Canon HV30 Exposure Hack

A

Andrew McCarrick

Carbonite Member
I remember reading here about placing an SD card in the HV30 and being able to get a better f-stop out of the camera. What were the settings to accomplish this?

Also, when I use the HV30 I notice the image is extremely grainy on the LCD... is that normal, or is this just because of the lack of lighting?
 
I seem to remember some hacks for the HV xx series mentioned over at hv20.com. You might do a search on their forums. Re: LCD. The HV's I've used do pretty well on the view finders. Did you check the footage in your Editor?
 
I was just going straight into my Samsung 46 inch via HDMI out on my HV30 today. The LCD definitely has more grain than my TV did, but I haven't rendered to a final format and played back on my TV via some other form of media yet.
 
It's not to get a better aperture, it's so that you can see what your aperture and shutter speed is and guess what the gain is. Once you put a Micro-SD card in the camera, half depressing the photo button brings up the shutter speed and f stop. If you lock the exposure and ramp it up and down until the numbers stop changing, you've found the point at which the gain starts to kick in. In order to minimise noise and maximise exposure, lock the exposure and find the setting which is the brightest one for which the numbers stop changing. If you go any brighter, the camera adds gain and the image starts looking pretty noisy pretty quickly.
 
AndrewGentle said:
It's not to get a better aperture, it's so that you can see what your aperture and shutter speed is and guess what the gain is. Once you put a Micro-SD card in the camera, half depressing the photo button brings up the shutter speed and f stop. If you lock the exposure and ramp it up and down until the numbers stop changing, you've found the point at which the gain starts to kick in. In order to minimise noise and maximise exposure, lock the exposure and find the setting which is the brightest one for which the numbers stop changing. If you go any brighter, the camera adds gain and the image starts looking pretty noisy pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

MicroSD I thought it was MiniSD? Just checking because I just ordered a MiniSD card from B&H.

Anyway, I thought I read something about improving the widest f-strop from 1.8 to 1.3 or something. Guess not.
 
In spotlight mode you defeat the gain. There are also a few other tricks you can do with exposure.
 
Alright, I finally got my SD card. When I try to get this to work my results are this:

Exp. | f-stop
-2 | 5.6
-1 | 5.2
0 | 4.8
1 | 4.4
2 | 4.0
3 | 3.7
4 | 3.4
5 | 3.2
6 | 2.8
7 | 2.6
8 | 2.4
9 | 2.2
10 | 2.0
11 | 1.8

Any idea why this is starting at -2? When I move down below -2 the image does get darker; how? ND filters?

I'm in Shutter-Prio.AE Mode with a shutter speed of 1/48th.
 
Andrew McCarrick said:
MicroSD I thought it was MiniSD? Just checking because I just ordered a MiniSD card from B&H.
Click to expand...

Oops, sorry, you're right, it is MiniSD. My mistake.

DrDave said:
In spotlight mode you defeat the gain. There are also a few other tricks you can do with exposure.
Click to expand...

How so? I'm unfamiliar with that technique

Andrew McCarrick said:
Any idea why this is starting at -2? When I move down below -2 the image does get darker; how? ND filters?

I'm in Shutter-Prio.AE Mode with a shutter speed of 1/48th.
Click to expand...

So -3 also reports f/5.6? That's correct, the Canon HV20/30/40 series does have an internal ND wheel. Annoyingly, the next time you lock your exposure you'll get different settings matching up to the numbers which you've recorded here. That's because when you lock, the 0 reading is set to the metered exposure the camera is using at the time. To account for this, a product called the Lytecap was being sold which had an LED in a lightproof cap so that you'd know what the settings would be every time. Personally I don't mind just pointing it at something bright and taking a few seconds to find the f/1.8 0 dB point.
 
AndrewGentle said:
So -3 also reports f/5.6? That's correct, the Canon HV20/30/40 series does have an internal ND wheel. Annoyingly, the next time you lock your exposure you'll get different settings matching up to the numbers which you've recorded here. That's because when you lock, the 0 reading is set to the metered exposure the camera is using at the time. To account for this, a product called the Lytecap was being sold which had an LED in a lightproof cap so that you'd know what the settings would be every time. Personally I don't mind just pointing it at something bright and taking a few seconds to find the f/1.8 0 dB point.
Click to expand...

I have a white background on my phone with the screen brightness turned all the way up.
 
Hi

There is a description here on DVXuser how to set exposure. See Forum > Other Cameras > Canon Cameras > HV20. There you'll find a sticky with the description.


Regards,

/Bo
 
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