Those of you who have the V1, can y'all help me get squared away on the Camera Profiles feature please. The owner's manual is a little vague... on page 89 all it says is "the items that can be saved in the camera profile are set values of the menu, picture profiles and the buttons."

So I take that to mean that you can have 22 separate camera profiles... two in the camera and 20 more on the Memory stick... each of which can include specific menu settings, picture profile options, and user-assignable button settings.

Where I'm confused is with regard to the picture profiles. Each picture profile allows for control of these ten parameters: Color Level, Color Phase, Sharpness, Skin Detail, Skin Level, WB Shift, Knee Point, Black, CinemaTone Gamma and CinemaTone Color. There are six Picture Profile settings, or slots, in the camera. Four of them are pre-configured (portrait, cinema, sunset, monotone), and two of them are open for the user to assign as desired.

Are those six separate Picture Profile slots available in each of the Camera Profile slots? If so, then does that mean that you could have a total of 132 Picture Profiles available, with six in each of the two Camera Profiles onboard plus six in each of the 20 additional Camera Profiles stored on the memory stick?

I think it would be a good idea to upload saved setting files (picture profiles or camera profiles) from Memory Sticks along with the description and/or a photo of the scene it is useful for - to share with other users.

Anyone has some good profiles to share? I have seen similar thing in the Canon A1 forum.

Merged with my earlier, similar thread from Dec. 30th. I'll start a download library similar to what I did in the Canon XH forum if there are enough responses.

Merged with my earlier, similar thread from Dec. 30th. I'll start a download library similar to what I did in the Canon XH forum if there are enough responses.

Chris, yes please

If necessary in separate directory’s for V1E, V1P, V1U ??

As my camera is not deliverable in the next days / weeks, (V1E), I can’t help, myself.

volki

Merged with my earlier, similar thread from Dec. 30th. I'll start a download library similar to what I did in the Canon XH forum if there are enough responses.

Definitely keen!

I just need to know the file extension so I can tell the forum software to allow them for uploading...

I just need to know the file extension so I can tell the forum software to allow them for uploading...

What type did you use in the Canon XH-forum?

Or what type would you suggest?


volki

Chris, how about changing the Canon's to .ccp (Canon Custom Preset), and naming the Sony's .scp (Sony Custom Preset)?

Piotr,

I dont think it will work the way you suggest. The extension for the V1E seems to be .DAT

Here are some screen grabs of the folders in my memory stick.

folder1.jpg shows the main folder where DCIM contains the still shots if you take any.
In MSSONY folder you can find HVR-V1E folder and there are the camera and picture profiles as .DAT files.
Unfortunately I cannot differentiate which is picture profile and camera profile, I have seved both and gave names as well, but apparently they were saved only as .DAT

Anyone here with an idea how to save the settings more usable?

I guess you're right Zsolt; with Sony expecting .DAT and Canon - .CPF types of files, naming them differently just for uploading purposes wouldn't make sense at all;)

How big are these files typically? I suppose a 256 meg stick is sufficient?

Is here anyone who tried to change the settings of the preconfigured picture profiles (not only the last 2)
I assume if this can be done, one may come up with 6 custom tailored picture profiles, make them as a "copy" and save them on the mem stick - allowing to have them recalled in situations where they are needed, while the factory settings still would remain.

It would be great if an expert with deeper insight of the V1 would test this and post experience as a step by step instruction.

Thanks

I think I simply copied the the Video and Cine to the slots I wanted. Then I made variations to these base settings. I wound-up with 3 Video and 3 Cine. Then I assigned the 6 to the 6 buttons. This revealed a weakness to the V1's design. If you close the LCD, you can't access 3 of the buttons. :(

I never assumed I couldn't do this.

There's really nothing magic about any of the settings. The only thing not obvious is Sharpness and Color Level. Which is why I copied the Video and Cine settings.

