Techie help please!!

[n0signal]

Hey there!!

I've been fliddling about with settings on my DVX, which I've only got recently so I'm a completely amateur with the features on this camera. My question/concern is that some of the scene settings are either VERY subtle or don't seem to do anything. Things like V. Detail, Detail Coring and Skin DTL.

Even in the scene file modes out-the-box these settings seem to be set to 0 and altering them doesn't seem to do anything!? Can someone help and explain what they're supposed to do and how they can be used so that I'd see a result.

I'm testing my camera and this is just something I've run into where I don't know if it's working properly or not. Apart from the headphone hiss everything else seems alright. *touch wood* :-/

 

[kplo]

Re: Techie help please!!

n0signal,
To really see the way different settings affect your picture, you need to view the image on a decent monitor, not the viewfinder or flip out LCD. Shoot a scene with a good range of light and dark tones (tape not necessary, just set up your camera on a tripod). Check out the various gamma settings first...the differences are definitely there, but subtle.
Next, view the color matrix settings; these are more obvious, particularly the cine matrix.
I set the detail last using a "crosshatch" chart I made in Photoshop...basically horizontal and vertical lines about 2 inches apart. The default detail setting was about 3 steps too high...I backed it off until the edging dissapeared. This step alone can reduce the "video look" quite a bit.
Same thing with vertcal detail.
Coring can reduce the apparent noise in the shadows at the expense of some detail; set the detail first though, because these settings can work at cross purposes. You probably won't need to adjust the coring at all.
I haven't used 24p on my current project at all, but even at 60i, judicious use of the cine-gamma, detail, color saturation and matrix settings provide a much richer look than the defaults.
Experiment and note your settings for future shoots.

Ken

 

[Aejaz]

Re: Techie help please!!

If I can add to what kplo has said

my initial impression of the various scene file and other settings was exactly the same ...i.e changing them would not actually seem to change a lot.

However, in reality it does. I think the simplest way one should tend to look at these settings is that ....they basically affect the overall MOOD of your video. Hence if u want to see the REAL effect of the various settings, u can make serial recordings... of say 1 minute each.... with EACH variation and see how the EFFECT changes. That method helped me a lot in discovering the potential of my camera.

Some findings:

As u know, 50i would give more a 'feel' of a live broadcast or documentary effect, while  25P would make it more 'romantic' (in the philosophic sense) or film-like.

It bascically also depends on your own 'tastes' how you want ur capture to look like. For instance, I was recently in Disney Paris with my family. I did most of the recording in F1...e.g. daily shuttle between our hotel and the Parks, and MOST of the outside activities. However, all the famous Disney parades I recorded in 25P, as the background music, the crowd and ...most important of it all my family in the middle of all that... made it kind of a memorable occasion. Similarly all night-time activities in the well lit Disney environment I captured in F3....i.e to focus more on detail. Some of the shots in our hotel room, which was rather dimly lit, i took in F4. I did not use F6 at all...as I did not have any intentions ...whatsoever...to blow out to film.

Among the various gamma curves, while F5 itself picks the cine-like, I used cine-like D for capturing the parades at day time. Specially on one of the occasions I could not find any other vacant place to stand...but one almost facing the sun. This choice, with the help of zebras, really helped me control the hgihlights...or the scenes where sun rays were striking the camera lens more directly.

While there is very little nosie or grain usually visible in the 25P mode, with the F1-F4 settings, detail coring has been very helpful in reducing noise in the shots where my PRIORITY was MORE DETAIL....i.e. where I had increased the detail levels.

i was quite satisfied with the chroma settings selected already in these modes and did not fiddle with them much...so really no first hand experience on that.

While I used the auto mode in some cases, now after my return I am convinced that all shots where I was tweaking with the various settings (at times almost without knowing what the final results would be) ultimately look much better than the auto settings.

Excuse me for this longish account but it was just a loud thinking of my first detailed experience with my DVX100AE

hope it helps somewhat.