Ok, I've shot a few weddings with these cameras (about 8 or so) and multiple model shoots and love story videos as well. If you are as confused when choosing settings as I was when I started on this venture, here's how you do it. You turn the dial on top right-hand side of the movie icon, that's called movie mode. Then you open the quick menu and select the P mode. Then you put the ISO on Auto. Set your white balance manually, unfortunately that is pretty much necessary most times, I find.

Other than that, that is all there is to it. I'm running four of these cameras at a time by myself, and the footage matches, exposure is almost always perfect, and the cameras can be left unattended. There is really not much more to it than that, except focusing, but that is enough trouble by itself, and will keep you busy enough. Oh, and changing batteries.

You will need on occasion to do more. You will need to use the AE/AF lock to set your exposure, or use the exposure compensations thingy to lighten or darken your image to make up for blown out highlights, or if things are a bit dim, but you do NOT need to go into manual mode, ever. You can raise and lower exposure and shutter speed with the wheel thingy, so you are good virtually all of the time.

I am running fully manual lenses, fully auto lenses, doesn't matter. I aquired 10 hours of footage yesterday, and it looks really good, the best ever. The key has been learning how to judge focus using the LCD screen or viewfinder, and it can be tough with a wide lens, but once you get the hang of it it's fine, but that does take awhile to learn if you're new at it.

Truth be told, I do end up adjusting exposure compensation often, but you must be conservative with it most the time.

If you are running multiple cameras in a run and gun situation, it's the way to go. When I shoot a couple for a love story type thing in the park, I do the same thing pretty much, but play with shutter speed, etc to get a specific result with DOF, but otherwise, the camera often knows what you need and only minor adjustments are needed.

Jeff. I think you meant the S mode which allows the shutter to be changed or locked in at a specific value. The P mode only allows exposure adjustment.

Jeff, I salute you if you have found a way of working with this camera that suits you. I have been struggling with the idiosyncrasies & complexities of it for the last few months & have been posting regularly on this sub-forum. At least I have been posting regularly until a couple of weeks ago when I gave up & bought myself a Canon 600D (T3i). It is much more like using my Canon 5D Mk II & so much simpler & straightforward to use than the GH2. It has the articulated screen & central sensor crop mode called ETC on the GH2. I also get to use all my lovely Canon lenses.

Obviously my error has been in trying to use it in manual mode as I really wouldn't have considered shooting video with Auto ISO in P mode where the camera chooses shutter speed & aperture so I would basically have no control over anything. I would expect the video to be really weird but obviously it works for you. The frustrating thing is that this little camera can shoot some stunning video & promises good stuff like continuous AF but just doesn't deliver it or doesn't deliver it consistently.

I will probably keep the camera as I can share lenses with my AG-AF101 & it is truly pocket-sized so very handy for ultra-stealth filming however I am not going to keep banging my head against the wall trying to make it do what I want as the Canon 600D is a better alternative for me.

Thank you for this Jeff -- along the way, you've really helped me to figure out my GH1's. The last wedding I shot with them looks spectacular -- apart from that autofocus hunting problem mentioned elsewhere, but I think I may have figured that out.

Well guys, P mode is not perfect, but it is close enough for this rookie for right now. Let me explain.

First keeping in mind I'm running multiple cameras alone, and they are all the same, pretty much, but I MUST have a way to make them run pretty much unattended. At any given moment I will have three unattended, and I don't have time to play around with anything, as I'm adjusting focus on all of them continuously all day.

Shutter priority is best, obviously, and the proper setting, even for run and gun. I don't want shutter speed below 60, better at 100. This has been recommended, and I heard it, and I would like to do that, but auto ISO is not enough to compensate for some situations.

Shutter Priority has let me down, and I gave up on it after one wedding in particular. I don't even remember what happened, or why, but in Shutter Priority I couldn't get the image I needed no matter what I did, and I switched to P mode and it worked fine, I can't give you the details. I'm tend to find a solution and forget why I came up with it. I have a very poor memory, and as an aside it is getting worse, which is scary, but I digress.

