lightning - GH4 in vertical mode?

[Ian Swarbrick]

The summer lightning season is with us in the Alps and I would like to film clean footage of lightning bolts in video. By clean I mean void of the negative effect that a rolling shutter has on lightning shots, namely individual frames half exposed in either the top or bottom half depending on when the bolt occurs.
Most bolts trace a vertical path through the sky to the Earth. Which led me to wonder whether I could orientate my Panasonic GH4 in the vertical position to record a whole vertical strike. I`d only need HD not 4k, so I could crop into the image. Do you think this would work? Anyone ever tried this?
Thanks
Ian

[George Dean]

Hi Ian,

This sounds like you are ultimately preparing for a neat experiment. I don't think it will render clean footage, but maybe in your area better footage. In my area, we have a lot of heat during our monsoon storm season. The lightening bolts streak across the sky almost horizontal, then angle toward the ground slightly and when about the third way from the ground, auger vertically, or in a diagonal slice to the ground (although I have been told lightening doesn't strike down it strikes up!!). But what would I know, my camera has a global shutter. I do have a wannabe DSLR with a CMOS/rolling shutter, but for anything like lightening or propellers I would use my camcorder with the CCD/global shutter.

I look forward to hearing what others have to say and how your experiment turns out. In the mean time maybe you could do some preliminary test with a small model airplane propeller. Maybe I'll do that!?!?!

UPDATE: Oops, propeller is not a good idea, it rotates!! Maybe something else, maybe a set of venetian blinds!

[George Dean]

I didn't have a venetian blind, but I did have a shed with vertical lines in the siding, that I previous did some rolling shutter test and as suspected, hold camera in portrait eliminated most all of the wobble, and holding the camera at various diagonal positions representing a clock, to simulate lightening striking diagonally got better results closer to portrait orientation than landscape orientation. But, I bet Ian you have already done that little experiment and wanted someone who has actually done it with lightening! I'm of no help, the forecast here is clear blue sunshine for the next 10 days.

Maybe going vertical with 4K cameras to reduce distortion of the rolling shutter when they make fast pans, etc. is common when they are producing in HD.

[Ian Swarbrick]

Hi George,
I`ve done no experiments at all. It was just me hypothesizing. But I`ll get a chance to test it soon; very unsettled weather here at the moment. I`ll report back.