Making the jump to a new Camera...
 

I've been doing corporate type video (training, promo) for about 5 years as a side business. I'm now seriously considering trying to go full time. My current equipment is the XL-1 and the TRV-900, along with the DVStorm 2 and After Effects PB (plus Premiere for "assembly" - God, that software needs work!!!). I get nice results with this setup, but I think I could do better...

I'm not comfortable yet on selecting a good camera rig to go to the next level. I've looked at the "higher end" options of of the JVC 500 or 5000, but am also considering the DVX 100 for its versatility in the field. The type of work I'm going to be doing includes 15-20 minute corporate spots for promotion of their product line. This will ultimately be distributed on DVD and VHS (yuk!).

I know there's no "right" answer to this question, but I'm looking for advice from experienced users. Is the DVX-100 a viable option for corporate work? Does 24p make sense as well for corporate work? Will it help eliminate that "Live at 5" look of standard mini DV? Do people routinely do corporate work at 24p, or is it really for film makers?

Thanks for any input you can give.

Stuart

My corporate clients weren't really interested in the look when I ran some footage by them around the first of the year. However, I have a few clients I edit for that are doing event work, weddings etc. and the look sets them apart. My shooting clients are more interested in HD when it becomes affordable. The new JVC cameras would fit the bill, but can't be edited on a Mac. Presently my XL1s is satisfying all my corporate clients. I'm saving my pennies for the XL2 (or whatever Canon, Sony or Panasonic come up with).

How do you adjust Black Stretch and Knee?
 

After reading many articles in various publications about the adjustability of shadow detail, black stretch, and knee I was surprised to find no adjustments within the dvx that use that wording. As best I can tell Master Ped is the primary "black adjuster". Black Balance is set with white balance and in the manual it says that the black balance really only needs to be set once... not exactly, but in another words it's not a frequent need.

So I KNOW what black stretch and knee is/are but aside from Master Ped how do you do it?

Tips for anybody else who JUST got a dvx.
 

I'm just under two weeks into the dvx... Every time I use it I like it more and more. In fact I love this cam... I married it last week when I got it a B+W stepping ring... Okay on to the point of this post.

I'm guessing everybody knows this already, but I for one used to take white balance for granted. On my old digicams I could set it once through the day and forget it. At best I'd click between indoor and outdoor, but on my Sony it looked like outdoor gave the best picture all the time anyway (5600k)... it warmed up outdoor shots and indoor shots... and with the lesser cam the output seemed better for it.

Well I've noticed that proper white balance is CRUCIAL with the dvx. With ALL those settings of chroma phase, color temp, and gamma, you can tweak the picture to perfection in just a minute or less BUT that is a near impossible job if you DON'T FIRST SET THE WHITE BALANCE... I forgot to do that a couple times in some weird lighting conditions yesterday and I kept thinking I could get the colors true with tweaking... after several minutes I realized what the problem was and set the white balance with my white card... then the colors were near perfect without tweaking anything. Eeee-Hawww... felt like a jackass.

Also as I put my cam in and out of my bag through the day I never glanced at the volume controls on the side of the cam. With the exact fit of the bag as well as letting friends use my cam the settings were inadvertantly changed... so my audio track from yesterday is f-ed. Panasonic made it SO easy to check levels that you should always take an occassional glance at the knobs to make sure the white triangles are pointing where you set them! Eeee-Hawww again.

Also I kept my cam on cine-gamma and cine-matrix the whole first week... you will notice that highlights blow out big time if you just leave it on that. It seems that using those two setting is meant for shooting under controlled conditions... so experiment before you go to something important.

So to sum it up, I am once again AMAZED at this cam. I freakin' love it. I still can't believe that HD can be that much better and if it is NOBODY will want to see themselves on camera unless they are very good looking.

P.S. Get a circular polarizer... these cams love filters and the colors pop out of everything under a sunny sky... not to mention clouds... that pushed the dvx to mind-blowing when I got home to check the results.

