Hi all!

I did not know what other forum area to put this so I hope it is ok here.

Something for you guys to lust over... (don't think pics work on this forum, check the links)

Not sure on the price of this 4 track. But at 4 channels @ 24 bit 48 kHz or 2 channels @ 24bit 96 kHz, lets just say its very expensive. This is basically one of the BEST digital 4 track on-location recorders you can get. Nagra is very respected in both the music, film, and radio industry.

You can read about the specs here:

http://www.nagrausa.com/NAGRA-D%20II.htm (US site)

http://www.nagra.com/nagraaudio/pages/nagrad2.htm (international site)

Cheers!

We recently had a thread where people were comparing the Tiffen Pro Mist, Warm Pro Mist and Black Pro Mist filters. I think the general consensus was that the Black model is one of the better options unless you like a warmer tone in which case the Warm Pro Mist is best.

No one mentioned the Soft F/X filter by Tiffen. That's the one I have and I've liked it so far...problem is, I don't have the other filters to compare it with. Has anyone else ever actually used and compared the Soft F/X with any of the Pro Mist filters? If so, I'd like to know what differences you found.

Hi All,
I just read about the Panasonic AG-DVC200 model camera in the
Producer magazine. Its costs $4995 MSRP from Panasonic. It has interchangeable lens feature as in XL1-S. Other specs are
1/2" 3-CCDs
IEEE 1394 i/f
Manula & Auto mode
800 Lines of Res
XLR aud I/O
0.5 Lux
Quick focus.

Is this new in the market? How is this comparable to XL1-s?
1/2" 3-CCD and 800 LoR is very catchy.

Also, if you buy the above model by 4/30/02, you get panasonic
DMR-T2020 ($1050 value) for free. This is a DVD-R deck system.

Other than Canon Xl1 and Sony VX2000/PD-150, I don't hear much about other brands. How good and durable are panasonic decks and camera's compared to Sony and Canon?
Any input is much appreciated.

I am following the board for a long time. Posting the first msg.
Its a great board and excellent source of information for new
guys like me. Thanks to all.

Panasonic cameras are good gear. All of their DV line, from basic to Pro is well built and all have good features. Panasonic supplied all of the video gear for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, now if that aint a good resume, I don't know what is.

About the DV200. Yeah, 800 lines and 1/2" chips is great and at $5000 it's a good price, however, this does NOT include a lens, viewfinder, mic or battries. You'll need to purchase a Canon or Fujinon Lens, a viewfinder, battery and charger and a mic set up. So in the end you end up payiing quite a bit more.

One of the reasons for the XL1's popularity is the fact that for under $5000 you get a complete kit, ready to shoot straight out of the box. Granted, the 16x Auto lens isn't perfect, and if you want to use pro mics you have to add an XLR adapter, but again that's the beauty of the system. You can add what you need, and don't pay for what you don't.

Sorry if this has been posted prior but a search found nothing. I have a VX2K and XL-1, I cannot get either of them to send firewire to the other. I also have a JVC BRDV600 (desktop minidv vcr) both send and receive firewire to the JVC unit. I need to copy a minidv tape in another city and would like to do it camera to camera and not bring the desktop unit. I am using a Belkin firewire cable from CompUSA to transfer. Any else have this problem or have suggestions? Thanks in advance

Well I have returned from my great spring break adventure in Mexico. All in all, it was an awsome expereince. My group built 12 houses for needy families in the Rosarito, Baja area. I think after a while everyone was kinda getting tired of having a camera in their face. LOL! However, I got some great shots of the activities (including one of a kid chugging an entire bottle of Tabsco. The facial expression is priceless) and I think that I will have a great time in the editing room just in reliving these experiences.

My only delma is that I got togather too much footage of the houses going up. I have about 5 hours of tape to condence into a 15 min video for presentation. LOL, such are the rigors of post production, eh?

FYI:
I was on a missions trip with Yuba\Sutter Young Life
The trip was organized by Amor Ministries.

I'm off to the logging bin,
Dennis

Wow Dennis, you've got a pretty big job ahead of you.

I hope you put a clip of the kid doing the tabasco up somewhere I'd love to see that.

I bought a Korg D-12 for about $1000. It has 12 tracks, with I think 12 virtual tracks for each. It can record 48khz, and has a 4.5 gig HD. It will hold like 18 hrs of 48khz audio on one track. It also has a pretty easy to manage mixing board.

I love it, and record all of my audio through it. Of course, I call it my 'thousand dollar tape recorder'.
Keith

Kenko, Raynox, Canon, Digital Optics, Crytal Optics

I've found that these are the most consumer reasonable for there price range.... wide angle/ fisheye /telephoto lenes on the market?

