Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greenscree

D

deadhead

Active member
About two weeks ago I logged on here after not reading this site for several months. I was investigating why I was getting poor greenscreen keys on a music video I shot. I am seeing noise in some of the RGB channels in AFter Effects, and this is why some of the keys have ratty edges (I have keyed DV projects a number of times and gotten perfect results- and I am using 2 of the best keyers around- Ultimate Advantage and Primatte). Plus I had recaptured the footage via SDI from a DSR-1800 in uncompressed 10 bit codec (on my cinewave-FCP) so I had literally the best signal possible from a DV source (and BTW once zoomed in After Effects you could see edges looked much less stairsteppy from the SDI uncompressed capture vs. the DV firewire capture- meaning the keys should have been even better than any DV project I have done before)

What I finally theorized was that the cinegamma was possibly adding noise. I remember hearing about an article a while back (maybe in Res?) that said for film output- disable cinegamma because it adds noise. I didn't think it would be an issue, but soon I hope to test another keying project using cinegamma on and off- I'll be sure to post my results.

Anyway as soon as I found out the 100a was coming out, thanks to posts here a few weeks ago- I immediately found a buyer for my 100 for $2500- A good deal for them as the camera is in great shape. It'll cost me about $1000 to trade up- but it seems all the new features will be worth it. It's just a pity Panasonic couldn't change the on screen focus display to feet/meters instead of that useless numeric scale- actually I'm pretty dissapointed in that.

Also here are some images from my greenscreen shoot. I'll post back when it will be airing (hopefully) on MTV2 and in canada Much Music. These are the images I had trouble keying- particularly in shadow areas- (these captures do darker on a PC than the actual footage looks)

I'll also post a link to the on-line version in a few days.

key.jpg


key2.jpg


key3.jpg
 
Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

cineMATRIX is what can weird out in low light, and can add some chroma noise, and other weird stuff, but cineGAMMA dosnt really cause any issues.
 
Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

"It's just a pity Panasonic couldn't change the on screen focus display to feet/meters instead of that useless numeric scale- actually I'm pretty dissapointed in that. "

I don't think that numeric scale is useless. What happens if you add a wide or telephoto lense. Then the "feet" scale would be way off. I have found the numeric key very usefull, as it is a much better focusing system than any other camera in this price range that I have used, and is indeed very accurate for pulling a nice rack focus.
 
Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

scharky is right on the money.. the reason there is no feet numbers is because from the begining Panasonic developed add on lens like the anamorphic that would shift the focus scale.
 
Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

Re: Sold my DVX-100 thanks to dvxUser +poor greens

When I rent a film camera for a shoot, the first thing we do (at the rental house, actually) is test all of the lenses... set up a focus chart and measure to it, and see if the lens hits its marks. With a good rental house it usually does. When I'm using school equipment (99% of the time), we get out the tape and make new marks, and use those marks for the duration of the shoot.

Transfering this process to the DVX, we set up a focus chart and determine, for each lens (no attachment, WA, Tele), where our marks should be on the numeric scale. And it holds. So we know that 5 feet might be 52 on one scale, but 72 with a different lens attachment.

This is a vastly better process than using those pre-made charts that are all over the internet, by the way, because the DVX lens doesn't hold focus over the long term... you are sure to find that what once was sharp is just a little off a month or two later.

Will
 
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