A picture of the rig I used on a recent music video shoot.

Why would I change to a less professional camera? It’s all about what kind of stuff you shoot and what kind of tools you need for that. The money I saved in exchanging from EX1 to GH1 was substantial and it allowed me to buy a lot of accessories as well as save up. I shoot DIY documentaries, art films and music videos which I deliver mainly to the web. I use Sony Vegas Pro 8 to edit and that has so far handled any format I’ve thrown at it very well. It’s one of the least frustrating programs I’ve ever used and works without much fuss with the not-so-good-for-editing AVCHD format the GH1 records.

Image Quality

The picture quality of the GH1 is amazing and in my view when delivering to web in HD it’s totally comparable to for example the EX1. Heres a few shots taken with both cams from the same situation. Left is GH1 and right is EX1 with Letus Extreme.

You can see that the EX1 with Letus there is more noise/grain in the images and that creates an illusion of more shades of color. For me this is actually preferable. I know most wouldn’t prefer it but I do. So for all the videos I’ve shot with the GH1 I have added a little (or a lot!) grain with Magic Bullet Looks plugin. To me looking at the images like these they are at least on par with each other and maybe the GH1 takes the win even. In 720p you shoot 50 frames per second so choosing a shutter speed of 1/100th second (as opposed to normal 1/50th) you can get nice slow motion as well.

The kit lens is alright but to be honest I haven’t shot one shot with it that would’ve ended up in any production. It’s f3.5 so it’s a no go in low light situations. So far I haven’t done any outdoor jobs with the GH1 yet but I am hoping that it will be a good choice for outdoor wide shots. Sample footage online seems to promise it will be great! My lenses consist of Canon FD series 24mm f1.4 L, 50 mm f1.4, 85mm 1.2 L and 135mm f2. They’re fitted with ciecio7 adapter I bought from eBay (it’s called ciecio7 because that’s the username of the person who sells the adapters on eBay). I also use the Fader ND a lot, very recommended!

The real differences are under the hood so to speak. The GH1 codec is something that you really need to watch out for. I’ve ended up mainly shooting in 1280×720 resoution instead of full HD 1920×1080 because of the issues with jello and the codec breaking down. If you shoot on a tripod, don’t do fast pans and if you aren’t shooting high detail pictures such as forests it’s not a problem. But I like to shoot handheld, run in the forest and move the camera around fast so it’s an issue for me.

After about nine months, ten videos later and after hacking my GH1 with the GH13 hack I’ve started using Full HD mode exclusively. It is still not as robust as you’d hope for but it’s very good. I’m using the “C settings” so instead of 17MB bitrate it’s about 60MB.

You also gotta take care not to underexpose with the GH1 or you will get some banding – especially on red colors. It’s funny though, a lot of people shooting test shots at home end up with bad footage with banding. When you go out to do some real shooting with lights and you take care your exposure is nailed you get very good results. Here’s a few shots from home tests and real world shooting situations.

It’s really difficult to portray with still images but what I see when watching the videos is that in the forest scenes the blacks are black and there is no banding to speak of as opposed to pictures with the girl which are both underexposed and there is too little light and the banding starts appearing. So in essence if you underexpose and have too dark image you will get banding. If you have very little light but you nail the exposure you get better images. So this would mean that you get better images shooting at 400 asa with exposure just right then you do with 100 asa underexposed. Yeah, Im having a hard time trying to explain this, hope I made a little sense! :D

Here’s two videos I’ve done so you can compare the picture quality for yourself. First video is done with the EX1 and the second is shot with the GH1. Both with a Canon FD 24mm 1.4 L.

Shot with the Sony EX1 and Letus Extreme.

Shot with Panasonic GH1.

GH1 for Photographs

I’ve tried to take some photos with the GH1 and to me it’s just not up to the task. Especially in low light you can’t really get decent results no matter what. Compared to the higher end DSLR’s it’s no match. Although I can heartily recommend the GH1 for video if you are looking for a camera mainly to do photography with I would stay away from it. You can get decent results with it and I’m ok to take it on a holiday with me, even do product photography when you have proper lights or you are outdoors. But other then that unfortunately it’s not quite up to the task.

Audio

Another major handicap for some is that there is no pro audio inputs. The GH1 mic is not bad at all for DIY stuff in controlled enviroments. Doing documentaries is not out of the question. With a little investment in the audio side you can get truly professional results. I got a wireless Audio-Technica Lavalier mic, a Rode shotgun and Zoom H4n recorder. This gives an excellent audio quality for interviews. The Zoom H4n is also perfect for recording live gigs. I love having all these little gadget that become multipurpose. Now when I take all this stuff with me I’m ready to record live gigs. Do documentaries or shoot music videos. And it all fits in a small bag!

