What Settings on your DVC30 for low light?
 

I will be filming an event outside at night, there will be some mood lighting but not a lot. I was thinking of 1/50s and boosting the aperture and gain via the focus ring when needed. Can anyone tell me what sort of result they get if shutter speed is dropped to 1\25s? Thanks

Is your a PAL unit? For NTSC you have 1/60, 1/30, 1/15.

I would say stick with 1/60 if you can just crank up the gain. Unless you know there is going to very little movement , you may be able to go with 1/30 but anything below that and you will get lots of motion blur.

Jeff

I think 1/25 should be alright. I also crank down the chroma a little, helps get rid of the redish look in low light. Now I just bring a big light.

What Settings on your DVC30 for low light?
 

Over the last few weeks I have been using my DVC30 shooting in Italian churches, using available light. I sometimes used (PAL) 1/25, and was able to reduce the gain thereby. I had to be careful to avoid rapid motion in the shot: it can strobe somewhat. However, you will probably have autofocus probs, and manual focussing is such a bind in these low-light situations; Panasonic have yet to employ something like Sony's "infinity focus" feature, which is perfect for low light. I agree with the comment about the reddish tinge; I had to set a scene file for such shots.
Bruce Williams

The other thing, when you drop the shutter down to 1/30 or 1/25, it shoots in frame mode which is a bit of a resolution hit.

How does frame mode affect resolution? ???

Because on the 30, frame rate drops one of the fields to get the "movie" look. You now have half the amount of picture info.

Jeff