Based on Joseph, Joe12South, Moore’s recommendations for the cleanest, highest dynamic range, footage, these are the best setting for the panasonic lumix gh4 that I use.
*One note is how disappointed I was in the GH4’s handling of moire and aliasing in 1080p mode. I shoot and deliver only at frame rates high frame rates, so 50fps or higher, which means I never shoot at 4k on the gh4 because it can’t do 4k60p. But the gh4 handles aliasing and moire at 4k considerably better than at 1080p, which is irritating because I can’t use that cleaner image.
(Another irritating fact is panasonic doesn’t offer 30.00 or 60.000fps, only 29.97 and 59.94, in any camera below their cinema line Varicam PURE, and barely talk about High Frame Rates at all, entirely ignoring the needs of creators like myself. They just mention 100 and 120fps. But these cameras often have limitations in these higher frame rate modes, which you only find out about when you get hands on experience…)
PICTURE STYLE Cinelike-D
PICTURE SETTINGS Everything 0, except sharpness being at -5
CURVE +1 shadow; +1 highlight
MASTER PEDESTAL 0
LEVELS 0-255
iDYNAMIC Off
iRESOLUTION Off
Joseph claims that -5 sharpness reduces the chance of image artifacts, including moire, so I’ll need to conduct a comparative test for this at 1080p because it seems focus peaking on the GH4 is reliant on the sharpness setting. By reducing it, the peaking is reduced, making focusing on the fly without a monitor much more difficult.
Something that surprised me when I started using the GH4 because I was aware that focus peaking is sensor based (using lens contrast to detect what’s in focus). And whenever I would use shitty lenses, focus peaking would be inaccurate on my previous camera - the sony nex-7. But when I used sharper, more exquisitely built lenses, focus peaking was incredibly accurate.
Like he, I also found noise reduction is better left at 0, as opposed to the -5 that many others recommend. Also, 400 ISO is apparently the base ISO, so I aim to keep it at that no matter what. (You’re forced to in LOG (VLOG-L) mode but not rec709 mode) The exception is for cases where I can afford to drop the ISO down to 200 because the scene doesn’t require a high dynamic range but is bright enough to warrant a low sensitivity.
An ISO higher than 400 produces far too much noise, unless that is an aesthetic you enjoy.
If you can afford a gh5 or gh5s, go with that. The sensitivity, noise reduction algorithms, among many other features are significantly improved. GH4 is a broke boy option, proven in its archaic handling of its features.