AG-DVC30 various topics

[Jeffrey Lovell]

Fixed!

I went over to Radio Shack after work and they carry a miniDV cleaner tape by JVC. Put it in play for 10 seconds and that was it!

Just as a note, video recording in all tape type machine regardless of format uses what is called 'helical' recording to get the frequency range needed. This link is for data tape recording but it works the same for video;

Data tape helical recording

I just put that in for those whoa re not familar with it. It is totally different from linier recording which is how standard audio is recorded.

Which these special types of heads which rotatoe on a drum you have to use a different method to clean them which certainly does NOt include any cotton swabs!

Anyway, all is wall and I have dumped the wedding in to the computer and started to make a memory for the happy couple!

Jeff

[Scott Hoffpauir]

I have been asked to shoot an outdoor wedding in March that will be held under a tent. I have a Panasonic DVC30 and I was curious anyone has any pointers or settings that may help. I have only had this camera for a few months and this will be my first experience under a tent. I have played with the backlight button, but I was wondering if there are other if anyone has any other recommendations.

[Jeffrey Lovell]

Hi Scott,

I also have a 30 and in this situation I would set the iris manually so the interior of the tent is correctly lighted and white balanced, this might and probably will mean the light coming in from below the edge of the tent will be over white but you may have to live with that to get a proper exposure under the tent. If you have any action you need to video that is not under the tent you can always adjust the iris so the exposure if right and then open it back up for things going on in the tent.

Since you are new to the 30, I would say to go out and practice with the camera in manual mode and also learn how to set the white balance manually if you have not before. The tent I would think is white so you can just zoom up into it and set the WB. I would also turn on the 'zebra' bars so you know when the exposure is too high. Read up in the manual about this.

Good luck, the 30 is a great camera. I just did a wedding in October that was outside in very bright and direct sunlight. Some of the scenes were "fun"!

Jeff

[Don Bloom]

The info you got in the above post is accurate. Although I don't use the camera in question when shooting a situation like you described the best way to shoot is in manual mode. One way to set the proper exposure is to have someone stand in the place the B&G will be zoom in tight to the face, let the auto iris set the esposure then lock it (manual) and see what it is. Say it's F/4-then move to other locations you think you might be shooting from and do the same, auto set then lock it and write down the F stops from all the locations. Also don't forget to turn the other way for the processional. The exposure will probably be different, I've had as much as 4 stops different. The most important thing is to set the exposure for the skin tone, forget everything else, if the skin tone is right then the rest will be very close.
I would avoid the backlight button as this is not always the case-the sun might be coming in from the side or it might not open the iris to the right exposure-it could be off by a couple of stops.
Play around with the camera under every lighting situation you can come up with and here's an important thing. IF you have to rely on the LCD for exposure then learn to use the ZEBRAS AND set the brightness of the LCD to fit the situation-if it's really bright then set the brightness up and vice-versa. The LCD is not really the way to set proper exposure BUT it can be used if you set it to be close to the overall lighting in stead of setting it so you can see everything clearly.
HTHs

Don

[Tomasz Brzezicki]

Hello
I am wondering if there is a way to stop my camcorder from turning off automatically after few minutes. I need it to be turned on all the time for two reasons:
1. I want to do an on-the-fly capture from my camcorder to NLE application (iMovie), without recording to a tape (a tape is inserted tho)
2. I want to adjust all the controls and setting before a shot - camcorder is on a tripod, I am setting up the lights, adjusting exposure etc. and my camcorder suddenly goes off.
Thanks!
Tom

[Greg Boston]

Tom, there are only two things you can do and I'm only sure about one of them on your camera.

First, take the tape out. This will stop the camera from shutting down. It's doing this to protect the tape and heads.

Second, if your camera has this feature (the XL1s and XL2 have it) is to look for a feature called VCR stop. On the Canon cameras, this stops the tape and heads from spinning, but does not shut off the camera. I'm not certain you have anything like this on your DVC30, but it's worth a look. If not, I'm afraid you are stuck with option one that I listed above.

Good luck,

-gb-

[Jeffrey Lovell]

There is a menu setting to adjust the shut off time and type, but you should be good to leave it in the REC pause mode for a while without it shutting off.

Is your battery fully charged? I know silly question but if it is shutting off suddenly after a few minutes there maybe other problems.

With the tape out of it, it should stay on indefinitely.

Read through the manual to find the info on the shut down time.

Jeff

[Derek Nickell]

In the Other functions screen, set the tape protect to STBY instead of power off. First thing i did with my DVC. Its a pain in the ass when they cast is ready to shoot and your camera is off...

