Panasonic G6 for video

I am going to be using my G6 at the weekend in a black curtained room with a few lights high up on a rig to film somebody dancing. The dancer will move in his wheelchair and on the floor. I will probably supplement the G6 with a couple camcorders, on tripods at the back corners of the room, for wide shots to cut to. I have an old Helios lens (44-2 58mm) and an OLY 45mm 1.8 and a Panasonic 14mm, but will probably use the Panasonic 25mm 1.4 on the G6. I am thinking that 1080 60p mp4 will give me the most options when it comes to editing, as i will need to change the speed quite a lot to give the disabled dancers movements a smoother arc when moving between shots or repeating movements in the edit.

What is the simplest way to keep my focus on him as he moves? Should I use manual and set the aperture to keep a DOF where he is always in focus ? Or should I chose AFS,AFF or AFC so that I can stay at low f numbers and give the subject more isolation from the background? any other settings advice etc would be much appreciated. I have posted this also on the Digital video talk board http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55358698 but thought that maybe it would be wise to also ask here.

I am happy balancing aperture/shutter speed and ISO with stills photography but am not so sure with video. Could someone please explain how these parameters relate to frame rate etc ? If I choose the movie symbol on my top dial I seem to have the option of Program AE,AP,SP or manual. What would you suggest? And how does shutter speed relate to frame rate?

Sorry if it seems a bit incoherent, but it seems I have quite a lot to learn when it comes to Video with my G6.

Greenbeanz wrote:

I am going to be using my G6 at the weekend in a black curtained room with a few lights high up on a rig to film somebody dancing. The dancer will move in his wheelchair and on the floor. I will probably supplement the G6 with a couple camcorders, on tripods at the back corners of the room, for wide shots to cut to. I have an old Helios lens (44-2 58mm) and an OLY 45mm 1.8 and a Panasonic 14mm, but will probably use the Panasonic 25mm 1.4 on the G6. I am thinking that 1080 60p mp4 will give me the most options when it comes to editing, as i will need to change the speed quite a lot to give the disabled dancers movements a smoother arc when moving between shots or repeating movements in the edit.

What is the simplest way to keep my focus on him as he moves? Should I use manual and set the aperture to keep a DOF where he is always in focus ? Or should I chose AFS,AFF or AFC...

Just a casual video shooter for my travelling. However, for GX1 and GF3, I just put AF-continuous ON and so far the AF of my lenses (14-45, 14-42 MI, 14-42PZ, 7-14, 14-140 MII, 45-200, 14) are all managed to catch focus of moving subject very fast (even running). It would make life easier than MF.

Greenbeanz wrote:

I am going to be using my G6 at the weekend in a black curtained room with a few lights high up on a rig to film somebody dancing. The dancer will move in his wheelchair and on the floor. I will probably supplement the G6 with a couple camcorders, on tripods at the back corners of the room, for wide shots to cut to. I have an old Helios lens (44-2 58mm) and an OLY 45mm 1.8 and a Panasonic 14mm, but will probably use the Panasonic 25mm 1.4 on the G6. I am thinking that 1080 60p mp4 will give me the most options when it comes to editing, as i will need to change the speed quite a lot to give the disabled dancers movements a smoother arc when moving between shots or repeating movements in the edit.

What is the simplest way to keep my focus on him as he moves? Should I use manual and set the aperture to keep a DOF where he is always in focus ? Or should I chose AFS,AFF or AFC so that I can stay at low f numbers and give the subject more isolation from the background? any other settings advice etc would be much appreciated. I have posted this also on the Digital video talk board http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55358698 but thought that maybe it would be wise to also ask here.

I am happy balancing aperture/shutter speed and ISO with stills photography but am not so sure with video. Could someone please explain how these parameters relate to frame rate etc ? If I choose the movie symbol on my top dial I seem to have the option of Program AE,AP,SP or manual. What would you suggest? And how does shutter speed relate to frame rate?

Sorry if it seems a bit incoherent, but it seems I have quite a lot to learn when it comes to Video with my G6.

It sounds like your specific problem may be having sufficient light to shoot video. It depends on how powerful those overhead lights are. For current MFT cameras you can shoot up to ISO 1600, in my opinion, and still get nice results.

Your shutter speed needs to be not too far off 1/(2 x fps). That would be 1/120 if your frame rate is 60 fps. Good, but if you do not have enough light with that SS to stay at or below ISO 1600 you could be better off shooting at 30p or even 24p as then you could reduce the shutter speed and gain about another stop of light.

The best mode to use is M for video - you control both aperture and shutter speed. With the G6 I think  you have the onscreen controls to enable you to operate these both silently. As per above, set the shutter speed initially and then leave it. (Though you can adjust to a somewhat faster or slower SS to achieve better exposure without adversely affecting the result - it just needs to be in the ballpark of 180 degree shutter as described above).

What focus mode you should use it a bit tricky to answer. Continuous AF on the current models is not reliable, particularly in low light. If you have enough confidence to focus manually while filming you could do that - you have focus peaking to help you. Alternatively, use single AF mode and touch the screen to refocus as necessary. In other words, establish focus at the beginning of your clip (half-press the shutter) then if you see the subject starting to go out of focus, either half-press again with the subject in the focus box, or touch the screen where you need the focus to be. It really depends on how wide the range of movement is (and your depth of field) how well this will work.

Please use a tripod if at all possible.

Thank you alcec and Rick I shall experiment and see in a couple of hours. Rick your advice is always very clearly explained, and I have always looked out for your posts on the many boards here at DPR, because you seem to go out of your way to be helpful. Thanks again.

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Pablo Picasso
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