Film-like Picture with GL2
 

Hey guys. I've had our GL2s for about 2 weeks now. What settings do you guys feel makes the best film like image quality. I know good lighting and compostion and production values make the most of film look, but I just wanted to know your thoughts on what would be the optimal settings to use. Should I turn my Color Gain all the way up. Speaking of which, does the color gain just boost color saturation or what?

Hello Daniel,
I don't really know if "optimal" values exist for getting a film-look with the GL2. Since it's such a subjective quality I think you'll really just have to experiment to develop the image qualities that look best to your eyes.

The adjustments often twiddled to this end are:
Frame Mode
Setup Level: -1 click
Sharpness: -1 click

I think you'll find that you may need to tweak for each scene. But experiment away!

Yes, the "Color Gain" basically affects overall color saturation.

Usually you need to color grade in post anyway, so the built-in GL2 settings don't seem to be much use. Just make sure you get the color balance right and then with software you can pretty much make the footage look however you want.

The only thing I do do is set the color gain all the way up to give me the richest looking pictures.

Thanks guys. So Color Gain won't make my picture more noisy like normal Gain will? Probably not. Just checking. And how does the GL2 do in low light? Does it get all nasty and grainy?

No color gain doesn't affect grain at all as far as I can tell. It just makes all colors come through more saturated, and I love the look.

In low light, auto mode, the picture is very grainy and nasty but just switch into manual exposure mode, turn gain down to 0 or 6db, turn frame rate down to 30 fps, and then light the room as best you can to remove grain.

Also spotlight mode is really good - it always keeps light gain at 0db and adjusts f-stop and shutter speed automatically for you to get the best exposure.