[Eric Pensenstadler]

I’m not sure if I’ll totally answer your questions here, but I hope it helps.

First of all the exposure – when you zoom in you loose some iris. Even in manual setting, as you zoom in the iris will close a bit (numbers go up from 1.6 to 4 as you noted). This is normal for any camera I believe. It’s not a problem, so now that you know this you can plan your shots accordingly. If going to f4 makes it too dark then you’ll simply have to zoom out a bit or move closer to the subject.

For the camera shutting off, memory cards would have been my first thought. What class are your cards? Even if you tried various cards, if they were all the same class (ie, speed) then the issue could persist. However, I don’t believe this is likely unless the cards are a very low class number, so you may want to call Sony service.

I hope this helps.
Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

Not sure about the passive and active options, I need to read up on 3d.

Just a reminder about the 24p, as you already saw, you need to be VERY SMOOTH with the camera movements.

Good luck and enjoy!

[Eric Pensenstadler]

Great advice from John.

I also noticed in the specs of that camera that the chips are only 1/4″. Just be aware that those are very small chips and will require LOTS of light – as John pointed out, even more light is needed because of the 3D glasses cutting down incomging light to the eye as well.

In those tests that John suggested doing, pay attention to the graininess/fuzziness of the image as well. I just went through all of this with my new NX5U cameras which have 1/3″ chips and in order to reduce or eliminate image grain the camera has to be set to -3 or -6 db gain and fully open iris. Essentially anything that is not daylight will either be darker than we’d like or have some grain in the image. I’m just telling you this so that you can plan to light your film accordingly. Try to keep the camera iris fully open at all times and if that camera can go to a negative gain then use it.

Have fun! I’m so anxoius to get into 3D but for what I do there’s just no market for it yet.

Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

I completely ditto what John said. I can’t say it any better.

For me, it’s all about realistic expectations. Ask John and a few others on this forum, immediately after purchasing my 2 NX5Us I was ready to throw them off a clif – but thanks to those in this forum I realized that not all of my problems were due to the camera, and, most importantly, I learned to work within the limitations of the camera.

Again ditto-ing what John said, I’ve performed extensive tests with the NX5U and about 3 or 4 other cameras and other than personal preference features, I don’t see any major advantage or disadvantage between them. The NX5Us are GREAT cameras IF you use them properly.

Hope that helps,
Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

Hey Jeff, nice to hear from you.

All good advice. You’re right about the gain limit too, but personally I keep the camera in manual controls, but that’s a great tip.

I think earlier in this thread or in another somebody mentioned that with the NX5Us 0db is not really quite 0. He suggested that -3db is really more of the 0. I’m not 100% certain but something to keep in mind.

I’ve been keeping the gain in -3 or -6 and have been much much happier with the cameras.

You had another good point too about shooting in a lower gain and then boosting the mids or even highlights in post. There’s a lot to be said for taking that extra time in post rather than bumping up the gain.

30 shutter speed can also help a ton too, but ya, gotta be careful of the stuttering.

Thanks!
Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

A computer monitor will always show a different image than a TV (somebody correct me if I’m wrong) especially in regards to any sort of interlacing issue.

The only thing I can think of at the moment is to shoot something on the same camera in 30p and see how that looks.

Perhaps you can try changing the sequence settings to NONE for field dominance.

Hope this helps,
Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

Thanks John. You’re right, let’s keep it in perspective too!!

I’m not sure if it’s “Neat Video”, but I recently came accross a plug-in for reducing noise too (you might even have been the one to share the info). Was the online demo footage of a highway and some trees in the background?

The demo online seemed good but I have not tried it. Perhaps it’s worth another look.

Thanks,
Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

For those interested – after some further testing (see below) I’ve decided there is no advantage to getting different cameras. I will keep these and as much as possible work in negative gain and wide open iris.

A couple months ago I compared the NX5U to the Panasonic HVX-200 HD and the image was virtually the same (in regards to noise). In just the past couple days I compared it directly with the Canon XF 300 and 105 (thanks to the folks at Texolve in Pittsburgh, PA)and again, virtually no difference in regards to image noise.

With that said, here’s what’s buggin me so much about this. We all invested in HD equipment in order to improve our quality and provide sharp, clear, high definition products. Sometimes I feel that the SD cameras provide a better image (at least in regards to noise). I just feel like I/we invested in this high tech new camera and can’t use it to it’s full potential because I have to keep the iris wide open and in negative gain just to get a satisfactory image. It just doesn’t seem right.

Please don’t take this as me venting or complaining, I really don’t mean it to come accross that way, it just doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe it’s still the transition and in time these issues will work themselves out, or the larger chip cameras will come down in price.

Thank you and feel free to continue to leave any thoughts on this issue.

Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

John, I am serious about possibly selling them. 2 things first though – I need to have hands-on testing of whatever other camera I may buy first, and that could take some time. Second, I shot a commercial over the weekend and the camera was always at either -3 or -6db. So I’m real anxious to see that footage. If it is noticably better then I may be more inclined to keep the cameras. We’ll see.

I’ll definitely let you know, and feel free to check back with me later if you haven’t heard anything from me.

Thanks,
Eric

[Eric Pensenstadler]

I’ve actually noticed that too. I’ve been doing a lot of test burns and I have noticed that sometimes a lot of the noise is gone on BD, but not always.

Thanks for the feedback!