confused about GS400 pro-cinema
 

when in pro-cinema, the manual says that the camera gives a cinema look by shooting 30 frames per second. I thought that all dv cameras shot 30fps or 29.97fps. Is it just failing to mention that it is a "progressive" scan instead of just an interlaced scan? Please help me with this confusion. Thankyou.

It's a fake progressive scan, basically frame mode, like on the GL2. I think standard shooting on the GS400 is 60i, both in regular 4:3 mode and in Wide mode.

Steve,

GS400 PROCINEMA mode conveniently combines a number of features. Some are obvious, and some are undocumented (we don't know for sure evrything it's doing). For sure, it combines 16:9 WIDE mode, FRAME mode, and film gamma response to highlights (they extend and roll off, giving you more exposure latitude), bass boost.

NTSC DV is 60 interlaced fields/sec, referred to as 60i. Calling it 30 frames/sec is misleading, since it is capturing 60 unique moments in time. FRAME mode captures 30 times per second, but most would hesitate to call it 30 progressive frames/sec, or 30p, because the camera does not have progressive CCDs.

Honestly, we're still not quite sure what FRAME mode is doing on this camera. There have been many tests, and it seems to have all of the resolution of interlaced mode.

Anyway, if you want FRAME mode, but don't want the other things PROCINEMA is doing, you can turn that on independently through the menus without turning on PROCINEMA.

I've got some tests online that show the exposure latitude in various modes.

http://www.matterofchance.com/gs400/latitude.html
http://www.matterofchance.com/gs400/

Josh

Thanks Josh,
by the way how do you control "shutter speed" on the GS400?

Steve,

Set to MANUAL mode and hit the SHUTTER/IRIS button, the middle of three near the multi-purpose ring. One tap of the button gets you control of SHUTTER, defaulted to 1/60. Another tap locks in the shutter and gives you control of the IRIS. The shutter will go in the direction of 1/100, 1/250, etc, but will not go down to slower shutter speeds like some other cameras.

Josh