Need HPX300 expert for hire

It wasnt the gain causing the soft focus but the beginnings of diffraction, like you said when you hit +12db you were at F5.6. I believe you said you also used sony ex cameras, theyre 1/2 " chips so they can go a little higher before they start to suffer diffraction. Also at +12db you will be gettting a lot of noise which can also appear to soften the image a little (depending on your coring settings). Your doing the right thing with trying another lens, lets hope its all due to something simple and easy to fix :)
 
Hello romy. Why do you go to 5.6 with the iris? Have you try to use ND2 or ND3 if is overexposed instead of closing iris at +12? You have to make that test and see if the picture is blurred or not. I use the 5.6 iris only when i have a super bright day with a super white pavement outdoor even with ND4 if i want to use 1/50 shutter. But i prefer to set iris at max 4 and use 1/125 shutter. I have never test your settings: gain +12, iris 5.6, ND1. I don't know if the lens will blur the footage. But what almost evryone here suggest to you is the truth: ND1 for ex, 1/50 or faster shutter too (but this reduced the effect) and iris closed under 5.6 = really bad and soft picture!
Try the ND test at +12 to see if the image is out of focus, and then try another lens!
Bests,
Roberto
 
+12db gain?

I never go above +6 and f5.6 as recommended in the BBC report with CAC on and most of the time work at -3 or +3db gain.
 
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I followed your suggestions and just redid the test.

ND1
1080i 60
-3 Gain

I backfocused opening up the lens, zooming in, then out, then in then out and focus seemed good at both sides of the spectrum. Then i just zoomed to z65.


Case1 - picture takes right after

http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/7.png

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Case2 - I adjusted the main focus ring a tad

http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/8.png

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Case3 - I changed the gain to +12

http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/9.png

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Case4 - I changed to ND2

http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/10.png

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Case5 - I changed to ND3

http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/11.png



Something is funky about this camera.
 
totally agree with you Romy, Case 2 is much better and nearer to what is expected . Look forward to when you get the new lens to try.
 
Hi romy. For the two first pictures i've to say that there is for sure a backfocus problem. But sorry because i don't have understand the rest of the workflow: is the third case a +12 gain picture? What the iris setings? And for the ND part: What are the iris settings? Sorry maybe i have missed something!

Roberto
 
I did not change anything in between. The case scenarios were done step by step. So case 3 was simply flipping the gain switch. Case 4 was then turning on ND2 etc. Nothing else changed.

Whats bizzarre to me is how just flipping the gain switch can make the picture sooooo much more blurry. I know about diffraction and all but thats diffraction?
 
Yes i think that is diffraction. Consider that the lens that cames with the camera is not a super professional lens. Is right for the price. But you have to try the ND filter with the sun light. If you look at the videoclip i posted yesterday, we shot the daylight scenes with AVCIntra100 720 25pn with ND4 all the time,gain -3, shutter 1/250, iris 2,8 or 4 and in the studio with green screen (the black part of the video) with ND2, 1/50 and 2,8. Try the sunlight situation.
You will have the same result of my video. If not there is a problem! If you learn to use the 301 you can use every camera in the world with eyes closed!:grin:

Roberto
 
Sorry romy, i don't want to be a teacher! But i think that everybody here in the forum with the 301 have tested and stressed it a lot before shoting something really really beautiful! Every camera has is learning process and the 301 is a very good camera with a lot of settings that you must try to understand exactly what they do! But, i repeat, for me there is a backfocus problem on the lens.
 
I am hopeful that this camera will produce great when fixed. My only care coming on the forum was to rule out operator error, me :)

I know I am not as educated about all the settings as some but my back and forth testing has in my eyes shown some problematic issue, and now confirmed with your expert eyes.

Thanks a lot for all your help.
 
Here is a discovery. I was looking at the lense and saw that the focus ring itself has focus to infinity. I set backfocus again, this time I did it my way.

I zoom all the way out, set the focus ring to infinity, opened the lens all the way and set the backfocus ring to sharpest setting.