Is here anyone who tried to change the settings of the preconfigured picture profiles (not only the last 2)
I assume if this can be done, one may come up with 6 custom tailored picture profiles, make them as a "copy" and save them on the mem stick - allowing to have them recalled in situations where they are needed, while the factory settings still would remain.

It would be great if an expert with deeper insight of the V1 would test this and post experience as a step by step instruction.

Thanks


It's easy to change them out, save them, recall/reload/archive them. I think I've got around 20 saved off now, between a few shoots.

Then I made variations to these base settings. I wound-up with 3 Video and 3 Cine.

Thanks! Do you mind sharing your settings for various situations? I cant wait until your book will go to print...

I think I've got around 20 saved off now, between a few shoots.

Thank you DSE. Could you please share some of them? I cant find such details in your DVD, I think it was released before these fine tuning options have been tried out.

No picture profiles yet...

Upz, upz !

I am sure there are tons of ppl looking for picture profiles usable in various situations.
I urge experts to share their knowledge and help. If it works for Canon, must work for V1 as well. I cant see why Sony users shall be any different from Canon users.

To start with, I share here some of my settings, hope it will help. It seems camera profiles can only be seen in my Memory Stick, so I cannot post the picture profiles as files. However I hope later someone will find out how to do it.

So, here is my setting for night shots. (I am not in the position now to post clips to illustrate, as travelling at the moment).

Color level: 3
Color phase 0
Sharpness 7
Skintone DTL type 1
Skintone level 3
WB shift 0
Knee point low
BLK Compensation Compress
Cinematone Gamma off
Cinematone color on

With this I use 25 frames and 6dB gain for pretty OK night shots of city sceneries.
I will appriciate even challenging comments if any details of my setting don't make sense.

And awaiting more picture profiles, folks.

So, here is my setting for night shots. (I am not in the position now to post clips to illustrate, as travelling at the moment).
Color level: 3
Color phase 0
Sharpness 7
Skintone DTL type 1
Skintone level 3
WB shift 0
Knee point low
BLK Compensation Compress
Cinematone Gamma off
Cinematone color on
With this I use 25 frames and 6dB gain for pretty OK night shots of city sceneries.
And awaiting more picture profiles, folks.

Zsolt

At the moment I'm a bit short of time and the V1E is all new to me.

Would you share your "standard day settings" with me?

Or are the factory-settings, with the exception of sharpness (from 7 to 3), alright for the first tryout?

volki

I remember there was some talk about us all sharing our V1U Profile Settings and storing them somewhere...did anything ever happen with this? I thought it was a great idea.

Yes, I have started a thread and it was closed down (or merged) by Chris, saying he has started similar thread.
well, you can see the posts here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=82810&highlight=picture+profile+V1

No one has posted any useful set of settings or profiles yet....

It would be great to know what works well in certain shooting situations.

Hey all, so the option to download different picture presets to a memory stick on the HVR-V1u
Obviously this is someone else tweaking what anyone can tweak but hey why not?

I just cant find ANY OF THEM!

Is there some private secret user group or something?

I use all apple if that is an issue of "downloading" a file

yet I do have USB adapters for various sized memory sticks

thanks if anyone knows!

I'd like to reciprocate - I've been looking for some too but am out of luck.

I've fiddled with the Cinema setting a little but have nowhere near enough skill or understanding to know I've got it right. I'd love to be able to share and exchange with others on these boards.

I had my V1 on a video engineer's test bench today. Looking at the scopes, here's what he liked. I've not had a chance to shoot with them.

Color Level: +3
Color Phase: +1
Sharpness: 2
Skintone Detail: Off (factory setting)
Skintone Level: 6 (factory setting)
White Balance Shift: 0
Knee Point: Low
Black Compensation: Off
Cinematone Gamma: Off
Cinematone Color: On

Is it possible to save different frame rates to different presets?

EX:

Preset 1: Settings+24P
Preset 2: Settings+30P
Preset 3: Settings+60i
etc...

To camera profiles, yes.

Which can then be set to the first 3 ASSIGN buttons, right?

Which can then be set to the first 3 ASSIGN buttons, right?

