DVC30 And Low Light - Question For All And Stephen Inoe

O

OBM

Member
Hello All!!! Hello Stephen!!!,


I checked your footage http://www.carloscannon.com/highlight.wmv and I can say you did and do great job with you dvc30. I wonder how did your setup your dvc30 to get such a good quality footage, at low light situation.

I purchased dvc30 three months ago and did not spend too much time going through all those features. I am not pro videographer, actually this is my first camera at all. I’ve spent some time searching and reading this forum and, regarding to my budget, I decided to go with this little fellow.

I do run website dedicated to the news about new musical instruments on the market and I visit Musical Instrument Trade Shows. You can check my videos right here. All of them I did with my dvc30. http://www.onebluemonkey.com/WinterNAMM2006.asp Sometimes, for the second angle I use my handycam Sony. These shows are not a big problem to shoot. Usually, the light is ok. However, I started shooting musicians playing live, in different clubs. Videos are coming, probably this week. And there is an issue. LIGHT!!!

There was one person, shoulder to shoulder, shooting the same stage with Sony vx 2100, and from what I saw on Sony’s LCD, was a great picture, which I could not get with my dvc30. Therefore, I had to use on-camera light (see my set-up below). Everything would be ok, but from the musician faces I could realize that this on camera light is distracting them from what they were doing. Also, I had wide lens and got shadow from Rode shotgun in the right lower corner. No experience at all. Lesson is learned. Well, I always learn something. There was nothing I could do, so I had to go forward.

One thing to add more. As a new to video industry I stared to shoot in auto mode. What a mistake. I’ve learned not to do it anymore ever. From now on, I am manual guy.

I need your help and advice. How to setup and what to do in low light situation and not to distract musicians from what they do?

Many thanks!!!

Vladimir

My setup:
  • Panasonic AG-DVC30 1/4-Inch 3-CCD Camcorder
  • Panasonic AG-LW4307 Wide-Angle Converter Lens
  • Panasonic AG-MYA30G - XLR Microphone Adapter
  • Rode NTG-2 Battery or Phantom Powered Condenser Shotgun Microphone
  • Sanken COS-11 Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone with 3-pin XLR Connection
  • Sennheiser Evolution G2 100 Series - Camera Mountable UHF Lavalier Wireless System
  • Bescor KLK-624 20/40w 6v DC On-Camera Light Kit
  • Varizoom VZ-ROCK-DVX Zoom Control
  • Bogen / Manfrotto 3021N Tripod Legs (Chrome) with 3433 (501) Pro Video Fluid Head
 
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Well, I own a DVC30. I can't honestly tell you what to do unless I was there, you have to play around with your settings. I can't tell you what he did. His footage is really nice.

I was rummaging through yours ... and I didn't see any lowlight stuff. If you could message me back with some specific questions, i'd be glad to answer.
 
Man, you dug up some 2 or 3 year old stuff from the web amigo. The simple way to get great low light performance is to put the camera in manual mode and then put the camera in "Movielike" mode. Make sure you're in Frame mode and then change the shutter speed to 30. Now treat the camera as if it were a film camera and obey the panning laws. You should be able to match the VX2100 without going into gain at all and also gain the advantage of more flexible color shaping via the menus.

You got yourself a very nice camera setup. I've alway recommended mapping the iris to the focus ring through the menu. When you're in manual focus you'll have the ring for focus duties but when you're not in manual focus you can use the ring to quickly adjust exposure on your shots.

Here is another example of DVC30 work. I used it for a documentary last year on the City of Gary, Indiana. I went into alot of shelled out buildings looking for "facts" and this was a lead in sequence (minus the VO) to that section of the show.

Click here for WMV shot on DVC30

Have fun with your camera
 
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Thanks guys for fast reply,

Stephen thanks for sharing your secrets with us. I just tested what you said, and can tell you from what I saw on LCD, you are correct. The image is much brighter. I knew I should ask you that before.

But now, as I mentioned earlier, I am not pro and this is my first camera and have not clue what does it mean to treat camera as if it were a film camera and to obey panning laws. Is there any book or anything I can read to understand basic stuff. Anything on your mind?

Here is the video I made last week in one NYC bar.

http://www.onebluemonkey.com/warper1.asp?id=460#

This is my first video in lowlight situation. I went with wide-lens and, on camera light and rode microphone. The issue I had, besides the lowlight, was the shadow on the right lower corner caused by on camera light and microphone. Any idea how I can overcame this issue. Is it better to shoot with regular lens or wide lens in lowlight situations, or makes no difference?

Thanks all. This forum is great and I’ve learned a lot. At least, I’ve learned how to spend great amount of money on all these toys.

Best.

Vladimir
 
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