DVX100B new User for Church Choir

K

kibo

New member
Hi guys,

im very new to this forum. i just bought a DVX100B used one. i will use it for our choir cantata this weekend. i have no background of photography or any sort.

can anybody tell me some settings and tricks how to do this. like what to use 24p, 30p, 60i.

whats the important thing to do in the venue for settings?

appreciate any advice,

kibo
 
Welcome to DVXUser, kibo.

That's a pretty tall order for one week before a project. You have some reading to do. Get a copy of Barry Green's DVX Book and DVD if you can. There's too much in that camera to explain in a single post. You might, in the mean time, want to try and look at the vast treasure-trove of knowledge already posted here on the forums. A great starting place would be the yellow "stickies" at the top of THIS FORUM.

You need to spend the next few days practicing with your camera, playing with settings, and learning how to keep your image properly exposed. Learn how to use the white balance, learn how to use the focus ring (do not rely on autofocus at all), and get used to where the iris and shutter controls are (do not rely on auto exposure, either).

As for 24p vs. 30p vs. 60i... mostly, that's a personal choice regarding aesthetics. Do you want the "film" look (24p) or the "video" look (30p or 60i)? There are other considerations to make:

- How will you be editing this footage, or handling it once you're done shooting? If you think you want the 24p "film" look: Can your system remove pull-down to work with 24p? If you're looking for the "film" look but cannot edit 24p, then shoot in the regular 24p. If you can edit 24p, shoot in 24pA.

- Where is this video going after all is said and done? Is it for TV? DVD? Internet? If you're not sure you can (or want to) handle 24p, and you are going to be focusing more on DVD or Internet distribution, shoot 30p. The progressive stream (which, by the way, requires no special software to edit) will help you avoid interlacing artifacts on the 'Net. DVD playback can handle it, too, and it will give a smoother look.

Lots to learn, and not a lot of time. So really focus on the basics of managing picture and sound. As I said, learn to set exposure and white balance and use the manual focus. Read through the forums... you'll find tons of great information.
 
^ Good advice, there.

My only quibble is that I find there is no shame in using AF. Certainly, manually focusing is an important skill and it's necessary in many situations. However, when you find yourself a little overwhelmed with taming all of the other controls, relaxing a little by using AF may help you feel more in control and possibly nail shots you might have otherwise missed.
 
hi CV2 and Jordan,

thank you so much for taking time to giving me tips. all i wanted was a better quality than what we had years ago with the church's events. they use just a regular handycam for personal use and place it at the back of the church when the event is happening. i wasnt thinking about buying a handycam all the more a DVX100B. i just tried looking for rentals here in toronto found that most of them are renting DVX100's.

i asked one company if its easy to use and they told me it will take time and thats where i begun to read stuff about DVX100 and found its a great camera. instead of renting one, i just bought one to make sure i have time to practice a bit. days more than having the camera on the night of the event.

and now im here. maybe i will just make the most of it. i do sound for the band at church and this will be a nice addition but its really overwhelming.

so i will try to read as much as i can here in the forum.

just to give you an idea. i have an imac21.5 i3. i dont have any software for video aside from imovie which i dont know much. i have a mixer for audio interface(presonus studiolive 1642).
i have a friend at church that will be with me in editing. she has Vegas 6 (maybe not sure if it 6).
we will be capturing audio from the FOH going to my mixer per channel. i will mix it stereo afterwards and use that for the video.
i really dont know if imovie or vegas will work on 24P, 30P or 60i. i just like the picture to be presentable. our previous years of capturing video is the worse. because of low light the handycam struggles. videos were so grainy and its just a mess. hope it will be better this time. i just wish i had more time. sorry i had to trouble you guys.

we will be giving the congregation a DVD copy of it.

just to summarize my questions:

*What aspect ratio do i use for DVD purposes for this event?

*Imovie or VEgas. will i use 24P, 24PA, 30P or 60i

*tips for lowlight

*do i have to adjust all the settings at scene file? like the detail level,v detail level,detail coring, chroma level, chroma phase, color temp, master ped?

*shutter speed

*does it mean its 60i when progressive is OFF? i only see 30p, 24P,24P(ADV).

any advice is greatly appreciated.

im still going to read as much as i can.

thanks,

kibo
 
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kibo said:
we will be giving the congregation a DVD copy of it.
Click to expand...

Since you are going to DVD, you can use pretty much any frame rate you like. So it's back to the question of whether you want it to have film-like motion or video motion. That's an aesthetic choice that we cannot make for you.

kibo said:
*What aspect ratio do i use for DVD purposes for this event?

*Imovie or VEgas. will i use 24P, 24PA, 30P or 60i

*tips for lowlight
Click to expand...

Aspect ratio is also an aesthetic choice. Regular 4:3 is perfectly acceptable in many situations. 16:9 (Squeeze, or letterbox) is useful if you will be framing things with wider horizontal aspects, like landscapes. Since you are recording a choir, and will be fitting many people in the frame, 16:9 would probably be justifiable.

