getting the best low-light performance
 

hey folks,

i shoot an improvised film every week here in Toronto as part of the Neutrino video project www.neutrinotoronto.com

anyway, we do a lot of run and gun shooting, editing in camera etc, and we shoot a lot at night.

I'm using my HVX, I shoot in 480i mode, and even and 12db and full open I still have trouble in low light situations (i.e. on the street). because of the nature of how we shoot there is no time to set up lights etc.

Are there any other settings I might be missing that can help me get a brighter picture. The quality isn't important, it just needs to be BRIGHT.

I used to shoot on a Sony VX1200 and it was simply amazing in low light situations.

You can set your gain to 18 db and lower the speed at 60i.

1. Don't shoot 480/60i
- HVX is optimized for progressive. Shooting interlace automatically reduces exposure by at least 1 stop so shoot at 30P or 24P

- The dirty little secret of the HVX is that there can be severe interlace artifacting in 480/60i especially noticable on movement in images with thin contrasty diagonal lines. 480/60i should be avoided altogether unless you have to shoot it. It is a serious camera flaw that Panasonic is stonewalling about. I pointed this out to Barry Green last year and he has confirmed it many times on DVXUser.

2. Don't shoot Cine Gamma D ( I don't know about Cine V as I never use it) . Cine D reduces sensitivity in favor of exposure latitude. Try HD Norm or perhaps even better SD Norm or you could even try High though that will probably raise the noise levels too much.

3. Lowering your shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/24th is a great way to increase exposure . It will add some motion blur but i have never found it offensive and shoot that way often in low light. Experiment to your taste.

4. Set your pedastel (black) levels correctly. At set-up 0% (which is correct ) your Black level should be about -5 as I recall for HD or SD Norm. Check this with a waveform or with your camera's IRE readout in the viewfinders "marker" box. With the lens capped it should be lowered to just read at 0 IRE.
The detente setting of "0" is only correct at set-up 7.5%. An odd HVX and DVX anamoly that should be corrected someday.

5. These will all help, but the HVX is fundamentally a slow beast. A DVX 100B will give you at least one more stop of usable exposure. However you should be able to get acceptable footage from a well lit nighttime city street with available light on your HVX.

Let me know if this helps.

Lenny Levy