alpi69
Veteran
i unexpectedly got the chance to finally test a DVX100A before i buy it. i am sure there are many PAL users who eagerly wait for a test like that.
i rental house called me when i was at a trip in vienna and he gave me 20 minutes to test the cam as i had requested. he got the cam in early and closed 20 minutes after that. so my timeframe was very limited.
we rushed to a hill above Schloss Schönbrunn. it is perfect for this test as you can see. it has lots of vertical detail.
i took the cam as i got it. turned it to f5 and shot away. shutterspeed was set at 1/60. i could niot find a way to set it to 1/50 lol, no idea how to work the menu yet.
also could not (and did not want to) change to thick. i simply wanted to see what the cam gives.
i tested several "movements" like following a person in the foreground, shoot out of driving car, shaking a branch on a tree and the cam behaved great. the settings were really toned down, foggy even to my eyes, but other than the colours the pics look good on PC and on TV (not how i shot it, but the technical picture ).
so finally i made the big panning-test. and yes, when you pan too fast and have an empty foreground there is considerable strobing. this even seems worse on the PC monitor.
anyway: a slow pan in the accurate time looks great, but if you do a 120 degree pan in 10 seconds on that castle then it looks as terrible as it should. to me it looks a bit worse than shot with 16mm (they also run at 25fps over here BTW; at least the SR2 that we use). if you are all zoomed out (open) then it is fine in the same time, but with the lens half way zoomed you need a lot more time.
so you need to follow the rules that are given to you by the slow framerate. also slowmotions look awful when the shot is not planned for it. a strobing pan is not watchable in slomo, while a walking person in the foreground of the same shot is ok. still, it is not a good slomo. nothing beats higher framerates.....
all in all i saw exactly what i expected.
- the lens is much better than i hoped; DOF can be controlled better than any other small miniDV; it actually is a challenge to stay in focus when following a car; something a PD-150 on a bright day does easily.
- whenever you have a pan over a background with vertical detail you have to bring a monitor to check how it will look and how fast you can pan.
- i am sure it is possible to set the details and especially the shutter to a rate that allows better control of this effect
- yes, i am gonna buy this tool. but i hope it was the last time i used it without tripod when shooting landscape.
http://www.roadgap.tv/outsider/dvx0001.jpg
i rental house called me when i was at a trip in vienna and he gave me 20 minutes to test the cam as i had requested. he got the cam in early and closed 20 minutes after that. so my timeframe was very limited.
we rushed to a hill above Schloss Schönbrunn. it is perfect for this test as you can see. it has lots of vertical detail.
i took the cam as i got it. turned it to f5 and shot away. shutterspeed was set at 1/60. i could niot find a way to set it to 1/50 lol, no idea how to work the menu yet.
also could not (and did not want to) change to thick. i simply wanted to see what the cam gives.
i tested several "movements" like following a person in the foreground, shoot out of driving car, shaking a branch on a tree and the cam behaved great. the settings were really toned down, foggy even to my eyes, but other than the colours the pics look good on PC and on TV (not how i shot it, but the technical picture ).
so finally i made the big panning-test. and yes, when you pan too fast and have an empty foreground there is considerable strobing. this even seems worse on the PC monitor.
anyway: a slow pan in the accurate time looks great, but if you do a 120 degree pan in 10 seconds on that castle then it looks as terrible as it should. to me it looks a bit worse than shot with 16mm (they also run at 25fps over here BTW; at least the SR2 that we use). if you are all zoomed out (open) then it is fine in the same time, but with the lens half way zoomed you need a lot more time.
so you need to follow the rules that are given to you by the slow framerate. also slowmotions look awful when the shot is not planned for it. a strobing pan is not watchable in slomo, while a walking person in the foreground of the same shot is ok. still, it is not a good slomo. nothing beats higher framerates.....
all in all i saw exactly what i expected.
- the lens is much better than i hoped; DOF can be controlled better than any other small miniDV; it actually is a challenge to stay in focus when following a car; something a PD-150 on a bright day does easily.
- whenever you have a pan over a background with vertical detail you have to bring a monitor to check how it will look and how fast you can pan.
- i am sure it is possible to set the details and especially the shutter to a rate that allows better control of this effect
- yes, i am gonna buy this tool. but i hope it was the last time i used it without tripod when shooting landscape.
http://www.roadgap.tv/outsider/dvx0001.jpg
wow, what a gorgeous image. Gotta love this camera, eh? And good god I have got to visit Schloss Schönbrunn someday!
