View Full Version : Jvc gy hd110e


Tim Lewis
September 4th, 2013, 07:52 PM
Hi All

I have introduced myself in the "People in your neighbourhood" section, so it is time to jump right in and ask some probably amazingly, or even ordinarily, stupid questions.

I have just bought a JVC GY HD110 with a DR-HD100 and V-mount batteries. I have yet to receive it, but am all too eager to learn more.

Are V-mount batteries all the same across brands? The camera I have bought has Swit batteries, are they the only brand I can use on the V-mount?

The Camera I bought has the DR-HD100, is it powered from the camera? I have downloaded the manual but can't find an answer to that question.

Can anyone recommend a good, low cost, matte box?

Cheers

Tim

Don Bloom
September 4th, 2013, 09:18 PM
I have an HM700 with V-lok. I have 3 IDX and 2 Bescor. I've used Sony. So the answer is V-lok is pretty much V-lok. I don't mix chemistry. I only use NiMH but as long as it's got enough juice to power the camera, go for it.

Tim Lewis
September 4th, 2013, 10:10 PM
Thanks for that Don. The camera came with 4 batteries, only one of which is a little iffy, so I should indeed be able to "go for it"!

Tim Lewis
September 5th, 2013, 09:52 PM
I have just collected and unwrapped my camera. The box was sent through Pack & Send and travelled securely. The batteries are on charge and I will try some footage over the weekend. It needed a wee clean here and there with a cotton bud.

I was able to get:
JVC GY HD110E with standard Fujinon lens
4 Swit S-8080S batteries (I was told by the seller one is a bit old)
2 Swit 2-battery chargers
Original JVC dual battery charger
Sony Headphones
DR-HD100 80GB
Original manuals for camera and hard drive.

The only mysterious part of the unpacking was to find that although unlisted by the seller, the package included a Fujinon WCV-82SC 0.8X zoom through Wide Angle converter. BONUS!!!

I am very happy with the deal.

Paul R Johnson
September 6th, 2013, 04:46 AM
I think you will be very pleased with the camera. Especially the hard drive recorder which makes transfer so simple. The only negative issue I've had on the two I have had was firewire transfer. It works on some PCs, but not others - and is a common and known problem that has no real solution. However the DR-HD100 solves that problem.

Tim Lewis
September 6th, 2013, 05:21 AM
Thanks Paul, I have charged the batteries and I am hoping the weather will stay fine tomorrow as I want to test it and maybe get some UWOL footage. I have read that the HD recorder allows frame by Frame time-lapse in the camera, that looks interesting too. Did you ever try that with yours?

Paul R Johnson
September 6th, 2013, 05:39 AM
Ha! I never even knew that, so I've not tried it out - but sounds interesting.

Tim Lewis
September 8th, 2013, 02:38 AM
I asked about a cheap matte box for my camera earlier hoping someone might know a good option. I have found something suitable at around the $250 mark, but even that is a bit steep at the moment. I decided I would make one.

The starting point was the original hood. This is what I have come up with:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/tim-lewis-albums-jvc-gy-hd110e-picture817-mattebox.jpg

I can't get the picture to show, so you will have to click it to see.

The top and side flags are held on with Velcro. The are made from a Weeties box. I used the pre-existing folds in the box for the hinges. The outside of each flag is covered with gaffer tape for strength and durability. The top flag has velcro running along the front, which is what the side flags attach against. The side flags are reversible, with two different angles for the top flag.

The inside of each flag was coloured in with a black marker pen (twice) to dull it down. The whole assembly cam be removed in seconds and packs flat.

Tim Lewis
September 8th, 2013, 02:39 AM
By the way, that is my homemade dead cat (kitten) on the mic too.

Don Bloom
September 8th, 2013, 07:46 AM
Ha, your dead cat looks like the one I made for my shotgun about 10 years ago and I still use it to this day! It does the job when I'm shooting outdoors.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
Nice job on the matte box as well.

