It has been an interesting couple of weeks.
The G9 has a lot more options for video than the EM1 and some of the terminology is new or different, so assigning the 20+ custom and function buttons has been a trick.
First up the hardware. The Ulanzi cheese plate on the Smallrig handle provides perfect balance and utility. I have 4 cold shoes and several screw mounts to choose from. I have several small ball and tilt head options and an extra handle coming also, so lots to choose from. The perfectly matching red on the Ulanzi and G9 dials was purely coincidence :).
Here is where I am at (in brackets will be the accessibility of the control from good/fair/poor).
The camera is set to Manual Exposure and the lens to Manual Focus unless specifically changed.
Shutter Button (good). This is set to Record. The little red button is off as redundant (and an issue for stray fingers). I have also enabled the “red frame” when recording which is awesome.
Top Dial Front (fair, but clicky). This has 2 functions (see “Nubbin” settings). The first is Shutter Speed that will never be touched, the second is ISO. Neither are important on this dial so it will mostly be ignored and unfortunately that is the best I can do.
WB/ISO/Exp Comp buttons (fair). These are basically redundant, but may come in handy occasionally. The way I will hold the camera (left hand on handle, right cradling the camera), means they are inconvenient to reach so no real bother.
Top Dial Rear (good, but clicky). This one is also a double feature (see “Nubbin”). The first feature is Aperture, the second White Balance. Unlike the front dial, these two will be used a lot, but not often during shooting.
AF/AE Lock button and Toggle (good to fair). The AE/AF button is set to AF only for quick one touch AF when the toggle is set to C-AF. Three of my four lenses have on lens MF over-ride or MF only, so that will be my master AF/MF control, but if I am using a different lens or want to do a smooth focus transition, I will switch to AF and touch screen selection focus.
The Nubbin (good to fair). The Nubbin is used primarily to switch the two top dial feature sets and to shift WB when selected. This seems to be a reasonable good double click to manual WB control, except it does require I touch the top rear dial to activate.
Fn1 (good-fair). This one is set to Ex Tele Converter. I will use this a lot, but not during a capture so it needs to be close, but not in a primary spot.
Main rear dial (good). This is the only near silent dial, so it gets ISO control. ISO is the main “while shooting” exposure control. Shutter speed is set, Aperture is also likely limited in available or desired choices, so ISO has to carry the load as the most granular and flexible exposure “lung”.
Fn2 (fair). This one is for the Histogram. I am not satisfied yet with Zebras. The theory is fine, but the actual values are far from comfortable for me. So many opinions, so many variables. I will stick with histograms for now.
Fn3 Top left rear button (poor) is left for EVF/Screen switching as marked.
Fn4 Front button top (good). Peaking here. Like Zebras, I find magnification a taste I have yet to acquire, so I will stick to eye balling and peaking (blue) for confirmation.
Fn5 Front button lower (good). This one is set to IS lock. I have not used this yet, but is something you will use mid shot, so it needs to be naturally under a finger.
This next set are on the touch screen Menu (fair, but silent) and low priority (also subject to change). These are likely going to be used more for tripod work.
Fn6. Microphone volume (although volume will usually be handled by the input mic).
Fn7. Zebras
Fn8. Peaking
Fn9. Stabiliser
Fn10. Q Menu
The touch screen Movie Menu is set.
The Custom settings are all set with the above, then have their own Colour style/Log and quality setting.
C-0 (Movie M without a Custom setting assigned) is; 10 bit 1080p, Natural*, 25 frames/SS 50 (PAL) MOV as my every day social media quality.
C-1; 10 bit 1080p, Natural*, 50 frames/SS 100 (PAL) MOV is the same as above, but for movement and slo-mo.
C-2; 10 bit 4k, Natural*, 25 frames/SS 50 (PAL) MOV. This is my better setting for my more serious projects.
C-3/1; 8 bit 4K Natural*, 50 frames/SS 100 (PAL) MOV is the same as above, but for movement and slo-mo.
C-3/2; 10 bit 422 4K Cine-D*, 25 frames/SS 50 (Pal) MOV. This is for poor light and outside editing. It also matches the OSMO’s better settings.
C-3/3; 8 bit 420 4K Cine-D*, 50 frames/SS 100 (Pal) MOV. This is as above for movement and slo-mo. It also matches the OSMO’s better settings.
If I need to shoot HLG or Cine-V, I will change the C-0 settings as the job requires, but the above allow me to quickly transition from 1080P Natural to 4K Cine-D in three stages with two shutter speeds for each.
*
*Natural is a commonly used setting in Pana cameras with Contrast reduced by -2 to -5 so I went -3, Sharpness almost always reduced to -5, NR left alone and Saturation at -2.
**Cinelike-D is Contrast -5, Sharpness -5, NR +0 and Saturation -2. This is a semi LOG style, so can take a lot more Sharpening etc. and has a reputation for handling low light and extended dynamic range well. Unlike HLG, or V-LOG, it does not need any special allowances for viewing etc.