So far I’ve done two short documentaries with the GH1. The short documentary on a Belgian label Kraak records was done with nothing but the GH1 microphone. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality I got. We tried to control the audio by choosing rooms that were quiet and had a nice echo. I tried to stay close the people I interviewed. I think the results are totally usable for this kind of DIY aesthetics. I had to EQ it some but you can understand the people talking which is the most important thing with these types of videos. The second documentary on Jan Anderzén is recorded to the Zoom H4n with the wireless LAV and Rode shotgun mic. I ended up using mostly the wireless LAV and added some GH1 stereo audio for ambience.

Conclusion

Some people say that they wouldn’t dare show up at a clients door with a small size camera. I’ve done paying job’s with the GH1 and so far the only thing I’ve seen is excitement that the tools are getting so affordable and small in size but the image quality is so amazing. You are selling yourself with the latest footage after all. I would be scared to work for a client that only wanted to know what equipment I use and wasn’t interested in seeing what i’ve actually done with them so far.

To me the best camera is the camera that get’s me excited about shooting and makes things less complicated and fun. In a sentence a camera that I can pick up, get up and shoot with! The small size, cheap SDHC cards, being able to use a vast choise of old cheap prime lenses and the relative ease of use are the main advantages shooting with the GH1. Overall I find myself taking the GH1 everywhere with me and using it all the time. For the price it’s an amazing camera and gives a lot of people what they have wanted for a long time.

The first single from the upcoming Disco Ensemble album.

Directed by Sami Sänpäkkilä
Actor: Tero Jartti
Script: Disco Ensemble
Light designer, gaffer: Alpo Nummelin
Editing, cinematography: Sami Sänpäkkilä
Pencil illustrations: Topias Hirvonen
Producer: Fullsteam Records

I got a call from Jussi of Disco Ensemble that they have an idea for a music video and would need someone to shoot it. Only problem was that the video would need to be shot next week. So not much time to plan it. We decided that instead of making it a huge production, renting cameras and tons of equipment we’d do it with a minimal set-up and shoot it with my Panasonic GH1 DSLR that had already proven that it can produce amazing quality video.

I really felt that this video and the idea the band had would require good lighting. So I wanted Alpo Nummelin to do the lights since we have done a lot of videos together and we know each other well. Luckily he was free and I felt confident that with him on board we could pull this off in such a short time. We started planning the lighting and constructed our own gobo that turned out amazing and we used it in almost every shot. See pictures below.

Watch a slideshow

We drove to Konala, Helsinki to Disco Ensemble’s rehearsal space for the shoot. The band had written the script and Tero Jartti was cast to play The Architect in the video. He’s been in a lot of great Finnish productions including some Aki Kaurismäki movies. I know the band since we were teens except for Lasse as we all come from the same area. I even used to play in a band called Hektix with Jussi back in the day. So the crew was looking good! Everyone was feeling really positive.

We rented our light gear from Filmfotograferna. It was my first time actually using rental lights and the feeling of walking into the warehouse with all those lights and grip equipment made me all excited! I bet we made all the jokes the first timers do: “Hey, why don’t we scrap everything else and just get that 24000W Arri Fresnel”. They treated us nice and seemed to share our enthusiams – what a geek heaven! I didn’t even realise we were actually paying for all this, such is the power of gadgets on us poor geeks… We left with 3 x Arri Junior Plus 650 W, 2 x Arri 300 W, a Dedopack, 2 x Kino Flo 4×4 Bank 120cm and loads of grip stuff. A car full of lighting equipment. All my gear was in one bag, I did help Alpo carry the stuff!

One of our original ideas was to put a large butterfly canvas on the wall and light that from behind to have this kinda glowing effect on the background. The butterfly we had was piss yellow and extremely wrinkly so that was a no go. We exprimented with a few plans we had made and ended up lighting by simply putting kino flo’s on left and right of where the player would stand and a dedo for fill shooting down from behind onto their heads. So pretty basic set-up. We added our own gobo light and this was the one light that gave the image the character we really wanted. Unfortunately it also gave us the most trouble because it was really hard to avoid shadows coming from myself and the camera cause I was standing right between the light source and the subject. We didn’t have enough space to move the gobo so I just had to be really carefull with my camera movements. You can still see a few of my shadows in the video but hey, that’s kinda tradition already, I don’t think there’s any videos I’ve done with Alpo where I’m not somewhere in the frame!

