Purpose vs the right camera

T

Tin Man

Active member
Please weigh in,

bought the 100B in November after a number of reviews on the best camera for the price. i do indeed think the features for the price of the 100B are well worth it. 24P, 30P, 60i great flex in settings.

i appreciate all the movie geeks here and wish i had more time to spend in that genre. yet i find myself a semi pro hobbiest shooting sports (if that makes sense) :Drogar-Happy(DBG):

make lots of sports highlights for youth and enjoyed every minute, but i truly think the 100B is not right for me.

reasons: 10x zoom is not enough sometimes, center field in baseball. football etc..

24P and 30P are useless to me because i must focus in manual to get a crisp image and with the fast motion, i tend to go to 60i in auto focus mode.

wrestling videos are hap hazard with colors going in and out with stupid gym flouresent lights.

i guess i am kind of stupid to spend this money on a great camera for point and shot 60i.

question: any advice on getting better results in my shoots.

settings?

set up?

thanks

Tin Man
 
just keep shooting 60i and the dvx does have a 1/3 chips which the gl2 only has 1/4, which is all you could get with the money from selling your dvx. You could buy a telephoto lens for ur dvx. Try white balancing manuely it only takes a second and it works on anything white. It will help with that flouresent light issue.
 
Sounds like you need to spend some time learning the camera, and learning to "film".

Nothing wrong with using the DVX as a 60i camera. It excels at it. It shoots in low light better than nearly anything else in it's class. It also offers a lot of fine user control, but can roll nearly automatic when asked to.

Now, to address your specific issues:

1. Zoom is short: You need to buy an extender. There really isn't a lot out there in this class that has the reach to get out to center field in baseball. If you're near home plate, that's about 200-300ft. A LOT to ask from a lens on a camcorder.

2. 24p and 30p are useless: Why not use them for what they are made for? If you do any interview work where you talk to kids, parents, or the coaches, then these modes do have value. And can make your otherwise "video look" footage start to look more professional or more filmic if you prefer. Use the right look for the right thing.

3. The Fluorescent lights aren't changing colors. You need to do a manual white balance to the light you have and then your colors won't shift. Problem solved.

4. Setups to get good results.

I would suggest that you shoot 60i, probably with a 1/100 shutter, maybe 3db of gain indoors. White balance manually to lock your colors down. Leave your iris and focus on automatic, and just work on framing well with movement and zoom. And remember to pan as slowly as you can.
 
PerroneFord's right on the money - the thing to think about is that with the DVX, you have an outstanding 60i camera combined with extra tools that will allow you to step beyond the "standard" video restraints of many other camcorders and add that extra bit of flair :)

Don't get buyer's remorse - you've "futureproofed" your investment :)

I mainly shoot action sports (skateboarding) in interlaced video - I could have just gone with a sony VX2100 but saved that bit extra and got exactly what I wanted - the additional features of the DVX are a huge bonus and have lifted my game tremendously (after figuring them all out through experimenting)

Experiment with the 30p mode on things like interviews, 24p on "artistic" or B-Roll footage to intercut with your videos - you can turn plain sports coverage into coverage of an "event" and give people an idea of what it was like to really be there
 
Tin Man - I can relate to your post. I am only a hobbyist, but I've asked myself if I'm using a bazooka to kill a fly. I have shot about 15 hours of baseball with my new DVX in the last month or so. It's been a great journey. The first game I shot was awful, colors shifting wildly as the clouds came and went. I'm better at manual white balance, but on a partly cloudy day.... it's tough to keep up with. I did buy a Century Optics 1.6 telephoto lens. I use it almost all the time lately. From 3rd base, I can catch the action in center, but right field is still pretty much out of range. Sometimes the vignetting from the telephoto can be annoying. I've also been experimenting with different settings. For me, I must have 16x9. Therefore, I am shooting 30p in squeeze mode at 1/2000 or 1/1000. Unfortunately, squeeze and 60i was bad for me. I do miss a few shots with the auto focus, but the action is too fast for me to use manual.

I'm not a pro, but some of the shots I see from this DVX are amazing. I can't wait to see what I can do with this camcorder after Barry's book arrives and I get a year of experience with it. Just thought I'd pass along some words of encouragement from a fellow sports shooter.
 
bozo621 said:
Therefore, I am shooting 30p in squeeze mode at 1/2000 or 1/1000.
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Just out of curiosity, why are you shooting with such a high shutter speed? Are you trying to freeze the baseball during pitches? I can't imagine why you'd want to shoot anything faster than 1/250 in a game. Maybe 1/500 to film auto-racing.

