Sony HVR-V1U

[Marty Stiles]

I'm shooting a conference on this camera, and I've actually never used this camera before. We're wanting to shoot HD to tape, final product will be to DVD. Does anyone have suggestions about optimum settings, which tapes are best to use etc....? Thanks for your help.

[David Bradley]

Since you are printing on DVD it is illogical to record in HDV. The V1U uses Mpeg 2 compression, an intraframe compression mode with a ratio of 5:1 (128mbps:25mbps). You can often find artefacts in lowlights and highlights as a result.

 

For the purpose of the conference I would record Standard definition with the V1U. You won't gain any resolution with HDV and you may find that the HDV codec is incompatible with alot of editing software.

 

Use a standard mini DV cassette. Digital master tapes are purportedly the best but in my experience they have provided no significant benefits. If you need a 60min tape use a small DVCAM cassette. (on Mini DV it will record DVCAM mode but will use more tape in the process hence a 60min Mini DV tape becomes a 40min)

 

Do not be tempted to use Cine Gamma or anything of the sort. Any manipulation can be done in post.

 

If its a live event I would use several cameras but I'm unsure if the V1U has timecode sync so you may need a clapper.

[Matt Sandstrom]

Do not be tempted to use Cine Gamma or anything of the sort. Any manipulation can be done in post.

video gamma is also manipulation, in fact even more so than cinegamma which is closer to the native ccd response.

 

i agree about shooting in dv though, unless you need hdv for future-proofing.

 

/matt