Just Bought a Sony Z7 Pal at DVinfo.net

Arlen Sahakian · October 20th, 2008, 01:04 PM

Hi There, im in a the wedding business and i was just wondering what is the best HDV quality i can shoot for wedding with the Z7 theres daylight than church (not daylight) and the dinner which includes lots of dancing and theres lighting ofcourse.

any ideas ?

Thank You

John Knight · October 20th, 2008, 02:50 PM

Hi there! I have the Z7 also and struggled with it until I bought this...

Vortex Media's - Mastering the Z7 Training DVD

It's the best investment you can make! To get the best out of the Z7, you need to master the gain and iris settings. It's not great on Full Auto.

Pete Cofrancesco · October 20th, 2008, 03:57 PM

The only two difference between indoor and outdoor is the white balance and exposure. You can use the built in white balance presets or set it manually. Exposure can be set to auto or to manual. Most professionals prefer manual for indoors because you can control the amount of gain and prevent the camera from over exposing scenes with dark backgrounds.

Arlen Sahakian · October 21st, 2008, 01:12 AM

ok guys but what i must shoot 1080 50i or 1080 25p which one is better for my work ?

Steve Phillipps · October 21st, 2008, 01:39 AM

50i or 25P depends on what your client wants I'd say. There was a post just a couple of days ago by a wedding guy who'd shot in 24P for a nice filmic look and his client hated it! In terms of image quality there won't be much in it, it's just the look that'll be very different. Has an effect on the way you work too, as with 25P you'll need to be very careful with pans and other moves otherwise you'll get very blurry results.
One thing I'd always say with these small chip cameras, and which a lot of people don't realise, is that you need to be very careful with your aperture settings, try not to go below about f5.6 as you'll start to get soft images due to diffraction (complicated subject!) I'd also not use it fully wide open either, stop down 1 stop I'd say.
Steve

John Knight · October 21st, 2008, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arlen Sahakian

ok guys but what i must shoot 1080 50i or 1080 25p which one is better for my work ?

For weddings that are going to watched on TV - 1080 50i

Danny O'Neill · October 21st, 2008, 03:26 AM

We use the FX1 which is similar in a few ways. You really need to master the manual settings and there are a few training DVD's out there. Totally agree on the iris 5.6 thing.

I use it with auto gain when in the church. The reason for this is we do a lot of closeup zooms with the B camera and when you zoom the iris closes. So we use auto gain to boost the brightness and it keeps both cams at the same level (eitehr do it in cam or later, its all teh same) and if the camera can save me a task later so Im happy.

Evening its iris all the way open, gain on full and shutter speed stays locked at 50i I only use 25 if I use Cineframe which Im still experimenting with.

Whitebalance is always manual, the only time I flick to auto is to quickly set the iris to another level ratehr than twiddle the pain in the ass knob.

Tom Hardwick · October 21st, 2008, 07:51 AM

Yep - I'll go along with John and say 50i. It'll give you the smoothest, most realistic looking result, and having shot like this you can muck about in post as much as you like (and most important, click 'undo').

I won't go along with Danny because he says 'when you zoom the iris closes' which isn't true. What he means is that if you're shooting at an aperture wider than f/2.8 then you'll get under-exposure (to a varying degree) as you zoom towards telephoto.

Steve's right about diffraction losses, but modern lenses are so good that I'd much rather use full aperture and accept the vignetting than up the gain by 6dB.

tom.

October 20th, 2008, 01:04 PM	#1
Arlen Sahakian Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lebanon Posts: 30	Just Bought a Sony Z7 Pal Hi There, im in a the wedding business and i was just wondering what is the best HDV quality i can shoot for wedding with the Z7 theres daylight than church (not daylight) and the dinner which includes lots of dancing and theres lighting ofcourse. any ideas ? Thank You __________________ WWW.DMEDIUS.COM

October 21st, 2008, 01:12 AM	#4
Arlen Sahakian Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lebanon Posts: 30	ok guys but what i must shoot 1080 50i or 1080 25p which one is better for my work ? __________________ WWW.DMEDIUS.COM

October 21st, 2008, 03:26 AM	#7
Danny O'Neill Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Northampton, UK Posts: 915	We use the FX1 which is similar in a few ways. You really need to master the manual settings and there are a few training DVD's out there. Totally agree on the iris 5.6 thing. I use it with auto gain when in the church. The reason for this is we do a lot of closeup zooms with the B camera and when you zoom the iris closes. So we use auto gain to boost the brightness and it keeps both cams at the same level (eitehr do it in cam or later, its all teh same) and if the camera can save me a task later so Im happy. Evening its iris all the way open, gain on full and shutter speed stays locked at 50i I only use 25 if I use Cineframe which Im still experimenting with. Whitebalance is always manual, the only time I flick to auto is to quickly set the iris to another level ratehr than twiddle the pain in the ass knob. __________________ mintyslippers.com

October 20th, 2008, 02:50 PM	#2
John Knight Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 588	Hi there! I have the Z7 also and struggled with it until I bought this... Vortex Media's - Mastering the Z7 Training DVD It's the best investment you can make! To get the best out of the Z7, you need to master the gain and iris settings. It's not great on Full Auto.

October 20th, 2008, 03:57 PM	#3
Pete Cofrancesco Inner Circle Join Date: May 2004 Location: USA Posts: 2,997	The only two difference between indoor and outdoor is the white balance and exposure. You can use the built in white balance presets or set it manually. Exposure can be set to auto or to manual. Most professionals prefer manual for indoors because you can control the amount of gain and prevent the camera from over exposing scenes with dark backgrounds.

October 21st, 2008, 01:39 AM	#5
Steve Phillipps Inner Circle Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Wales Posts: 2,130	50i or 25P depends on what your client wants I'd say. There was a post just a couple of days ago by a wedding guy who'd shot in 24P for a nice filmic look and his client hated it! In terms of image quality there won't be much in it, it's just the look that'll be very different. Has an effect on the way you work too, as with 25P you'll need to be very careful with pans and other moves otherwise you'll get very blurry results. One thing I'd always say with these small chip cameras, and which a lot of people don't realise, is that you need to be very careful with your aperture settings, try not to go below about f5.6 as you'll start to get soft images due to diffraction (complicated subject!) I'd also not use it fully wide open either, stop down 1 stop I'd say. Steve

October 21st, 2008, 07:51 AM	#8
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	Yep - I'll go along with John and say 50i. It'll give you the smoothest, most realistic looking result, and having shot like this you can muck about in post as much as you like (and most important, click 'undo'). I won't go along with Danny because he says 'when you zoom the iris closes' which isn't true. What he means is that if you're shooting at an aperture wider than f/2.8 then you'll get under-exposure (to a varying degree) as you zoom towards telephoto. Steve's right about diffraction losses, but modern lenses are so good that I'd much rather use full aperture and accept the vignetting than up the gain by 6dB. tom.