Help please

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pixelcreativity

New member
Hey whats up everyone?

Im about to place an order for the dvx100 and i wanted to know if i should get anything else that would help improve the quality of the videos. I know lighting is the major role in this but other then light, maybe lenses(dont give me $1000 lenses lol, around 500 or less) oh btw im also getting the letus35mm extreme with it... I just want to get that clean hd look to my videos...thanks for the help
 
well if u want that clean HD look then u'll need good lighting. thats the key. u'll actually have way more problems getting that hd look with ur LEX cuz thats hard to focus with, so practise up. forget $1000 lenses and get a good shotgun mic (rode ntg2 on the cheaper end but good mic)if u dont have that already. thats whats goin to make ur vids look good. if the pics are pretty but ur sound sucks then its all for nothing. unless ur jst shooting music vids.

welcome aboard :)
 
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Invest in sound because it is more important than the video... The Rode NTG2 is good for a kit. With all the stuff you need with it (shock mount, short XLR, boom pole, dead cat) it will be about $400. It also depends what you will be shooting... If it is short films which is what I am guessing, then lighting should be a priority but you can use home depot clamp lights for that... You will need a good tripod, and I would recommend for starting, a Bogen/Manfrotto 501 head kit or the Davis And Sanford FM18 kit from B&H (you get a free set of dolly wheels). For your prime lenses, you can find some cheap ones on ebay or craigslist. I would look at a 50mm, and then maybe a 28 or 35mm and then an 85mm, but try to get the biggest aperture you can (1.7 or wider). Also, you should get a decent editing system, but you can cut video on any software. For Windows, I would say Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, and for Mac, none other than Final Cut Express or Final Cut Studio.
 
Thanks for all the help...but sound isn't important at the moment because I will mainly be doing music videos...so you guys saying that the letus won't do any good to acheive that HD look? What would I do to have my videos look like this guys... http://www.vimeo.com/m/#/6786976 and does anyone know where I could learn about lenses ? Thnx for all the help and sorry if these questions are stupid lol
 
I wouldn't consider that to be "HD" look. The letus will give you a similar look though. For more info on lenses, search some photography forums, but 50mm is the focal length that is the same size that the human eye sees. 28mm is pretty wide, and 85mm is a good zoom length. What lens mount did you get, because some are a lot cheaper than others.
 
well I was just about ready to buy the letus but now I don't want it lol...I want some to give me good resolution like that vimeo video I posted above...I know light is the major solution to this but is there anything else...I heard recording to a memory card also gives better res? What lens is good for day light and which one is good for night...also what do the 1.7,1.8,2.4 etc mean when looking at lens? Btw thnx for all the help
 
You need a 35mm adapter (letus, redrock, sgpro, etc...). All the mm's are focal lengths, meaning fixed zoom lengths which are measured in millimeters rather than x... The DVX is standard definition, but you get better resolution by the way you edit the footage. You can export/convert the footage to an HD resolution like 720p... The letus will not change the resolution, and if you got a firestore hard drive, you can still only record to standard definition resolution.
 
So Andy, just to make sure I understand you right...the only thing that will help with res is lighting and everything else depends on how you edit the footage? Ok so what adapter would you recommend? And what's good to use to get the HD resolution, Magic Bullet, or what would you recommend? Thnx
 
Mr. Pixel,

Before you spend any money, just stop, because you are not making choices from an informed position. Empty your mind and start over.

My understanding is that you want the HD look. The DVX is a great cam (I own one) and to some extent, you might improve the look, but not the resolution with a 35mm adapter. HD is about resolution. Film look is...well about the look, which YOU are responsible for creating. The DVX shoots 4x3 native format. HD is 16x9. By the time you buy a DVX and adapter, you could buy a HMC 150 which IS HD and 16x9. No VTR required to play capture the tapes, saving more $$.

Another camera choice in the DVX price range is the new HMC40. The reports are the HD images from this cam are great, but it will be pretty sucky unless you have plenty of light.

Now if you intend to shoot music videos, how are you going to capture audio. Other posters have asked this but it needs to be asked again, and again, and again, OK. You need to have a plan for this even if you aren't going to capture with your cam. That plan usually costs varying amounts of money even if you record from the band mixer.

