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night scenes and daytime scenes on Canon HV30
Hey, people first hope you are well. Just writing to ask your opinion on a number of tests I have been doing with the Canon HV30. I possibly will be shooting a film with it. I decided not to use the 24p and instead go with standard high definition 1080i. Reason for this is how the shutter goes down sometimes to 1/24 in 24p. I did read the Barry Green stuff but to me that’s too much to do.
TEST
In the test I did I discovered that if I shoot in standard HD and use cine mode in night scenes both interior and exterior that the shutter stays at 1/60 no matter what. This is only using available light outside and available light inside. If I use the same setting for daytime scenes the shutter goes to 1/120 and sometimes to 1/250. So instead I shot daytime scenes in TV mode and assured myself that the shutter stayed at 1/60 and of course I didn’t have to worry about gain because there is plenty of light for the daytime scenes. When I used TV mode in the night scenes I got alot of gain.So after all this my plan is to shoot night interiors and exteriors in Standard 1080i 1/60 with cine mode and the daytime scenes shoot them in standard 1080i 1/60 TV mode. Also note that for interior night scenes I will use more powerful light bulbs, lamps and some film lights.
Hope I was clear enough. If you think my reasoning makes sense or not please let me know.
Be well,
Antonio
antonio de la cruz
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7 Replies
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Man, I wanna see how yer gonna shoot ‘film’ with that camera 🙂
As for your question, am not sure why you’d want to shoot at night with those settings. If the HV30 has a “spotlight” mode than it will do just fine and get this: NO GRAIN or GAIN!
I shoot with that settings in 24P, spotlight on HV20 and love the clean images I get. One thing you must keep in mind that ‘spotlight settings’ will not going to give you images where GAIN would be necessery in any other settings…. unless you lock the exposure, but that’s another story. What you get is nice solid black colors.
Wanna see what is low light NO-GAIN videography…(not filming) do?
Check this footage: https://vimeo.com/2231289
Mind you, only two small red lights were available!
There was no need to get into higher shutter speed and all that complication to shoot in dark places. Besides the results would have been a lousy grainy footage if I did.There are also more videos on same site to see low light shooting.
Hope this help.
It’s not the equipment you have that matters, it’s what you produce.
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So you think a feature can’t be done with this camera?
Antonio
antonio de la cruz
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[Antonio de la cruz] “So you think a feature can’t be done with this camera?”
I would think that what Ted means is that you can’t shoot a ‘film’ (which would have to be shot on, well, actual film) with that camera. You’re in fact making a ‘feature length video’?
This is the Barry Green article that you’re talking about, right? I hadn’t seen that before, very interesting. You’re sure that you don’t want to try that technique? With a mini-SD card is seems simple enough.
If you want have a film look, you really need to shoot in 24P. If you don’t want to try that Barry Green method for controlling exposure, then switch out of CINE Mode to Tv and lock the shutter speed at 1/48 (which should be what you’re aiming for, it equates a standard 180 degree shutter angle on a film camera), and you won’t have to worry about it dropping to 1/24. Then go to manual exposure and use lights to get the lighting that you want, tweaking both the exposure and lighting until you get a nice, (hopefully) grain-less picture. Switch to manual focus and use the Focus Assist button to get a closer look for grain.
Does that help?
Gord
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It does help. I really do like the look in 24p. Really do. I will look at the Barry Green article again. If its just the card that will do the trick then I will do a number of test that way. The other option in shooting standard High definition was to get a clean good image and then give the movie a film look in post. But from my experience is usually better if you do the film look in the camera. Thanks again guys!
Antonio
antonio de la cruz
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While it is not a professional tool, yes you can use the HV20 or HV30 to shoot a professional-looking project.
Barry Green’s method of “tricking” the camera into more-or-less manual mode has long been used by lots of people (including me) with a good deal of success. It works.
What would concern me a little is the comment about that process “to me that’s too much to do.”
Ummmm, really?
If one wants to make a full-blown feature using just an HV20 or HV30, Barry’s few little steps are going to be one of the easier parts of the entire project.
If you question was actually “Can I use this camera to make an easy feature… well, there is no such thing.
There is simply not much about feature filmmaking (or videomaking) that is inherently easy. Features aren’t easy, pretty much by definition… and starting with a less than optimal tool for such a job is only going to make it more complicated, not easier. Can it be done?…sure. But if one is looking for the no-hassles boy-this-is-a-breeze method, this ain’t it.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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My HV20 PAL in Cine Mode & 25p, will go as low as 1/12 if needed.
odd magne nilsen
newbie
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thanks for this great article
if you dont mind i would like to add a new trickyou can set your camcorder to “no gain shooting” with this alternative tutorial
https://www.vimeo.com/groups/ozgucyigit/forumthread:11190
thanks
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