Match Footage from Panasonic GH3 and Canon 5D Mark3

[Jay Dantara]

Hello, we are a start up production house from India making factual content for TV. For a travel show we are using the Panasonic GH3 as the main camera and the Canon 5D Mark 3 as B cam. Can someone suggest a good picture profile setting to match the footage from these two cameras?

Looking for detailed profile settings

[Dominik Belancic]

If you are using Adobe CC for post production you have shot matcher in Speedgrade. It works really good (you can use it to match a grade from a movie you like to your movie), give it a shot. If you are not using Adobe CC there are probably some more stuff like that, but my reccomendation would be to shoot flat (neutral flat, not Cinestyle) so that you can match it in post (use scopes). Also try to calibrate the WB shift of both cameras so that the white is true white for both cameras.

Also, why are you using the 5D as B cam?

[Jay Dantara]

I am a post production guy and new to this forum so please excuse my Terminology / Jargon.

but my reccomendation would be to shoot flat (neutral flat, not Cinestyle) so that you can match it in post (use scopes). Also try to calibrate the WB shift of both cameras so that the white is true white for both cameras.

Yes I was looking for a guide to set them up to a neutral looking footage while shooting so that grading is much easier.

So we did a quick test. As for the Panasonic GH3 We liked the Standard Picture Profile so then we had to match the 5Dm3 to a matching neutral footage. Heres what I found:

 

Panasonic GH3

Acceptable ISO Range is 200 - 800.
Image is pretty Clean on ISO 400.

 

Camera has slight Magenta-Cyan Bias which needs to be corrected in Colour Space Settings.

The Under-Exposure tolerance is lesser compared to that of over-exposure.

Standard is recommended for good milky footage.

5D Mark III

Camera has slight Green-Yellow Bias. Adjust that to match GH3.

Recommendation:

Picture Profile: Film PS

Sharpness: 1

Contrast: -4

Saturation: -2

Colour Tone: 0

Heres a bit more on Film PS if you wish to check it out

http://blog.planet5d.com/2011/09/cinema-picture-style-a-new-option-for-canon-hdslrs/

If you are using Adobe CC for post production you have shot matcher in Speedgrade. It works really good (you can use it to match a grade from a movie you like to your movie), give it a shot. If you are not using Adobe CC there are probably some more stuff like that

 

Of-course we would match the colour and grade in post but some qualities are much easily dealt with on shoot like contrast and sharpness correction in post is more tedious than while acquisition. I mean you can add it easily but subtraction is not a good idea in post.

 

Also here, we are one of the few post production houses who are trying to shift entirely to the adobe space. People still use FCP here so ... everything is experimental.

 

 

Also try to calibrate the WB shift of both cameras so that the white is true white for both cameras.

Also, why are you using the 5D as B cam?

Yes would be doing that.

The GH3 is a great cam for the stuff we are doing. The problem is GH3 is not easily available in India as of now. We're getting another one shipped for B Cam but till it arrives we had to use the 5Dm3 as B cam. If you can suggest some other camera which is as good as the GH3 and in a similar form factor we'd try and use it.

 

Panasonic GH3 with Standard Picture Profile (WB is off)

 

Canon 5D Mark 3 with Film PS and adjustments

[Dominik Belancic]

It seems that the Film PS adds a lot of browns which is probably why it isn't matching that well. Try using the neutral PS with sharpness and contrast all the way down and put the saturation 2 notches down. That will give you a nice flat image, although I think that you will need to boost the saturation a bit to make it match the saturation of the GH3.