Fredrik Lyhne

A tiny sensor benefits from small lenses. That make 'em a compact and lightweight solution. Depth of field is also greater. This makes them an ideal match for aerial videography. And shooting aerial stuff, you'll probably won't even touch ISO6400 and the sorts. Being compact additionally makes them great to cram into tight spots. Furthermore, just for people who'd like to travel light and literally don't want their gear to weigh them down, you can travel around with your camera and a bunch of lenses and you'll hardly notice it's with you. Try that with a 5DmkIII and some lenses. Plus, the battery life on the GH4 is genius (and did we mention it doesn't overheat?).
You might consider something else... actual cinema cameras are actually no real good in lowlight either. Prime example of course as well the Blackmagic range, that coincidentally sport cameras using the same MFT mount. You're basically using stuff at ISO800 and light for it. It's when you can't, or don't want to (maybe you're just lazy) light your scene, that you just pick-up something out of the A7-line up for example. Which comes as no surpise, as people have been doing that since the first A7s (which I also think people go for because they're secretly bokehwhores and fullframe makes it easier to creme the hell out of that background). You buy an A7SII or A7RII? Good for you. Now you're buying a multithousands costing set-up and having to feed it a 35mm image circle, those lenses are going to be huge compared to the M43 stuff. The entry into M43, even flagship models, is much more doable and lenses are compact and overall quite affordable. Plus, the flexibility to adapt a multitude of different lenses, including C-mount. Sure you can use an A7-series body in S35 mode. But where's the sense in that? APS-C wise... the A6300 has been mentioned tons of times, but need to get a grip on their reliability. I'll buy one as soon as they're as good to shoot with as they seem on paper. But I just can't be bothered with the hassle that's involved right now. Samsung NX1 is cool, but isn't exactly better in lowlight than the GH4. Canon has yet to come out with something attractive APS-C wise, what I'm concerned and Nikon has the cool D5300 and D5500, but then you're restricted to 1080p60 max and that flippin' mirror annoys the hell out of me. Also, you're missing out on all the treats associated with mirrorless cameras like focus peaking and the sorts. In the range currently the X-T2 is your best bet right now, if you can dig their system and philosophy.
About not bringing out the GH5? People know the 4/3" limitations already, they've possibly been shooting one since the GH2 and have collected quite the range of glass for the system in meanwhile. Yet, with every new generation there's increased performance, but also improved ergonomics, better processing now for example would allow for these more or less experimental features like an anamorphic mode, to be used to its fullest with de-stretching and everything. I think the G7 and GX80/GX85 have significantly improved on noise levels and general quality video, yet, as we've established, there's nothing really as production friendly like the GH4, that has all the pro-level features. Not bringing out a GH5 yet, thát is what would drive people away, the frustation that a G7/GX85/80 is performing better, but isn't as much as a production tool like the GH4. Plus, it's all good and fun that they're collaborating on making organic sensors a thing. But I bet that's far from being ready for prime time. And with everything new, it will have child diseases that need to be worked out for the launch. Unlike Sony, they're actually trying to give you something you can rely on...
M43 not your thing? You should've come up with that a long time ago. There's things it is and there's things it isn't (and won't be).

Not boring at all, and probably very useful for many readers. Cool that you finally found a camera that ticks most of the boxes!

I wrote here, since it is something that could be helpful for 99.9% of the people here: "Dear Andy" is because I think he's the best one to talk about Panasonic cameras and all the users should be happy to read what he has to say about.  
I work with those cameras and I have some great results, but I mostly shot music videos. He use them for features, where the look is less stilized then in a 3 minutes music video.

Maybe his experience and his answers are something everyone could benefit. 

But of course, it is my opinion. And of course, everyone has other answers is more then welcome. No "private chat" here, just the right recognition of authority to the people that boost my way of working. 

Remember that if it not was for him and Andrew I (and all the EOSHD users) would still shot videos with Canon 7D, complaining that Canon should give us a better codec, 4K, slow motion...

