HD10U for documentary

[Philippe Messier]

Hi there,

I would appreciate if somebody could describe his-her own experience with this camera when used for a documentary project. I will rent the camera for test soon but if i have some user experience also it would be interesting for me.

I've just talk with a JVC representative/dealer and he was honest enough to specify the importance of doing slow movement with the camera (film style) first, because the camera is shooting progressive (30p not 24p, i know) and secundly, because it's HD...

Anybody has been using this camera and 720/30p for documentary with good result ? And how good/bad the camera is in DV mode (480/60i) ?

Thank a lot for the comment,

Philippe

[Marco Ba]

I think you will have two major problems:

1. This camera does not offer manual audio level adjustment.

2. The camera does not allow to fix the shutter speed and to do exposure adjustment at the same time. And no manual control. So either you let the camera control it automatically - and now you never know if it's using 1/50 or 1/500 or whatever shutter speed (with the risc of having the motion appearance changing here and then). Or you do fix the shutter speed to 1/50 but then you are stucked with whatever your image will look like: maybe too dark, maybe too bright, maybe alright.

It is a really great camera valuing the picture quality, but it has some serious downsides.

Marco

[Philippe Messier]

Hi Marco,

Thank for your comments... It seem that i will have to look for another model anyway since the B stock deal just finish today at JVC usa (the day i took the plunge !) Unless someone here have one to sell ?

Thank again,

Philippe

[Ken Hodson]

Originally Posted by Marco Ba

either you let the camera control it automatically - and now you never know if it's using 1/50 or 1/500 or whatever shutter speed (with the risc of having the motion appearance changing here and then). Or you do fix the shutter speed to 1/50 but then you are stucked with whatever your image will look like: maybe too dark, maybe too bright, maybe alright.
Marco

You can see what the shutter speed is by pressing the S/A button. It will show the Fstop and shutter speed. Do not stop for more then one second or it will switch into that setting loosing the exposure lock. The point is you can check what you shutter speed is at any time in Exposure lock mode or not. If there are durastic lighting changes, then true, the shutter can flux, but that isn't the norm for a locked down shot with static lighting. I would suggest ND filters or variable polorizers to bring the light down if the shutter is too high. More likely the shutter will settle at 1/30th or 1/60th unless lighting is extreem. If not add more filtration. Try to hit a F5.6 and you will get a good shutter speed then lock exposure. The other option is to lock the shutter, then apply filtration untill the exposure does not pump. I would highly recommend an external monitor. A small tv will work fine using RCA or Svideo out of the cam, or better yet HDVrack with a laptop. It is the only real way to observe the exposure properly. The LCD isn't good enough unless you know the cam like the back of your hand and know what the cam is doing regardless of what you see.

[Xavier Agudo]

Hi,
I purchased a new HD10u a few months ago, and have ised for some field work. I have read almost every threadon this forum and I´m very aware of the manual control limitations. From my few experience now with the camera, I´ve found easier to manupulate the "exposure" control and lock it to what I expect to be good exposure and let the camera set the shutter and iris automatically. I just found this easier, but I don´t know if it´s the right way togo since if I set shutter to 1/60 for example I can´t control exposure. The first thing I did though, attending to advise from this forum, was buy a ND filter to try to force open iris if I wanted a narrowe depth of field, but I don´t know if shutter speed is also affected and then the iris remain unchanged. How does the camera decide what to change, iris or shutter, and what other trick do you have to try to control settings?... Thanx a lot.

By the way I really love the results, the image, colors and contrast and the beautiful 30p image. Really cool cam.

[Ken Hodson]

Originally Posted by Xavier Agudo

Hi,
but I don´t know if shutter speed is also affected and then the iris remain unchanged.

read my post above. You simply have to check to see if it was affected.