[Michael Mcintyre]

Usually, you can tap into the audio board’s sub-outs for a nice mix… NOT one of the monitor feeds. The monitors could be mixed and output for all types of different set-ups (the singer wants to hear the guitar, the bass player wants to hear more drums, the keyboardist wants to hear the vocals, etc.).

Depending on the band (and their gear), many times the audio guy will be recording to DAT for archiving. If the board doesn’t have enough outputs for your extra 2 channels, you can either use a Y-splitter XLR or take the stereo mix output from the DAT since it won’t be feeding anything.

Buy the tech a beer and show him that you have cables-in-hand before the questioning begins. At least that’s worked for me in the past. Also – nothing could annoy them faster than asking about a mic vs. line-level problem or complaining that their levels are ‘too hot’.

[Michael Mcintyre]

Eegads, David….

Fingers are crossed for you. And, well, all of us really. Haven’t upgraded yet and not sure if anyone else is having similar issues but, like you said, hopefully it’s hardware and not software-related.

Best of luck…. keep us posted…..

Michael

[Michael Mcintyre]

The issue w/ the light through the window has to do w/ a difference in color temperature between your indoor lights and the color of the sun.

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

When shooting w/ tungsten lights AND having some natural light in the frame, you have to use color gels (CTB) to place on the lights. OR you have to put gels on the window to correct the sunlight. OR you have to block out the windows entirely using shades or a black fabric.

Just a fact of life – the sun burns at a different kelvin temperature than powered lighting. That’s why there are two different presets when you’re on present: 3.2k & 5.6k. There’s also the A7 B positions which save your manual white balance(s).

[Michael Mcintyre]

Detail Level: +7
V Detail Level: +7
Detail Coring: +7
Chroma Level: -7
Chroma Phase: -7
Color Temp: -2
Master Ped: -10
A.Iris Level: +2
Gamma: Cine-Like
Knee: (Auto)
Matrix: Norm
Skin Tone Dtl: Off
V Detail Freq: Thin
Progressive: 24P(ADV)

[Michael Mcintyre]

I can’t vouch for these but ran across them elsewhere. The poster had claimed they were Barry’s “sometimes-used” settings. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t know that Barry has ever posted his settings {other than those used in specific camera tests & shootouts}.

It’s a fairly straight-forward batch but you did mention that those last settings were a bit dark to your eye. Here, the pedestal is down at -8 which technically would be darker. Note, however, that the Gamma is CINE_D, so that might punch it up a little bit. The blacks will still be down there but (combined with CINE_D) it should make for a strong contrast mix.

Master Ped: -8
Matric: CINE
Detail LVL: -2
Detail Coring: 2
V Detail LVL: -1
V Detail FREQ: THIN
Gamma: CINE_D
Knee: LOW
Chroma LVL: 2
Chromas PHASE: 0
Color TEMP: 0 or -1
Skin Tone DTL: OFF
Progressive: 24pA

[Michael Mcintyre]

Nice. It’s an honor. I look forward to the autographed, advance copy of the DVD. Beyond that, the 60i / 24p is a matter of both personal and project preference. For me, 24p is why I became interested in the DVX in the first place. I have had {and still have} a camera that shoots ‘straight’ video (60i).

The “film-look” interested me and I wasted enough time rendering software workarounds that I decided to invest in a Panasonic and learn more about this 24p mojo.

If you’ve read from other wedding videographers that don’t like 24p, then that’s just not their thing. Personally, I would think a wedding could benefit from some pretty progressive footage. The problem that I could see with shooting weddings would be low-light concerns. That holds true for any video camera but could be an issue. Maybe drop the shutter speed a little? You may be doing a little more work (adjusting audio and focus as you should) than with other prosumers but I think the ‘look’ would be worth it.

That and $5 will get you a Starbuck’s.

[Michael Mcintyre]

Sure thing. I’m happy to help out. Hopefully we didn’t get off on the wrong foot. I know you’ll be much more comfortable getting past that initial ‘settings overload’.