Well, let me start by saying, I really liked the G7... but so far, I love the XC10... but I miss interchangeable lenses. But this is a long story for me... and it may be boring for you...
Last year around this time I had just my eos-m, then the lure of 4K and a ridiculously cheap price tag brought me to pick up an NX500. I had a love hate relationship with the camera. By the time I started finding it's sweet spot, the G7 went on sale. Since I had a small collection of c-mount lenses, and the bundle came with a Rode VideoMic Pro I jumped on it. The NX500 was a little sharper and shot in Cinema 4K, but the ease of use and external mic plug in led me to use the G7 way more than the NX500... so I sold the Samsung.
Shortly after that I decided to pick up the FZ300 for family stuff and I liked a lot of the features... I loved that camera. Without a doubt it was the most fun camera to go out and shoot with, but the IQ just wasn't there.
Still happy with my G7, and my lenses, I just went on writing some shorts and planning some shoots. One of the shorts I wrote required some slow motion. I had read that the Nikon D5500 had really nice and clean 1080p both in 24p and 60p... all of the videos I saw online confirmed that. And since I had a small collection of Nikkor lenses, i thought it would be the perfect option... it was out for over a year and I figured the price would be well below $500 for a body only... even if it was grey market. Well it wasn't... the cheapest I could find at the time was refurbished for $600... which was a little more than I wanted to spend for a camera I would probably only use for one short and then I realized the BMMCC had come out and was getting glowing reviews for it's 60p...
Once again I was lured in by the promise of natively shooting ProRes and Raw, so I sold a few things and bought one. For the first month I loved the camera... I was able to use old Kern Paillard lenses and the Raw image is just stunning... as is the ProRes... but it is literally the most unenjoyable camera to shoot with. I prefer to shoot handheld or with a monopod and the form factor of the BMMCC is not suited for handheld once you rig the camera up with even just the bare essentials. And the battery life is simply horrible. You cannot leave a battery attached to the camera, because it will drain almost as fast with the camera off as it does with the camera on in standby and the batteries take 2+ hours to charge, so you really have to prep your kit the morning before a shoot, so you can charge half a dozen batteries...
But the image is just damn gorgeous.
After a while I just got burnt out using it. It wasn't any fun rigging it up every time I went out to shoot... or break it down if I was moving to a different location. Since I consider myself a run and gun shooter, all spontaneity ran out the door because it was such a hassle to quickly reset shots... for me. Other shooters who are more used to rigs and the proper way of shooting narratives are probably fine with it... but for me... it's just not an option any more.
Then one day I was reading eos hd and I came upon Andrew's review of the XC10. Now mind you, I was in love with this camera when it was released... I may have been the only one. Over time, every negative I had about the camera faded away as more and more footage emerged. 
Basically my buying and selling of cameras and lenses over the past year put me in a unique position to afford the XC10 this year. So, after a little more research, I jumped in head first last week. I have only shot with it for a couple hours, but I enjoyed every second of it. I have been mostly shooting with the 1080p C-Log, but the couple test shots I did do in 4K... I was pretty impressed. Now I just have to learn how to expose C-Log properly... I'm starting to get the hang of it and how to grade it properly... I'll probably never get the hang of it.
Finally, I originally intended to keep the micro and use it for really small, contained shorts. I have a few short film ideas that are only a couple minutes long. But after using the XC10, I don't think I could go back to the Micro, I think I would feel stifled. This leaves me without an interchangeable lens camera... Hmm? I love my lenses and I know eventually I will want to use them again. If I had to purchase another camera today... which I won't... I am leaning towards either the GX85 or maybe I'll stay with the Canon family and pick up a used C100... I actually bid on one the day after I used C-Log for the first time, but I didn't win it... maybe next time.
Sorry for the long post. Basically, 5-axis ibis and IQ trumps the G7... even with the ability to change lenses. I also think the internal 4k to 1080 downscale, of the XC10 is better, to my eyes, than the internal 4K of the G7, with post downscale to 1080p. The G7 wins in the shallow depth category and with that in the lowlight category.
The GX85 seems to have a better image than the G7 and it has 5-axis... but no mic input. It seems like there is no perfect camera out there, but the XC10 is the closest i have come to thus far. It seems like the GX80/85 owners feel the same about that camera... if it had the mic input, I may have chosen that over the XC10.
Again sorry for the long, and boring, post but these things are so subjective, I wanted to give the history of how I got here... which may help people understand why I inevitably chose the XC10 over the G7, GX85 and BMMCC.

