DVC30 Filters

[Chris Byrnes]

My Pannie DVC30 arrives in 48 hours. I am considering filters for it. Does anyone have experience with Cokin P-format holders/filters on this camera series (same form factor as DVX100 and DVC80).

[Joe Garnero]

Let us know when it arrives. Your first impression would be greatly appreciated.

As far as filters go... I can't be of assistance. Sorry.

[Chris Byrnes]

Have owned it 36 hours, have used it about 1 hour (despite notice, my wife had other priorities for me).

Disclaimer: I am an amateur coming up from pure consumer equipment. My objectives were image quality and reliability.

Initial impressions:
Good image resolution and color in ideal light (outdoors sunny day in La Jolla). Camera well balanced, but my average sized hands need to stretch a bit for some controls.

Zoom takes some getting used to; it is incredible how controllable it is once you understand.

User interface (control layout and menu system) good but not great. I can't believe pro equipment works like this, but it is better than the consumer junk from Canon I have been using.

Solid feel, no "clunk" so far.

OIS: typical; good but never good enough.

Oddity: no battery for the remote; had to go out and buy one.

I want but it lacks: built-in lens cover; explicit ND filters (on incoming light, not bits).

Taking it on the road to New Orleans for a lot of indoor work under poor to fair conditions. More to come.

[Mark Williams]

Chris,

Can you tell us what the filter size is for your DVC30. There has been a lot of interest in this in regards to accessory lens compatability. Is it 43mm or 72mm?

Thanks,

Mark

[Frank Granovski]

Chris, If you're going to be using a wide angle adaptor, then go with Cokin's System P, otherwise just stick with the "A."

Cokin also has a wide selection of screw-on filters, but you have to order them from France---they are inexpensive though. I have a contact for them on my http://www.dvfreak.com pages.

[Frank Granovski]

Check out here for what's available:

http://www.cokin.fr

and this is place you can buy the screw-in Cokins:

http://www.photo-nature.fr

[Chris Byrnes]

I had a big shock today. B&H sent me a 72mm UV filter - the one they list for it. I stuck it in in hour 1/minute 1 without paying much attention. The lens cap fit on it just fine. Today I picked up the Cokin P holder and a 72mm ring..........something is wrong.

Pannie web site is clear this is a 72mm opening - and hey

But the 72mm opening is a non-threaded rim in the lens hood. Useful for a lens cap, and the UV filter just kind of sat there with no problem.

Remove the hood and a 43mm filter would fit quite nicely into the actual filter holder.

Far as I can tell, Cokin does not make a 43mm ring for P. Damn.

Frankly, I based my acceptance of quarter inch sensors on the idea that a 72mm lens would admit lots of light and, so long as the pixel count was the same, the overall quality between 30 and 80 would not be great. Now I am having my doubts.

And on top of that, few filters are available in 43mm and an adapter ring will require that the lens hood be left off.


;-< unhappy, but the cam is still okay

[Mark Williams]

Hey Chris,

You seem to be one of the first out there to get this cam. I read somewhere that the zoom speed can be programmed to one of the user dedicated buttons. Can you confirm this. It would be great for achieving constant zoom speeds it true. Also, does anyone know where you can download the user manual....

Thanks,

Mark

[Chris Byrnes]

Yes, I am the proud owner of serial number 45 (shudder).
No, the manual cannot be obtained online. I asked and Panasonic offerred to sell me a copy, which by the way is on backorder. Fuggedaboudit.

re: programmable zoom speed. Not really.
Via the menu you can set the "light touch" motor zoom speed to normal, high or low.

Other zoom controls:
Via the menu you can set the digital zoom limit to x24 or x 160.

You can assign a user button to trigger digital zoom while in pause mode. You can do the same thing with the "digital zoom" button, but that is within the LDC panel closure area. A press of the user or DZ button causes a zoom in of 1.25, then 1.5, then 1.0 (off) if x24 was set in the menu.

If x160 was selected, then the DZ button pushes get you x2, x5, x10, x1.

You can assign the focus ring to do zooms when you are running in auto-focus mode.

[Stas Tagios]

Had a chance to check out the DVC30 at NAB and was blown away by the ultra slow slowest zoom speed (100 secs., according to the Pana website) and the the 1 sec. fast zoom speed, which makes the zoom almost as nimble as that of a pro lens, and capable of zoom creeps comparable to that in the opening shot of "The Conversation" and almost any shot in a Peter Weir movie. I love super slow zooms, which can create a real sense of tension and unease in a shot, but more or less gave up on using this technique while shooting with fixed (non-interchangeable) lens zooms.

Wish I had such control on my DVX100, but I imagine Pana was only able achieve such fast and slow speeds on the DVX30 because the lens has no disengagable servo like the DVX and pro lenses do, a feature I couldn't do without.

Still, I hope there's someway Panasonic can incorporate the DVC30's slow and fast zoom speeds in the next DVX update (since they already slowed down the slow zoom to 30 seconds in the DVX 100a), without sacrificing indispensable manual zoom.

[Mark Williams]

Thanks Chris,

I know you would rather be using your new cam than answering questions here. But you are one of the first owners and we are eager to get your impressions. I know this is a subjective questions but how would you judge image sharpness and color saturatio. I am used to using a Canon GL-1 which was good at both but sadly I have to replace it since I wore it out.

Regards,

Mark

[Chris Byrnes]

I won't be able to make any judgements about image quality/color saturation till next week. I am in New orleans for the week and do not have any usable playback capability. Next weekend I will be watching footage from this trip and will give you my subjective eval.

[Nick Medrano]

<<<-- Originally posted by Stas Tagios :

Wish I had such control on my DVX100, but I imagine Pana was only able achieve such fast and slow speeds on the DVX30 because the lens has no disengagable servo like the DVX and pro lenses do, a feature I couldn't do without.
-->>>

Stas, that's exactly what I want! Please keep us informed on anything you hear concerning the slow zooms. Thanks.

[John Britt]

<<<-- No, the manual cannot be obtained online. I asked and Panasonic offerred to sell me a copy, which by the way is on backorder. . -->>>

Huh? The camera doesn't come with a user's manual? That's strange. Even my dinky Panny DV53 came with a manual.

[Chris Byrnes]

sorry I misled you. The cam comes with a manual, of course. I wanted softcopy so I could easily reference it without carrying around the dead tree version.