[Vladimir Lozinski]

P.S. Stefan’s answer cracked it. Brilliant. Thanks for that.

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Hi.
Sorry for not tracking my own posting. I have been in Bangladesh shooting for the past 3/4 weeks.
The problem seems to have been a software glitch.
I finally reloaded the firmware and all came back to normal. 50/100/ etc frame shutter rates popped up as per normal. I have been trying to recreate the fault but unsuccessful. I think it was when I pushed some of the latitude parameters that it went strange on me.

The only advice I can give from the experience is to reload the firmware and hope.

Regards.
VL

[Vladimir Lozinski]

HI.Thanks for the response.
Yes. I’m in manual. The manual aperture control works fine. But I only have 30,45, 60, 90,125, etc. as my shutter choices. Cannot for the life of me find multiples of 25 that we PAL people like.

Cheers.

V.L.

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Thanks for the humane response.
I understand shooting formats and have no problem with the shooting frame rates.
I have worked in PAL, NTSC and now HD for the US networks in Europe and Middle East and Asia for the past 30 years as a vid-kid and beyond, but am new to DSLRs

My specific question is the shutter speed. For some reason I cannot dial up a shutter of 25, 50, etc. I only have the 30, 60, etc. options.
The camera came from the US where multiple of 30 shutter speeds are not an issue. I just feel more comfortable operating in 25 FPS with a 50, 100 frame shutter rather than 30 or 60.

Cheers.
V.L.

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Thanks for the sympathetic note but the menu is not the issue.
Outside America people like to shoot in 25 PAL ( Pictures At Last) and shutter speeds as a multiple of that are preferable. It usually helps with lighting flicker which runs at 50hz etc. I cannot find any reference in the manual to adjusting shutter speeds to 25, 50, 100 etc.

Thanks.
V.L.

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Interesting chat. Responsible organizations have their procedures for bids which they are legally obliged to follow. Yes, they can be byzantine ( not so sure about roccoco) but your council probably only have one method of taking bids. Filmmaking is a really tough fit into a template generally used in bids for dams, road repairs, street lighting and car parks.
I do not deal with a double headed hydra such as 2 local councils but I do a lot of work with international organizations. If you finally go ahead with this bid, here are some more issues you may have to grapple with.
The toughest part for me is getting the edit approved. I produce, shoot and edit to a budget, but when more than a small number of people are involved in the final approval it can become messy. Too many people want that little shot fixed or maybe that voice over changed. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said. “It is only a small change”. I generally ask for a single person to be the collector of all “fix it “ideas and there is a limited number of reedits before it gets to a fresh day rate. Extra cost tends to focus the client. As the persons involved are generally on separate continents, I generally post the “semi final” edit on a web address. They can download and view it on their computer at their convenience, submit ideas to the collector, who is the only person I talk with. It saves a lot of hassle.
They probably mean well but know nothing about video production…. which is why they are hiring you, but can be dangerous.
Best of luck.
V.L.

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Many of the advice… and opinions… here are relevant in the US where you can buy and have your Sony equipment serviced.
I bought an early EX1 from the US when living in Central Asia, where there are no Sony agents. I have since moved to Paris and asked the Sony agents to do the upgrade / fix…. sorry .. “feature”. They refused to touch the camera as it had not been bought though their network. They suggested that I fly back to the US where I bought my camera. Gotta love the service.
Thanks to this forum for all the information. Those of us who do not have a service centre or reliable agent around the corner rely on information here for video survival.
V.L.

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[Vladimir Lozinski]

It is best to convert all footage to NTSC and then edit… if your finished product is to be in NTSC.
Converter does a good job of conversions.
I know you don’t want to buy any extra bits and pieces but I took the small plunge and bought the Nattress converter plug in for FCP and it rocks. It was only about $100… which is worth less each day.
Cheers
Vladimir Lozinski

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Great.
Thanks for that.
My tricky question is ..
I want to scale the image from 16:9 to 4:3 and FTP as mpg2.
I can do a number of lengthy workarounds which involve a lot of encoding to DV, resizing and aspect ratio changes.
I am curious to know if there is an efficient and quality retentive way of compressing the clip into 4:3.

Also. Good news about the upcoming clip browser software. A lot of people hanging out for that.

Cheers
Vladimir.

[Vladimir Lozinski]

Great suggestions. I will try a few out myself.
Also.
In snow and glare I would recommend a polarizing filter. It deals with the problem before it get into the camera.

V.L.