I would like to see the opinons of others regarding, which brand tends give better traits, and offer there reviews of the negatives and postives.
Thanx

I've used a Kenko on my VX1000 years ago. I can't remember what multiplier it was nor the model. But it was great, and had a full zoom through. VERY flexible - especially if you're a run and gun type. You don't want to have to unscrew the lens every time you want to change a shot.

But it really depends on what you want in a lens and what camera you have.

I've never seen any tests with video charts. I'd love to see that.that.

anybody using a glidecam V8? or the hollywood lite?
i tried it out the V8 and NAB and was impressed. good value for the $$ .

is the V8 L4 pro LCD monitor useful outdoors ? or does it wash out ?
would upgrading to the nebtek 50 work better outdoors?

I was running a V-8 well before I went to work for Glidecam and have always been very happy with its performance. They are also built quite a bit stronger than the Hollywood Lites in my opinion. And they are easy to customize to your needs.

The L4 Pro is _OK_ outdoors with the sunshade on it, but if you plan to do a lot of outdoor shooting then I would recommend upgrading to a monitor specifically designed for outdoor viewing.

Hope this helps.

My Porta-brace came today. I got the CTC-3. Traveler camera case. What a great bag. I ordered it from chris at ZGC. It came on time and the price was right.

(MX300 is the PAL version of MX3000;
XM-1 is the PAL version of GL1).

I haven't seen dynamic range talked about much, but MX300 and XM-1 seem to handle dynamic range - or gamma - quite differently. XM-1 seems quite a bit more prone to blow out highlights or cloudy skies, while MX300 seems to compress, and retain more detail in highlights.


How does TRV900 compare to MX300/MX3000 in this respect ?

From frame captures on the web, it seems that TRV900 is a bit less contrasty than XM-1/GL1, and handles highlights a bit better.

The only place on the web, where I've seen the transfer function of a camcorder quantified is:

http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/tech/transfer.html

I'm looking for a reasonably compact camcorder that records decent video. XM-1/GL1 is really about as big as I want to deal with.

John.

I wanted to know if anyone has tried http://www.cyberfilmschool.com CD Rom yet? If so, was it worth the money or just malarkey?

Gilbert

in general i apply the below to the canon / sony line of camera's

IMO canons have their own "look". i notice that canon's tend to compress blacks more then sony's. also canon's do NOT hold highlights well ... when compared to a sony vx2000/pd50. the sony's have more open shadows, hold highlights much better , have less noise in darks, less stair stepping ...

BUT in the end i like the canon "look" and own 2 canons.

the JVC streamer has a gamma setting "cinema" that to me has a very good "look" it also has a black compress/stretch and a knee setting. the JVC has many "looks"

i haven't seen the mx3000/300 as far as i know it is NOT available in US .. but have tried the panasonic eu50 which is very SMALL. the images were OK - they didn't stand out on the tape that i had shot with XL,GL, vx2000, optura, elura, jvc500 at dv expo ..i'd rate the image above the elura and optura and below the other camera's.

Yeah, actually it's a pretty nice "class"
Covering a wide range of beginning ideas and concepts for those (like myself) who want a nice quick start to get the old brain pan moving in the right direction.

Most probably, if you've take a film class here n there though, it'd be redundant. But for a starter, I think it was great.

Has some decent interviews, short segments of demonstrations, etc.

I just finished editing a student film I shot with a canon xl1s. Knowing how incredibly misleading the canon viewfinder is, i brought a long a nifty little toshiba tv, and used it as a not so portable monitor. My movies are generally dark, so I was being real careful not to under expose too much. What I shot looked great from the monitor and what I edited was great too, when I run it from my computer through my cam to the TV it looks perfect, however when I actually record it, either on the DVtape in my camera or the vhs tape in the Svhs vcr It comes way to frickin dark and I can hardly see anything. Furthermore When shooting the night scene I tinkered with the white balance to make the light look blue (moonlight) and on the recorded vhs the blue is all gone! Can anybody help me understand this little problem?

I am a film student looking to break into the world of DV. I plan to primarily shoot shorts, but in the future hopefully a feature. For the first few shorts I plan on shooting dogme style, using available light. I know that especially for video the quality of the image is dependent on the lighting. However, I want only to concentrate in the beginning on shot composition, camera movement, working with the actors, and of course storytelling. I will be using professionaly mics so the sound will be up to par, but as far as lighting goes, I am using whatever is available, at least to start with. This brings me to my question: I've been reading that the PD150/VX2000 has excellent low-light capabilities, better than the XL1s. Can anyone comment on the Canon's ability to shoot in poor lighting conditions compared to the Sonys'? Perhaps in 6 months I will perchase, or rent, several lights, and by then perhaps the difference between the cameras won't matter, but right now it may matter, I really don't know. Any comments regarding poor lighting conditions/natural light are welcome. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for teqniques concerning how to get the best image from the camera when using only available light? i.e. reflectors, filters, camera placement, etc...