Derek

[Jaser Stockert]

was wondering what would be the difference between shooting the dvc30's 30p vs. shooting 60i and deinterlacing in final cut pro/other apps? both have a loss in resolution anyway?

[Bo Sundvall]

Hi

You can't film in progressive mode on the DVC30. What you can do is film in either Interlaced or Frame mode.

Frame mode is not exactly as Progressive mode and you will lose about 30% of the image resolution. I don't know how FinalCut handles deinterlacing. In Adobe Premiere, deinterlacing is done by discarding one of the interlaced fields and make the other field appear in the place of the discarded field. This decreases the resolution by 50%. So it's better to use Frame mode than to do deinterlacing in post.

There are other deinterlacers on the market that does a good job, but they are expensive and very time consuming during render.


Regards,

/Bo

[Peter Jefferson]

umm.. there are afew anomolies to the initial response here..

in cam frame mode is an in cam deinterlacing method. Its pretty much identical to the higher end deinterlacing plugins/nle's out there.. HOWEVER, when shooting in frame, you should use progressive scan filming techniques, as it behaves in much the same way as progressive scan.

As for loss of resolution, this is a myth. The CCD captures at 50\60i and as the calculates the frame based on the 2 fields, that FRAME is full res, however sharpness is lost due to the interpolation averaging out where each variable pixel shouls be... Its EXACTLY the same as doing it in post.
Its still the same res, its just calculated and processed differently, in turn, causing some softness becuase what you see an average of teh two, not the actual. This can be fixed by going into the scene file and adjust the sharpness either way.. with clever tweaking and good exposure, this softness wont be noticable.


In regard to deinterlacing in post and discarding fields, many applications behave differently. One of the reasons Prem sucks so bad with progressive is because of its method of deinterlacing

Most NLEs will interpolate both fields and draw a completely new frame for where those fields once were. Most apps let u either interpolate or blend your fields, however interpolation is much more accurate especially when using slowmotion, and a variety of different filters. Also if your planning to scale up to 720p, interpolation would be your best option.
In regards to a 50% loss of resolution, this again is a myth, depending on your application.
Basically much like the DVC30, if you deinterlace in post, most of the time the app will run an average of both fields and create one frame.
The only time a frame is discarded is when your shooting in 24/25p natively whereby a pulldown service is in use. Where there are duplicate frames is when the frame itself would be discarded (such as 2:2 pulldown for PAL or 2:3:3:2 for NTSC) THis however does not affct the image quality, but then again, this is all shot in native res with redundant frames anyway and this is nt what were talking about..

The point is, is that depending on your application, you can easily do it in cam, or u can run an app such as Vegas and get identical results.

An interpolation of 2 fields does not contstrue a loss of resolution, its only a different way of calculating and processig that same data based on the average between those 2 fields.

[Brian R. Hammar]

I have a DVC-30 now, and use it to shoot our dance recitals. It works great, but I need a second cam for double coverage and need to be able to match the footage. I'd rather not drop another 1800$ if possible.

Does anyone know of a sub-1k camera that would come close? I realize it won't be exact, but I need 'good enough' to where if I cut between the shots, after color-matching in FCE, it isn't too distracting.

Thanks

[Hans Ledel]

Why not try the Pana GS 500 and shot with that in 4:3

Th GS 500 has 3 x 1/4,7 CCD and the DVC 30 has 3 x 1/4 CCD

I think they would match pretty well

[David Stoneburner]

That sounds like a pretty good idea. I shoot for my daughter's dance school, and have been doing 2 cameras for years. I have a main camera centered on the balcony and then I put a second camera on the stage right wing for close-ups. I'm using DVC-80s. I have one and a friend who helps me has one. I would use the 30 on balcony and put the other closer. That way if there is a little difference in resolution, it wouldn't be noticeable. Also, the manual functions on a sub 1K camera are usually much harder to use. If you shoot from a location that has more light, and don't have to zoom in as much, that makes it easier to use the less expensive camera.

Good luck.

[Ian Landy]

Hi,

I want to record some old video footage back onto mini dv through my DVC 30 but am having problems. I put the AV cable from the AV Out on the VCR and into the AV in/out on the DVC30. When I put the DVC30 on VCR Mode the video and audio comes through fine onto the LCD. However when I put it onto record mode I get nothing coming through and consequently can't record it onto the mini dv tape?

Maybe it's something simple as I've never used the unit for this before?

Can anyone please help me out?

Thanks, Ian