I would recommend getting a cam first, figure out your audio, and use it a bit before you buy a bunch of add ons like an adapter. You can always do that anytime in the future.

Best Regards,
Grant
 
ggrantly i think you hit the jackpot to all my questions, i think ill just buy the hvx200...i was trying to get hd out of a sd camera...
 
When you are shooting, you have absolutely no control over the resolution, but lighting will just produce a better image. As for which adapter, I do not own one, but I have heard the best (and most expensive) is the Redrock M2 Encore. If you can, I would get it, but I'm sure they are all good. For converting to HD, you can use Red Giant Instant HD Advanced. It is $400, but it creates a true HD image from information by surrounding pixels...
 
The HMC150 is a lot cheaper and the cards are cheaper too. You can get a 32GB SD card for less than $200 and a 32GB P2 card will cost over $1000! Plus, the HMC150 is lighter and it shoots HD 16:9! It is about $4000 new, and the HVX new is about $5300.

pixelcreativity said:
ggrantly i think you hit the jackpot to all my questions, i think ill just buy the hvx200...i was trying to get hd out of a sd camera...
Click to expand...
 
pixelcreativity said:
Hey whats up everyone?

Im about to place an order for the dvx100 and i wanted to know if i should get anything else that would help improve the quality of the videos. I know lighting is the major role in this but other then light, maybe lenses(dont give me $1000 lenses lol, around 500 or less) oh btw im also getting the letus35mm extreme with it... I just want to get that clean hd look to my videos...thanks for the help
Click to expand...

How to improve the quality if the video? Well...

1. Take film and video classes
2. Read books on film and video production
3. Practice shooting (video your kids, spouse, friends, anything and everything)
4. Shoot, shoot and shoot
5. Show your work to others in your area who are filmmakers, watch their stuff give and get feedback

Lastly, it is not the camera that makes good video, it is the person. Proof in point, I made a few short films using a Sony consumer camera that you can by at a store like best buy and won 3 awards at film festivals. Not one person ever asked me what kind of camera I used.
 
pixelcreativity said:
So Andy, just to make sure I understand you right...the only thing that will help with res is lighting and everything else depends on how you edit the footage? Ok so what adapter would you recommend? And what's good to use to get the HD resolution, Magic Bullet, or what would you recommend? Thnx
Click to expand...

The DVX100 is a Standard Definition camera. The HMC150 is a High Definition camera. The DVX100 can be set up to shoot 16:9 format, but it is still at the pixel level a Standard Definition camera.

There are ways to get the most out of a camera, the most resolution, etc. So that if you do uprez to 720 HD, that you will have something other than blurry pixels...

That has to do with focus, and for humans a certain amount of contrast, as well as edge definition. There are in camera controls that allow for some types of adjustments. There are post processing filters/plugins that assist as well...

But at the end of the day, the DVX100 is an SD camera...

As others have said, if you are going to buy Camera+Adapter, why not spend the money and just get a camera, the HMC150 for example, that shoots at the higher resolution in the first place.

The following is my personal philosophy, and should not be construed to be some criticism of the way others do things...

I'd learn how to shoot the camer 'as it is', rather than adding adapters and additional lenses... if you want to shoot with lens choice, bump up your budget and get a camera that has interchangable lenses... or buy one of the growing number of still cameras that have interchangeable lenses, and capture video as well. On this site there's a couple of fora dedicated to such cameras as the Nikon D90, Panasonic Lumix GH1, and the Canon 7D. In the case of the Nikon and Canon, there is a world of quality lenses available... (I don't have any experience with the GH1 and the lenses that are available to it...)

So, in the clip you presented, the major 'factor' was Depth of Field. The still+video cameras mentioned above would give you that, and in some cases probably be cheaper than an equivalent Digital Video camera. There are even brackets and frames to give the still camera a more 'movie' camera look... (physically... not the resutling video image...)

If you went the Still+Video camera route, I'd recommend some form of quality field audio recorder and you would have to use a clapper to sync sound, and experiement with how much you could record before the recorded audio and video got out of sync... I think the cameras can record sound, but I wouldn't bet on the quality... I've not looked into it to much at the moment, so check things out...
 
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