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Help with best settings with GH4. Raptors in flight (1 Viewer)

buzzard12

Well-known member
Any advice on settings would be appreciated. Simply put, I bought the camera with this trip in mind and will shortly arrive in Batumi for a three week stretch. I want to make a good video record of my time there. Just got a new MacBook Pro with the power to deal with 4k, will be shooting in 4k settings, with the exception
The slow motion 96 frames per second second.
The telescope will be the Swarovski ATX 95 coupled with ATS Adaptor. Got a manfrotto 501 video head.

Default settings should be lowest ISO and f100?
 
I have your setup but haven't tried much flight action yet but will be this winter as more birds arrive ( ducks and eagles). The 95 mm scope and the GH4 gives you a lot of magnification so high shutter speeds are going to be important and good long lens technique. I would set up your 3 modes ,4k,96fps and stills as Custom 1,2 and 3. You'll want Shutter Priority for the Stills at at least 1/1000th second so you'll need a high iso too ( I normally shoot birds in flight at double the lens magnification at least and prefer 1/2000th second when possible). AF doesn't work fast enough mostly for birds in flight so with the TLS APO, with Focus Peaking enabled so you should be able to get some good shots. Don't try and zoom in too tight on the bird though as it makes it harder to follow it's changes of direction. Best to Crop in the computer later.
I recommend you take a 2 tbyte external drive too as 4k takes up a lot of space on the computer.
Unfortunately the 4k setting on the GH4 forces iso to 200 which means you need a lot higher shutter speeds if you are going to keep the f stop around 8/11. The experts recommend no more than f8 for Micro Four Thirds ( Diffraction limits) and Shutter speed of two times the frame rate. I use a variable ND filter for video with normal lenses but it's more difficult on the scope. I have bought a 37mm 4 stop ND filter which I can drop into the TLS APO (actually rest on the eyepiece and slower lower TLS APO onto it and with very light pressure tighten). As this will eventually scratch the ND filter I'll have to find a way to hold it in without the two surfaces touching.
Have fun and post some results.
Neil.
 
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