Settings for Mini35...?

CharlesPapert

CharlesPapert

Director of Photography
Hi folks,

I am about to shoot with a DVX100a/Mini35 setup and was wondering if anyone had thoughts on/experience with modifying their file settings to accomodate this setup. Particular curious in the thick/thin debate as well as detail, since the Mini35 does affect sharpness a bit. Thanks!
 
Re: Settings for Mini35...?

Hey Charles, welcome to the DVXUser.com forum! I've seen and benefited from your posts at dvinfo.net for quite a while!

I shot with the mini35 on the DVX. We pretty much went with the settings as recommended by dvfilm.com for 24P film transfer.
http://dvfilm.com/maker/dvx100settings.htm

The biggest challenge with the DVX was getting the camera's lens to sharply focus on the ground glass of the mini35. If I'm not mistaken, you've used the XL1 version before, but of course it doesn't have this additional focus step because you'd be using the relay lens and probably a fixed focus distance. With the DVX you have to focus two lens systems: the camera's lens onto the ground glass, and then the mini35 lens as well. Chasing focus by adjusting both will drive you to the nuthouse in short order, so you've got to nail that ground-glass focus before you go forward.

The mini35 for the DVX includes a big shroud to shield the focus ring. If I were you I'd probably add a strip of gaffer's tape onto the focus ring to make SURE it never moves. Once you establish proper focus on the ground glass, you don't want it to move a micrometer.

You're in for a treat. With the mini35, 24P, CineGamma etc., the DVX looks extremely 35mm-like! Be sure to post some of your results. :)
 
Re: Settings for Mini35...?

Thanks Barry, nice to be here! I've entered the world of DVX by way of purchasing the Mini35 which I will be subrenting to various rental houses, and they told me that these days it's almost always DVX rentals vs XL1. Until the XL2 is fully in release, I'm hoping to get my rig moving towards payoff with the "little gray guy" onboard.

Thanks for the hints with the adaptor. I'd successfully negotiated the ground glass focus routine, and noted the position numerically in case it does get jogged. But the g-tape tip is a good one. I also taped over the autofocus button next to the shroud to avoid that getting into the mix.

I'm prepping a short film shoot starting this weekend, my maiden voyage for this particular rig. Been using the Mini35 quite a lot with the XL1s and loving those results, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with the DVX. So far I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing.

So, according to those settings you linked, I should still reduce the detail to -3, do you think? The slight image softening with the Mini35 wouldn't benefit from a little boost in this department (as in, leaving it at 0)?

Best,
 
Re: Settings for Mini35...?

First, you can't rely solely on the focus number because the DOF is so unbelievably shallow when focusing on the ground glass (you're talking about full telephoto, wide-open, and something like a +17 close-up lens) that you end up with a DOF of about a tenth of a millimeter.  At that resolution, the numbers on the focus ring aren't enough -- there's enough free play between focus numbers that you could actually be out of focus, halfway towards the next number, yet the display is still showing the same number.  So triple-check it on a very-high-res CRT.  We were using a 1354 with it, and it was still tough to know whether we had it NAILED or not.

I asked ZGC if they'd consider installing some sort of laser focus system or something, shining a perfectly-focused red dot on the ground glass, so we could use it as a focus aid, and they declined.  (I figured, for a $10,000 accessory, maybe there'd be room in the budget, right?)  Anyway, you could probably do well using the point-it-at-a-bright-light-and-focus-on-the-dust technique.

As far as detail, yes the mini35 does quite a bit of softening.  I didn't really notice how much while shooting, but when I cut some anamorphic-adapter footage split-screened with mini35 footage, I was amazed at how much sharper the anamorphic footage was.  Not that that's necessarily the best though -- the mini35 footage looked a lot more filmlike, and the soft glow the mini35 gives was a lot of the reason why.

So definitely experiment with the detail setting... I didn't, and now I wish I would have.  We had *no time* when shooting with the mini35, trying to hop it between a PD150, the JVC HD1, and the DVX, all while trying to get a spec spot shot, and running against the fed-ex clock...  :o
 
Re: Settings for Mini35...?

Thanks Barry. You're absolutely right about the subtlety of the focus ring--it's no joke. My methodology was to stop the taking lens down as much as possible while still delivering an image (boosting the gain on the camera temporarily) with the "oszie" off, thus maximizing the grain on the ground glass and using this to fine-tune focus.

Then again, it's not the worst thing in the world to be able to adjust the back focus so easily. On the Seinfeld/American Express spots, the Mini35's we were using had been modified by the rental house to prevent neanderthals like ourselves from making this adjustment in the field (XL1 version, with the backfocus ring on the Mini35); only problem was, one of our rigs NEEDED adjustment, and we were 3000 miles from the rental house in question. Nice. Very smart.
 
Re: Settings for Mini35...?

Charles please keep us posted on the results you achieve.  I have seen your work (especially the Amex spot) and look forward to what you do with the DVX.
 
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