Chris Suzor
March 1st, 2006, 09:01 AM
I have just received my DVX100BE, as an upgrade from a canon MVX3i (you may have seen my thread previously; thanks everyone for their advice).
The manual controls are great, feels like my Nikon dSLR in continuous shooting mode! I also ordered an AT835ST, but it is still out of stock.
Comparing some initial shots, the colors are so much more real, skin tones are natural, gone is most of the "candid video" look, and the iris control makes for precise exposure control. Haven't had to use any Gain yet, where mvx3i was giving very spotty images (presumably because of auto-gain).
However, the image is not quite right, the default scene settings don't give me what I am looking for. There is still too much noise (an evenly colored object becomes spotty!), too much contrast, blown highlights, and the 25p modes are squarely aimed at projection viewing in dark rooms, with a oversaturated dark film look.
My main subjects are family, shot indoors and outdoors. The end product will mostly be visualised on various PCs (with calibrated monitors), distributed to others as mpeg on removable hard disks, and occasionally on DVDs for TV viewing.
So after a few tries, and reading the manual, I change the scene settings and settle with
DETAIL LEVEL 0
V DETAIL LEVEL 0
DETAIL CORING +5
CHROMA LEVEL 0
CHROMA PHASE 0
COLOR TEMP 0
MASTER PED 0
A. IRIS LEVEL +0
GAMMA HIGH
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM
SKIN TONE DTL OFF
V DETAIL FREQ THIN
PROGRESSIVE NO
PROGRESSIVE 25p
Still trying to decide between 50i and 25p, I shoot some more, and find that the colors are more natural in 25p (50i is like using too much Shadow / Highlight adjustment in Photoshop), but the contrast is still high (50i has a greater dynamic range, which I need because I shoot without lights). 25p may be preferable to me without these other issues (on a PC 50i mode has interlace artefacts that 25p does not, and it still looks smooth).
So, can someone please help me tune the settings to get what I need? (I'm trying to shortcut spending hours evaluating different settings).
About AWB, it seems to work well for me, and since moving clouds can have a big impact on color temp in seconds, I am tempted to just leave the camera in AWB all the time... Is that a bad idea?
Finally, I usually shoot dSLR using Aperture priority, because DoF control is what is important... why does all the doc and the advice I read on using the DVX, insist on using default shutter speeds and adjusting only the aperture? Indoors, I have found f6 or so during the day at 1/50, but I'd like to get to f2.8 or f4... can I just boost the shutter speed to 1/120, or does that create some issues? (on 50i or 25p?)? How about faster shutter speeds? With the equivalent of a 300mm lens, I would tend to use at least 1/250 in photos... Do you guys speed up the shutter to avoid camera shake too?
Thanks
Christophe
The manual controls are great, feels like my Nikon dSLR in continuous shooting mode! I also ordered an AT835ST, but it is still out of stock.
Comparing some initial shots, the colors are so much more real, skin tones are natural, gone is most of the "candid video" look, and the iris control makes for precise exposure control. Haven't had to use any Gain yet, where mvx3i was giving very spotty images (presumably because of auto-gain).
However, the image is not quite right, the default scene settings don't give me what I am looking for. There is still too much noise (an evenly colored object becomes spotty!), too much contrast, blown highlights, and the 25p modes are squarely aimed at projection viewing in dark rooms, with a oversaturated dark film look.
My main subjects are family, shot indoors and outdoors. The end product will mostly be visualised on various PCs (with calibrated monitors), distributed to others as mpeg on removable hard disks, and occasionally on DVDs for TV viewing.
So after a few tries, and reading the manual, I change the scene settings and settle with
DETAIL LEVEL 0
V DETAIL LEVEL 0
DETAIL CORING +5
CHROMA LEVEL 0
CHROMA PHASE 0
COLOR TEMP 0
MASTER PED 0
A. IRIS LEVEL +0
GAMMA HIGH
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM
SKIN TONE DTL OFF
V DETAIL FREQ THIN
PROGRESSIVE NO
PROGRESSIVE 25p
Still trying to decide between 50i and 25p, I shoot some more, and find that the colors are more natural in 25p (50i is like using too much Shadow / Highlight adjustment in Photoshop), but the contrast is still high (50i has a greater dynamic range, which I need because I shoot without lights). 25p may be preferable to me without these other issues (on a PC 50i mode has interlace artefacts that 25p does not, and it still looks smooth).
So, can someone please help me tune the settings to get what I need? (I'm trying to shortcut spending hours evaluating different settings).
About AWB, it seems to work well for me, and since moving clouds can have a big impact on color temp in seconds, I am tempted to just leave the camera in AWB all the time... Is that a bad idea?
Finally, I usually shoot dSLR using Aperture priority, because DoF control is what is important... why does all the doc and the advice I read on using the DVX, insist on using default shutter speeds and adjusting only the aperture? Indoors, I have found f6 or so during the day at 1/50, but I'd like to get to f2.8 or f4... can I just boost the shutter speed to 1/120, or does that create some issues? (on 50i or 25p?)? How about faster shutter speeds? With the equivalent of a 300mm lens, I would tend to use at least 1/250 in photos... Do you guys speed up the shutter to avoid camera shake too?
Thanks
Christophe