[Carlos]

Hi John and Leo,
I was under the impression that of you put -3DB on the camera, you effectively bring the dynamic range to 300, is that correct?

Carlos

[Carlos]

All these recommendations you are getting are excellent. The way I look at green/blue screen is that is like a cocktail combination that requires that all elements work together accordingly. Independent of the format this is what works for me:
1.Screen: Blue for blond and very light hair color, green for the rest. I find the green does not have enough contrast for perfect sharp compositing with blond people. You can do it, but I think they look better on blue if I have a choice.
2.Lighting: As they say, the most important part. Stop and half under for screen, the 70 IRE rule is and the zebra also works for me. Space lights for big spaces, Kino Flo

[Carlos]

If we had to have a limited choice of Kelvin for white balance I would choose:

2.9K for incandescent bulbs/interiors
3.2K for tungsten
4.3K for mixed lighting environment
5.6K for HMI

[Carlos]

Hi Luis,
My experience with -3DB is with the SDX900, the Varicam and the F900.
Mi familiarity with the Panasonic cameras is that when I choose -3DB I decrease the dynamic range but increase the tonal range of the camera, which is useful for green screen, compositing plates and product shots.
Traditional analog video only uses the lower 20% of the dynamic range of each pixel. At this point, 100% white is reached, and any signal above this level is simply clipped and discarded. However, with the introduction of High Definition and Cine Gamma controls, we can now utilize more of the inherent capacity of each pixel on the CCD array. In fact, the dynamic level setting on the Varicam allows for the use of two to five times the traditional range for each and every pixel (so 200% to 500% more). In order to get increased dynamic range in terms of wider exposure latitude (i.e. as the Dynamic Level setting moves towards 500%), the system achieves this at the expense of tonal reproduction.
By shooting -3DB I decrease the Dynamic Level to 300 (from 500) which is fine for green screen or product shots as I don

[Carlos]

You welcome Jan,
I am quite impressed with the fact a big company like Panasonic is actually listening to their consumer base and acting on their expectations. As rational as this practice might be, is not as common as one should think at the pro-sumer level. Good for you, bad for Sony. We are very lucky to have you.
Cheers,
Carlos

[Carlos]

Thank you for your responses, I now that a lot has being improved; I was basically exposing the areas that my crew (and I) felt could make a better camera based on-the-field usage.
The strange thing about these pro-sumer cameras is that, since they have become professional tools for broadcast productions, the requirements requested are similar to the ones we expect at the higher end
It is going to be hard to satisfy everyone, because the HVX200 provides a lot of options but with new tape-less technology. While I love it, I already have noticed some resistance from my clients on the concept not using tape, as they perceived (wrongly I think) flash memory and hard-drive as fragile storage devices.
For the reality TV-documentary and live events shows, were the DVX100 has a big market already, tapes from multiple cameras provides an enormous amount of hours per show on the cheap. For this market to jump on the new camera, Panasonic will have to address the issue of cost and minutes on the P2 cards. The expectation (from one of my clients at least) is to get DVCPRO 50 quality in exchange of the investment, otherwise they will rather keep the DVX100

[Carlos]

I understand and the release should not be slow down. Some of our suggestions were software related (framing guides, ND, Kelvin changes, battery icon, and perhaps slave time code) and maybe it could be tweak, I don

[Carlos]

Yes, they should keep their ears open as decisions on whether to buy this camera or another will be based on how they listen to our needs. This network in particular, asked for our advise before they go out to buy multiples cameras from a manufacturer.

Noah, if the camera is completely finished in design inside-out, why there so many questions unanswered still about this camera? I was under the impression that they were still listening