Next practice shoot, I don't remember when, I played with all the modes one last time, and I settled on Priority as the clear winner, for me.

I am a huge fan of Priority mode for photographs anyway, as I get the images I need with it, and can adjust shutter speed and the aperture will adjust accordingly. It does a better job than I could do.

Previously when the light dropped indoors, I absolutely spoiled too many images, missed too many shots playing with settings, and couldn't get focus cause I was fiddling with settings most of the time. That is no good, of course.

I am getting "better" at manual focus, much better. But I'm still pretty rough with it. So in order that I can concentrate on getting the shot, and get it focused, I've settled on P mode for now. And I recommend it to anyone else starting out as I am, just so you can get a decent shot while under pressure, and get it in focus.

Once I have the follow focus thing down, and have developed and refined a system for shooting that I'm not a nervous wreck with, I will start using Shutter Priority more often and find the issues I had before and try to overcome them. Outdoors, and in bright lighting, I still use shutter priority, but once I get in the church or the dark reception hall, I switch to Program Mode and I can just worry about being where I'm supposed to be.

Shutter priority is mostly problematic with my F/2.8 lenses in low light, but I decided I needed to run all the cameras in the same mode because on occasion I switch lenses around, etc and I didnt' want to worry about changing modes too. As I get bettet at the whole thing I'll be able to run the cameras properly, but at least I do have a system, though it is still not perfect, by any means.

That's strange, I had the predecessor T2i and compared to my GH2 its no contest, the GH2 has far better video, far easier to shoot video, the only thing is there isn't the lens selection but I dont want hundreds of lenses. My 6 cover all I will ever need.

Martyn -- I agree. The GH2 is a lot more video friendly. I could not make the T2i/550D work for video. For me, it wasn't image quality, it was the lack of autofocus. I could not hold focus on a moving object to save my life. With the GH2, the autofocus is not perfect, but it has saved a lot of precious moments in my active 5 year old's life that I would have missed with the Canon. To each his own, I guess.

Jeff -- I guess I'm going to have to try Program mode. Haven't used it in so long I forgot it was there!

Bill

It's probably because I have been using a Canon 5D Mk II for well over two years that the 600D feels so much more natural to use. Maybe it's just my big hands than cannot come to grips with the fiddly little controls on the GH2. I won't say that I have no problems manually focusing the 600D but compared to the random autofocus on the GH2 I shoot much more useable footage. Additionally a loupe does help a lot for focusing the Canons.

Bill

Apart from being more video friendly, the GH2 image is better, IMO a lot sharper and more detailed/less of the dreaded M and A. The Canon's color was good but so is my GH2s. There is so many film modes to choose.

Regarding shutter priority vs program mode....

I shot a wedding Saturday and did a quick highlight clip, and there are issues with certain outdoor shots that I'm certain are shutter speed related. Thomas, thanks for bringing this up. I've known that the correct shutter speed was important, but not until seeing some of this recent footage did I realize how things look when it's not right.

The majority of shots came out great in 10 hours of footage, but the ones that are questionable are quite disappointing.

Here is a really excellent explanation of why using a 180 degree shutter is so important 180 Degree Shutter - Learn It, Live It, Love It (http://blog.tylerginter.com/?p=385)

When shooting video we should almost never use any other shutter speed than 1/50 for 24fps or 25fps & 1/60 for 30fps or it will start looking weird & that is the problem with allowing the camera to vary the shutter speed. We may change aperture, ISO, add neutral density filters but we never change the shutter speed.

Do keep in mind that 60p should also use a shutter of 1/60. 60p has the same temporal resolution (moments in time) as 60i which typically used a shutter of 1/60. You would only typically use a shutter of 1/120 with 60p if it was going to be slowed down.

I cannot remember the exact reason but basically shutter and framerate may seem to be related but they are not directly related. 30p and 60p are basically showing the same scale of time so the shutter should be similar.

The P mode on these cameras would be awesome if you could tell it to not go above or below a specific shutter speed. At least Panasonic was wise enough to limit the cameras to 1/30th in movie mode.