Good workflow. Thanks. I always find it very helpful to see before and afters and then the modus operandi. I have a lot of similar shots in a short I am working on. I am not that proficient with color, so these little tips are priceless. Thanks again. 

Thanks man, that means a lot! 
Hehe, I don't know about lessons but I can tell how I grade with Color Finale. I'm still learning too. I guess you have you seen Denver's tutorials?
I didn't use any LUT as I was going for a natural look and I think most LUT's are too stylized. Some LUT's can be good for a base grade though. 
I used Standard 0, -5, -5, 0 with WB set to Sunny, which was to blue for my taste. I didn't set A3G3 as in my test it made a white wall yellow. I have to test more in different settings, but for now I prefer to fine tune WB in post. Most shots were f/1.4 btw.
In Color Finale I first add Color Wheels and adjust exposure looking at the RGB parade. Then I add another Color Wheels and set saturation, in this case 1,1. Mostly I raise it between 1,0 and 1,1 or don't touch it at all, and a few rare times I lower it a bit. Then I add a third Color Wheels and adjust gain to set WB, which is a little tricky as you probably know. Usually it is enough to adjust the gain, but sometimes I also adjust gamma and lift, although not in this video. The last thing I did was to add Curves and pull down the shadows in the blue channel. This really helped getting that warm feeling. 
So basically I adjust exposure and WB using 3 x Color Wheels, and fine tune with curves and vectors if needed. The reason I use 3 Color Wheels is to see what every little adjustment does so It's easier to go back and forth. 
Here's before and after:

Thanks man, that means a lot! 
Hehe, I don't know about lessons but I can tell how I grade with Color Finale. I'm still learning too. I guess you have you seen Denver's tutorials?
I didn't use any LUT as I was going for a natural look and I think most LUT's are too stylized. Some LUT's can be good for a base grade though. 
I used Standard 0, -5, -5, 0 with WB set to Sunny, which was to blue for my taste. I didn't set A3G3 as in my test it made a white wall yellow. I have to test more in different settings, but for now I prefer to fine tune WB in post. Most shots were f/1.4 btw.
In Color Finale I first add Color Wheels and adjust exposure looking at the RGB parade. Then I add another Color Wheels and set saturation, in this case 1,1. Mostly I raise it between 1,0 and 1,1 or don't touch it at all, and a few rare times I lower it a bit. Then I add a third Color Wheels and adjust gain to set WB, which is a little tricky as you probably know. Usually it is enough to adjust the gain, but sometimes I also adjust gamma and lift, although not in this video. The last thing I did was to add Curves and pull down the shadows in the blue channel. This really helped getting that warm feeling. 
So basically I adjust exposure and WB using 3 x Color Wheels, and fine tune with curves and vectors if needed. The reason I use 3 Color Wheels is to see what every little adjustment does so It's easier to go back and forth. 
Here's before and after:

So I had a good run with the camera today and I am pretty pleased with it. The 5-Axis is almost steady cam level... Not quite because I don't want to over play it, but I was able to track with my actor pretty darn well. 
Here's my first attempt at trying to color some c-log...
 
 

And here is my graded version.
 

Took some quick shots in the woods. Gotta say I really like the colors and DR of this camera! 
 

Thanks man, that means a lot! 
Hehe, I don't know about lessons but I can tell how I grade with Color Finale. I'm still learning too. I guess you have you seen Denver's tutorials?
I didn't use any LUT as I was going for a natural look and I think most LUT's are too stylized. Some LUT's can be good for a base grade though. 
I used Standard 0, -5, -5, 0 with WB set to Sunny, which was to blue for my taste. I didn't set A3G3 as in my test it made a white wall yellow. I have to test more in different settings, but for now I prefer to fine tune WB in post. Most shots were f/1.4 btw.
In Color Finale I first add Color Wheels and adjust exposure looking at the RGB parade. Then I add another Color Wheels and set saturation, in this case 1,1. Mostly I raise it between 1,0 and 1,1 or don't touch it at all, and a few rare times I lower it a bit. Then I add a third Color Wheels and adjust gain to set WB, which is a little tricky as you probably know. Usually it is enough to adjust the gain, but sometimes I also adjust gamma and lift, although not in this video. The last thing I did was to add Curves and pull down the shadows in the blue channel. This really helped getting that warm feeling. 
So basically I adjust exposure and WB using 3 x Color Wheels, and fine tune with curves and vectors if needed. The reason I use 3 Color Wheels is to see what every little adjustment does so It's easier to go back and forth. 
Here's before and after:

Hallo video afficiandos!
 
