So I can put out a BluRay program and I don't have to pay any licensing fees. I just can't use the BluRay logo. Right? Sounds like a good deal to me. I can live without using the logo.

It would be great if we could get back to a discussion of these cameras as opposed to Blu Ray licensing fees.

Scott, thanks for the recommendations on the Cinema tone settings. I played with them for a church event a couple of days ago. Overall the default settings for Cinema 1 and Cinema two were nice, but seemed to darken the images overall a bit, makiing shooting in a darker environment a bit challenging.

I think that those settings would be much more effective and useful in a well-lit environment. Again, it did provide a pleasing look, just a tad too dark for a poorly lit church.

I'm having trouble with the iris ring. I push iris button, and even in manual iris mode the iris will not stay open, it wants to maintain some degree of the auto function. Very strange.

Edit, Iris issue seems to occur when in 24p mode. When I returned to normal settings it was fine, though it seems to me it occured same way before.

You sure you've locked down the shutter speed and the gain settings? On my Z1 locking the iris still lets the other two float to try and give you 'correct' exposure.

Or are you seeing lens ramping, where the max aperture varies as you zoom?

tom.

It seems to be it might be lens ramping, Tom. How can I know?

Your camera only has an f/1.6 maximum aperture at maximum wide-angle. As soon as you start to zoom towards telephoto (even a bit) your lens loses speed such that at full tele it's only got an f/3.5 maximum.

So put it another way. You're filming in the gloom using f/1.6 and +6dB say. If you zoom to telephoto you only have f/3.5 as a max apererture, so the gain has to go up to +18dB (two stops) to compensate. If you don't allow the gain to increase you'll greatly under-expose your shot.

tom.

Thanks Tom. Very good info. I'll play with the cam with these things in mind.