60p is also a bit more forgiving of shutter due to it's higher temporal resolution. 24p can be a pain if you do not stick to a specific shutter speed. 24p with a shutter of 1/120 or 1/250 starts to look like Saving Private Ryan. If you are going for that look it is cool but I would think very few brides would like this.

24p with a shutter of 1/30th would upset film purists but it is much easier to shoot with and has the added bonus of boosting the low light a bit more. 60p at 1/30th basically gives you 30p with more motion blur.

Thanks Nigel for the link, I actually have seen that, very good stuff, I needed to read it again didn't understand it all the first time.

Thomas, I much appreciate your post. I will take to heart the 60p needing 1/60. That is very important information and will likely result in some vast improvement in my images.

I will play with shutter priority in a dark enviroment today, I think auto ISO, which I need on the job, is limited how high it will go or disabled in shtter priority, I think it is, which may be why I ended up using Program mode to begin with. I'll have to play around with it to find out.

With the GH2 in P mode and auto ISO, does anyone know if there's a way to tell what shutter speed and ISO are being used for any particular frame? Does the camera capture any kind of metadata for this?

Here is what I use when shooting a wedding with GH2s for what it is worth:

I use Shutter Priority mode exclusively for both my manned and unmanned cameras. I use Auto ISO with a limit of 800 or 1600 if I really need to push it (note all my lenses are Panasonic and have step-less apertures).

I always use a shutter speed of 1/50 for 24p and 1/125 for 720p@60fps (I shot most at 24p unless I know I want to slow-mo in post). I shutter priority mode this lets the aperture and ISO float to keep the exposure right.

I use AF-S focus mode and use a half shutter press to refocus mid shot as needed and cut to by B cam to hide the focus seeking.

Here is a recent highlights video of mine (sorry about the audio; the DJ borked the levels and my H4n did not get a good line out so it was left to the VideoMicPro in the wind):

Lenses used where the 14-140mm, 20mm and 14mm pancakes.

The Trevino Crosley Wedding Highlights on Vimeo

I only have a few GH2 Weddings under my belt but so far this was worked out well.

Jonathon, yes, when you depress the shutter button halfway it will show that information. If you do that and move the camera around it will show the changes also. You can use that method to decide on your exposure and/or focus and push the AE/AF button to lock it if needed. Very handy, thanks to Ian for repeatedly pushing that idea, works wonders.

John, nice effort. I can't rely on a recorder, no good for me. My Sony wireless has never let me down. I know a lot of guys are using recorders, but I just cant rely on them. Just my two cents.

It is very hard to use these cameras and get the images I want, very hard. They are capable of so much, but require so much attention to detail.

I attempted to use shutter priority Saturday, and what a nightmare for outdoor use in a run and gun situation. The shifting in exposure was very rough and ruined a lot of shots. In the middle of a shot the aperture would quickly change from some imperceptible change in light that I never saw, and the resulting footage turned out to be useless in many cases. I did use AE lock a few times, but overall I have to learn how to shoot using shutter priority, it's completely different. In program mode the changes are smooth like butter, in shutter priority they are abrupt.

This is why I prefer to shoot manual even though it is a PITA.

Outdoors would be a beast with S mode. I think manual is good for outdoors and then shutter for indoors.

Jeff, does AE lock work in P mode? I have not found it .

This is why I prefer to shoot manual even though it is a PITA.

In the wedding I did this past weekend, I shot fully manual with the GH1 -- Creative Movie Mode in manual, and manual focus. It's a lot more work, but the results are far better than the last few weddings I've done using autofocus and any level of auto exposure. I'm getting better at manually focusing with the EVF, and it's paying off.

Manual focus is best most times, but Auto Focus is quite useful at the right times. For indoor work I will stick with Shutter Priority, as Thomas recommends, it is quite good for my purposes, but for outdoor shooting in fast changing circumstances (following a photographer around) it is rough.

I am shooting a model outdoors this evening, possibly. I will Shutter Priority again and Manual mode as well, as I will be in control of the shoot. I also have to learn when to switch metering modes as well, as that can have a huge impact.

