xdcam sony

mike geranios · May 18, 2005

Hello my friends

I am starting a 10 months serial next week and we are going to use 2 new XDCAM by SONY, so any tips are very welcome...

All the best

mike geranios

Lars.Erik · May 18, 2005

Hi there. Shot on XDCAM a bit. Used it on shorts and on different shows.

Quite happy with it. Love shooting on disk. I'd advise you to use MPEG 50. The highest quality on the cam.

Sony Norway has actually stated that you can reuse a disc 10.000 times! Don't know if thats correct though...

I'd try to put the flaring to a shallow minus. I think it looks better. Usually put it between -8 to -6. Don't turn it too low down, or you might get problems when you're object is standing in front of bright backgrounds, such as windows.

I also turn the detail down to about a -10. Use this too much and you might get problems focusing.

Using the kneeing effect is a good way to getting more detail from your highlights. The factory is 85.0. I've had it down to 67.5 and it looks good.

Master black/stretch I never go lower than -4 unless it's for something very special.

If you can, try keeping the Kelvin degrees the same. Not quite happy with how the camera deals with mixed kelvin.

If you can, I'd advise you to shoot progressive. It looks really good when you do this with the right lights. :D Be advise though, when shooting P, all your camera actions will seem more faster. So just pace it down a bit.

But this is just some things I do sometimes. This might not be right for you. My advise is take out a monitor. Get it properly tuned, either by yourself using the SMPTE bars, or a vector scope. And play around with the menues.

Edited May 18, 2005 by Lars.Erik

Simon Wyndham · May 19, 2005

I own a 510. Great camera.

Lars, interesting what you say about the flare setting. I'll have to try that out.

Generally with the detail settings you can turn the detail way down. No focussing problems. Remember that '0' on the detail setting is still enhanced. Even if you turn the detail settings off completely you still don't actually lose detail. By turning up the peaking on the viewfinder you are adding the edge enhancement that would otherwise be added to the recorded picture to help with focussing. I prefer to have all my recorded pictures without edge enhancement lines. Usually I use the detail settings recommended by Swiss Effects as they minimise edge enhancement lines. They are;

Aperture Level -15

Dtl h/v Ratio +10

Crispening -10

Master Black Gamma + 20

White Clip 109.5

Detail Freq +40

Detail - 40

The black gamma setting and white clip can be ignored if you are not doing a film transfer. I think that the built in FLM gamma settings would do a better job at increasing dynamic range than just using black stretch anyway.

As for tips actually using the camera, go into the menus and set up the user buttons on the camera. I usually have the two on the top of the handle set to RET and Delete so that I can quickly delete the last clip if it was no good.

Another tip is that when you shoot the first shot of a scene, go to the thumbnails menu and add that clip to a clip list. Save the cliplist with a relevant name. Now reload it and make sure that the cliplist name is at the top of the viewfinder. Now whenever you record your clips will get saved into that clip list. Very handy organisation if you are shooting more than one scene on the same disc.

By default the RET button is used to add the Shotmark 1 essence mark. Press this just before you stop recording to mark a good clip. You can also go into the menus to set up automatic essence marks so that the camera will automatically mark a clip with peaked audio etc.

Edited May 19, 2005 by Simon Wyndham

mike geranios · May 20, 2005

:D Thank you very much for your quick reply :D

Any more tips?

All the best

Simon Wyndham · May 20, 2005

:D Thank you very much for your quick reply :D

Any more tips?

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No probs. I would like to expand on one thing Lars mentioned. Obviously whether or not you shoot in progressive (PsF) mode or interlaced mode depends on your director and producer. However if the descision is made to shoot in progressive scan don't forget to turn the shutter ON and switch it to 1/50 (or 1/48 if you are in NTSC land) otherwise you will get a very dreamy motioned picture!

Having said that however, if you are in lower light levels and there isn't much motion in in the shots, by turning the shutter off (1/24 or 1/24) you will gain an extra stop of light. This can be very handy indeed, and is in fact what Michael Mann did when he shot Collateral and the night scenes in Ali when he shot on high def.

With regards to the filters, I usually have my white balance offset slightly. Instead of using 5600k I set the preset A to 6300 for daylight as Sony's are well known to be slightly on the cool side.

It's also handy to set the rear XLR sockets to automatic detection.

mike geranios · May 20, 2005

No probs. I would like to expand on one thing Lars mentioned. Obviously whether or not you shoot in progressive (PsF) mode or interlaced mode depends on your director and producer. However if the descision is made to shoot in progressive scan don't forget to turn the shutter ON and switch it to 1/50 (or 1/48 if you are in NTSC land) otherwise you will get a very dreamy motioned picture!

Having said that however, if you are in lower light levels and there isn't much motion in in the shots, by turning the shutter off (1/24 or 1/24) you will gain an extra stop of light. This can be very handy indeed, and is in fact what Michael Mann did when he shot Collateral and the night scenes in Ali when he shot on high def.

With regards to the filters, I usually have my white balance offset slightly. Instead of using 5600k I set the preset A to 6300 for daylight as Sony's are well known to be slightly on the cool side.

It's also handy to set the rear XLR sockets to automatic detection.

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