I’ve been using GH4 for over a year, but it turns out I don’t know every feature of my camera 😉 Sometimes I use low fps video in cameras to shoot specific timelapses, I have also written about this feature few times on this blog. It turns out my GH4 can shoot this kind of timelapse footage also in 4K, which is great news for me. There are some limitations for this, but I think I could probably use that in some projects 😉 Check out the shot and then read details below.
This is a shot from my 52 Timelapse Project. You can check out the details of the project or full list of the shots.
It was another hard week for me with this project. I’m trying to share with you shots, that are somehow interesting or educational for you, to create something like a weekly updated timelapse school 😉 Currently I’m working on a drivelapse detailed tutorial and I also wanted to share timelapse from inside the car this Sunday.
My first try of a drivelapse this week was a little bit too fast – not bad, but I wasn’t happy with that. My second try was with a bike instead of a car. Well, long exposure without any stabilization wasn’t the best idea. Of course I’m happy that I tried, it’s much better to mess something up than not to try at all 😉 Now, my car is being repaired till next week, so I couldn’t reshoot the drivelapse.
Traffic shot
First of all, it’s another motion controlled shot with a 3 axis gimbal. It’s fast to set up and easy to use 🙂 If you’re not familiar with that, check out my tutorial: 3 Axis Gimbal – Timelapse Feature [VIDEO TUTORIAL].
I also wanted to try the V-log video setting (very flat, logarithmic profile, that increases the dynamic range), but unfortunately it started raining (you can see water drops on the lens at the end of the shot). I didn’t expect that, so I didn’t have any umbrella with me…
Camera settings
With GH4 you can use a Variable Frame Rate to shoot FullHD video at 2fps to make a timelapse shot (or something like a timelapse shot). There are some advantages and disadvantages of this technique, about which you can read here: Timelapse vs. Video.
One of the disadvantages was that it’s limited to FullHD only. Well, the camera for sure is able to shoot that at 4K, but it wasn’t just implemented that way. But in this camera in 4K mode you can set the shutter speed up to 0.5 sec. It’s a little bit weird, one frame is captured so long, that the camera should make 12 of them. So, if something seems weird, it is supposed to be tested!
The output file is a 25 fps video (or 24/30, as you set your camera). It has every 12/13 frames the same, freezed frame. So, in playback it looks awful, but when you speed up the video, you get a nice timelapse shot with a 360 degrees shutter angle (explanation what is the shutter angle here: Cinematic Motion Blur – 180° Rule) 🙂
I said earlier about the limitations – for sure you’re limited to 360° shutter angle, you can’t shoot for example at 180°. However, I think that for timelapse it’s a good thing most of the times 😉 Second limitation is that you don’t have a preview of your shot until you edit that. It’s a standard for ‘real’ timelapses, but in video it would be nice to have the final footage right in the camera.
GH4 isn’t probably the most popular timelapse camera, but I really like some of the features in this camera. Have you ever tried low fps video for your shot? Share it on my Timelapse, Hyperlapse and Stop-Motion Facebook group 🙂 You can also join me on my Facebook page. See you next week!
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