ND filters on AG-DVX100

[J Costantini]

hi

I noticed that the numbers of the ND filters on this camera (AG-DVX100) are:

1/8 for ND1 and 1/64 for ND2.

What do these numbers represent in terms of f-stop compensation?

I know a little bit about ND filters (.3, .6, .9, etc) and that they cut 1, 2 and 3 stops. But I can´t understand these numbers.

 

THanks

[Jon Allen]

I did a little outdoor testing when I got my new 100a. I went out and tried out the ND filters on a sunny day just to "see" what the outcome would be.

I found that the 1/8 (ND1) filter @ 1/2000 shutter and iris @ 4.0 was comparable (comperable?) to 1/64 (ND2) @ 1/500 shutter and iris @ 2.0. I then went and was curious how I could achieve this level without any filter on at all, so I set the ND to off, shutter to 1/2000 and iris to 16.

All of these were mostly acceptable, however I will say that the ND off and 1/2000&16 setting produced slightly better color. I in no way will say I'm an expert at lighting, I was mostly trying to match gammas, not chroma and whatever else; nor was this done under a controlled or scientific environment. Hope this helped, even if it's not exactly what you were looking for.

Needless to say, I'm not perfectly happy with the color coming from my camera. I usually pump up the saturation in post, but if I could avoid that I'd be a little happier with dv in general. Any sugguestions? Is my only other option to manually select the color saturation in-camera? And if so, does this seem like a bad idea to anyone else?

 

There are some cheap ($25) lens filters that you can find on ebay, one is a polarized, one is ND and another is for flourescent lights. I'm curious if they're any good, anyone used these?

[David Mullen ASC]

ND's and shutter speeds shouldn't have any affect on chroma levels. Psychologically though, deeper-focus shots SEEM to have more contrast and color saturation because as a background goes out of focus at wider apertures, details in the background blur over each other, lowering contrast and blending colors and highlights and shadows. But true saturation and contrast in the in-focus subject hasn't changed.

 

Anyway, you should pick a lens aperture for the depth of field you want and a shutter speed for the motion rendition you want and not mess with them in some attempt to affect color saturation.

 

Contrast and saturation are tied together, so you could set the camera to a more contrasty look with less shadow detail and add slightly more snap and saturation (HIGH GAMMA might help). But really, you need a camera with an advanced color matrix to do post-type chroma-boosting in-camera.

 

Any long-form project with a lot of cuts will probably need to be scene-to-scene color-corrected anyway so you might as well add the saturation in post. Plus an overall amount of chroma boost is a pretty simple post color-correction step.

 

Polas will help remove glare that is robbing blue skies and shiney foilage of saturation outdoors. Color Enhancer filters will make red and warm colors really pop.

[Michael Nash]

hi

I noticed that the numbers of the ND filters on this camera (AG-DVX100) are:

1/8 for ND1 and 1/64 for ND2.

What do these numbers represent in terms of f-stop compensation?

I know a little bit about ND filters (.3, .6, .9, etc) and that they cut 1, 2 and 3 stops. But I can´t understand these numbers.

 

THanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Another example of video and film technologies having evolved independently.

 

Video camera ND's are noted by the transmission of light, expressed in fractions. Every time you double the denominator of the fraction, you're cutting the transmitted light in half. That's a reduction of one stop.

 

So:

1/2 transmission = one stop attenuation

1/4 = 2 stops

1/8 = 3 stops

1/16 = 4 stops

1/32 = 5 stops

1/64 = 6 stops.

 

I don't bother trying to translate the numbers into .3 or whatever. It's easier to count out the stops on your fingers. ;) Also it's easy to remember that one SIXTYfourth is SIX stops of ND.