Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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[Marcus Perfjell] “If you do know any good settings for the camera, please post, or if you think I need some kind of extra gear, like filters, light panel for peoples faces etc feel free to say so! “
As you probably already know, shooting interlaced will give the the best low light sensitivity but shooting progressive is better if you’re going straight to the web. As far as camera picture profiles go, I try to shoot clean and do any effects in post. For outside skiing use a circular polarizer filter and your camera’s internal ND filters but that’s it for external add on filtration. If you’re shooting the night club windows from outside during the day the circ. pol. will reject window reflections and saturate the colours a bit.
Inside lighting will be a big mix of standard and coloured. I would W/B with a standard non-coloured light source and then during shooting let the coloured lighting affect the shot just as they normally would. Don’t try and compensate for the different room lighting situations you will inevitably encounter because you’ll end up with a ton of colour correction in post you don’t need to do.
If you have the budget for auxiliary lighting use the proper gels to match the practicals then you have to stick a white board in the subject’s face and do a man. W/B before each shot.
Using a steadicam would be nice if you already know how to use one but the rental might not justify the end result. By that I mean you can get some decent steady hand-held shots with your EX1 as long as the shots are short, timewise, and you’re willing to hold the camera properly to get those shots.
Any other recommendations would depend on your friend’s budget.
Just a friendly reminder about cross-posting to other forums: No one minds if you do but please name the other forums in your post so others can check and make sure they’re not giving the exact same answer that someone else did.
– Don
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It sounds like the battery release return spring is either stuck or broken. I had a look at mine and it doesn’t look to be a particularly robust mechanism. It also looks like one would have to take the back of the camera apart to get at it. Since I’m not a camera mechanic I doubt that I would want to try. Even if you did attempt it you’d be left with camera parts all over the table and you’d still have to phone Sony and get them to mail you the broken battery release piece(s) you might find. You could try pushing on the battery release block found on the upper right corner of the battery back wall and seeing if the release is just stuck. I’m assuming you can remove the battery because the release is depressed anyway.
With the battery of my EX3 removed there are 4 small screws on the back wall of the battery box but I suspect that if you loosened those whatever is attached on the other side of the wall would fall off. Then you’d really be in the soup. If your EX3 is still under warranty then send it back to Sony. If it isn’t, then find an authorized Sony repair facility in your area.
It’s easy for me to say “send to Sony” because my Sony zone office and repair facility is only 15 minutes away. It may not be so easy for you.
my .02
– Don
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The XL2 lens is considerably wider than the front of the GL2. I don’t believe anyone makes an adapter to mate the GL2 WA to the XL2. Even if they did there would probably be so much vignetting from the lens combo that the picture would be pretty much useless anyway.
– Don
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[Ashley Guberman] “Is this a good HD camera?”
Yes, it’s a good camera for the money. Canon have sold a ton of them so there’s lots of accessories and add ons you can buy at reasonable prices.
– Don
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[john shand] “If i am using Sony premium 60minute minidv tapes. Should i be shooting in HDV mode or SD?”
You are fine using your Sony Premium MiniDV tapes for both HDV and SD recording. The general consensus is that there’s no real difference between using a MiniDV tape that says HDV on the wrapper and one that doesn’t. The other train of thought is that MiniDV tapes with the HDV wrapper may be less prone to drop-outs than regular tapes. HDV tapes are considerably more money than regular tapes so the choice is yours. But you’re perfectly fine using regular when shooting in HDV mode.
[john shand] “Also what setting should i import the footage under. HD (1440 x 1080) or SD 16:9?”
HDV mode is 1440×1080 Anamorphic. SD recording is always 720×480 regardless of whether you’re shooting full screen (4:3) or wide screen (16:9). Import the SD recording as 720×480 if you’ve shot in full screen and if you’ve shot in wide screen import your footage as 720×480 Anamorphic. Once your SD widescreen footage is in your NLE’s timeline the footage will pop out to 853×480.
– Don
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Thanks, Raf. Here’s hoping you have a great 2010 as well.
– Don
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I finally blundered into that PMW-350K test. It wasn’t Steve Conner but was actually done by Alister Chapman. Here’s the article about using the camera with the Nano Flash.
https://www.xdcam-user.com/?page_id=273
– Don
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[Rafael Amador] “What kind of HD are you using for capturing?”
Indeed. And make sure the hard drive you’re capturing to is formatted in Mac OS Extended.
– Don
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There’s a tutorial at Ripple Training that demonstrates the method Neal is describing. Under Soundtrack Pro 3 look for the one entitled “Enhanced File Editor”.
https://www.rippletraining.com/engine/provideoapps.html?cms=b9c38e82e3aa080131ea264702b6ca06
– Don
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I think it was Steve Conner (one of the COW’S forum leaders) that tested a pre-production PMW-350K with a Nano Flash and described the picture as superb. His UK web site seems to be unavailable at the moment but he did have a short video online about that test. I think he was shooting aircraft that day.
Some things to consider between the EX line and the XDCAM HD line are the differences between CCD and CMOS imaging, XDCAM HD using the former and XDCAM EX using the latter. CMOS has picture skew under certain conditions but is better in low light and uses less power. CCD has vertical smear but no picture skew or rolling shutter like CMOS.
There’s always a trade-off. You buy what suits your subject matter and your budget.
– Don