For anyone interested, here are my most used settings for wildlife outdoor/nature type work:

'Globetrotter' XL2 settings:

Gamma - Cine
Knee - Middle
Black - Press
Color Matrix - Cine
Color Gain +3
Color phase 0
R Gain +2
G Gain - Middle
B Gain - Middle
Sharpen +2
Coring - Middle
Set up Level - middle
Master Ped -middle
NR - Off

Last week I shot my first project with my new XL2 (after using XL1 for 6 years): a holy communion. I used the standard setting and notice that the picture is indeed a bit flat. Next weekend I have to shoot another one and I am not confident enough to play with the custom settings. Shall I use the "wedding" preset? Or can I just change only a few settings?

Post a grab on the look you want and I will post the pre-set to get that look... The main things that make the picture milky are the setup level and master pedestal, try turning those down a bit.


ash =o)

ash what is the best way to post a grab on this forum. Can we just paste it in a post or do we have to link it??

Question for Ash
 

Ash:

Do you have a good custom preset when shooting in 30P at night or in very low light? My main interest is as little to no noise as possible in the blacks (dark areas).

Would love to see your settings. Thanks!

The number of preset possibilities with the XL2 is 10,604,499,373. That's ten billion, six hundred four million, four hundred ninety-nine thousand, three hundred seventy three possible picture adjustments!

That does not take into account the variables of gamma, color matrix, knee, black, NR, and vert. detail.

You'd better get busy, times'a wastin'.

;o)

I think it's awfully nice of Ash to offer create presets for others, but personally I think it'd be cooler if people posted settings they've come up with for <whatever the situation> and asked the community for feedback or ways that it could be improved. Not trying to be judgemental, just thinking about the whole 'give a man a fish...' thing.

Regards,

~J

There is a low light setting floatin around, I am on a remote shoot so I dont have access to my stuff at home. Main thing when you have to gain up in low light is to boost the saturation a little, turn UP the coring, turn down the sharpness and turn the NR on LOW (high usually ghosts too much). You can control the blacks in several ways with the MP and setup level as well as the black level settings.



ash =o)

Thanks Ash, your input, again, if very helpful. I will search for the low light settings again.

Ash,
Did you get my PM?
In case you did not, could you or anyone here please tell me why after using the BlueBarn software to change the custom presets and all of that, I then turned the knob of my xl2 back to Manual, it seems the cam. is not picking any of those custom presets.
I am trying to imitate Devon's low light and all of that but I am getting this darkish color and whenever I turned the knob to Ext. control, the camcorder gives me this crips colorful view based on the presets Ash and you other guys provided?

What am I not clicking?

Hi Everyone,

I have a couple question about presets for the XL2. I hope it doesnt sound too stupid but.....Should I white balance for each shot before applying a certain preset or would that basically change the settings of the preset? Also the same for using warm cards....I would assume that the preset might do the warming for me but Im sure there would be instances that I would want to warm. I will experiment this weekend but thought an answer from you guys would set me down the right path. Thanks for all your help.

Tom

That's not a stupid question. . .I'm actually interested in knowing the same thing.

I know that when the rental house I used to hang out at would set up their cameras to chip charts, the idea was that you were supposed to use the preset for 3200 and 5600, 'cause white balancing would undo all the work of the setup. Then again, we're talking about cameras with much more intricate and sophisticated adjustment posssibilities than the XL2.

Maybe balance with the custom presets turned off (on the camera's factory settings), and then apply them? Sorry if that's the same thing you meant/said.

Hi Josh,

Yes thats kind of what I was trying to figure out. I run a Mac so I have to input these presets manually and wouldnt want all that effort to go to waste if I did the white balance/warm balance wrong. I am going to shoot some test footage this weekend to find out, but I figured if someone like Ash could answer this question for me then I can cross that off my ever growing list of things to do. LOL.

Tom

It's not really wasted time. . .you just go back to the preset after white balancing, if that's what you're supposed to do. You don't have to reenter the settings every time you turn the preset off.

Hey Tom,
I too have a Mac and I can't even get the preset files to open so I can read them . Can I ask you how you did it?