If I shoot HDV I would be having what I call the "short GOP limitation", not to speak of the audio gap that might eventually happen if there's a tape dropout.

But I will carry on some tests to compare them on a good pro monitor and see what happens. Thanks for the tip.

What were the differences you noticed?

I find clearer detail in complex images. To me it is noticeable on a full stage shot with lots of people in a performance video. In standard definition DV mode the Z1 doesn't especially impress me, it looks a lot like my PDX-10. But shooting HDV and downconverting while capturing seems to give a sharper image.

But you should do your own tests and decide whether the risk of dropouts is greater than any improvement the image may have. Personally, I don't think I've had any dropout issues in shooting around 80 hours of performances this way. I have used Sony premium tapes exclusively since I bought the camera.

Well, maybe you are overrating the PDX10. Because the results I have seen with the Z1 shooting in DV are great.

That doesn't mean that you might be right and what you are proposing might be even better.

Today I will be shooting just with my camera, and I will use the chance to shoot in DV and HDV and see what happens

Thanks for the tip.


Carlos

Absolutely. I'm doing a tv show on a local community station on Z1s and after shooting the first interview in widescreen DV, everything is HDV until the final downconvert now. A big factor in this is the fact that I often have to shoot with 18dB gain. The downconvert does wonders for footage grainy or clean.

OK. Downconvert seems like an interesting and safe way to go.

I also talked to a friend from a production company here that records for Discovery in HDV with Z1s, and my concern for eventual dropout problems is not justified.

Next concern is how I will frame for two sizes now: 16:9 and cropped for downconvert 4:3 DV.

Turn on the markers in the menu. You can view 4:3 markers in your frame that will remind you as you shoot what the cropped frame will be.

OK. I've done both things: gone back to HDV and add side-markers. The center mark I've kept it off, as that might activate a tendency to center things around it.

Another thing which I did was a second ASSIGN button, activating "Steadyshot" on button 2. Button 1 was already for Underscan. Now that I was back in HDV allowed me to see what Boyd was talking about.

What other functions have you found practical for the ASSIGN buttons?

Perhaps the latter should deserve a separate thread for people to suggest what has worked for them.

I use:

WB OUTDR LV+
WB OUTDR LV-
REC REVIEW
STEADYSHOT
HYPER GAIN
ALLSCAN MODE

Interesting settings, except for HG which I may not have too much use for.

What did you set you WB outdoor levels for?

If your preset WB is set to OUTDOOR, you can use the WB OUTDR LV+
WB OUTDR LV- buttons to quickly adjust colour to your liking.

Wouldn't that adjustment be better done, with greater precision, during editing?

Avoiding colour correction in editing saves you time in the edit, saves you time in rendering, and give you a slightly better image (any rendering can degrade your image from the original)

I firmly believe tuning up your image during editing may mean more than 50% of rounding up the final result to a certain look.

I think it's only there, with proper monitoring and watching the editing flow, where you can achieve a balance of the whole.

Well, certainly you have a good point, but it depends on what you are working on. I do a lot of events where quick turn around can be important, so I try to avoid things that slow me down.

If I were doing a documentary or movie, that's a different story. Then you want to be able to experiment with looks in the editing.

Of course I did guess that what you were talking about, and you certainly would be right for quicker turn arounds.

In my case I am and have been working on documentaries, and I got to do in editing what would have taken me lots of money to get beautiful results.

What I will try to do, if possible, is to do the final tune up on a higher grade editing suite. Let's hope the budget, which I still don't know what will exactly be, will allow that.