Magically all my problems with focus are gone. Nowhere in the manual does it say to set the focus ring to infinity. When I followed the book i had problems I guess because I never had the focus ring at infinity, when I do it the way I just did WITH the focus ring at infinity, the camera is focused at all zoom ranges. I don't know if that means I was supposed to do that all along, but problem apparently solved.

http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/12.png
http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/13.png
http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/14.png
http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/15.png
http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/16.png
http://www.vspworldwide.com/clientfiles/download/hpx300/17.png

UPDATE

Apparently there was a backfocus discussion in the HPX500 forum too that mentioned to set the lens to infinity.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?123138

No wonder I was having a tough time. This is the first time anywhere I came across the need for that. Now I can start enjoying my camera and setting it up right.
 
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Hi romy! Now you have the right picture! I have to say that: for me the problem that you have had is this: you were too far away from the chart. Is quite difficult to look at the chart from that position. Now you can try this: set the camera away about 1,5 meters from the chart and became confident with this process. I think that all your past footage was influenced by the out of focus issue. Now you can take the camera and go out of the studio to take some beautiful shot! You will be satisfied when you see the image in the full focus glory of the 1080 AvcIntra 100! Remember this: even look to your picture in a calibrated monitor. The 301 grain cames out at 0 gain on a not calibrated monitor. Have you ever try to see some redcam footage on a not balanced monitor, changing the raw settings? They looks very very bad!!! Another inportant thing is to set as a said before a fast blur amount of 0,5 on your grainy footage, but you have to consider this: are you shooting at 0 gain? If the answer is yes you may find grain issues. So with the blur applied in post you may loose some details. So the thing that you must do is to change the detail level to -2 instead of -4 for ex, and go up with the coring to +4. Now if you want super blacks change your pedestal to -50 or -20 or if you like contrasted pictures to -100. And now if you play with the shutter speed you can reach details never seen on an EX camera!!! You have to do your test, save your presets, change situations and find solutions to improve the quality of your shot.I do this everyday i can to improve my skill and the camera performance. Test the rolling shutter too! Remember that what you see in your viewfinder IS NOT WHAT YOU SEE IN THE FINAL SHOT!!! Sometimes i've shot footage at telephoto with fast pans and say to me: o my God! What are this diagonal lines!!! But when i see the footage on my workstation the effect change a lot.
Hope that you have resolved the issues you have had and be satisfied with your work!
Bests,
Roberto
 
Please clarify something: What was the distance between the camera and the star chart when you set your back focus as you described? Was it 10 feet or beyond 30 feet?
 
It was about 10 feet or slightly less. I was zooming in first and then focusing, then zooming out, leaving the focus ring untouched, then adjusting the backfocus ring. This did not yield a stable focus throughout the zoom range because at half zoom I still needed to fiddle with the focus ring to get focus. It did not hold focus. However when I zoomed out all the way and set the focus ring to infinity and performed the same backfocus adjustment it held focus all the way across the zoom range. I think this is not the proper procedure but for some reason it worked for me.
 
I was having the same issues with my 300 and I purchased this test chart from film tools. http://www.filmtools.com/pushinty7a9.html The chart also has a formula for figuring distance from chart to camera based on your lens. This distance is different from the Panasonic Manual. I also bought a Small HD DP6 SDI monitor which helped big-time!
The next issue is don't take the lens past F5 it gets to soft.
 
Thanks. I ordered one for overnight delivery today. You think using a chart like that in the field is ovekill? Or do you use it just to to tests.
 
I just used for the initial setup or anytime you remove your lens. The chart is very cool it pops on screen when in focus. I just could not get accurate focus with the on-board LCD screen and the chart that was shipped with camera. The Small HD DP6 SDI is also a big help!
 
I've followed this thread with great interest, as I've had ongoing issues with back focus on my 300 as well. It caused trouble for me with a show I was shooting for Lifetime- a big bummer... Can you say "comp-ed day rate". Ouch. The massive DOF and my middle aged eyes makes it more of a challenge to find focus with the 300 compared to a 2/3 inch cam.

Romy, I'm happy that you've solved the issue- I was feeling your pain. ;-)

My issue has been the same, losing focus on mid focal length shots. I re-set it over and over, and while it's much improved, I'm still leery and find myself checking focus for these kinds of shots- especially interviews. I'm going to order the Purtoa chart for sure.

Are you still pretty confident that incorporating the infinity mark in your method has solved the issue?

Just curious- does anyone else incorporate the use of the infinity mark to set BF?

This method is making some sense to me. Once I get the Purtoa chart, I'm going to try it as well.

Any thoughts?
 
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