Unfortunately not quite - only Picture Profiles can be assigned to any button 1-6.

Just wanted to re-iterate that I'm more than happy to host downloadable profiles for V1 owners... we've had pretty good success with maintaining scene file libraries from Canon XL and XH owners as well as JVC Pro HD owners. I'd love to offer the same thing to Sony V1 folks as well. Hopefully you guys will share your presets... thanks in advance,

After having tested the XH A1 for a couple of weeks and using presets a lot with it, now that I got accustomed to the V1 I believe there really is no need to bother with presets, unless there is more than one user, and each wants to be able to revert quickly to his own settings. I mean, entering all changes the shooting situation requires can be much faster that loading a camera profile, which always reboots the machine!

Another situation when using presets could be beneficial is the very same shooting/delivering parameter set, repeating on a regular basis, and tested so thoroughly that a custom preset is 100% sure to be the best one to use...

It's easy to change them out, save them, recall/reload/archive them. I think I've got around 20 saved off now, between a few shoots.

Spot, please clarify; Are you saving individual picture profiles to the memory stick? Or are you saving six at a time as a specification of a camera profile?

I can't find in the menu or manual an option to save just a picture profile to memory stick.

Many thanks.

I change them at will, just reset back to default, they are reset.I have spent hours and hours on taping minor changes to each, actually the factor defaults are pretty good as far as I can see. Heres one a friend gave me, he got it from someone who shoots for Discovery or something like that, its fairly saturated
color level 5
color phase 4
sharp 13
skintone type 2
skin lvl 4
wb 0
knee auto
blk stretch
cine tone type 1
cinetone color on

Hi, I've to do a shoot next week, with a Z1 and a V1 in PAL. MyZ1 prefered settings are:
Color Level+2
Color Phase 0
Shaprness 12
Skintone DTL Off
Skintone LVL Middle
AE Shift -2
AGC Limit 6dbs.
AT Iris LMT. f11
WB Shift +4
ATW Sens Middle
Black off
Cinemat. off
Cineframe off.

Know it's a long shot, but can anyone suggest, a Preset for the V1 which will give me less hassle in post production? Manual white balancing of course.Thought it was worth asking anyway!
Cheers, Mike.

i like the look of the cinema picture profile on my v1u and usually shoot with that. is that something is should not use, and worry about that in post?

i like the look of the cinema profile. but should i not use it, and worry about the looks in post? im going to be shooting a music video, and just wanted opinions on to use it or not.

thanks

I use the Cinegamma 1 plus Cinecolor settings for bright daylight outdoor scenes, particullarly any shots of ocean/coastline, etc. It's a very distinctive, saturated look that I like.
I will say that if I intercut shots from a camera that doesnt have those settings, it can be tricky to get them to match in post.
In lighting that is less than splendid bright outdoor light these settings seem to crush the blacks a bit, so I don't use them universally.
It might be worthwhile to do some test shots before committing yourself.

I use all 6 and keep changing 5 and 6 to suit me, each one has a use as far as I am concerned, The Sony defaults are real good, but I like a saturated effect to reduce doing it in V8. I spend many hours trying different settings and have tried to narrow it down to what I use now.

Perhaps a silly question, but does anyone wish to share any presets with the community?

We are getting ready to shoot a segment which involves R/C Helicopters, and its literally like chasing a dragonfly in the air with fast tele/wide and rapid focus dynamics.

Not real sure how to approach this one, although I plan on practicing a bunch before the event.

If anyone has a action-sports preset they wanna share (hint-hint), let me know.

Thanks guys.

I will share mine, I got them from someone, this is the one I like the best, saturated like discovery, a friend got it from someone who said they shot for discovery,
color +3
color phase 0
sharp 12
skintone type 1
skintone lvl 3
wb 0
knee auto
blk compress
cinematone type 2
cinematone color on

try it you can always change it I use in profile 6

Steve Mullen has a bunch laid out in his book. Those are the ones I've chosen to program in and I've been happy with them.

