HVX200 In Low Light

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phloespace

Member
Does anybody have some suggestions or tricks for shooting with the HVX in low lighting conditions? There are a couple of shots I am trying to take, one of the city with the moon above it from accross the water and one of the tree tops under a full moon. The Iris is wide open and filters off (doh), but I still feel like I should have more sensitivity. Suggestions greatly appreciated..
 
in film mode it will shoot around 180 degrees of a 360 degree circle ,like a film camera. set it to stay open longer . will not work well if something is moving in frame but for moon and tree line. and also with that in mind 180 degree of a frame in 24fps is open longer than 180 degrees of a 30fps frame.
 
ya going to a 1/24 shutter helps. other than that you can only gain up which of course brings more noise into the shot...

hvx sucks in low light. but that's what happens when you cram all those extra pixels on a 1/3" chip.
 
I'm also wondering about the low light. I wish it were possible to get the low light i've seen on the vx2000, but i've heard thats pretty hard.

Most of the time low light isnt a problem, as i can always light it. My vx1000 does pretty poorly in lowlight, but i'm always able to light it and make it look good. The only thing that bothers me about shooting in lowlight on the vx1000 is that even with NO GAIN, the black is grainy. I dont mind if the low light capability isnt that great, but i'd at least like the darkness to be solid black with no grain. Does the hvx200/hvx200a have that grain problem as well?
 
mrbrycel said:
I dont mind if the low light capability isnt that great, but i'd at least like the darkness to be solid black with no grain. Does the hvx200/hvx200a have that grain problem as well?
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The HVX200 I have noticed is grainy in low-light situations (wedding receptions with only "mood lighting"), but the 200a is significantly better. I would go as far as to say that the 200a has great low-light capabilities.
 
I also think that shooting with B-press if using gain is a good thing. The 200a is really a much better low light cam. We used it to shoot a crowd during a concert and got very good results. I got to see the EX1 in a low light shoot and man alive that cam is great in low light. I'd say as good as the old DVX.. but with the lovely HD
 
phloespace said:
Does anybody have some suggestions or tricks for shooting with the HVX in low lighting conditions? There are a couple of shots I am trying to take, one of the city with the moon above it from accross the water and one of the tree tops under a full moon. The Iris is wide open and filters off (doh), but I still feel like I should have more sensitivity. Suggestions greatly appreciated..
Click to expand...

Non of these is really is really low light. The moon is being hit by the sun light the same way as the earth in hit with sun light during the day. Buildings you shoot at dusk so you get the sunset hitting the buildings while you can also see the lights inside the building.

I'll let you figure out how to do day for night with the trees.:)
 
I made a low light scene file that is master ped -1, black press, normal gamma, sat -3, coring +7, shutter angle 360degrees, 24pn.

It won't cut as well with other well lit footage, but saves the day in a push.

Avoid gain at all costs and yes, the 200a or HPX170 are said to be far better in low light situations. Even so, it will not match the low lux prowess of a small format SD cam or large format 2/3" cam.


Jason
 
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