Adam Letch
September 12th, 2013, 08:01 PM
Hey Tim,

just remember firewire is not a true hot swappable connection, so don't plug your drdh100 into the camera when powered up, or your computer, power them down connect and then turn on. Make sure to download some scene files, Paolo's True Colour 3 is the way to go, there's a couple of othersout there as well. There are other Vmount options out there like globalmediapro etc. You can also power your DRDH100 using a Dtap off the battery, another good option which I did, is buy a new and larger capacity laptop harddrive to replace the original, which in my case doubled the capacity and halved the power draw so you can record longer on the inbuilt lithium battery, enjoy

Tim Lewis
September 13th, 2013, 03:10 AM
Hey Adam

Great to hear from another local forum member! Thanks for the tips. I had already read the threads about the firewire while waiting for my new camera to ship to me, so I have the heads up on that. Really, the forum paid for itself then and there for me!

I have downloaded the HD100 series scene files but Paolo's TC3 is not there anymore. Do you know if the HD200 series ones work with the 100 series cameras?

The DRHD100 is already powered via the D-tap connection off the V-mount adapter. I was really lucky with this camera, it came incredibly well set up. The suggestion for the hard drive is a good one though. Do you reckon it can be just any matching size drive I can get somewhere like Austin's for the replacement.

Don Bloom
September 13th, 2013, 05:08 AM
You know, I was just re-reading thru this thread and I see I said I used NiMH. DoH! I guess my fingers just typed that and I didn't catch it. I use LiON and have for years. The last NiMH batteries I used were AB Hytron 100/120's and I got rid of those for Dionics. I switched to V-Lok LiON when I got the 700 since it was all set up for them and came with some when I got the camera. Not that it made any difference but I'm kinda OCD about stuff like this and I figured I better correct my dumb a** moment or I wouldn't be able to sleep!

O|O
\--/

Adam Letch
September 13th, 2013, 09:09 AM
Just open it up, read the Hdd tag for its power rating, go to austins or ple and get a appropriate laptop Hdd with a lower draw. When I got mine I went from 60 to 120GB and halved the power. Heck these days you can probably get solid state drives that size. Just remember its a old unit and it'll be a IDE connector. I just remembered it was Tim Dashwood who had some good colour matrix profiles, and maybe it was only TC1 or 2 for the 100 series. I have a 251 so not sure

Kennedy Maxwell
September 18th, 2013, 08:36 AM
FYI - Here is Paolo's set-up.


May 2006
As much as we like to have absolute, scientific reference points, the purpose of what we do with the camera is to reproduce, for the most
part, real life situations. At least this is the goal of my TrueColor configuration. So, after playing with the chart, there is a point when you
need to have a "reality check". This opportunity happened for me when I've been asked to work as DIT for a series of commercials shot
by Image Line for their client, MGA
The scene had several objects of vivid colors and, during the setup day, I noticed that the HD100 tended to render the pinks and
magentas as red. This is, as I learned recently, a characteristic of HD cameras in general. They tend to be "red happy". Now, keep in
mind that my HD100 was connected to an HD Sony monitor via component cable so the signal was as good as it gets. In order to verify
the color matrix settings I also monitored the color via a vectorscope.
Now the fun part begins. As you can imagine, I thought it would be logical to lower the gain of the red channel. I tried that but I didn't get
any significant correction for the magentas. Now, if you look on the VectorScope the blue channel is the one opposite to the red one. So I
started moving the blue. Specifically, I lowered the gain a couple of notches. Voila', the red shifts ever so slightly clockwise toward the
magenta and the pinks and magentas render just fine. Skin tones are affected a bit, as red and yellow are the main components. You
don't want to upset the balance too much. I moved the blue gain from 3 to 1. You can try setting at 2 just to keep skin tones more
vibrant, it depends on what you shoot. For the majority of scenes I believe that Blue Gain at 1 should be fine.
Encouraged by the sucess I verified the black levels. The blurred spot on the photo is where the toy is placed. I can't show it yet because
it's a new product, but I can tell you that it has black parts over blue areas. There were several spots in the scene that needed good
capture of dark tones. TrueColor V2.0 works fine for this but I decided to try a different approach. After a few minutes of work I found a
solution that I considered more satisfactory. I called Neal Brown, the DP, and Brad White, the director, to get the opinion of people with a
sharp eye for details. They both agreed that the new black settings define the dark tones with lots of subtleties while at the same time
they don't seem to affect the midtones as much as V2.0 did. Not thsat V2.0 was bad, it's just that V3.0 is better. Basically I moved Master
Black from -2 to "Normal" and I disabled Black Stretch. V2.0 had Black Stretch at 1.
So, in conclusion here are my revised settings, from now on nicknamed "TrueColor Version 3.0"

