Scene file problems-could use some advice

Spotlight Media

Spotlight Media

Well-known member
I have spent the past 2 days in the studio with this camera and the manual going over each and every setting, and doing different actions multiple times to let it sink in. I have shot with the camera already but wanted to spend this time getting to know each and every part of it. I have a problem I cannot seem to get past.

I have 4 scene files on an SD card in the SD Card slot on the 300. They are VIVID, NATURE,CINEG,DIGNEG... I am mostly after the VIVID file.

When I follow the instructions in the manual and on the panny website nothing seems to work, I still have the default scene files on the radial dial. I was hoping to replace the default scene file at position 1 on the dial called SCENE with the VIVID scene file. Position 2 SCENE FLOU with NATURE and so on But nothing I do seems to work. I try to READ from the SD card, and also WRITE from the SD card, and TITLE RELOAD (for the heck of it). Nothing seems to replace the 1-4 Scene Files on the camera with the 1-4 Scene Files on the SD Card.

My assumption was that the card would overwrite the Scene Files 1-4 on the camera with the Scene Files 1-4 on the SD Card. Once the overwrite process happened when I rotate the dial I would see the new Scene File names in their appropriate positions. In my case I thought I would see in Dial Position 1 VIVID, Dial Position 2 NATURE, Dial Position 3 CINEG, Dial Position 4 DIGNEG. Am I way off here guys?

Also when I slide the dial over to position 5 and 6 CINE V and CINE D my front shotgun mic no longer picks up sound. Is this a normal happening for these 2 settings? I have not seen anything in the manual about it.

Any help or advice would help out this frustrated man.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!
 
I really don't think Panasonic did the most user-friendly implementation of these scene files, and for guys like you (who don't have a full understanding of how it works) it can be very frustrating indeed.

So -- first of all, separate out the things you're confusing together -- the scene1.txt on the card does NOT equate to position 1 on the scene file dial, and scene2.txt does not equate to position 2 on the scene file dial, etc.

Each file on that SD card consists of a PACKAGE OF SIX scene files. It will overwrite everything in your camera.

Secondly, I believe all those scene files they made available for download have the same scene file in every position, don't they? And that only the frame rate changes from position to position. Well, if you're in 720pN mode, that explains why your sound is going away -- no sound is recorded when the camera is in pN mode and shooting a frame rate different than its nominal rate (meaning, you'll get sound in 24pN at 24fps, but not in 24pN at 30fps, etc).

So to do what you want, you should probably use a text editor and open up the appropriate scenex.txt files, and copy and paste them to where you build one SCENE1.TXT file that has one entry of each of the ones you want. Then save that on your card and maybe you'll have what you're looking for.
 
I'm not sure.. I over wrote my scene files and it seemed to work...

I know this might sound dumb but why not just put them in manually.. sometimes trying to find a solution to an easy way to do things takes longer to solve than just doing it manually...

Just my 2c...

Cheers
 
Barry, very interesting indeed... almost counter intuitive but as you guessed I am new to a camera of this magnitude, I am used to the thought process of scene files you find on a Canon XHA1 and cameras of those type. I will re-think this procedure and try again tomorrow.

Lez-I thought of that same thing but my brain does not like leaving a problem unsolved. I figure, no matter how confusing, if someone else is doing it I should be able to as well. Maybe I need medication.

In either case thank you both, at least I have a different way of thinking about this problem now.
 
All cool... once you've got a bunch set I reckon you'll probably end up leaving them on the camera... then you kinda just fiddle with the each setting as per the situation...

I must admit I mucked around for days with the downloadable scene files changing them to Pal settings ... trying all different things.. etc...

At the end of it all I pretty much use the setting that is my favorite now and have never changed the dial since..

Cheers
 
Barry and Lez,
Turns out once I took the SD card out and put it in the Mac I saw that what I had done at some point was to copy the default settings back into scene1.txt so what I was doing was correct but just with the default settings. I copied and pasted the VIVID settings into the scene1.txt brought it back to the camera and immediately saw a difference. Thank you for helping me set my head straight.

I have a live concert shoot tomorrow and Tuesday and I am looking forward to the results of the VIVID presets. Once I become a little more familiar with each setting in these scenes so I can tweak them to my liking as Lez has done.

What a camera, so glad I moved from the prosumer to a shoulder mount camera like this...so much more control.
 
Guys,

I'm having difficulty writing the existing scene files to the SD so I have a proper file structure to work with. I am following the steps on the Pana site and this thread - but no file structure is found on my SD card when I insert it in my mac.

Thanks,
Confused about something that seems so simple.
 
Silly question but have you formatted the SD in the camera? I have read that if you format an SD or P2 on a mac it makes it too wonky for the camera to deal with. Try to format the card in the camera and give it another shot perhaps. Let me know how you make out.
 
Hi Jason,

Not a silly question at all. Yes, I have formatted it in the camera several times. Do you think the card size has anything to do with it? I using an old 16MB (MB not GB) SD card that I found laying around. Think this is an issue?
 
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