FD Lens, Histogram, LCD Honesty...Blownout footage

i'm wondering what the camera does to expose stills vs. video though, and why there would be such a drastic difference.
 
Actually...could you put your card data up on the web for us?

I assume that since it looks fine on the LCD (in playback?) there is maybe something up with your computer.
 
Yep, making any of your "overexposed" original MTS file downloadable would get your question answered much quicker at this point.

Randy
 
skinny! said:
how do i do that?
Click to expand...

The MTS files are buried on the SD card, and so you'd have to open up the card and drill down a couple of levels worth of folders to get to them. Then take the MTS file
and put it up on either a file sharing site, or the like, for everyone to read it.

Howver, I noted in your first post, you made reference to the histogram being 'yellow or white'... I believe it should be 'white' when the camera thinks the exposure is correct, for the metering setup that has been selected.

In addition, I've noticed that when I shoot 'stills', rather rare, but I've done it occasionally, and say I'm in Aperture priority mode, the shutter speed, is something like, 100 or 250, or whatever, but in 'movie' mode the shutter has been 1/50th, and so, if the basic exposure in Aperture priority was f/8 at 1/250, then at 1/50th the Aperture should have been something like f/16... or so...

I tend to shoot around f/8, but absent ND filters, I'll go up in f-stop when shooting in movie mode...

There is another issue, that is the monitor/computer you are displaying on, and the software associated with it.

In the case of Windows it does have a higher gamma than Apples, and tends to make things contrastier. Perhaps the still display software does a better job than the Windows media player...

If you have software that does show you the histogram, or better, waveform 'scope' you can tell if you've blow the actual data on the clip, or it is just your display software.

You mentioned using Vegas, does Vegas have such analysis/monitoring capability?

I use CS4 OnLocation which does give some scope capabilities.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
The MTS files are buried on the SD card, and so you'd have to open up the card and drill down a couple of levels worth of folders to get to them. Then take the MTS file
and put it up on either a file sharing site, or the like, for everyone to read it.

Howver, I noted in your first post, you made reference to the histogram being 'yellow or white'... I believe it should be 'white' when the camera thinks the exposure is correct, for the metering setup that has been selected.

In addition, I've noticed that when I shoot 'stills', rather rare, but I've done it occasionally, and say I'm in Aperture priority mode, the shutter speed, is something like, 100 or 250, or whatever, but in 'movie' mode the shutter has been 1/50th, and so, if the basic exposure in Aperture priority was f/8 at 1/250, then at 1/50th the Aperture should have been something like f/16... or so...

I tend to shoot around f/8, but absent ND filters, I'll go up in f-stop when shooting in movie mode...

There is another issue, that is the monitor/computer you are displaying on, and the software associated with it.

In the case of Windows it does have a higher gamma than Apples, and tends to make things contrastier. Perhaps the still display software does a better job than the Windows media player...

If you have software that does show you the histogram, or better, waveform 'scope' you can tell if you've blow the actual data on the clip, or it is just your display software.

You mentioned using Vegas, does Vegas have such analysis/monitoring capability?

I use CS4 OnLocation which does give some scope capabilities.
Click to expand...

thank you for such an informative response sir.

well, i'm uploading a sample m2ts file to vimeo right now for other posters here, so they can see how overexposed the footage is. my issue is ocurring with the preview of original files upon import to my PC, before getting Vegas involved. When everything looks great on my cam's lcd, but viewing the m2ts files on my pc, overexposure is extreme......i'll post the sample footy when vimeo has it ready...should just be a few more minutes.
 
here's a :17 sample...it's definately darker on Vimeo, but still a bit blown out...in the original file when viewed on my pc , the house is blown white, and there is no detail on the lower right side grass, and the little boy looks like a ghost.

again, better on Vimeo, but still nothing like it looked on the camera's LCD...

 
could this have anything to do with the difference between the Panny lens and its auto-features VS the fully manual FD?
is it possible that the camera is compensating internally to give you a good image on the lcd even though, in reality, the aperture is open too far? are you trying to adjust exposure in-camera instead of via the aperture ring on the lens itself?
 
You didn't upload the original MTS file and it needs to be available for download in your settings. Vimeo has this as a M2T file that was uploaded.

Randy
 
hmm...ok...let me check something...

i don't see anything with an .mts extension, only m2ts

dude...i hate feeling like a noob, this is rediculous
 
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ok...uploading MTS downloadable to vimeo right now...man, it's hidden pretty well

it will be a different clip entirely. i forgot i formatted the card a few days ago.
 
uuuhh.....sh!t...i thought when i imported the footage, all that file structure came with it. i have to do that separately?

well, it's obvious now that i am not a computer guy....and now i'm not feeling much like a camera guy either. i miss tape.
 
eh....uploaded the clip to vimeo, but it's a bad example...i remember i actually intentionally underexposed with my current frustration, and it looks good. so i may just go that rout in the future, who knows.

since i apparently have no other MTS files saved, i'll give up right here. i'll just work around it like i have been ever since i got my FDs. it's not the end of the world.

thanks everyone for your willingness to work with me, and im sorry i don't have the files you would need to asess my problem.

here's the new clip just for S&G. underexposing worked pretty well in this case.
 
Ok, I serrepititiously downloaded a clip you referenced on vemeo. I don't know if it was the correct one, but I made some annotations.

I used Photoshop to just analyze 'one frame' of the video, because the clip was an MP4, and not your original MTS file.


Things I noticed:
1) there was lens flare. That will give an over all 'washout' look to anything.

2) there was a small spike in the 'white' portion of the histogram, and that sort of thing could be missed on the small GH1 histogram display.

3) at the other end of the histogram, the 'black' region, there was almost nothing.

So, I'd say you may have been about a stop over exposed. Things to watch out for are, the small narrow, almost vanishing 'white' spike, getting a 'black' in the shot, and watch out for flare... that's why those movie cameras have the big hoods... to make sure there is no extraneous light hitting the lens from any angle other than the shot.

(Note... apparently you replaced the clip I analyzed... hem... oh well...)

picture.php
 
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