Master black Normal Color Gain Normal
Black Stretch OFF Color Matrix Standard
Detail MIN R Gain 3
White Clip 108% R Rotation 4
Knee Manual G Gain 2
Level 90% G Rotation Normal
Cinelike OFF B Gain 1
Gamma CineLike B Rotation -3
Gamma Level -1

I'm confident that this configuration will improve the look of your footage compared to any of the stock settings. Keep in mind, though,
that any two HD100 might have slightly different reactions and you should calibrate your own HD100 with a chart.
One note about the use of these settings. I spent a considerable amount of time to get an engineering approach to color calibration. If
you use these settings or configuration derived from them in a professional production I would appreciate if you credit the source. Also, if
you have the chance, drop me an email to let me know which features/shorts/commercials have been shot with the HD100 calibrated as
described here.
Ciao!
--
Paolo
PS: sorry about the watermark. I just found out that some people on a Japanese blog are copying the about table and not only not
mentioning the source but crediting it with their name!
JVC HD100 Calibration http://www.paolociccone.com/hd100-calibration-3.html


Ken P.S. - I am using this set-up with both a HD100U and a HD200U cameras and they look identical. . . and great.

Tim Lewis
September 24th, 2013, 12:20 AM
@Adam

Thanks for that advice. I will do that as soon as my budget allows.

@Ken

Thanks very much for the TC3 details. I will be using this after all the good things I have heard about it.

Tim Lewis
February 10th, 2014, 09:54 PM
@Adam Letch and for all other Focus owners

I have just replaced the hard drive in my DR-HD100 with this:

SD SDHC MMC TO 2 5 44 PIN IDE Male Adapter Converter | eBay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400347540710)

It allows an SDHC card to be used instead of a Hard Drive. The seller claims it will even allow an OS install. That was beyond my needs.

I opened up the hard disc recorder and removed the original hard drive. I then attached the part to the cable ribbon. As components could possibly touch each other from the part and the main circuit board of the recorder, I cut the little anti-static bag that the adapter came in and made an insulator that I attached with adhesive velcro.

It took a couple of times and a bit of fiddling to get the recorder to recognise the drive, but finally it did. I have a 32 GB Class 10 30 Mbps card in the adapter, this is the biggest one I had. I can always change it out later, but it is telling me I have 214 minutes of recording time available, which ought to do for the moment.

I now have a solid state recorder for a little over AUD $60. Well chuffed.

Bob Hart
February 11th, 2014, 10:15 AM
Tim.

If the recorder links to the camera via the firewire port, then you need to be really careful that the plug into the camera or the recorder is not disturbed when one or both are powered. The firewire plug in the camera body is not the most inspired piece of engineering.

It would have seemed like a good idea at the time but the socket itself is not robust. The shield is made of light material. It spreads apart from little more sideload than cable weight or combined tension of a cable upon an elbow plug. Then it no longer holds the plug securely which then permits an intermittent connection and zowk = gonners.

The desperation repair in the field for a loose intermittent connection problem was to squeeze the spread socket together with ratnose pliers. You only got a few goes at that before the "cure" became a permanent disability.

The original fitment of the socket style, an elbow pinned style, was secured by halves of a laptop computer case clamping around it firmly, holding the shield in place. Its fitment in the JVC is different. The assembly method for the case is to have a clearance hole for the socket to be poked through during assembly.

