Tainted
Well-known member
Hey all,
I've been lurking around DVXUser for weeks now and am getting very close to pulling the trigger on purchasing a used DVX100A or new DVX100B. These forums have been an immeasureable help thus far (unlike some newbs to the site, I've been busy reviewing tons of old posts). Anyway, I have some technical/workflow questions I thought might warrant their own thread...
I currently own a GS400, which I love, and my plan is to keep that cam in addition to purchasing a higher end cam. Like I said above, I am heavily leaning towards a DVX, but am also considering an XL2 or a PD170 -- I have decided against going HD for the moment considering I am "just" a hobbiest that has a career completely unrelated to a/v.
Anyway, this is not a thread about which cam to buy, but it is about how well the potential new cam will "play nice" with my GS400. The new cam will obviously be my primary camera, and thus will be used for probably 80%+ of my footage going forward. But there will be times I might want to use the other cam as a second. An example might be an interview situation. I'll set up the primary prosumer cam for the interview and use that for almost everything in post, however, I might set up or have a friend run my GS400 from a slightly different angle or focal length just to increase "coverage" for later use in my NLE.
So, with that in mind, here is my main idea and the thing I'd love for some of you pros to critique me on. First, the topic of widescreen. My hope is that I would shoot 4:3 with the DVX and mask to 16:9 in post, and my other hope is that the TRUE 16:9 3xCCDs at 1/4" size on the GS400 might bring me somewhat comparable resolution next to the 1/3" 4:3 chips of the DVX when edited in my NLE. The thought would be to shoot 4:3 and mask to 16:9 with the DVX and intercut that footage with stuff I shot at 16:9 on my GS400. I think my best bet would be to work in a 4:3 timeline (I use Vegas) masking the DVX footage by event, and simply letting Vegas letterbox the GS400 native 16:9 footage in the 4:3 timeline. I'd then decide during render if I wanted to stay in a 16:9 letterbox 4:3 frame, or if I'd crop and zoom up to a 16:9 frame, depending on my needs. Do you think this approach would work? Would it hold up? Would the GS400 footage look like crap next to the DVXs? Now I know matching color/gamma will be another whole aspect of this, but I was hoping from a purely resolution perspective that the GS400 might hold up because of its native 16:9 1/4" chips.
My next workflow issue relates to 24p. I am very interesting in shooting 24p for multiple reasons, mostly because I go to DVD or post on the Web, both of which are great distribution methods for that 24p film cadence. But, I'm not here to debate 24p, more here to discuss the intercutting of 60i shot footage from the GS400 with 24ap of the DVX. I've done some 60i-to-24p converting already, and the workflow I like best is NOT to use the GS400's faux frame mode, but to use software in post to do the conversion. I have a couple of ways I do it, but often, because I am not a pro and don't have to hold myself up to those standards, just use Vegas 6 to do it, since this newer version of Vegas does a pretty good job of it.
My thought would be to shoot DVX in 24pa mode and bring the clips into a 24p timeline that would remove the pulldown (since Vegas can work natively with pure 24p, this helps with titling, etc.). Then, I guess I'd just drop my 60i GS400 footage right into the 24p timeline and let Vegas work it's magic. Alternatively, I might use the updated Mike Crash's deinterlacer FX plugin for Vegas to do the delacing of the 60i footage to 30p, then let Vegas handle the 30p to 24p framrate conversion. Anyway, what do you guys think? Any chance this might work? Or will it look like sh!t?
Now that you see what I am thinking, do you have any tips for me? Do you think I could match up footage from my GS400 and a DVX100 in any decent fashion? Or is this just more crazy talk from a newb?
-- Thanks, Taint
I've been lurking around DVXUser for weeks now and am getting very close to pulling the trigger on purchasing a used DVX100A or new DVX100B. These forums have been an immeasureable help thus far (unlike some newbs to the site, I've been busy reviewing tons of old posts). Anyway, I have some technical/workflow questions I thought might warrant their own thread...
I currently own a GS400, which I love, and my plan is to keep that cam in addition to purchasing a higher end cam. Like I said above, I am heavily leaning towards a DVX, but am also considering an XL2 or a PD170 -- I have decided against going HD for the moment considering I am "just" a hobbiest that has a career completely unrelated to a/v.
Anyway, this is not a thread about which cam to buy, but it is about how well the potential new cam will "play nice" with my GS400. The new cam will obviously be my primary camera, and thus will be used for probably 80%+ of my footage going forward. But there will be times I might want to use the other cam as a second. An example might be an interview situation. I'll set up the primary prosumer cam for the interview and use that for almost everything in post, however, I might set up or have a friend run my GS400 from a slightly different angle or focal length just to increase "coverage" for later use in my NLE.
So, with that in mind, here is my main idea and the thing I'd love for some of you pros to critique me on. First, the topic of widescreen. My hope is that I would shoot 4:3 with the DVX and mask to 16:9 in post, and my other hope is that the TRUE 16:9 3xCCDs at 1/4" size on the GS400 might bring me somewhat comparable resolution next to the 1/3" 4:3 chips of the DVX when edited in my NLE. The thought would be to shoot 4:3 and mask to 16:9 with the DVX and intercut that footage with stuff I shot at 16:9 on my GS400. I think my best bet would be to work in a 4:3 timeline (I use Vegas) masking the DVX footage by event, and simply letting Vegas letterbox the GS400 native 16:9 footage in the 4:3 timeline. I'd then decide during render if I wanted to stay in a 16:9 letterbox 4:3 frame, or if I'd crop and zoom up to a 16:9 frame, depending on my needs. Do you think this approach would work? Would it hold up? Would the GS400 footage look like crap next to the DVXs? Now I know matching color/gamma will be another whole aspect of this, but I was hoping from a purely resolution perspective that the GS400 might hold up because of its native 16:9 1/4" chips.
My next workflow issue relates to 24p. I am very interesting in shooting 24p for multiple reasons, mostly because I go to DVD or post on the Web, both of which are great distribution methods for that 24p film cadence. But, I'm not here to debate 24p, more here to discuss the intercutting of 60i shot footage from the GS400 with 24ap of the DVX. I've done some 60i-to-24p converting already, and the workflow I like best is NOT to use the GS400's faux frame mode, but to use software in post to do the conversion. I have a couple of ways I do it, but often, because I am not a pro and don't have to hold myself up to those standards, just use Vegas 6 to do it, since this newer version of Vegas does a pretty good job of it.
My thought would be to shoot DVX in 24pa mode and bring the clips into a 24p timeline that would remove the pulldown (since Vegas can work natively with pure 24p, this helps with titling, etc.). Then, I guess I'd just drop my 60i GS400 footage right into the 24p timeline and let Vegas work it's magic. Alternatively, I might use the updated Mike Crash's deinterlacer FX plugin for Vegas to do the delacing of the 60i footage to 30p, then let Vegas handle the 30p to 24p framrate conversion. Anyway, what do you guys think? Any chance this might work? Or will it look like sh!t?
Now that you see what I am thinking, do you have any tips for me? Do you think I could match up footage from my GS400 and a DVX100 in any decent fashion? Or is this just more crazy talk from a newb?
-- Thanks, Taint