Nauticam GH4 underwater video footage & settings
Nauticam GH4 underwater video footage & settings
Nov 11![Nauticam GH4 underwater video footage & settings](https://blog.bluewaterphotostore.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/rockfish-gh4.jpg)
Bluewater Photo recently took some underwater video in the Channel Islands, Southern California with the new Nauticam GH4 underwater housing and the Panasonic GH4 camera. Lenses used were the Panasonic 7-14mm F4, Olympus 60mm macro lens and the Olympus 12-50mm lens.
We think the footage looks great, check it out. Bobby Arnold shot the video and he did a great job. We’ll be performing some further tests underwater shooting at different frame rates so you can see the difference, and testing the focus tracking – so stay tuned!
Nauticam GH4 video settings
- Light & Motion dual video lights were used
- GH4 Video was shot in UHD (3840×2160, basically 4x 1080p) – this the future standard for (ultra high def) television
- 4k adds extra pixels on each side to create a 16:10 aspect ratio. This is the future standard for movie theaters.
- An Mp4 video format was used. For UHD/4K, mov and mp4 are your only options and they the same codec with different wrappers. Both have a bitrate that peak at 100 Mb/s
- 4k/UHD is limited to 24-30fps
Panasonic GH4 – other options to consider. Special thanks to Bobby Arnold for this information.
- Codecs – 200Mbs all-intra codec is a very uncompressed codec that allows for a lot of latitude in post production. For underwater this setting can be beneficial if you want to do a lot of color grading, apply LUTs etc.
- The most useful setting for U/W is the 96fps setting which creates great slow-motion and automatically converts the footage to slow-motion 24 or 30fps in camera. You can also vary the frame rate all they way down to 2fps to create timelapse videos.
- Additionally there is a timelapse setting that will also create your timelapse video, up to 4k, in camera
- Picture mode – There’s a lot of debate about which “picture mode” to use with the GH4; We use the Cine-V profile to get vibrant colors, but not too much extra processing so I have some flexibility in post. Many professionals are promoting the use of the Cine-D which creates a more RAW-like image that requires more work in post. I’d rather spend my time creating something interesting to watch versus trying to get a great looking picture. The GH4 does a excellent job, let the camera do the work and you can concentrate on composition and telling the story.
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