Steve Mullen has a bunch laid out in his book. Those are the ones I've chosen to program in and I've been happy with them.

I have the Douglas Spotted DVD and the Masterworks DVD on the way from B&H. I figure its a great starting point with both, even though it appears the Masterworks covers more FX7.

Ok, here's my take on the relation between the sharpness setting and the noise in the image.

After this test I started using a maximum sharpness value of 4.

Notice on the mountain example how unnaturally sharpened the trees look when sharpness is set to 7 (camera default).

PS: I still have some doubts about color settings, like how should I set the PP so I have the largest headroom when Color Correcting?

I agree totally with your decision to use sharpness 4 and no more.

This is the figure I settled on some time ago for my V1E.

I would rather have a natural image, if you examine the top of the foliage on the hill on your sharpness 12 image there is a thin BLACK line edging everything, that is not natural.

You would not see that with your eyes when you are there.

Likewise if you examine the edge of the pale yellow or cream building at the left there is an unnatural WHITE line edging it and the blue sky.

I believe this is all that digital sharpening of images is, no more than applying black and white lines to the edge of everything, it's a trick to fool the eye into believing the images are sharper than they really are.

Love my V1E on sharpness 4! not to mention the extra resolution in 25P mode.

This BBC White Paper Addendum is worth a look:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp034-add23.shtml

Other similar cameras are covered in a long list of other addenda to the White Paper 034:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp034.shtml

Alan, thanks for posting those links. I followed the trail to this document:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP034_ADD23-Sony-HVR-V1.pdf

A *great* engineer's summary of the camcorder, especially valuable for operators are the tables of menu settings.

If it were me, I'd add one more "BBC" setting - Focus Macro = Off. This is because the Macro setting defeats the backfocus, meaning you can't zoom in, focus, and zoom out with good results (in manual focus mode).

BBC's review of colorimetry - I wish we had a similar review for the NTSC version of the camera.

A great orientation for anyone looking to maximize the performance of their V1 through Picture Profiles.

Alan

Thanks for this. Someone told me a year that this information could be found on the BBC website, but I didn't really know what I was looking for, so didn't find it then. Now I've downloaded the papers for both the Sony A1e and the Canon XH A1 - how did I manage to end up with two cameras having the same A1 tag?

Very interesting read, that BBC paper. One of the things that most interested me is the mentioning of a softness in the image in apertures smaller than F5.6, suggesting that the neutral density filters be used rather than stopping down the lens. Has anyone else noticed this? This may explain the softness of many of the clips I took on a recent field trip. At first I thought my focusing must be really off, but I couldn't find anything in the soft images that was crisp, so it wasn't as though the focus was off by even a small margin. The image was just soft.

(I had sharpness set to 8 in picture profile).

The softness is not peculiar to the V1, it occurs with all cameras which use a small sensor. It is caused by diffraction, which is inevitable when any wave - including sound and water waves - passes through a gap whose width is comparable to the wavelength.

The small sensors used in video cameras necessitate very small iris diameters when the lens has to be stopped down in bright light, hence the incorporation of built-in ND filtration. The problem is much less acute with 35 mm cameras due to the larger sensors, which require a larger diameter iris for a given light transmission level.

Thanks for that explanation, Alan. There I was, aiming for the smallest possible aperture to maximise depth of field (I was shooting wildlife), when I would have been better off with the iris half open. It's not as though I needed the extra depth of field for the V1, anyway, because of the size of the sensor. Now if only I'd had this discussion before going overseas... :(

An update - turns out the video wasn't soft at all. When I captured the footage I had downconverted it from the camera into SD because my plan was to do a simple edit for DVD, then do a high definition version some other time (hopefully following a major computer upgrade). I had expected the SD version to be clear, but just lower resolution, when in fact it was of much poorer quality than my old SD PD150. After reading that downloading it as HDV and then downconverting it to SD DV in a video editing program gives better results, I tried downloading a few clips as HD. What a difference!