DXV 100/A

Erika Silverstein · June 30, 2004

If these questions were adressed in another thread, or even another website/forum, please direct me -- if not, I have some questions for y'all about the DVX 100A:

Maybe this is due to my untrained eye, as I'm not a professional videographer or engineer...but the whole point with prosumer cameras is that you don't need to be. Or maybe it's the crappy tv I'm using as a tap? Or the lack of detail in the camera EVF/LCD?

But at the risk of sounding like a total idiot, I am admitting right now there are some Scene File Settings that don't seem to make ANY DIFFERENCE in the image.

Can someone help me out, tell me why that is (maybe this is stuff you only notice when you xfer to film)? Or explain what I should be looking for so I can see the difference? Are the changes *meant* to be THAT subtle? That's fine...I just want to know why I'm not seeing them.

For example: Detail Coring (not seeing a change). Skin Tone Detail (diddly squat). Vertical Detail (thin, mid thick...they all look the same!). Knee/Auto Knee (I know I should be seeing some change in the highlight areas, right? But...nope).

Also, what is the Marker function (linked to the Zebra bars function, but not sure how)?

Thanks :-)

Jan Crittenden · July 1, 2004

Erika asked:

Maybe this is due to my untrained eye, as I'm not a professional videographer or engineer...but the whole point with prosumer cameras is that you don't need to be. Or maybe it's the crappy tv I'm using as a tap? Or the lack of detail in the camera EVF/LCD?

Erika, The DVX100/A is the first camera of its size to be designed from the ground up by a broadcast company for a professional user. It is not a consumer camera slightly modified to be used by professional, it is a professional camera and in that, there are controls that the more experienced user can use. Your inability to see the differences are likely in your choice of monitor. The changes that you are looking for, as noted by your questions below would not be seen on the LCD it is not big enough and does not have enough resolution. Try a good production grade monitor with SMPTE phosphor, at least 13" and at least 750 lines of res and you should see the changes.

>For example: Detail Coring (not seeing a change).

When you add detail, you add noise, Detail Coring offers a Noise reduction to the detail areas and makes them less noisy. Subtle but effective.

>Skin Tone Detail (diddly squat).

This allow you to shoot people with many wrinkles to smooth those out so that they don't look so harsh on the video. Again, subtle, and it only affects those colors that are in the same value as skin tones.

>Vertical Detail (thin, mid thick...they all look the same!).

This setting is only for the progressive capture. If you were to shoot for film out, you would use the thin setting, thus providing your video with 480 lines of vertical resolution; this would upconvert to a film out best. The problem is that a TV monitor and anything for broadcast of video release cannot handle that much Vertical resolution and thus you need to back it off. The Mid setting backs it down to about 400 lines and I might use this for DVD authoring, and Thick which is about 360 lines; this would be perfect for a video release or broadcast. You really would not see these differences unless you recorded something that had a lot of detail and played it back to your monitor. Not using the right setting would cause a very busy detailed scene shot with the thin detail to be very annoying to look at on an NTSC monitor. It could turn into a field of aliasing and look very messy. Keep in mind this setting is only for the Progressive shooting settings, 30, or 24P, 24PA.

>Knee/Auto Knee (I know I should be seeing some change in the highlight areas, right? But...nope).

Again this is probably due to the monitor that you are using. If you are using a production monitor that is not on some auto control like most TV sets are, you should see a difference as long as the scene warrants the need. Until you are more familiar I would shoot in Auto Knee.

>Also, what is the Marker function (linked to the Zebra bars function, but not sure how)?

The marker looks at the litlle square to the left of the middle in the VF and identifies the luminance value of what is there. This can help you determine whether you are really on the edge of the response curve.

To sum up, can you sue the camera in an auto mode. Sure. Will it really shine? Given the right conditions. The point of the camera is that if you are given a scene that is difficult, you can do something about it, so that you are not a victim to the scene, but given your background, experience and ability to control the camera you can take control of the shoot, thus be empowered to come back with video that is sterling.

I hope this helps,

Jan

Phil Rhodes · July 1, 2004

Hi,

I think the thing with knee and DCC settings is that it's really super-dependent on the scene you're shooting. I have broadcast monitors and in the dimness of the room I cut in, having patched the camera in temporarily, it can be extremely subtle, down to the point of doing a mathematical differentiation on the frames and not seeing anything but the compression noise.

Phil

Erika Silverstein · July 1, 2004

Thanks for the answers...now I feel humbled, but relieved and slightly less stupid.

Alessandro Machi · July 3, 2004

For what it's worth I matched two DVX-100's with two JVC KY-27 chip cameras. You can mix and match the older style 3 chip cameras with 750 lines with the DVX 100's.