HVX200

[Guest Jake Dunkelberger]

Is there any setting for the HVX that will make my picture look better. I heard there are some great settings for this camera to make a more of film look. I also have a 35adapter on it with Nikon 35mm and 50mm SLR lens

[Adrian Sierkowski]

It depends on what you mean by "better," and what it looks like now.

I'd say 90% of a "good" picture has nothing to do with the camera, or even the lens, but with the scene as it is in the real world, e.g. production design, and lighting.

If you have a poorly lit scene, e.g 3 1K work lamps all coming from 3 direct angles, and poor production design, e.g. a white room with brown carpet. . .well there isn't too much to do with lens/camera that can fix it., you know what I mean?

 

That being said, the HVX has settings, but I generally don't mess with them. It's a nice little camera, but I feel it's best to leave color correction stuff towards post on video where it's 1) easy and 2) un-doable.

That being said, don't use the gain, or if you can set it to -3. There is a setting somewhere on that camera to slightly increase the latitude, i'd google for that and it should pop it up. Also, it's video, and what I've found is a bit of a diffusion filter can help soften HD up and make it look less video-ish. I've seen nice stuff from a 1/4 black pro mist just left on the lend. A lens adapter, by virtue of it's spinning ground glass also does this, but normally you're sacrificing exposure (2 stops for the Red Rock, or 1/2 stop of a Letus, for example).

What else. . .hmm. . . Make sure you're shooting in HD mode. I personally feel the 720p on the HVX is the better setting, avoiding all the interlacing and more uprezzing the camera (not really having a 1080 chip) has to do.

 

Hope some of that helps or at least makes sense.

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

I'd say 90% of a "good" picture has nothing to do with the camera, or even the lens, but with the scene as it is in the real world, e.g. production design, and lighting.

 

Really, 90% of the time? Anyway...

 

There are all kinds of "cine like" settings on the camera. They not only get you closer to the "film look" but they also give you a bit more room in post for color correction.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Not 0f the time, but just 90% of the overall to the 100% "good image."

100% of the time the good image is related to the skill of those involved, says me (ok, 98% 2% you just get lucky :lol: )

[Robert Starling SOC]

Hi Jake, it's not a matter of just one setting but more a function of adapting every aspect of the camera settings to lens, lighting, movement, production and the scene; the same as a film camera where the DP selects a specific film stock, lens package, lighting package / style and post production process to give the desired effect. Setting the HVX or any other camera on 24 frame and selecting the factory "film look" setting is just a very very basic starting point.

 

There are volumes written on this topic related to the HVX and DVX on the DVX user forum. Much of "film look" is subjective to the eye of the viewer or creator. Experiment and see what YOU like and what your vision is.

 

I have had two cinema level HVX packages in rental for over two years now and have seen some phenomenal imagery come out of them and... a whole lot of crap too depending on who is DP'ing and all the other factors mentioned above. We're not even talking about the quality of the script, directing and acting yet.

 

A compelling story shot well on a cheap video camera or 8mm is still better than a POS script shot on a Panavision 35mm or Genesis by someone who does not know how to direct, light, shoot and edit.