Gamma Gamma Gamma HVX vs VariCam (For Jan…?)

[Barry Green]

You have 8 different gamma curves to choose from in the HVX. So no you can’t tweak the toe or anything like that, but having 8 does give you a pretty wide range to use. And the knee is adjustable in six of them.

[Gunleik Groven] “When shooting variable frame rate on the HVX, can this be done in the “n” mode – where you only record the actual frames, or will you need to do a pulldown from a 50 (or 60) fps datastream?”
Yes, you can shoot variable frame rates in the “n” modes. In fact, if you shoot 12fps in 720/24pN, you’ll find that you get twice as much footage per card; a 4gb card would last 20 minutes. Not saying that that’s practical, of course nobody’s going to shoot regular footage at 12fps! I’m just using it as an example to show that yes, it records only the frames used, even when using variable frame rates.

When using the “n” modes, no pulldown is necessary. That’s only used when shooting in the “over 60” modes.

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[Gunleik Groven]

Thanks a lot!

[Barry Green] “And the knee is adjustable in six of them.”

Good. Could you elaborate some?

Having had my first look at the Varicam I sorta came out with this whole idea of “compressing” info in the image (as in not burning out/underexposing difficult images more or less like a music compressor)as by far the most fun part of the VC.

Gunleik

[Barry Green]

What I mean is, for most of the gamma curves you have the option of setting the knee to auto, low, mid, or high (which correspond to about 80 IRE, 90 IRE, or 100 IRE). On three of the gammas (CINELIKE-V and CINELIKE-D and NEWS) the knee is non-adjustable, but on the others you can adjust it.

(note: I said you could adjust it on six of the 8, but that’s wrong, it’s adjustable on five of the 8).

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db)

[Gunleik Groven]

Thanks again!

If I may: One more question about exposure.

On the VariCam you can adjust exposure manually to a given percentage (find some skin and set it at 40 instead of 70% because of the gamma curves). This effectively leaves the zebra settings more or less unuseable.

Does the HVX have a similar function? (Setting exposure manually in 1% steps)

Gunleik
(Who’ dying to play some with the VC or VC like setups…)

[Barry Green]

No, not really… I mean… not by manipulating image settings. You can control the iris in 1/6-stop increments and you can control the shutter in 0.5-degree increments, so you could control exposure through the shutter in about 1% increments, but you don’t have control over stretching or compressing the gamma in any way in the menus. The only controls you have in that regard are the master pedestal and the knee.

The menu settings are very similar to the DVX100 series, as far as image control/scene file settings.

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db)

[Gunleik Groven]

Thanks again!

So, in effect – if you know your way around the camera, you can achieve some of this – which already is pretty neato.

Gunleik