format (which I nonetheless used indulgently in Brick & Steel). The GH2 can shoot 1080i60, which you could de-interlace carefully and create 60 fps slow-mo (detailed instructions for this are included in The DV Rebel’s Guide). In both cases you’d better watch out for high-frequency horizontal detail in your frame, because it’s going to be dancing the night away. So the GH2 is not really offering much more than the 60D in the variable frame-rate department.
UPDATE: The GH2 also shoots 720p60, which is the better choice for slow motion.
What filmmakers really need are funky frame rates all around the home-base of 24, and overcrank rates that can be cleanly sped up in case you discover in the edit that your shot wants to be more John Ford than John Woo. Here are some of my favorites:
- 24p is our everyday frame rate for sync sound and business as usual.
- Undercranking by only one tick to 23 fps speeds up motion so unnoticeably that it’s recommended for almost any fight scene not featuring Tony Jaa.
- After lunch, when everyone’s moving a bit slower, you can shoot fight scenes at 22 fps. You can even drop down to 21, but things might start to look a bit keystone cops at that point.
- [UPDATE: See the comments for a discussion of achieving these undercrank speeds in post, if your camera does not offer them]
- I have seen car and motorcycle drive-bys juiced-up by undercranking as far as 12 fps. Only works on smooth surfaces.
- Moving into overcrank territory, shooting 30 fps for 24p playback can give scenes an almost imperceptibly dreamy quality. Everything feels a bit lighter and floatier, but you’re not telegraphing “slow motion” to the audience. Many of the behind-the-scenes shots in Brick & Steel were shot at 30.
- If I’m worried that 30 might be noticeable, I’ve been known to shoot at 27 fps, which always sends the camera assistant scrambling to make up a new velcro-backed number for the slate.
- 36 fps is exactly 1.5x slower than normal. The audience will know something is up, but it’s still subtle.
- In fact, so is 48 fps. You’d think that half-speed would seem slow, but it doesn’t feel as slow as it sounds. 48 is handy because you can double it in post and be back to real time.
- Since my 7D has 50 fps, not 48, I’ll use that when I think I might want to double back to real time.
- Many cameras top out at 60 fps, which is fine for slow-mo, but it’s hardly Inception-grade slow-mo. Still, it’s nice. See the flyswatter in Brick & Steel.
- Better is 72 fps. 72 is just a pretty slow motion speed. And conveniently, you can 3x it in post and you’re back to real time.
- I shot some fight scenes in The Spirit at 88 fps. Why? Because it’s a nice slow speed, and if you 4x it in post, you’re back to 22 fps. So I could ramp from amped-up speed to dramatic slow in the same shot.
- 120 is another handy speed at 5x real time. And beyond that, you’re into frying-pan-to-the-face slow motion effects.
OK, we’ve gone a bit off the topic of the GH2. But this is the ride my mind went on after getting excited about the “Variable Movie Mode” and then realizing what a non-thing it actually is. All it really buys you is the slight convenience of not having to conform different footage speeds in post, and the nicety of being able to preview these speeds in on-set playback.
The GH2 is going to be similar in price to the 60D, i.e. cheap. You’re going to have to spend more, like AF100 or Sony F3 money, to get the funky frame rates I list above, and even in those cases, you’re topping out at 60 fps (which, in the case of the Sony, is only available at 720p). I’ve completely lost track of the various cameras that Red is busily making, but hefty overcrank rates are something they promise, at a proportional price.
Meanwhile, If you, like me, are excited about the little GH2 despite its shortcomings in the frame-rate department, check out what Phillip Bloom has done with his pre-release model.
And I’ll let you know if I find one under my Christmas tree.
Reader Comments (15)
I currently own 2 GH13's, mainly because I am in the "cheap seats" when it comes to filmmaking. But even with these little (the Gh1 is a baby cam - teeny body) cameras, it's possible to create some very cool filmic stuff. I will quickly sell one of these to pick up a GH2 when it's here, because GH1 is a no go really at any ISO above 320.
I think that hoping or asking for these shooting features is not going to work this time around, as the actual video cameras from all these players are finally coming out. What I wish they all would do is allow the hackability of these things, voiding the warranty at our risk, of course... but openly allowing hacks/SDK/etc to flourish. Then all of us "camping filmmakers"* could just make our cameras have that little tweak we wanted.
*Filming with DSLR's is like cooking gourmet food with equip from REI - It's possible, but it's more about the fun of doing it with little portable versions of the real thing.
Sensei 5tu, i definitely agree with you about HDLSR's needing variable frame-rates 100%. but since my 5D has it's limitations with having only a couple frame-rates, what would be the best way to go about calculating your favorite frame-rates (Twixtor:)? or say i go rent one of those 7D's and i wanna shoot everything at 60fps? how would i calculate frame-rates, over and under, as well as percentages? thanks
good blog, this camera does look interesting. especially for being in the sensor game for such a short period of time. Canon better take notes dammit!
RG
Hi Richard, what you're asking about is exactly what I did with the fight scenes in BRICK & STEEL. I shot them at 60 with the primary intention of speeding them up to slightly faster than real time. As it seems you've surmised, it's better to start with more frames when doing this, so that the frame-skipping is less evident. For example, if I wanted a 22 fps look, shooting 24 fps would mean skipping two frames per second, which would look obvious and jerky.
So I shot 60 fps and calculated speed-ups for the most common undercrank frame rates.
