Graham's Video primer for recording video with the Panasonic Lumix FZ200

Also available from Amazon UK in hard copy book

and Amazon USA

Prior to uploading my next Panasonic Lumix tutorial for the FZ200 which will be entitled "recording video" I thought it worth spending a few minutes explaining the process the camera uses to capture light from a subject and turn it into a data file stored on your SDHC memory card. I show, in very simple terms how the sensor works and how the resulting analogue voltage is converted to digital so it can be processed. I discuss the operation of a basic CODEC and explain the difference between containers ( or wrappers ) and codecs. This is just a basic overview and doesn't included any advanced theory normally associated with codecs. I show the difference in recording quality of the progressive and interlaced formats and compare these to the lower bit rate MP4 format

[brianjordan]

Thank you once again Graham for this lucid explanation. Each one of your tutorial videos saves hours of experimentation and makes sense of the information in the manual.

[RandTx]

Thanks. Looking forward to that. I certainly feel your pain of upload times, editing times, rendering times... I can appreciate the sheer amount of hours it must take to produce the sort of instructional videos of the quality you put out here

[debmatts]

Hi Graham, so many thanks for taking the time to produce these wonderful 30 minute or less tutorials. I have looked at very nearly every one of them! You enabled me to go out shooting right away. Even though no manual came with the camera. I am forever grateful!!!! I learned things I probably never would have on my own. I downloaded your manual and doubled the requested donation. It would have been worth it at twice the price! Keep those videos

[GrahamHoughton]

On all points you are correct. The camera limits iso to 1600 in auto ( there's a clue as to what the max should be in manual mode) and for avchd there is no exif data at all it isn't listed in the tech brief of the codec h.264.

[GrahamHoughton]

Hi thanks for the comment. The evf is a lot better on this camera. My only criticism is the dioptre dajustment doesn't lock and hold. It never has done on any of the panasonic bridge cameras I have had (fz38/100/150 and 200) I use a dab of hot glue to hold the adjustment wheel once I have it focused and then ther is no more issue with it and it can be easily removed. Yes to get 1/8 second or longer you will need to use ND4 or ND8 even with ISO 100 and f8. Choose a good one to save colour casts

[GrahamHoughton]

I normally preview using the photofunstudio software which comes with the camera. It's great for importing the files to your computer too.

[GrahamHoughton]

I discuss the problem of both subject and more importantly camera movement in my "shooting video part 2" as the avchd h.264 codec drops resolution as the number of pixels which change in the video increase. Slow pans are essential to maintain the full bitrate capability.

[GrahamHoughton]

Hi, yes avchd files are big however not as big as the lesser compressed formats. I use the quicktime H.264 codec to convert for upload as this seems to be the ome used by youtube. It can still take 9 hours to upload a 30 minute video but that's down to the way the broadband system works. You may get 8GB/s download but only 0.5GB/s upload speed.

[GrahamHoughton]

Thanks and I'm sure you will get some great images from the camera. Vegas becomes easy once you understand some of the basics. Have you looked for tutorials here on YT there are some decent ones. To do the tutorials would require a screen capture program to get the quality right and there are some YT issues for me showing software so at the moment it's something I haven't considered as there is so much more I want to do with the FZ200 camera that I would never get the time.

[GrahamHoughton]

Hi are we talking about creative movie mode and shutter priority? If you use P mode it will give you 1/60 but if you use the S mode you will be able to set 1/30 and get the extra stop. Its explained in my latest video which has taken 13 hours to upload and still going at the moment!

[GrahamHoughton]

I guess the issue could be shutter speed during recording. Ideally the shutter speed should be twice the frame rate so 1/125 for 60fps. Set this up in manual movie move and you may have to use ND filters to get this. I will be showing this in the next video - but i'll give your question more thought.

[joophazeleger]

Hello Graham, i'm very pleased to see your excellent video's, specially about the DMC-FZ200. I wish you all the best for 2014

Great video Graham!
I especially like your animations.

Keep up the good work!
Best regards
Fabian

[GrahamHoughton]

Hi David, no there is no pause in video record mode, each clip is a separate item.

[GrahamHoughton]

Yes you can if you not shooting video in the creative video mode. So if you shoot video in any of PASM modes you can shoot 3.5M stills ( limit on number per video clip) but you cannot shoot stills in the true video mode.

[GrahamHoughton]

MP4 is recognised by iMovie why not give that a shot and see what the outcome is. There is usually some quality loss during transcoding ( especially the free ones ) so you may end up with better clips this way.

[harrydontje]

Thanks for the great tutorials, Graham. Just got my FZ200 yesterday! Got it based on my good experience with my FZ28 and and because of your videos (you'll have a lot to answer for if my photos and videos don't turn out as well as yours!) I also just bought and installed Sony Vegas Home Studio 11 and it is quite intimidating, as I have never done any video editing before. Would you consider doing a series of tutorials on this program, as I believe you use it for your videos? Thx for your videos!

[seniorLu]

Thanks Graham,
Very informative on all your video's. Have been gathering information on the fz200.
What is the amount of time the battery lasts, and on what modes. And what is a good starting point for someone starting out.

[dedroportugal]

Mr. G.H. sorry to point out this but, AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is consider a container not a codec. Microsoft made it way back in the early 90's. And WMV is consider a container too. H.264, DIVX, MPEG2, MPEG4, etc, those are codecs.

[ForViewingOnly]

A very well put together and informative video. Thanks Graham.
I think I remember you being a Sony Vegas Movie Studio user - have you come to any conclusions about the best format to render your videos in, for archiving on your hard drive and for uploading to YouTube? I've been torn between MP4 and WMV. I've rendered the same Vegas video in both formats using the same video and audio bitrates, and there are definite differences in colour, contrast, etc. between MP4 and WMV. Thanks.