Hacked GH2 @42 Mbps in AVCHD 10,000 iso !

[Joe Ogiba]

Fantastic night video from John Twigt @ Workstation.nl :

"This sequence was shot entirely with 10.000 ASA sensitivity on a hacked GH2 with 42 Mbps in AVCHD. Originaly 1920x1080 for vimeo scaled down to 720. No extra lights were used at all. All lighting is practical, i.e. street lights and the lanterns from the children and the light emitting from the houses. It was amazing how well the GH2 performed under those circumstances. I know there was some demand for high asa footage in color, so here it is. I used the film mode 'Vibrant' to get the most from the toned down color reproduction in low light situations. There is some noise but i used a mild setting from the excellent plugin from Neat video to reduce noise somewhat. I think this setting opens up possibilities for documentary shooting at night.

Lens: Voigtländer 25mm/F0.95, which I used almost the whole time fully open. "

Gh2 Color footage 10.000 ASA ISO test on Vimeo

[Jerry Porter]

That looks pretty friggin good....

[Evan Lloyd]

So how will this hack work with a slower lens? If I install this hack, will my 14-140mm f4 lens be usable in low light situations by simply ramping up the ISO? If so, that would open up a whole new world of lens choices. Not to mention make less expensive lenses more appealing.

Your thought?

[Chris Duczynski]

Amazing light and nicely shot - I think the video lighting business may be in for a shake-up.
How does the noise look on a big screen?

[Kevin McRoberts]

Yes, that's how I've used it. I don't have frequent call to shoot outside at night, but often have jobs with minimal lighting and setup time allowances, indoors, and a wide range of lens length needs.

Increase the bitrate to cool out the noise and ramp gain up when necessary, and the 14-140 is all I usually need.

CAVEAT: if you underexpose at high ISO, you WILL see horizontal banding. If banding appears, open your aperture until it disappears (ignoring the exposure meter) or add some light (even a simple LED).

In low light, CINEMA and VIBRANT modes become more useful - CINEMA due to its relative lower noise, or VIBRANT for bringing color in where things might become dim and muddy (the posted 10K ISO example used VIBRANT). SMOOTH and NOSTALGIC seem to have the worst noise at high ISO. These are all based on cursory experimentation, which I may augment with an actual comparison when the chance arises.

Last note, that video was cleaned up with NeatVideo... at $99, it's a bargain and a dang useful program to have in your arsenal.

[Steven Bills]

Kevin,

I'd be very interested to see your ISO tests using the different video modes (smooth, vibrant, cinema, etc...).

Steven

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Evan Lloyd

So how will this hack work with a slower lens? If I install this hack, will my 14-140mm f4 lens be usable in low light situations by simply ramping up the ISO? If so, that would open up a whole new world of lens choices. Not to mention make less expensive lenses more appealing.

Your thought?

Most of the "hacks" or "patches" allow you to remove the ISO limit of 3200 in Motion Picture mode, but by itself "ramping up" the ISO to 6400 or 12,800 may give disappointing results. The video shown here was done at ISO 10000 (probably set to 12800 first then to 10000 - supposedly if you use the top row you avoid some noise by going from the next higher ISO), but what made it work was the "fast" f0.95 aperture combined with the higher bitrate.

With f4 as your maximum aperture going with a "hack" with higher bitrate, you could set the ISO high and work some in lower lighting levels than normal, but at night out on the streets, I could only guess.

What you could do is get the Lumix 20mm f1.7 at under $400 or the Pan/Leica DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 at $539 from B&H and that would put you in the same "ballpark" as the guy with the Voightlander 25mm f0.95. There are some amazing things being done in low light with those two lenses.

[Don Litten]

Amazing!...................