I recently read about @Inazuma´s and @John Matthews´ A3G3 for the GX80 and GX7 in the GX80 thread and @jase´ examples as well. I did some
filming with this and another setting about three weeks ago.
I´m kind of a Panny fan and have been enjoying the great value I´m getting out of my G6 I bought about a year ago.
It was my first step into digital.
 
So when I bought my Panny G6 last April due to bushman films and Andy Lee on Andrew´s forum, I had high expectations.
I was exited about the nice HD footage the G6 let me shoot. Bought an editing machine with a 2nd generatoin I7 2600K- great
value for starters one year ago. Now of the sudden I had this digi tech at my hands coming from SVHS-C camcorders
when I was a teen. Just that Panasonic colors didn´t seem that awesome to me, rather just okay.
 
Last fall I got my hands onto Davinci and a GTX970 and got myself started into the joys of messing around with video color.
The G6 held a few surprises for me. I´m surprised by the color "hidden" in that 24mbps 24p codec and even the 28mbps for 50p.
 
A friend of mine wanted me to test some slomo, if codec would hold up for 50p, if she could use Panny Slomo for a kind of a Ballhaus effect for her project.
So there is no plotline here. All handheld, with a 28mm FD, WB at 7000K with A3G3 and some A3M9, harsh sun at 4-6pm.
Some hoolahoop parts are shot in Extele and the closest framing is an additional larger percentage zoomed in with Davinci.
So now I would like to share my share I got out of the Panasonic colors. 
 
 

This looks great!!! I should take color finale lessons from you, because this is the look I have been trying to get and usually come up short. Do you uses LUTS, curves, vector?

My first project with the GX80. Since size / weight does matter and securities are kinda picky, i had no choice but to leave my lovely Voigtländer 25 lens at home and put the Panasonic 20mm on it. I had mixed feelings especially I did not use this lens for a very long time but in the end, I am satisfied with the result. Grading was a breeze, skin tones need little to no adjustment and also this lens works quite well with the Tiffen Ultra Contrast Filter. 

Took some quick shots in the woods. Gotta say I really like the colors and DR of this camera! 
 

Not handheld.

Lumix 23-32mm + 45-150mm lenses + ND. Graded with Real-look LUT.
 
 

I read the post by JonPais in the Fuji thread where he hopes to get rid of micro jitters with the help of a gimbal. Like him I tried all kinds of solutions and some worked better then others but I never got rid of what seems to be my biggest handicap; a too flexible spine. So the other day I thought why not use a belt to connect a small tripod to my hips and circumvent the spine all together. Sounded cool and it kind of worked, but if you want to use the EVF as well it is not optimal.
At some moment I used the belt around my shoulder and it dawned on me I just made a swing, meaning any abrupt move would be absorbed or slowed down …and the seat of a swing always stays horizontal.

It's my favorite way of stabilizing now. All jerks, jitters are gone. It's not that you don't move anymore but it's more like you film slowmo. And there are no extra costs. I'm pretty sure everyone already has some kind of lightweight tripod, I use the Sirui T-0005KX. If you want more weight or stability,  mount a video head on top of a ball head.
Both shots were taken with 1/30 of a second with a 200mm lens on a GH4 with a Speedbooster (0.72). It illustrates the use of the tripod shoulder mount trick vs handheld.

I made a grade for the 5550 version In DaVinci and next applied the same grade to the 5555 version.
All I did to make up for the difference was adding an extra node to the left of the grade with saturation set to 75.

Everything looks slightly more blue to me, as in hardly noticeable.

The 5550 version without saturation adjustment.

