Doug Graham
Forum Replies Created
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The VX2100 has a 1 lux sensitivity. It will be a much better match to your DSR390 than the little Panny. The main difference will be in image sharpness, due to the bigger camera’s better optics.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
I agree that you need to get legal advice on this. My (non-legal) take on it would be that using a Shakira song for commercial purposes without permission would be a clear copyright violation.
Further, I’d bet that Shakira is unlikely to give permission for anything that would put her in a bad light.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
I have a scheme that I think would work great, although I haven’t managed to get any studios to try it out yet…
The contract for the video, and for copies for every student, would be made with the studio before the beginning of the year. The studio would increase their fees to the students a small amount to cover this cost.
The students would then receive a “free” recital DVD as part of their tuition package. That way, there’d be no incentive for piracy.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
There’s a comparison of the two models kicking around somewhere, I think on the Sony site. There are about 60 differences between the FX1 and Z1U. Besides the XLR connectors, a couple are:
Z1U has black stretch
Z1U does both PAL and NTSCAll HDV camcorders record HDV in 16:9…that’s a standard of the HDV format. However, the Z1U has more options for conversion afterwards.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
I don’t agree that removing the RAID setups would improve matters. A RAID generally has about 50 to 70% more throughput than a single hard drive. (Um, these ARE RAID 0, yes?)
Here are a couple of things to check:
1. Turn off Indexing for the video storage drives.
2. Turn off System Restore monitoring for the video drives.
3. Make sure Compression has not been enabled on these drives.
4. For IDE drives, make sure they’re operating in UDMA 4 or 5 mode, and that you are using 80-conductor IDE 100 or 133 data cables.Regards,
Doug Graham -
There are lots of alternatives, but they break down pretty much as follows:
1. Monopods. After trying various shoulder braces and chest pods, I like the monopod best for its combination of portability and stability, but that’s a personal choice. Some monopods have little feet for added stability, and/or you can mount a fluid head on them for pans/tilts. In a pinch, your tripod can double as a monopod…just collapse the legs together.
2. Shoulder braces. These help, especially the ones that also have a chest brace. However, even a simple stick that rests on your shoulder will give some additional steadying, and the simplicity allows you to move the camera for Dutch angles, or tuck the stick in your armpit for a lower angle shot.
Neither of the above will help much for moving shots. For that, you need:
3. Stabilizer rigs. The simplest of these are supported by your arm alone. The camera is gimbaled and counterweighted so that it doesn’t shake (as much) when you move. These rigs tire your arm quickly; the alternative is to support the camera on an articulated arm that’s attached to a rigid vest that transfers the weight to your body. Such a full-up stabilizer rig will run you $3,000 on up to $20,000 for professional Steadicam equipment.
There are a few outlying gadgets, such as the FigRig (a steering wheel with your camcorder mounted at the hub) or the TortleRig (a pole that sticks up over your shoulder, with the camera suspended on a bungee cord from it).
If you want to experiment with a stabilizer, I like the Varizoom FlowPod. This is a nice monopod, but also has a gimbaled handle and can be used as a hand-held stabilizer.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
In addition to the disclaimer, a lot of videographers provide an extra copy of the DVD. It’s a nice touch if you can shrink-wrap the extra copy and label it as an “archive” copy, to be used to make a replacement “for-use” disc in the event that the original “for-use” copy becomes damaged.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Both Photoshop and Vegas have settings to automatically correct for the difference in pixel aspect ratio between CCIR 601 TV pixels (.909) and computer pixels (1.0). So, assuming all is set right, your circles stay round on the computer screen and on the TV monitor.
But keep that circle graphic handy. It’s easy to mis-set either one program or the other, and the graphic is a good check to make sure that all is correct.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
They’re starting to. The Sony HVR-A1U has a histogram display option.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
DV Rack is certainly a great product, and a highly useful field tool.
However, I do question its applicability to event video. It can be used in stationary shooting situations, for example at a dance recital if you’re in the balcony on a tripod, or at a wedding ceremony.
But since it ties your camcorder to a laptop, it’s not really useful for run and gun handheld shooting.
(Turning back to the original poster)–
Vegas has both WFM and vectorscope tools. I use the WFM mostly, to help correct exposure. I set brightness and contrast filters so that the blacks don’t go below 0 IRE and the whites don’t go above 100 IRE. That is, the “fuzz” on the scope is adjusted to remain within these limits.
Regards,
Doug Graham