I shot the video mostly in 1080p which you can see created some yello effects on the fast pans. Theres also a few 720p shots mixed in and you really can’t tell the difference. Not even on a 1080 Full HD television. So I think from now on I’ll just keep to shooting at 720p. Gives the least headaches with movement. Although after having said that I’ve become quite fond of the way the guitar frets bend on the few shots with yello here. It creates a very special feel to those shots! The pan is like a wave instead of a horizontal quick jerk.

The Architects table looked awesome and we mostly used only the original light of the table, Alpo added a dimmer on it to create a flickrer we wanted at the end of the video. There were a few dedos used for fill here and there too. All in all I love shooting with the GH1 and the f1.4 lenses cause you can really work in such low light situations and only light for the mood and not have to worry about lighting for the aperture.

A big thank you to everyone who worked with us! Hope you all like the video :)

KRAAK is a grass-roots organisation that offers presentation and development possibilities in left field music. A quality platform, a promotor for young artists who are working within uncommon genres as avant-rock, psych, experimental electronica, free-jazz, new folk, improdrones,… We organise small ‘lab-evenings’, bigger presentation moments and creation possibilities. With a monthly mini-magazine Ruis we also try to support the experimental scene with documentation and promotion.

kraak.net

“A Day in the Mouth” is a series where I visit an organisation, a person or a place and have a little chat with the people involved and see what they’re up to. This is part 1 featuring Kraak Records from Belgium. They have an office in Gent where I interviewed a few of the main culprits.

Directed, edited and filmed by Sami Sänpäkkilä

Watch previous episodes of A Day in the Mouth

Bääbs, alias Päivi Kankaro from Tv-resistori is participating in the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest semifinals with You Don’t Know Tomorrow. Vote for Bääbs on January 8th, 2010!

Directed by Sami Sänpäkkilä

Produced by Päivi Kankaro and Tommi Forsström
Script, editing, cinematography: Sami Sänpäkkilä
Production manager: Maiju Laitinen
Bääbs’ costumes: Illusion Costumes
Costume designer, props, art direction: Anne-Mari Pahkala / Illusion Costumes
Costumer assistant: Ida Tuomisto
Light design: Alpo Nummelin, Sami Sänpäkkilä
Gaffer: Alpo Nummelin, Best boy: Anu Kopra

Hair: Elina Viitanen / Salon Scissor Sister, Minna Väisänen / Parturikampaamo Minna Väisänen, Annakaisa Aaltonen, Make-up: Anna Vuoristo, Maija Ruohonen
Catering: Johanna Kankaro, Location: Hotelli Tammer, Tampere

Actors: Bääbs, Aija Ronkainen, Atte Rytkönen, Dina Doré, Eija Uusitarkka, Hanna Uusi-Tarkka, Heidi Horila, Juho Eerola, Mimi de Froufrou, Pepper Sparkles, Riina Rinkinen, Riku Kärkkäinen, Rosa Meriläinen, Sara Floman, Titania Hill, Tommi Forsström

Thank you: Hotelli Tammer staff and customers 6.12.2009, all who voted for Bääbs in the Eurovision, TAMK / Art and Media, Henna Riikonen, Milla Suomalainen, Suki Kulmala, Pinkki Paplari, Minna Parikka, all dear friends and family

Song ISRC: FIIFS0900001, Video ISRC: FI4SP0900003
Download video for your iPhone: baabs.fi/video/Baabs.mp4

baabs.fi
baabs.fi/facebook

Music by Risto
Actors: Risto Ylihärsilä, Tuomas Eriksson, Minna Kortepuro, Alina Toivanen
Make up: Kati Kivijärvi

From the album Sähköhäiriöön (FR-63 CD/LP/Download)
fonal.com / myspace.com/ristoristo

From the Shogun Kunitoki: Vinonaamakasio FR-62 CD/LP released in March 2009

shogunkunitoki.com / fonal.com

Directed and edited by Sami Sänpäkkilä

Watch a slideshow

From the Lau Nau album Nukkuu.

Directed by Sami Sänpäkkilä

Shot in Turku, Finland. Sony EX1 with Letus Extreme and Canon FD lenses.

fonal.com / haamu.com/launau

Kemialliset Ystävät in studio. Shot with Sony miniDV PCM-110E, Letus Extreme and Canon FD 50mm f1.4 and 20mm f2.8 lenses.