Thanks for any input, it is much appreciated...

Dave

let me state that i own a GL & elura, and friend has XL.. i prefer the canon "look" ...

IMO using 0 gain there is NO comparison the sony will outperform the GL/XL .... i just used vx2k camera again yesterday ! and it always amazes me in low light ( using 0 gain).

i shoot with my GL 60% dogme ( -10% is i bring 4x4 foam core to bounce light , -30% i move furniture ).. i work with the available light in the room ( natural daylight, tungsten ) ...

i move the subjects to where i think the best light is in the room/location. i may have to move chairs/ couch , floor lamps , desk lights - i do the best i can with what is available. most of the time it works and there are those times that it doesn't.

avoid large bright windows behind subject ( this will cut down on some camera movement) if daytime interior use the window light as side or 2/3 front lighting on subjects... if sunlight is hitting floors - frame out floor an put either white sheet or 4x4 foam core on floor to bouce light ... have another 4x4 ready to bounce light on shadow side of subject or to use as kicker ..

if you don't have foam core you can use ART board -30"x36" or 36"x40" white on one side / black on other ... foam core also comes white/white or white/black .... you can use the black side if there is TOO much fill light in room to take away fill light hitting subject ... or if sun hitting floor is bouncing too much light then use black side up on floor to stop some of the bounce ...

when you look at a location - take your camera and shoot some tape of the room - with all lights ON .. then just overheads ON ... then just floor lights on .... then with window shades open , window shades closed ... then view tape at home and see what looks good /bad .........

Has anyone used this Panny broadcast monitor? What do you think? It looks pretty good at $1k.

http://www.panasonic.com/pbds/subcat/Products/displays_monitors/f_bt-h1390y.html

I have recently noticed pixilization from footage taken with my Canon XL1 which I captured to my computer video firewire with my Canon Elura 2MC. Is it possible that the pixelization came from the Elura, or are all internal recorders/players the same in all camcorders, regardless of price?

Mmm, they're not all the same. Try a head cleaning cassette in your Elura for a few seconds. It wasn't recorded in LP mode, was it? That's always a problem as LP mode usually plays back properly only from the camera that recorded it in the first place.

Cokin makes some great filters (and some bad ones). The good thing about them is that they are inexpensive---and this doesn't mean they are inferior. Most people think that you have to get "box" to attach to the cam for their A and P sizes. Well, this is correct. However, what most people don't know is that many of these filters also come as the regular, screw on the filter threads type, from sizes 27mm to 86mm.

The Sunsoft, Sunwarm, 81B, and circular polarizer are among my favorites.

I also like Tiffen's Black Pro Mist 3.

If you have the bucks, though, Heliopan and B+W (Schneider) are worth considering.

My 2 cents....

I never shoot outdoors without a circular polarizer. This combined with -3db gain setting helps to cut down some of the nastiness viedo is known for.

One point of interest to people using the Fujinon and Canon 14x manual lenses. The front element of these lenses rotate, so when using a circular polarizer you'll have to reset your polarizer when you zoom or refocus.

Anybody know anything about the Marshall V-LCD 5.6 Prok lcd monitor kit?

which is the best minidv camera?(around 1,000 and 2000 $)
what mean hi-8 , mega-handicam?

thanks for the help

Hi-8 is an analog format (not digital), but its resolution is good. HandyCam is Sony's brand name for their consumer line of camcorders. Mega refers to the amount of CCD pixels (1 million or over 1 million). A good cam in that price range..., well first you may want to decide if you want a 1 CCD or 3 CCD cam, then pick one with the important features you need or want. Personally, I think the best 1 CCD cam is Sony's TRV30. For a 3 CCD cam in your price range, a Sony TRV900, Sony PD100a or a Canon GL-1. You may also want to check Panasonic's older AG-EZ30U. Those are the ones I recommend. But there are a few other options; and if you want to spend a tad more, you could get the fantastic Sony VX2000 (roughly $2400 US).

I just purchased a 16:9 widesrceen adapter from Century Optics to go on my Sony PD 100a?

Any pointers or tips on how should I properly go about shooting, framing, editing & viewing with this "thing" on.

Mainly, is there anything in particular I should look or be aware of?

Please, share some of your knowledge. It's very important to me.

Thank You.

Thanks. The top seller among pros for softening filters up here in Vancouver is the Black Pro Mist 3.

Hi Everyone,

Well after years of using a little hand held I finally got my XL1s...brand new from B and H and I pop in a tape like I have done a million times before ...the viewfind error pops up...

"EJECT TAPE"

The tape is jammed and it will not come out!!

