Is DV worth 35mm?

ok.... if your clients want "the film look" and you think you'll earn more money when you can give them that... get a 35mm adapter, you wont regret it at all.

i bought one and love it to pieces. the one thing i would suggest though is to buy a good one to start with. i bought a letus35A (now discontinued) and it has some issues. edge to edge sharpness is pretty poor, it has some barrel distortion and it vignettes. now i have to buy another one because i need my footage to look perfect.

all the new adapters are awesome though.

the other thing is, you have an XL1 PAL camera. there are two problems with this camera.

it's DV 50i.... you'd ideally want a 25p camera right? DV vs HD is a moot point if you're outputting to DVD.

the great thing about being in a PAL country is 50i can convert to 25p very easily.

check out this article on de-interlacing. ignore the "pull down" stuff as it doesn't affect PAL stuff. - http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/60i/

"Magic Bullet Suit" will be your best friend :D - http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/magicbulletsuite.html

although it's expensive.... and slow.... but i heard about this evil evil guy who should go to jail.. apparently he downloaded it for free off something called bittorrent but he could only get version 2.1. which needs After Effects 6 to work. so he downloaded that as well. i don't condone that sort of stuff :D

to get past how slow it runs.. only de-interlace your movie once you've finished it and leave it to run over night... or you could use a bog standard de-interlacer in you editing software.. but they're not that good and you'll lose resolution. but with magic bullet you wont lose any!!!!

the second problem with the XL1 is the viewfinder... it's not that great for focusing and you cant flip it. so i'd get a flipped adapter or a HD monitor. not both but one or the other...

the XL1 plus magic bullet plus an adapter will look as good as any of the DVX100 plus adapter footage you see on here.

cheers. pat
 
Cheers,

thanks for the reply spartacus.

i am still thinking about buying an adapter with the ff but i still don't know if the XL1 is worth mounting it with an adapter. i dont think ill get better results but without an adapter, but my clients desire is the movie look.

i lost the money in court because i couldn't finish the job some1 gave me.

i am also thinking about getting a new solution right now and afterwards saving money for the HPX. where's the point you dont get? the XL1 + adapter would be some temporarly solution for the moment. No gear no money. thats the point.

renting a cam in germany... your funny. im sorry to tell. but the only place where you'd get a camera rent would be berlin. that 600miles from where i live. and though they'd charge you a couple'f a houndret bucks. these companies supply tvchannels.

anyway. i hope i could answer your questions, sparta
greetings,
Garry

You could buy a good, HD ready adapter now, use it with the XL1 on some projects and earn the money for a better camera - am I´m getting your right?
Ok, so your clients "demand a filmlook", do you really think they mean shallow DoF with that?
Go to a film set, take away all the lighting gear, the set and costume designers, the expensive locations and last but not least the professional actors - do you think anyone will still give a f*ck about the DoF of a 35mm camera?
And hey, without the lights that DoF will be a hell of a little range with the 35mm lens fully open :evil:

What are you shooting? Local commercials? Corporate videos?
Do you have all the other equipment to make your production look "filmlike"...?

A DVX on a DIY dolly will get you more WOWs than a badly focused shot from 35mm adapter with bad lighting.
Speaking of light, adapters eat light.

As for renting, there are rental houses all over Germany,
Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Frankfurt. And that´s only the major citys.
You can rent a A1 for 90€ a day, a Xl1 will cost you about 40€ - and that´s list price...
I still can´t believe you didn´t avoid getting sued through renting another camera, after yours got stolen:huh:!
I´ve been in business for 10 years now and I never had one client who wouldn´t understand a change of the shooting schedule because the equipment got stolen.
Only exception would be shooting an one time only event , but than about how much would we be talking here? 800€ for DVX plus you?
I still don´t get it...
 
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although it's expensive.... and slow.... but i heard about this evil evil guy who should go to jail.. apparently he downloaded it for free off something called bittorrent but he could only get version 2.1. which needs After Effects 6 to work. so he downloaded that as well. i don't condone that sort of stuff :D
Hm, maybe it was the same guy who stole Garry´s DVX...?
 
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