What settings do you set your HPX170 at when filming a movie?

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Filmkid2003

Well-known member
Hey everyone. I'm gearing up to shoot my first film with the HPX170 camcorder and I'm wondering what settings I should have the camcorder set at if I want to color correct the movie after its all edited? I will be shooting at 720/24p Native. I plan on shooting in Cine V because I don't want any more noise in the picture. As far as the color settings go, should I keep them at "0" or play with them and make the image look as close to the future "color corrected" image as possible? Most of the movie will be shot outside in bright sunlight using a reflector to light up my subjects. I will be shooting with a Cinemek G35 adapter, 50mm and 28mm Nikon Nikkor lenses, and a matte box with ND filters. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I plan on color correcting with Magic Bullet software and I will be editing the movie with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. Thanks.
 
In your situation, you want to shoot as flat a "negative" as possible. For a big screen exhibition, whether on video or film, I would be concerned about recording the cleanest signal with the most latitude. Personally, I like B Press, it is the quietest of the gammas. I would also check your detail, coring, etc. based upon the recommendations that Barry Green makes in his HVX/HPX book if you are in the U.S. and bought a U.S. warrantied camera. If you want to shoot in Cine Like, you would want Cine Like D, not V. You can check out screen caps at the bottom of my article on the 170 here http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hpx_170_evolution_brockett.html

I would not amp up the chroma or change the hue. Go for flat, low noise and watch your whites so that they don't blow out. Basically, for what you want to do, the picture in your monitor should look really flat and dull, you will make it look good in color correction. Don't succumb to trying to make it look good in-camera, you will be leaving latitude and detail that you could have had on the table.

Dan
 
Hey, exactly what settings would I set the camera at to get a flat negative? Could you give me the exact settings you would use for each feature to record a flat negative? For example, chroma, corning, knee, etc. Thanks.
 
Do you have the Barry Green book? There is not really much point in my suggesting specific settings as you are going for your look, not my look and my look is setup for what I shoot, which is mostly for TV and the web, not for large screen projection. My suggestion would be to read the Barry book carefully in the chapter where he goes into what each of those settings do.

Here is a clue. Flat would denote no or little boost or cut in a setting. If you turn a setting up past 0, it is not flat, correct? You really need to read the paragraphs about detail and coring though. It is a little technical but you would set these differently for a show that will only be seen on the web abd TV versus a show that will be projected on a 50 foot screen.

Dan
 
Okay. Thanks, Dan. One more thing. I've been shooting 720/24p and I noticed that when I edit the footage in Premiere Pro CS3, on my 47 inch LCD flatscreen HDTV (1080p) that the straight lines of the image are a bit jagged. Is that normal? Would the jagged edges go away if I shot at 1080i? I watched a short film done by a low budget filmmaker who shot on a camcorder with a SGBlade adapter on the same 47 inch TV and there were no jagged edges whatsoever. The image was completely sharp and crisp. Would it be the codec in Premiere as I edit that is causing the jaggedness?
 
Could be the upconversion of your 720 to 1080 if your set is 1080 native. Could be the detail settings in the camera. There are a lot of areas where that could be a factor but the only way to discover the variable is to systematically eliminate all of the possible parameters one by one.

Shoot a test in 1080. If there are no or lower jaggies, there is your variable. If not, you eliminate that variable and move on to the next.

Dan
 
The jaggedness is a technological curse which 1080i cures but people imagine 24 fps looks more film like because film cameras shoot in 24p. You are probably better to shoot at 1080i and output either 24p output for film or 30p for the web in post. A film look is often easier to achieve in post, which is the flat lighting suggestion above. Add to the darks in post and wow, it will look great. Also Premiere tends to lighten your image and Final Cut outputs a darker image.
 
Vince, if I shoot in 1080i, will I still be able to get smooth slow motion in post since I won't be able to utilize the HPX170's various frame rates since I'd be shooting in 1080i instead of 720p? Also, how will I get the 24p film look if I shoot in 1080i instead of 720/24p?
 
Okay, I shot some footage in 1080i/24pa and imported it into Premiere Pro CS3 and the jaggedness didn't go away one bit! Any straight edges in the footage are jagged. The weird thing is, when I press the space bar and pause the image, the jaggednesss completely goes away and everything looks crisp and sharp! What the heck is going on? I didn't pay $4800 for a Panasonic HPX170 to get a crappy image like this!!! Can someone please explain to me what might be going on and how I can fix this problem? Could it be Premiere Pro CS3? Thanks.
 
Maybe right-click your viewer and change the playback to "highest Quality" vs. "draft quality" or "automatic quality". That's all I can think of now.
 
OK, I'm going to be the extra cook in the kitchen and add my two cents here...

If your output monitor can't natively display 1080p24 (which, if it's made to be a television, it probably can't), the 1080p24 signal coming from your footage (and from Premiere) is getting converted to 1080i60 at some point (either in the monitor, your video card, or in software). The jagged lines sound like the same thing you might see watching 480i footage on a computer monitor, while the footage is playing back. Hit pause, however, and the image left on the output is (usually) a composite of two fields, making a complete frame have no jagged lines.

I'm not sure exactly what your output setup is, and where the conversion is happening. If you want a really clean, crisp image, look into getting an AJA or BlackMagic converter card to send signal directly to your output monitor. Someone with more experience than I on that front might want to weigh in here, though...
 
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