The strobing has to be unreal at 1/2000.

I shot alcohol drag cars this weekend at 1/500th and ended up slowing it down the next day to 1/100th. And they were getting north of 160mph on the short track.
 
Perrone - I've actually been experimenting with shutter speeds and everything else since I bought the DVX. I started at 1/100 and have increased over time. I've been more satisfied at the higher speed, but there may have been other issues that effected my earlier shots. I'll take your advice a back down a bit. And yes, I sometimes slow the footage to show a close play and catch the ball in flight. Thanks for the advice. I'll use it to my advantage.
 
Dude,

Don't take my word for ANYTHING! Just get out there and shoot until you like what you get. That's the advantage of these digital cameras. You aren't burning up film to learn!

Have a BLAST out there learning...

bozo621 said:
Perrone - I've actually been experimenting with shutter speeds and everything else since I bought the DVX. I started at 1/100 and have increased over time. I've been more satisfied at the higher speed, but there may have been other issues that effected my earlier shots. I'll take your advice a back down a bit. And yes, I sometimes slow the footage to show a close play and catch the ball in flight. Thanks for the advice. I'll use it to my advantage.
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thank for the responses, MasterP, PerroneFord, and bozo621.

yes, i am going to stick it out with my dvx, i do need experiment more and i have a grasp on some settings. i do use the 30P on intimate shooting with the teams and intermix them with my editing.

i don't really intend to purchase an adapter for more zoom, just don't want to go that way.

i like my results but guess i am too much the perfectionist. bozo621, i love the kill a fly with a bazooka, lmao ! i feel sometimes that i could have spent half the money and shot a comsumer HD model. i hate having all this expensive stuff and see a stupid mom or dad with a consumer model off the best buy shelf come up with equal quality results as my 5K editing system and 3K DVX.

i am still torn with premiere whether or not i am using the wrong codec when rendering my avi then exporting it to dvd. i see a good picture, maybe not HD quality, yet think i could do better with more knowledge and experience. i help one of my baseball moms export footage from her hard drive camcorder into windows movie maker and burn to a dvd and cant believe the resolution she gets, sheesh.

but thats what these forums are for, knowledge, friends, and advise so i don't just keep upgrading to the next best.

although i want to go HD soon, and will concentrate on the HD camera that handles outdoor sports the best in good lighting with motion. baseball, football etc....

thanks again guys

Tin Man
 
Tin Man said:
although i want to go HD soon, and will concentrate on the HD camera that handles outdoor sports the best in good lighting with motion. baseball, football etc....
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Do yourself a BIG favor. Learn to shoot the camera you have well before jumping to HD. The stakes get higher, everything gets harder and more demanding, and everything gets more expensive when moving to HD. You can't futz the focus, you can't futz the lighting, you can't just roll "standard setups" and expect to get great footage on HD. You really do need to learn how to extract your vision out of the camera first.

Now, having said that, an HD camera that will shoot motion well and will give you some zoom reach, is going to set you back a pretty penny. First off, you're going to be out of the realm of HDV. So you're going to be looking at a real HD level camera. Right now, that's the HVX, the JVC 720p cameras, and the new Sony EX1. I went with the Sony for a lot of reasons, but no matter which you choose, you're going to spend a BOATLOAD on both the camera and the media.

Right now, shooting an hour on either the HVX or the Sony will cost you about $900 for the media. It's reusable, but if you want to record, you gotta have it, or an equivalent. Right now, Sony's deal is you get 2 8GB cards with the camera. Seperately, they are $499 each at B&H. The combined time is about 1hr recording. The 16GB cards are $899. The P2 cards for the Panasonic are just about the same price for the same recording time.

And, once you start dumping the footage from either, you're going to find yourself moving from the 13.6GB/hr of DV, to the 50-100GB/hr of real HD once you transition that footage to a codec that will hold up for editing, like Cineform or ProRes. Better make sure you have a computer than can handle the load.

How will you preview that HD data? Do you have a calibrated HD monitor?


Going HD has it's benefits, but the drawbacks are real and need to be considered.
 
Your flou color shift comes from such a high shutter speed. Usually shooting at around 1/60 gives the best results. That means you'll probably need to use a ND or stop down to get the exposure right.
 
Austinv said:
HD has a ways to go, so I am waiting that one out and you should to.
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It does? In what way?? I've seen some GORGEOUS footage from HD. On RED, Genesis, F23, and others. I've also seen some nice footage come from the HVX and the EX1. You just have to pay to play.
 
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