Manual focus is best most times, but Auto Focus is quite useful at the right times.

True. I should probably have said that I'm using the GH1 mostly at the reception because of its low-light capabilities with the right lenses. In those run-and-gun situations where I don't have the option of reshooting, I can't let the autofocus hunt around, as it's been prone to do.

I will use autofocus in other situations like establishing shots or slower-paced preceremony shooting. If the focus-hunting ruins my shot, I can usually to a retake in those situations.

The problem with letting the camera decide on brightness is that a single tiny highlight on a car could make the camera register as a new brightness level. Even a little glare off a pond could be enough to trick it. Indoors is much easier but outdoors may actually be better with manual. This way at least the camera will not decide to step down when you hit one of these tiny bright spots. This way you keep a proper shutter speed and also prevent the camera's aperture from hunting. The plus side to this is typically the brightness will not change as much outdoors so it should be fairly easy to handle.

Thomas, you seem to have a very good handle on how to use the camera, that is clear. I dislike manual because I do such a poor job of judging proper exposure. In addition, for wedding stuff, it's so fast paced at times, it's all I can do to keep up with focus, as the time spent adjusting exposure would seem to cause missed shots. Practice is what is needed, obviously.

Program mode (within manual movie mode, of course) seems to more often than not judge exposure very well, better than I seem to. As you or someone else said, it's too bad we can't set shutter speed within program mode, but there it is.

Jeff I totally agree with you. Manual is a PITA and I'm also still to work out the kinks. I have messed up many shots because of it. At the same time however I have shots that I feel turned out better because of it.

Honestly I'm not sure a camera like this or any DSLR can ever have a one solution fits all mode. Thats why they have so many modes after all.

Another thing to consider is getting a ND filter for outdoor shooting. It is the proper method to control the brightness when shooting outdoors so you don't have to adjust aperture or the shutter. It may help the S mode not hunt as much or the P mode not have to drop the shutter so much when shooting in bright sunlight.

Another thing to consider is getting a ND filter for outdoor shooting. It is the proper method to control the brightness when shooting outdoors so you don't have to adjust aperture or the shutter. It may help the S mode not hunt as much or the P mode not have to drop the shutter so much when shooting in bright sunlight.

That is definitely a good idea. It also helps avoid those ugly aperture steps which result from changing to brighter or darker areas when moving the camera from sunlit to shady areas for example. I think that results in some ugly looking clips. With a ND fader filter, you can smoothly change the filter value and avoid this. It also helps avoid using excessively fast shutter speeds when shooting outdoors which can give an unattractive strobing effect. I have one and it was definitely a good investment.

I had 4 of them, sold three of them and got Polarizers instead. I still have the ND filter for my 20mm, which is the most imprortant one for me for run and gun wedding work. I wish I'd used it Saturday.

Thomas, you seem to have a very good handle on how to use the camera, that is clear. I dislike manual because I do such a poor job of judging proper exposure.

just expose to an 18% grey card and then adjust minimally for highlights and shadow details (due to limited dynamic range) and finalize your results in post. you've got to lock these cameras down because exposure changes in motion pictures are simply unacceptable. and if you're filming 24P, then you want 1/50 shutter unless under fluorescents.

Any GH2 shooters getting moire issues on the bridal veils?

That's strange, I had the predecessor T2i and compared to my GH2 its no contest, the GH2 has far better video, far easier to shoot video, the only thing is there isn't the lens selection but I dont want hundreds of lenses. My 6 cover all I will ever need.
________________________________________________________________________

Martyn,
Please tell me what lenses and adapters you have in your arsenal.

Thanks,
Jeff

All my canon lenses are gone i now have pana 14-140/14-42 /45-200 /14mm pancake /20mm pancake and olympus 9-18mm

Martyn
Are you shooting mainly wedding videos?
All I have are the kit lenses for my GH2
I need to get the pancakes and I will after I learn the GH2
little bit better.
Thanks for the reply
Jeff

Jeff, for ideas on lenses you should also check the wedding video forum to see what people are using. You will get lots of suggestions, and then you will have to sort through them.