Letterbox mode shoots a 16:9 image in a 4:3 frame with black bars at the top and bottom. Squeeze shoots an anamorphic 16:9 image that is horizontally compressed into a 4:3 frame, and must be "stretched" out in post to get the true 16:9 frame. If you're going for 16:9, Squeeze is better but you need to check your editing software to make sure it can handle anamorphic material. Vegas should be able to. I don't use iMovie, so I don't know if it can. Also, never shoot Squeeze with 60i, as it will look terrible. (By the way, if you're shooting Squeeze, you can set the DVX100B's LCD monitor to display it in 16:9.)

As for 60i vs. 30p vs 24p... Vegas should be able to handle 24pA material, which requires removing some frames upon capture to get the 24p stream. iMovie, I believe, cannot remove the pull-down.

No matter what you use, everything the DVX records is recorded at 29.97fps and can be edited with simpler programs like iMovie. For 24p in iMovie, use the non-advanced 24p mode. Just be aware that editing 24p material at 29.97 is going to leave you some interlaced frames.

However, you mentioned low-light situations. I'd suggest going with 30p, as you'll lose some light by shooting in a 24p mode. You'll also need to keep the iris wide open, and you may need to boost the gain a little. Be careful with gain boost, though. +3dB and +6dB are okay, but once you hit +9dB and +12dB you'll get grain in your image. Try everything else before you try boosting the gain more than +3dB.

You can drop your shutter to 1/30 using the Slow Shutter mode, just be advised that it can make motion a little blurry. When you pan, keep the speed down as if you were shooting film... it should take no less than 7-8 seconds for an object to cross completely from one side of the frame to the other.

kibo said:
*do i have to adjust all the settings at scene file? like the detail level,v detail level,detail coring, chroma level, chroma phase, color temp, master ped?

*does it mean its 60i when progressive is OFF? i only see 30p, 24P,24P(ADV).
Click to expand...

Read up on Scene File settings. I wouldn't go with anything too crazy... pretty standard, pretty basic.

And yes, Progressive OFF means 60i.
 
hi CV2,

thanks a lot! i have a hard time sleeping... im really scared but at the same time i really like to learn. after reading your reply, makes me a little bit relieved.

i will try to play the controls today till the event.

is there a good factory setting to start with? like for the scene settings? if DVX100B could get a shot like this it will be nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ip-N0H1Ig

i really dont know if its possible.

thanks,

mike
 
hi,

im trying to transfer files now and i cant figure out how it works. i have the firewire cable already installed. havent tried this one. how can i transfer my test shots to my imac?

thanks alot,

mike
 
hi guys,

i managed to import my video to my imac. the firewire worked. i just noticed that when i play my video i see that there are parts of the picture that look like shining like digital distortion. i dont know if its the tape. i doubt. i dont know if its the interlacing frames. specially on the outdoor takes with most of the parts that is exposed with the sun. and even indoor. like the shiny parts and small detail. it is in the imported files and in the played video by the DVX.

hope somebody could shed light.

thanks,

kibo
 
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kibo said:
hope somebody could shed light.
Click to expand...

This will be difficult since we cannot see what you're seeing. Try taking a screen shot of the footage (CMD+SHIFT+3) and posting it here so we can see.

In the mean time, are you capturing with iMovie or something else?
 
hi CV2,

yes im capturing the video thru my imac. it the file is played thru quick time. there is just a window that pops up when i insert the firewire.

i will place a picture after work. thanks a lot.

kibo
 
kibo said:
yes im capturing the video thru my imac. it the file is played thru quick time. there is just a window that pops up when i insert the firewire.

i will place a picture after work. thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

If you're going to edit with iMovie, capture with iMovie. QuickTime is a terrible standalone player for video and won't show you an accurate representation of your video, so there's a chance that what you're seeing is really an artifact of QT Player.

But seeing the screen cap will still help.
 
hi CV2,


heres the link for imovie straight to youtube. i dont know what format. maybe mv4 or sumting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hISBvz7P5-k

then this is the file directly from the dv transfered to my imac. the file has .dv on the file.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W2JAGILNgA

i just tried to tweak things and i guess it might be the V detail freq. not sure. there are settings like thin, mid and thick. i dont understand it. the manual says if i monitor on a 60i then i will see horizontal flicker. so what should i use for the choir thing this weekend? thanks for your help.


thanks,

kibo
 
Last edited:
Hi guys,

this is what i end up taking yesterday. still learning how to use imovie and how to shoot. appreciate tips on how to do it. sorry for the only transition i know with imovie is this.

my first shot with dvx100B. i was so nervous! still am.. i have to shoot this saturday for the next sched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u01vBS4dRE

thanks,

kibo
 
I only watched about half since dinner is almost ready in the other room, but I would say generally it looks good. Are you happy with it?

I like your composition, it's nice and steady, and the light was captured really well. I would say only to maybe hold the shots a little longer before transitioning to the next (try to keep a consistent pace from one shot length to the next), and it looked like the audio might have been slightly out of sync early in.

For having only used it for a short while, nice job :)
 
@tigerFx,

thanks so much. im happy with it in a sense that it is better than what we have years back. but it still a scary task coz we will have to make a DVD copy for the congregation compiling all the days of shooting. i dont have much techniques and principles to base my shots. i just go with what i see might be right for the moment. i may have to write down when and what to shoot this saturday just so i will have many materials to work on. thanks you for sharing your advice. appreciate more.

thanks,

kibo
 
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