So very frustrating after years of anticipation, paying the cash, waiting for the shipping, piece it together...first day...was gonna head down to the beach to take some surfin shots and this happen! @#%^&*!&!!!!


So I have a warrenty...should I...

send it in for warrenty
or take it local and have someone look at it first(as it might not be that big of a deal...and I dont want to be without it for like 4 months, during repairs!)

Any advice or suggestions would be great.

Thanks

I'd get B&H to replace the cam. Arrange it with them.

Just a thought...

I wonder how hard it would be to acheive uncompressed 720x486 video out of a good prosumer cam.

The 3 ccd's all have at least 8 bits per RGB channel coming out to an ADC then into the DSP.

If you could tap off each of these and run them through an additional set of ADC then to buffered jacks.

Also jack out the hsync/vsync as well.

I would seem that it would be possible to output uncompressed 720x480i 4:4:4 video to a digital disk recorder.

Another solution would be to get a panasonic studio camera EQ-600 ($4995) and build a custom card to do uncompressed. Since it allows many different cards to be used for various formats.

I'ts great when guys like you don't settle for what Sony, JVC or Panasonic thinks would be good prosumer limitations.

But it might turn out to be more economic to go with a 26-pin CCU camera in the long run. JVC and Sony have them in the 8-10K region. You can jack them up to a mac or pc with an uncompressed card and capture away. DDR's are very pricey and you will hardly get any support on a camcorder where you have been tampering with the electronics.

I was wondering; what would you be editing 4:4:4 video on? I can't think of a card that does anything other than 4:2:2 uncompressed.

Hope this is not a stupid question, but what is a black burst box?

A black burst box is usually found in post production and broadcast studios. Most are rack mount versions, but portable boxes are also available. The box generates a perfect NTSC signal ( or PAL?) and is usually fed to a Distributation Amp (DA). The signals are then run to the different VTRs and devices that need sync (waveform monitors/vectorscopes etc.). The different devices are then set to accept external sync and presto...all the devices are now timed together. The length of the cables effects the timing of the signal, lengths are multiples of the longest run or all kept the same length. Once all the VTRs are timed the signals can all be sent to different machines through a patch panel. This enables edit suites to feed signals back and forth.

Black burst is a certain type of NTSC signal. It contains all the timing signals (horizontal, vertical etc.) and the burst signal. The burst can be displayed on a vectorscope and waveform monitor.

Jeff

Hi DV community,
I am going to produce a DV short which will be shot in September 2002.
I basically need a film crew: dp, sound, light and actors.
Does anyone know of any NYC webforums where DV/independent filmmakers hang out, posting for film crew, actors other than newyork.craigslist.org?
Please advise.
Tom

Thomas,

You can try contacting the folks over at DVDojo- they have tons of people there into making independantly produced dv films...they're based at downtown Manhattan (Alphabet City)....(dvdojo.com) I'm gonna try to get there in the next few days and check out the operation myself 1sthand....

...I'd like to help out as well- throw me an email and we'll hook-up.
I have an XL1S and EF adapter for EOS lenses and would be willing to participate.

Hello all,
I just found this on a newsgroup, and offer it up for inspection. http://www.tgproductions.com/reflector/
Keith

I need to make a call to see if my tape was duped or anything but I just saw one of my cable b-casts and the top (white) end sucked.

I use FCP which has something akin to a waveform monitor and I've got a couple of questions.

In FCP there is a saturation button which shows quite different levels than without the button pushed (where it shows what I believe to only be peaks). What is the correlation of the peaks to the saturation levels? And can you be Ok with the peaks (near or at 100IRE) and not OK with the saturation levels?

My tape (if it's the same one I submitted) showed 95 to maybe 100 peaks (man in off-white robe), but the SAT level was about 103. I've seen stuff blown worse, with SAT levels about 110, so I wouldn't think that just over 100 would be too bad. Played fine at home (sorry just a nice TV, no monitor), not on air.

No audio "interference" was apparent, but the whites were crushed and the contrast seemed to be higher than I've seen on my other stuff.

Any idea about the different levels of IRE shown in FCP's WF monitor? There's even different levels of SAT which confuse me even more.

Assuming they duped it via composite lines (from one pro deck to another) could that have messed up my tape enough to get the levels outa' wack?

-Gracias

This post belongs in the Editing on the Mac forum... I've already moved it there; please pick up the thread at that location as it's more appropriate for that forum than this one.

I'll remove this copy in a little bit. See you in the Editing on the Mac forum,

Hi Everyone,

I am working on a corporate piece in a few weeks and I need stock footage of needy children...the video is for a charity and I need about 20-25 seconds of stock video...

Do you know where I such video?

Thanks

Check the back pages of most trade magazines such as Videography and American Cinematographer... you'll usually find six to eight or more sources for stock footage of all kinds. Hope this helps,