[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

Pull down the blanking/pedesital level.
Or increase the contrast and adjust the brightness.
Or apply the “Curves” filter and adjust.
Or adjust the Gamma.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

You say it happens in “DV playback.”
Do you mean when play a tape that was recorded on another camera?
Something to consider is that the tapes may have been recorded on a camera with problems of its own.

——————

If you think its a DV playback problem in the ZR-200:

Could be a stubborn head-clog.

Cleaning tapes are not very effective, but they certainly can be destructive.

You need to get the unit to a qualified tech for a wet-cleaning of the heads.

If the problem persists, you might have to ship the camera to an authorized shop and have the heads aligned.

This, BTW, is going to be very expensive, especially compared to the relatively low value of the camera.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Rennie Klymyk] “I wonder what would happen if you connected 2 USB mics to a USB hub and then to the computer?”

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Peter Ralph] “If the dancers are dancing to a series of songs chosen by the dance instructor you shouldn’t have any problems.
“

The videographer is the one who shoots the pictures and sound together and makes the copies.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

Manual mode (“M”)

Shutter at 1/60

Manual Iris:
You’ll likely have to constantly adjust iris as stage lighting is full of hot spots and dark areas.

Manual “Bulb” (indoor) White Balance:
The colored lights will play havoc with the skin-tones, but since that’s out of your control, just lock the WB for “indoor” and hope for the best.

Auto Focus is likely your best bet:
If you find that need to manually focus, you’re gonna by a busy shooter!

Tripod is the way to go, whenever possible.

Suggested Menu settingss:
C.SHARPNESS….(Full MINUS) reduces ENHANCEMENT Graininess
REC MODE …. SP
MIC ATT …. ON (loud conditions)
AUDIO MODE …. 16bit
D.ZOOM …. OFF

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Zane Barker] “No offense but this question gets asked fairly often on the cow, please try doing a search before posting.”

Sorry to have taken up space to answer it.
Should I not bother to answer questions in the future?

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

There are many choices for various purposes. But the first few steps would be the same:

Step 1: Park the play cursor on the frame you want to export.
Step 2: File> Export> Using QuickTime Conversion… “Save” window appears
Step 3: Format> Still Image
Step 4: Options… > Format: (choose PNG, PICT or Photoshop) > OK
Step 5: Name your image, Set location (disk, folder, desktop) for your new still. > Save
That file can be opened in Photoshop.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Tyler Groom] “I thought I might, because they will be dancing to copyrighted music. So I am okay to just do it or do I need to get some kind of clearance, or are they liable for performing it in the first place? Thanks”

An age-old question.

The dance-instructor/recital producer are responsible for securing the Public Performance rights of any music used at the show.
These rights are attached to the use of the material played-back for a larger group of people other than a few people in a private home space.
These are similar to the kind of rights a business owner must secure to play music in his place of business.

WILL the dance instructor/recital producer secure these rights?
Based on most cases, it is highly unlikely that they will bother to do that.

BUT-

Regardless of whether they do or don’t secure the Public performance rights for the “live” show,
YOUR issue is in regard to “Reproduction rights” and “Synchronization rights” of the “recorded” show.

“Synchronization rights” relate to YOUR creating a “new work” (your video of the show) that synchronizes the writer’s music to the video of the dancers on the stage.

“Reproduction rights” relate to your making copies of the works as you make copies of your video of the show.

Potentially complex, time-consuming and expensive issues to resolve before you make your video available for sale… or, yes, even if you give them away.

And WILL most video recording services and individuals bother to do this?
Based on most cases, highly unlikely.

So, its up to you to decide if the risk of copyright litigation is too slight to worry about,
or if the risk is too serious to ignore.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Dean Mikulla] “As far as the color bars feature on the GL2, how can I use them to help me shoot better video at this point in my learning?
“

Camera generated color bars are usually recorded at the head (and/or tail) of the tape.

These are only used to check (and, if need be) adjust for the color-level, phase (hue) and video levels of the tape, based on what the camera generated at the time of the shoot.

But, these bars won’t have any practical bearing on the actual VIDEO that you shoot.
That’s because you could adjust (or misadjust… or forget to set) the lighting, white-balance, iris-levels, video gain, and black-levels of the camera’s image DURING the shoot, and, therefore, the color bars will have no relation to the recorded image, whatsoever.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

The best possible technique is using one good quailiy mic per person, properly placed on a boom (or clipped onto the talent properly, in the case of a lav mic.)

Then, each mic to be recorded on a separate track (for adjustment in post)
or mixed “live” by a competent, attentive audio operator.