Because there is a rolled edge on the thin material, clearance has to be allowed for this rim. Therefore the casework of the camera cannot support the socket. The shield spreads and mechanical loads are also transferred to the mainboard in the camera.

One cheap trick to reinforce the socket against spreading is to cut thin slivers of plastic icecream container and stack them by slipping them in carefully by the long sides of the socket. Another cheap trick is to use a semi-hardening bathroom sealer to add material between the shield and the case. This makes it extremely difficult to dismantle the camera for repair in the future.

My personal preference would be to immobilise the socket shield in the casework with slivers of plastic and maybe a bit of sealastic or bathroom sealer to stop them from falling out. The slivers must be deep enough into the casework to come against the PCB inside. Thinner slivers may drop through inside and be lost. I then would permanently secure the firewire plug itself in its socket with sealastic to prevent any movement. It will mean a hanging cord annoying the hell out of you.

I suspect that part of the issue you discovered with the solid state device you installed not mounting electronically to the camera may have been related to a resistive or intermittent firewire connection at the camera body but maybe not.

When the firewire port goes, it sometimes fries some local parts but sometimes requires the entire mainboard to be replaced.

Please heed the advice of better folk than I on this topic. I did not own a HD100 but had to troubleshoot one a few times. The camera still makes a very pleasing image, especially with Paolo Ciccone's TrueColour picture profile settings entered.

Jay Webster
February 11th, 2014, 06:41 PM
Just a word of caution about these camaras in case no one else mentioned it:
ALWAYS POWER OFF BEFORE CONNECTINF OR DISCONNECTING THE FIREWIRE CABLE OR SWITCHING THE DV/HDV SWITCH!
You will blow the firewire port. It ain't a cheap fix!
Enjoy the camera, I still own and use mine frequently!

Tim Lewis
February 11th, 2014, 07:29 PM
Bob and Jay

I appreciate your advice and have read a lot about this issue in the HD100 section of the forum.

The fix I have done is all inside the DR-HD100 and does not affect its external operation. The areas of concern I had for shorting were against the main circuit board inside the recorder, as the SDHC adapter has a certain amount of circuitry on it too. I also has a nice red LED telling me there is 5V on the circuit. That is why I mounted the insulator layer on the adapter board.

I will look into the ice-cream container fix too. The camera was purchased secondhand as a learning tool, and will not be worthy of repairs, so I do wish to treat it as kindly as possible.

Tim Lewis
February 19th, 2014, 08:49 PM
Well, all good until I went to use it on Tuesday this week, then it wouldn't recognise the disk! I had to go back to tape.

I am yet unwilling to write off this experiment, so I opened up the recorder again and had a look at all the arrangements. I have now taken out the pressed aluminium HD caddy from the back of the recorder casing to remove the possibility of any electrical shorting there and it all seems to be working again.

I will take it out over the weekend to see if it will perform as required after some transport.

Tim Lewis
February 24th, 2014, 07:29 PM
I have successfully used the camera in the field with the SD card as a replacement for the old hard drive.

The recorder also starts up much more quickly.

Bob Hart
February 25th, 2014, 09:42 AM
Just to stress-test the card so you don't get any bad surprises, maybe try a slow pan whilst lens is in wide view so there is lots of fine high contrast texture going past slow enough that motion blur does not help the codec skip some data. I think JVC's keyframe is one in five - somebody please correct me on this. If you have loose items floating in the drive enclosure, your could cut up from black hard foam. The downside of that stuff is that it may thermally insulate and cause heat to build up if the card is inclined to get hot during recording. A cheap and nasty trick I use when prototyping something is to use small blots of white water-clean-up white silicone bathroom sealer. It is easy to part off if you need to dismantle. Hot glue is good too. You need to let it dry off if you put it anywhere near electrical conductors in case it slumps though a thin skin-setting onto a circuit after you close the box back up before it sets firm.