It's important to note that these are based on 60 fps material that has been conformed to 23.976 fps using Magic Bullet Grinder. So in my Final Cut Pro timeline, the footage appeared in slow motion. To get it back to real time, I'd use a Speed value of 250%. Here are the rest of the values I used:
24 fps = 250%
23 fps = 260.87%
22 fps = 272.73%
21 fps = 285.71%
Although the motion would be smoother if I'd been able to shoot these frame rates natively, I have to say, I really enjoyed having the ability to adjust them in the edit. I wound up using every one of these values and some in-between — sometimes switching within a shot. And of course, I was able to jump back to glorious 60 fps slow-mo for the happy accident of the flyswatter, which is a favorite moment of mine.
Decisions like this have interesting ramifications. Shooting 60 fps in the kitchen where the light was low meant making a choice about shutter speed. If I'd been certain that I would only want to speed up the footage, I could have shot at 1/60, but since I suspected I might want to use some shots 1:1 slow mo, I obeyed the 180 degree shutter rule and shot 1/125 (closest I could get to 1/120). At F2.8 that meant using an ISO of 5000! The footage was quite noisy, but with Magic Bullet Denoiser I was able to clean it up.
Hi Stu, been a fan a long time but never commented on your blog until now, got your book years ago which I still refer to among others when I need some ideas.
My question is I'm from PAL land here in the UK and I was wondering if i'm shooting at 50p what options do I have for undercranking say for fight scenes?
Thanks for a great source of info by the way, it's nice to be able to hear what the pro's have to say.
On a personel note I just been rejected by one of my film school applications in the UK because my maths wasn't good, I suck at it. I feel abit shit, especially how they worded it. "Not as strong as other applicants" what ass holes. what snobs. sorry I just needed to get that off my chest.....
anyway If I don't get my other picks looks like i'll be a DV rebel forever. haha not a bad thing.
I would love to see 22-23fps. Even 25-26fps would be good for music videos. If you speed up the playback song to match, you can achieve a pretty cool effect. I've done this, but I'm always using post-speed adjustments. Maybe be there'll be a future hack from Vitality?? Gh23 anyone?
I just bought my GH2 on friday. It's strange but they're all over Canada. Love it! The customized modes and function buttons are an incredible asset. The UI has made me a convert. Manual focusing with autofocus lens has never been more intuitive....
You Canon lovers should rejoice, the next camera they make will have to be outstanding to top this camera, and they'll have to.
Could you write a bit about Magic Bullet Denoiser? I am interested in denoising software and I have seen one that seems to be the best: Arri Relativity, priced around 50 K.
I would like you to shed some light about denoising software and what makes Relativity to be so expensive. Could one day Magic Bullet Denoiser be almost so good? Software is software and I dont believe that Arri has a magical algorithm.
Thank you!.
Is it just me, or does footage from Panasonic Micro 4/3 cameras look just a touch soft? Almost like really great SD blown up to 720.
Hope you get a GH2 soon!
Please let us know what you think the optimal 24p picture style is for grading...
I loved your tweet
"Dear @Panasonic, please sell me a GH2. Signed, the United States."
lol
In response to the 1080 60i "dancing the night away", I haven't tested personally, but I've read that the GH2 actually shoots 60p, but it gets conformed into a 60i wrapper because of the codec. I'm thinking this means that the fields actually line up properly when de-interlaced. So I'm hoping that de-interlaced footage from the GH2 is cleaner than de-interlaced native 60i footage.
Any thoughts on that?
Tristan, my comment about issues with horizontal edges and 60i was specifically about what happens when you try to build whole frames out of fields to create a 60fps slow-mo effect from 60i footage. Everything I've read about the GH2's 24p mode is that it is native, not wrapped in a 60i stream like the GH1's.
@Ben
As a big fan of Panasonic's output, I wouldn't say that it is "soft" as in "SD blown up to 720", but instead that it is just not as overly sharp as other cameras' output.
This is one reason I have stuck with Panasonic since the DVX100(b) - I don't like the artificial, Monday Night Sports look that many other cams give.
@Brian: Check out this resolution chart video from the GF1. It seems to show the GF1 hitting around 450 horizontal lines. The best SD cameras can do even better...
Of course, as Stu points out, resolution gets trumped by sex appeal. Many cheapo HD camcorders have far better resolution than any DSLR or mirrorless camera, but you don't see filmmakers getting excited about them.
Still, I think we can ask for more. Shallow DOF is now easy for manufacturers, but none of them can give it to you without aliasing or softness. Whichever company solves the problem first will make a mint.
I don't think the various Micro 4/3 cameras from Panasonic share identical sensors nor methods of deriving an HD image from them, so I wouldn't draw any conclusions about the GH2 from a GF1 test chart.
I'm with Brian — usually. But the footage I've seen from the AF100 actually looks too sharp and poppy for my taste. Uncharacteristic for Panasonic. I don't think many people with pre-production units took the time to dial back the factory settings to the nice smooth image we know Panasonic can facilitate.
The GH2 has landed in America today... thanks for pulling strings for us Stu!
The GH2 is all anyone needs. Anything more expensive and you're just creating a more efficient workflow, eventually leading to a quicker finish. But I personally hate the fact that people pour ridiculous amounts of money into things just to make their job "easier". There's that word again. It is the epitome of modern day cookie cutter actors and films. The same old systematic approach to anything and everything. They broke the traditional rules to create a new set of watered down "siissyfied" ones. Save yourself a lot of money whilst working hard to pour your soul into creating once-again unique creations that dare not be compared to someone else's. The modern world lacks true originality and to get it you have to throw in an 80s flick on the tv. Sad really. So many possibilities and not enough working brains. Too much reliance of automation. To be more blunt, I am sick to death of the same old shit. Many fx house experts speak as if they are geniuses. Yet, their product looks like every other on the market with a difference so slight that it would take a PI to find it. Sorry Stu, but products like Magic Bullet have really put the masses all into the same pot. Everyone should be struggling to "find a way" rather than using their credit card to buy it.