The 5550 version with saturation adjustment (from 50 to 35)
 

Based on your guys highly valuable comments, here is another series. This time i compared STD -5/-5/-5/-5 with STD -5/-5/-5/0 to see how the image looks like with a "neutral" saturation.
Lets start with the OOC shots (4K 25p):
STD -5/-5/-5/-5

STD -5/-5/-5/0

And here is my grade:
STD -5/-5/-5/-5

STD -5/-5/-5/0

My conclusions: I had to lower the saturation by 25% for STD -5/-5/-5/0 to avoid turning my skin orange. After that, both shots look pretty similar. The -5/-5/-5/-5 is a tad darker and the -5/-5/-5/0 offers more detail in the shadows, yet has a bit more noise (although not unpleasing). If wanted i can supply the video files as well.

I made a test comparing ISO from 400 - 6400 with the GX85 and GH4, and GX85 is (as we already know) really good. Wonder if the GH5 will go all the way up to 12800, as seems it could be usable with a little noise reduction applied. 
 

I made a test comparing ISO from 400 - 6400 with the GX85 and GH4, and GX85 is (as we already know) really good. Wonder if the GH5 will go all the way up to 12800, as seems it could be usable with a little noise reduction applied. 
 

thats why I got hired for the movie!!
  I come from a pop video background for 20 years ,I always shoot with gels on my lights , the Director wanted a very modern bold stylised use of colour , he came to me to design the whole look and style of the movie , so I have used different colors and contrasts of colours through out each section of the movie so each scene has a look to it , It was  a very small crew I was DOP and Gaffer ,so I lit the entiremovie myself as well as shooting it .I have big lighting package I brought to the movie of 25 Arri Fresnels , (1k pups , 650s , 300s 150s etc) and kinoflo tube lights 
yes I do use Lee gels all sorts of colours plus I shoot alot at 4000k for interiors the Panny looks better at 4000k than 3200k , just that bit warmer , I shoot day exteriors at 6500k and all my night exteriors at 2500k , yes I do try and use contempory colours there is modern colour palatte in the industry I have embraced alot , this movie has no day exteriors in the whole script , all the exteriors are night time so I got to play with the colours alot which was fun gelling all the Arri HMIs at night I used alot of Peacock Blue and 1/4 blue.
Lighting is a totally subjective subject , I like to treat it as a completely creative tool to help tell the story and a contast in light and dark is also complemented by a contrast of colour in the lighting , why limit your self to what I call boring plain 'white light' , you dont have to just use your lamps as is , gel them with colour and diffusion , most of my Fresnels have F1 diffusion on them all the time , (I rarely use undiffused lamps) ...along with a gel , if you want to play around with this then just get some full CTO and Full CTB gels and start with that , the possibilities are endless!! get creative......

Time ! thats why , shooting multi cam saves time and money and lets you get alot more setups done per day , I had 6 x G7's rigged up on Gini Rigs that I custom made ,
I had 2 rigs with Nikon 80-200mm lenses, 2 with Nikon 28-70mm lenses and one with a Nikon 20-35mm lens the sixth G7 was used on steady rigs and dolly tracks and sliders with various different lenses , all cameras had Metabones XL speedboosters on them to give me a Super 35mm field of view on the lenses , most set ups I would run 3 cameras , a close up, a mid and a wide , the actors loved it as we could do long takes 3 min passes at times and pick off head shots, mids and wides all in one performance .
Some set ups I did run 6 cameras at once as we had some complex special FX shots with prosthetic heads and blood and gore etc .
Multi cam is the way to go , we shot the movie in 44 days , and if we had done it traditionally with just 1 camera it would have taken maybe 60 days plus .
So multi cam saved us alot of time and money , the Panasonic G7s all performened amazing no issues at all and we shot 12 hr days every day , the rigs and camera and lenses got Battle Tested to the limit and all worked beyond my expectations , The G7 is an amazing camera its very very good in low light much better than the GH4 as it has a newer better sensor , I could not have shot this movie without the G7 it let me shoot 3 or 4 stops under for most of the movie , I like that low light Gordon Willis - "Prince of Darkness" look so the G7 let me push that to the limit with no noise and fizz at all in the blacks , its very very good!!

no you cant do both at once , its either or !!  I have brought this up at meetings with Panasonic as we all would like this feature , the G7 will not do this, I just shot a feature film with 6 x Panasonic G7 cameras , its a great camera !

The question was about about grading, not how the shot was exposed. Although I do agree with what Dave said.
I kept it warm as it's a sunny day, reduced saturation slightly, adjusted the greens and reds and I hate crushed blacks so..