Thanks Jeff..
Ive been over there a few times. Seems, like you, most are using primes but some the kit lenses.

I think, I could do a decent job, early on, with my kit lenses and the XHA1. I can remember years ago, doing a good job with two Sony Digital 8 cams. I think one has to work with what they have. If you wait until you have the ultimate setup you will never go to work. All the equipment one has today, is obsolete in a few months. It's part of "the plan". ha

Bottom line if your not making a profit, your not in business.

Merry Christmas,
Jeff

The GH2 and lenses will not be obsolete for a long time. Jeff, who's using kit lenses for weddings?

I know of two....
Me and You... My XHA1, and your Canon XA10 :?)

I will get some pancakes for my GH2s soon...at least a Pana 25mm.

Thanks,
Jeff

I can tell right now, Im gonna have trouble "seeing" using the LCD and/or the EVF outside. Especially during any run and gun clips. I used on of these and my marshall 7" monitor which really helped. It allows a handle grip on the left side too.

Am I missing a "peaking" function somewhere in the menu...cant find on the GH2. The best Ive seen is on the Sony 5N...you can select red, yellow or white peaking outline. Really nice.

Vello Camcorder Brackets (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Camcorder-Brackets/ci/17781/N/4205057806)

jeff

The GH2 EVF is very good indeed & has higher resolution than the LCD screen. I have shot plenty of video with it in the bright sun of the South of France where the LCD cannot be viewed but the EVF works fine.

There is no peaking function for the GH2 you need to spend another $3-4K for the AG-AF101 to get that feature in a MFT video camera.

Hi Jeff, to be sure we're on the same page, the term "kit lenses" refers to the lenses typically sold with a DSLR camera. Most, but not all kit lenses are F/3.5 and greater, and are of limited use indoors or in marginal lighting situations.

The Panasonic 25mm is not a pancake lens, so you know, it is a "regular" type lens, for lack of a better word for it. Pancake lenses are relatively flat.

Pancakes lenses inlcude the 14mm F/2.5 lens, the 20mm F/1.7 and maybe a couple of others. Pancake refers to the actual physical shape of a lens. Many use the 20mm F/1.7, which I have, but that lens is destroyed by the 25mm F/1.4. I have both, there is no comparison. The 25mm is the single best lens for general purpose shooting with the GH2. Notice I say general purpose. It is not the best lens for everything. It is not wide, and it is not long either, but a very nice lens to shoot video with in nearly any typical wedding situation.

Delkin makes a sunshade screen thingy that will fit the GH2. I use one and it is extremely helpful costs about $10, best $10 I ever spent. I think I got mine from Amazon.

Thanks Jeff Harper...
Im learning a whole new vocabulary. ha
I got it.... pancake is flat, regular is not flat. ha

I think I told you I do have a Pentax 50mm is the only regular lens I have. Of course, Id have to manual focus so it's not good for run and gun. It does look good though when one can setup the shot. F1.4.

Since I have no other lenses, Id like to stick with the Panasonic line as I can afford them. I don't really want to go the adapter route if I can avoid it.

Im getting better with the menu, buttons, and have 3 "looks" profiles set up on C1-3...handy.. It will take some time to get use to using the EVF. Do you have an extra large eye cup for your EVF..it would be nice to extend it back a bit.

Jeff

I use the Delkin, it's all I need. You don't need the new lenses until you learn your camera, and have the prospect of some work. There is gear I want right now, but my next wedding isn't till spring, so I"m waiting for now.

When you use a lens like the 25mm, for example, your work, when mixed with some good camera placement, etc will look SO good your samples will stand out and this will make you money. You post your samples and you are off to the races.

You can learn the camera perfectly fine with your kit lens, so stick with it and shoot eveything you can and then edit your footage into little montages, and post your work online. This will get you into the workflow of the wedding thing, which you will need experience in.

You can go inside a church, with permission, and just spend an hour shooting detail shots with your GH2. Shoot the exterior, interior wide shots, then do your detail shots, put it to some music, and post it.

Thanks Jeff Harper....great advice.
That's my present plan of action.

Jeff