The thing that I’ve found with settings comparisons / camera tests is that after staring at the same set-up over and over, it’s easy to lose reference of what the settings are doing. I know you need to see the same shot to have as a comparison but it can all start looking the same after a while. If possible, hook the camera up to a monitor and see how the settings are happening in real-time. Also – don’t worry at all about messing up the camera, you can always reset it to its default factory settings.

A good way to get confident w/ manual iris is to turn on the zebra and move the iris to where you think it should be. Then, hit the ‘auto’ button and see what the camera thinks. This function is still a part of my ‘other’ camera – a Sony BetaSP tank that you’ve seen news crews lugging around.

Here’s another example. These were listed elsewhere by someone who claimed they were network-suggested settings for shooters using DVX’s for some “Flip that House’ pick-up shots.

PED -5
MATRIX CiINELIKE
DETAIL -4
CORING 0
V DETAIL 0
V DETAIL THICK
GAMMA CINELIKE
KNEE AUTO
CHROMA 0
C PHASE 0
TEMP 0
SKIN DTL ON
A. IRIS -3
24p

This may sound like gibberish at the moment but this shows that they want it THICK because it’s for TV and they don’t want jagged lines. They do not want any tampering with the color. Pedestal’s pretty ‘normal’ at -5. They don’t trust the auto-iris much : it’s at -3. The DETAIL’s a bit low at -4 (might get a little soft). They’ve decided to go w/ CINELIKE GAMMA and they trust the AUTO KNEE protection. There’s nothing very special about these settings. They’re playing it conservative probably so that they can have a standardized look from anyone in-field.

[Michael Mcintyre]

By “all the settings”, I assume you mean the scene file settings. I also assume you are shooting in 24p. Maybe not. Most people lean that way since it’s one of the primary advantages of the camera.

1st off – forget ‘auto’ mode. What you probably want to do is customize a scene file and keep tweaking it as you get more comfortable, saving your changes along the way so that it’s there each time you power up the camera. I never shoot under fluorescents, so I blew that preset out (FLUO) and customize there. I believe scene F5 is the deault 24p setting. Just leave it alone.

I don’t know how comfortable you are w/ navigating the menus, so this is a bit awkward. I’ve seen this listed as a “good starting point” (mine are different as I’ve experimented):

Master Ped: -8
Matric: CINE
Detail LVL: -2
Detail Coring: 2
V Detail LVL: -1
V Detail FREQ: THIN
Gamma: CINE_D
Knee: LOW
Chroma LVL: 2
Chromas PHASE: 0
Color TEMP: 0 or -1
Skin Tone DTL: OFF

Again – forget “Auto”-anything. Use the zebra’s to help set your exposure.

Now that you’ve dialed in some digits and can look at test footage, you can focus (w/ Barry’s book if you need it) on each single parameter rather than being overwhelemd by a laundry list.

i.e But I don’t like my blacks crushed that much…. Then, play with the pedestal. I wanna warm or cool it… Then , mess w/ Color TEMP. I don’t like where the highlights are rolling off…. Then , check out the breakdown on Knee.

It might be easier to isolate each setting as you get more comfortable and visualizing what it is you want your video to look like.

[Michael Mcintyre]

Okay, okay… all kidding aside. What specifics are stumbling you up?

You’ve seen Beery Green’s stuff and Noah’s DVD, is there a specific area that you’re having trouble with?

[Michael Mcintyre]

Well, with statements like “I HATE to read” and “I am way ahead of you”, I can understand Mr. LaRonde’s brief statements with provided links regardless of whether you see it as a “kind response” or not.

I’ve seen where Dave’s been extremely helpful and informative in identifying people’s issues and helping with certain questions.

If you’ve spent the money on a DVX series camera, then it might be wise to invest some time with it as well. By your own admission, this has been an ongoing search for “8 months already”. Once you’ve identified a specific camera operation issue or question, it’s much easier to address than delivering a spoon-fed visual manifesto on the inner workings of a camera you may already have in your possession.

Since you feel the market is lacking in education materials that meet your needs, we await the release of your groundbreaking and sure-to-be award-winning DVD tutorial, “DVX & Vegas for Dummies that hate Macs and Reading”.