Extended recording times in B&W mode?

Barra

Barra

Carbonite Member
Wondering if there'll be greatly extended P2 card recording times in DVCproHD if recording in Black and White mode?
You know the way it is with shooting in B&W on digital stills cameras to an SD card, wont the same apply to HD shot in Black and White - if that's a native record mode option? There should be much longer recording times in B&W 1080 24p....
That would be great as I'll probably shoot some B&W movies on this lovely HVX machine....:happy:
 
Does the HVX even shoot B&W?

The DVX doesn't, so I wouldn't be surprised if the HVX also didn't.
 
SkiUtah said:
Does the HVX even shoot B&W?

The DVX doesn't, so I wouldn't be surprised if the HVX also didn't.
Click to expand...

Well I hope it will shoot B&W, I imagine it wouldn' t make such a difference in space saving when recording with DVX to tape format because of the structure, but it should make a big space saving difference going onto SD media format.... without all the colour information - well I hope its designed to exploit this potential, even though the colour is so sweet from what I've seen of the great footage posted by Jarred and Barry - I'm sure there's many who will want to make Black and Whites.... The Last Picture Show aaahhhh
 
Perhaps shooting in Black and White will be a future development! Am I ahead of the times or way behind! My flux capacitor wont work! I can't shoot black and white in the new HD solid state world! I want my HVX to run on B&W like the DeLorean ran on garbage - what's up Doc? AAAAAAaaaahhhhHHH!
But seriously, surely it's possible and to extend recording times on P2 for the many who love sexy B&W.......
 
Well I think it does shoot in B/W. Unfortunately, there are these little colored filters in front of the CCD's that can't be moved out of the way.

johnc
 
B&W is harsh and expensive mistress. Not least because you need to light it well or the finished product looks like crap no matter how much cure you try to apply in post.
 
Hey guys,
I don't really understand what the problem would be for this! Surely if the HVX is capable of so many different quality recording modes even though captures the best from sensor - its the same software mode change that could make it discard colour information and only send grayscale to the P2 or via firewire.
Just like its so quick and easy in Photoshop to change the mode of a colour digital photo to grayscale - its not time consuming like a filter, it just discards instantly the colour through a software program mode change.
There shouldn't be any issue around whether it captures colour through a prism or whatever - if a simple software mode change were applied as with the software mode changes are applied to change the other quality record levels.
Am I wrong? Is to late to ask for a software update that will allow for this?
 
The problem is the codec isn't designed to handle 8 bit color. It's used to compressed 24bit. So the DV CAM HD codec would need to be rewritten for that allowance. It would be great if it recorded in 24p as well, but it makes sense they're trying to standardize the recording format to a large degree. Truth is your computer is very very good at doing general "discard chroma" sorts of tasks. All the poor little HVX has is a DSP that essentially can only do one thing, but it does it very very quickly.
 
Just do the B&W effect in post. (Proc-amp -> 'Saturation' to 0%)

For field monitoring on your shoot, just pull the "Y" channel from the component output to the composite input on any monitor and you'll get B&W - or use a Y/C breakout cable from the S-video connector and do the same with the Y channel.

- Mikko
 
Barra said:
Hey guys,
I don't really understand what the problem would be for this! Surely if the HVX is capable of so many different quality recording modes even though captures the best from sensor - its the same software mode change that could make it discard colour information and only send grayscale to the P2 or via firewire.
Just like its so quick and easy in Photoshop to change the mode of a colour digital photo to grayscale - its not time consuming like a filter, it just discards instantly the colour through a software program mode change.
There shouldn't be any issue around whether it captures colour through a prism or whatever - if a simple software mode change were applied as with the software mode changes are applied to change the other quality record levels.
Am I wrong? Is to late to ask for a software update that will allow for this?
Click to expand...

Barra, the codecs the HVX records to all designed for dealing with colour data. Colour data, ie: pixel data is inherently black and white by the nature of the way a computer works. RGB colour is a combination of 3 values, the values (in the case of 8-Bit) being 0-255. Technically you are recording black and white by default, but the data is being interpreted as a colour (either Red/Blue/Green) for each channel. The final image is a blend of those 3 channels.

But having said that, the codecs are not RGB (as far as I know), and based off instead, luma and chroma sampling, with your chroma being your colour information, and the luma being your brightness(grayscale data). So you are always recording in B&W, because it is essentially just a brightness range. The Data is there, you just have to eliminate the colour components (ie: desaturate the image).

It would require a completly new format for just B&W recording, which would make things a hassle and counter act a major selling point of the cam.

ok.. I gotta stop rambling... but it isn't as easy panasonic just "updating" the camera.. a new recoring format is needed. In reality though, you always record in B&W.. it is afterall.. all an interpretation of real light..
 
Grame Natress provides a free filter called "G-Take" it allows you to show just the luma channel, essentially uncompressed BW footage. I think it looks great.
 
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