Howdy from Texas,

That counts me out. Thanks for the excellent tips, Matt!

Matt:

I've a added links to Adam Wilt's articles on the DVX100 to the top of the forum. He addresses the knee issue (no fully adjustable knee, but gamma modes change it). No black stretch but you can adjust it with a combo of other controls to some degree.

Sennheiser K6 incompatibility
 

I tried using my trusty ME66K6 on a shoot with my new DVX100, and found I was getting hum unless an assistant held their hand on the K6's connection with the mic cable. (Tried this with two cables, so I know it isn't simply a matter of a bad cable.)

I initially figured my K6 must have gone bad, but I saw a "consumer comment" on one of the price-search boards, saying that the K6 would not work with his DVX100. Supposedly, he said, the K6 was too high-output, and would pick up hum even with a pad.

Has anyone here experienced this problem with their DVX and the Sennheiser K6 power module? If so, did the "low output" version of the K6 work OK? I could go with a borrowed AT-815b, but I'd hate to have to change mic brands in the middle of a feature shoot...

Not sure if your mic is having this problem.When the music gets loud the mic is terrible,it distorts.I sent mine to the factory for whats called a "Red dot repair". The factory tech tells me its common and they have to remove a capacator that should solve the problem. I use mine on a Sony trv-950 without any other problems. Hope this helps you

New DVX100 Clip from Wedding #2
 

I posted a new clip. This is the Bride & Groom Preperation. I will be posting more as I get them completed.

Clip
tracy&josh_Part1.mov
http://markthomasvideo.com/clips/


The Document shots at the begining are 24p. The rest is 60i.

Nice clip! Can you send me an e-mail? I have a favor/question to ask (remove the SPAMs from addy)

spamjonathan@spamaviewofyou.tv

Panny brand Shotgun for DVX
 

Now that I have pretty much decided to get the DVX100 over the DVC80 ($700+ difference), budget is really tight. I was going to get the ME/66 shotgun for the DVC80, but don't think I can handle that for the DVX being that I have to get a wireless too.

Does anyone know if the Panasonic brand XLR shotgun that they list as an accessory for the DVX is any good? It runs for about $150 but is it worth it or would I have audio that was just as good as if I used the internal mic? The extra savings would help until I can afford a better one down the road, but don't want to bother if it's not worth it.

It's decent. You get about what you pay for. It doesn't zoom that well. But much better then the stereo mic that is on the cam.

I would get a much longer shot gun mic, like that really long sinhizer or azden. Get somthing longer for better pickup.

what is with this time stamp?
 

Can anyone figure out why I have some intermitten time stamps in some of my footage I shot a while ago. Its weird. I don't have the dvx100 on me anymore so I can't tell if I accidently hit the button a couple of times. Funny thing is that I only see the time/date stamp when I watch on my tv through the external monitor. I never saw it on the computer screen or preview window. I am talking about the same exact shots here. Funny thing is that if I crop the image a touch, I mean not even enough to get rid of the it in actuality it disappears. Its bothersome because the image quality degrades when I pan and crop even a little bit. What should I do? The time/date is of the date that it all was shot. I'm using Vegas 4 if that makes any kind of difference. I think I might have to put 16x9 bars over those parts. Its not a movie or anything just a simple amatuer wedding video. Or maybe even that black feathered border it'll be like the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Why the time.date stamp was popping on and off I am not sure. More than likely when it appears, it is appearing in the overscan area. Some TVs display more of the actual video than others.

If you want to learn more about this read up on safe areas in video. These refer to where the image and titles must appear so that they will be properly displayed on most TVs.

A short macro clip
 

http://www.roninweb.net/mpelp/misc/deathray/wiggle.mpg

Really short 16MB MPEG2 clip of a caterpillar that I shot a couple of weeks ago.

I had a hard time encoding this from the original raw video. There's something of a 30% loss in quality here thanks to some mistakes that I made in saving it in different formats. The raw footage is simply stunning looking on a television so I plan on going back and trying to do a better encode this weekend perhaps.