Keeping Iris from CLOSING?

S

Salvatore_Jones

New member
I come from a background in motion graphics and 3D animation. Video is something I am trying to "pick up" as I go, so please bear with my question.

I shoot my DVX-100A in a rather mundane manner- 60i, white balanced, auto focus, manual iris control. As a matter of fact, I got quite a lot from reading the sticky entitled "Getting the right image" on this group. However, when I am adjusting exposure in manual iris mode- the camera allows me to manually close the iris totally.

I don't want to do this- EVER-- obviously while shooting an event. I would not put it past me to accidentally do this while shooting outside- trying to properly expose the image.

How may I keep the camera from doing this as I sometimes adjust exposure by watching zebra stripes (not f-stops)? For that matter- why does a camera let you turn the image into something unusable to begin with. I must be missing something big here...
 
You can't do anything about it. It is a fully manual feature that lets you use the lense like you would a normal manula lense. I have used it to simulate a fade from black and so forth. You will never close the iris while shootting, Even if you are playing around with the iris. Now I would read your zebra stripes depending how you have them set and also the fstops. It is much more then just a number it says everything about how your camera sees the image. How your focus will react to an image and so forth. So just look at the positive things about it and although closeing the iris all the way is something you'll never do its just one of those things.
 
When I put my 100a in manual mode and try to close the iris down a bit it will start to darken and then all of a sudden-close all the way. Tell me this isn't normal. Anyone else have this problem? Any way I can fix this.

Thanks,

Terry
 
That's how it works. It goes to f/16, and then any further than that is fully closed.

Try to avoid f/16 anyway -- there are a couple of increments below f/16 where the picture *really* starts to lose resolution and get nasty. Watch your iris and don't adjust it more closed than f/14.
 
I think it is actually a good thing that it closes. Kind of a safety feature that lets you know when your shot is too dark for the ccs to pick up light depending therefore it can't do it's job.
 
well guys, you gotta keep youre eyes on the Fstops too, and use your ND filters too keep exposure in the middle of the range. unless your going for Shallow Dof. which is hard to get anyway, with this machine. But, still keep youre eyes on the Fstops.
 
I remember my older cameras with manual iris control that I could close the iris down smoothly til it blacked out but my 100a doesn't do that. How can you get good sunset shots if it goes to black. I do use the ND filers but I wish it had the kind of control I used to have.

Rats!

Tery
 
What do you mean "how do I get good sunset shots". Just use the built in ND's. Keep your camera around F4 or 5.6, and instead of using the aperature to keep the exposure adjusted, use the ND filters. You really shouldn't need an ND filter higher than the built in filter on the DVX, Unless you are trying to look at the surface of the sun in detail, there is just never a case where the ND filters areren't enough.
 
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