need a crash course on dvx1ooB cam

joe garcia · May 6, 2007

Hi to all

Anyone who knows the cam and would care to help,,, thnx in advance

I'm so green the many settings are too overwhelming to go it alone,,, my interest is to produce personal works that have the look and feel of film, hence the dvx cam ( although I may tradeup for xl2 ,,, opinions welcome ),,, with just the cam and no fancy lights or additional mics I envision documentary like material,using pet - family - freinds - whatever vistas are along the road - our local lakes and whatever else strikes me for footage, I will narrarate a waveform, and include soft music as workaround for lack of audio gear. This much I can do via Final Cut....

So,,, that said

Hope that description is good enough,,, What I'm hoping to get from members here is sort of a mission or assignment focused on the 'cam settings' and what these setting SHOULD produce Vissually Speaking.

From reading what Ihave thus far, I know that 24P is what I need to get the 'film look',,,, 24P advanced I understand has to do with 'pulldown' cadence but since I'm going straight to dvd will any of that matter??

also

I understand 24P is not true 24fps ,,,according to one expert ,,, it's really 29.97 with 2.3.2.3 pulldown (2,3,3,2, for the dvx) with droped frames in post for a resulting 24fps,,, NOW, although I can understand what that all means I really don't know what it means to me, or rather, how to capitalize on this bit of info. That said,, could I achieve film look shooting 30 fps altogether...

Any how, I know I could just ramble on but will quickly aske tooo many stuupid questions for lack of knowledge, a hoping there is a mentor among you who might get me going while I pick out a good book ...

thnx

joe

Daniel Carruthers · May 6, 2007

Id shoot 24p over 30p. if you want the film look shoot 24p. One general rule is if you intend to release on 35mm film shoot 24pa.if you go for a dvd release shoot 24p. I always shoot on 24pa and Ive released to dvd, it looks fine to me.

If you want a more film look get your self some additional ND filters N3,N6,N9 that way you can achieve shallow depth of field.

Keep the aperture set to wide open or 2.8 if your shooting on the longest focal length, and compensate with the ND filters to controll the exposure.

And if you really want, look into the ps technic adaptor or the redrock adaptor, which will give you the options of 35mm lens.

The camera has many settings to controll the look, do many tests.

hears an example of what I used for a scene

the look was desaturated with a lot of warmth like Gladiator, 300.

detail -3 (softens the video edge)

v-detail -3 (softens the horizontal lines)

chroma level -7 (desaturates the image)

masterpeds -5 (adds contrast and darker shadows)

matrix- normal (further desaturates the image)

colour temp -5 (adds warmth, I white balanced first then off set it into the warm end)

gamma-cinegamma (gives the most lattitude,just watch out for highlights)

detail freq- thin (where hoping to realease on film if It was a dvd realease I would have shot on thick)

24PA

joe garcia · May 6, 2007

thank you so much,,, just did copy/paste of everything you wrote for reference

So ND filter (neutral density) is that what that is?? I use to offset a wide Iris so as not to overexpose ??

am I on target so far ??

will be tryi9ng those settings you gave me in and outdorrs just to test

thanx

send more when you have time

joe

Daniel Carruthers · May 6, 2007

thank you so much,,, just did copy/paste of everything you wrote for reference

So ND filter (neutral density) is that what that is?? I use to offset a wide Iris so as not to overexpose ??

am I on target so far ??

will be tryi9ng those settings you gave me in and outdorrs just to test

thanx

send more when you have time

joe

A wide iris is like f 2 OR F2.8. lets say your shooting out side on a sunny day and your getting a reading of f32 on your light meter intstead of closing down the aperture you would want to use the ND filters. the camera has 2 nds built in which cuts out 7 and a half stops of light. you would also need an N9 filter to cut out the additional 3 stops.that way you can shoot on the widest aperture outside. somtimes the built in ND in the camrea is not enough. or if Im shooting inside somtimes its to much even the first nd filter cuts out 3 stops. its good to have additional ones an N3 cuts out 1 stop which is good if your shooting indoors under artificial light.

Do some tests set up a shot zoomed in on a subject set the light for an aperture of f8 or higher.Then next with out changing the frame open the iris as wide as it will go and compensate with the ND filters. you will notice how much out of focus the background just got.

Thats shallow depth of field. just remember try to keep the subject as close to the camera as possible and make sure the background is as far away from the subject as possible. If ever you find your self in a small location shooting some actors, stage the scene away from the walls and get them as close to the camera as you can.but dont shoot them an a wide angle lens. try to stay on the longest focal length you can.

If you want a more saturated look

try these settings

chroma level +7

master peds -6

matrix- cinelike

I always keep the detail levels the same. these 3 settings are what I usually always change depending on the scene and location.

If you want a colder more blue look set the colour temp to + 7 which is really extreame. I always white balance first before I start to minipulate the colour temperture setting.