Low-light - - Settings for the AG-DVX100 where do I start to get best picture?


I will be shooting a conference/seminar at a major hotel in Chicago. The Grand Ball Room is absolutely huge. The lights

will be off in the ball room with a single spot-light on various speakers. I will be shooting with 2 AG-DVX100 cameras, One

on the various speakers and the other on a large movie screen. I will be shooting at the screen slides & film from a portable

35mm projector. I must shoot in 24p to match the frame rate of the projector or I will get a flicker. This is a one shot

event. I must get this in one take. OK, so I need some expert help here. The GURU's of the Panasonic AG-DVX100 please help

me. I know that these settings you help me with will be copied and pasted from this forum to the many members needing to

shoot in low light like this. I know some of the functions listed below are not available in 24p or 24p Advanced.

PLEASE-DENOTE (UNAVAIABLE IN 24p) --- IF I MISSED ANYTHING PLEASE MAKE NOTE OF IT. THANKS, KEVIN

PROGRESSIVE = 24p fps Shutter = 1/24

SCENE FILE

1. DETAIL LEVEL = ?

2. cHROMA LEVEL = ?

3. CHROMA PHASE = ?

4. COLOR TEMP = ?

5. MASTER PED = ?

8. A.IRIS LEVEL = ?

6. GAMA = ? ( CINE-LIKE, LOW, NORM, HIGH )

7. SKIN TONE DTL = ? ( ON, OFF )

8. MATRIX = ? ( NORM FLOW, CINE-LIKE )

9. v DETAIL FREQ = ? ( THIN, THICK )


SW MODE

1. MID GAIN = ? ( 0 db, 3 db, 6 db, 9 db, 12 db )

2. HIGH GAIN = ? ( 0 db, 3 db, 6 db, 9 db, 12 db )

3. ATW = ? ( OFF, Ach, Bch, PRE )


AUTO SW

1. A. IRIS = ? ( ON, OFF )

2. AGC = ? ( 6 db, 12 db, OFF)

3. ATW = ? ( ON, OFF )

4. AF = ? ( ON, OFF )

Set up your cam fairly close to the stage, and off to the side a bit (45 degress or so). If you zoom in from a lot of distance, this will "steal" light.

Do you have to shoot in 24P? If you don't, set the shutter at 1/60, and in 30p or better 30i. The other settings can be adjusted when the cam reads the light. (No one can tell you which settings to use unless they can duplicate the distance/setting/light, which I doubt.) Is the light going to vary? That would be another problem because you'll have to re-set everything. You could always use, "auto."

Frank,

I must shoot at 24p or when shooting the film from 35mm projector I will get a flicker from the mismatched frame rate (35mm film is 24 fps). The room will be black/no lights on during movie clips being shown. The speakers will be well lit via spot-lights. But it is the still slides and most of all the film which I must get some sort of starting settings for working with only reflected light of a beaded movie screen. I come from the nonlinear video editing side to the videography side. I am new to video camera's and new the AG-DVX100. Please if I could get a starting point for low-light settings for the AG-DVX100 shooting in a unlit room where the only source of light is a reflected movie screen this would be a great help to me .

Thanks

Kevin

Kevin:

You have a number of challenges here as you are attempting a very complex shoot.

Shooting at 24p will not solve sync problems as the projecter will not be synced to the camera. Most projecters use a double blade to show each frame twice to keep the screen darkness down.

However, you may pick this up depending on your shutter speed. If the projector stops and starts or runs at an uneven speed, you might be out of luck unless you shoot very slow shutter (e.g. 1/4) which this cam does not have and would introduce motion blur problems.

Per camera settings, the operative word is test, test and retest. Don't attempt a shoot like this without testing in as close to the actual lighting conditions as possible and viewing the results on a well calibrated monitor (and waveform if possible)

Basic advice:

If you shoot cine-gamma, make sure to not overexpose the highlights if you want to bring up shadow detail in post (primary test should be on highlight to shadow ratio).

Sharpness/detail settings depend alot on if you are shooting wide mostly (sharper) or telephone (less detail). Final output also matters, though I would shoot thin anyway and soften in post for NTSC output.

Skin detail leave off.

Pedestal, gamma, chroma etc. - you must test these. Don't guess or use other settings. You have an usual setup and testing (even if you have to recreate it somewhere else) is by far your best chance.

Matrix leave normal.

Unless you need 24P I would shoot 60i to get some gain. 60i is fine for NTSC. But 24P is much better for DVD, web and film output.

Thanks everyone!

I took everyones advice. 1st I tried to shoot in 60i and played with the synchro scan settings. Flicker was there even at the best setting. I got there around 4:00 am with the projector set up and we went through some trial shooting.

I used 24p at 1/24.2 shutter. Absolutely zero flicker. Played with various settings to get the brightest colors. We then took the footage to be captured very quickly to see if the source would be acceptable. Damn it was beautiful. Bright, clear, sharp with the 24p color richness.

I am more amazed everyday what this camera can do.


Again thanks for the great advice. It worked!

Kevin