I think it would be very usable if experienced GY-HD users/professionals can post their own "must do" advices. What's your personal suggestions when working with GY-HD cams? Thanks!

Thou shalt check thy back focus, in thy mercy

Thou shalt check thine dead pixels, and praise thou in it's glory

Thou shalt forsake those tapes, and step into the light of the firestore!

Thou shalt step away from the 110 and embrace the 200 or 250 as the one true GY-HD option!

If that commandment is not followed, thou shalt then embrace better batteries! (anton, IDX, anything!)

- Don't accidentally trip the gain switch

- Do pray you remembered to turn all off before connecting Firestore

- Don't zoom past 55mm (16x)

- Do turn peaking up

- Don't shut the iris down

- Do use the same tapes

- Don't forget the zebras

- Do go run and gun

- Don't shoot something black, in the direct sunlight, that is soaking wet (unless you loved Oprah Winfrey in "The Color Purple.")

- Do shoot bright and colorful contrast - like a boy, at the beach, against a blue summer sky

- Don't shoot bright and colorful contrast - like a boy, at the beach, against a blue summer sky - unless you set your backfocus, used Paolo's settings, and remembered to check the gain switch that you accidentally tripped when you took the camera out of the bag.

- Do realize you've got a glorious camera in your hands

- Don't get discouraged when you're not a glorious operator

-Thou shalt not forsake the black compress and black stretch options
-Wanton use of motion smoothing shall be met by the hand of retribution

Thou shalt not carry powered up camera on sticks hooked conveniently over shoulder to new setup lest one's shirt collar reset the shutter dial inadvertently and establish great subsequent consternations in the edit suite.

Thou shalt not plug anything in or out after transporting camera in car or aircraft in dry climate without first clasping in intimate embrace, a metallick part of the camera and a metallick part of the whatever you intend to plug into it, lest there be a sharp click and spirit of HD100 returns to join its Nivico ancestors on high.

Thou shalt not contend the good word that the firewire cable cable and that it would be connected to, should be first rendered lifeless and void of all electrical currents and potentials.

you guys just made my day

lol

Doesn't help when I crack up in front of customers though!

And Amen to all that has thus been spoken before
And shalt ever be spoken since
And if Ye shall pull the pin out of thy 'Holy Hand Grenade'
Thout shall count to 3
If thou shalt count to 4, and not 3
thou shall be blown into small peices.....

-- and verily, thy execution of a circumstance of levity with said hand grenade shall not reside within a distance of fifty cubits of the HD100, lest it be permanently sullied by your bodily remains.

Thou shalt not substitute the HD100 for the jawbone of an ass and apply it to an act of violence by swinging it whilst holding the lens. It will be deemed offensive for the surrounding throng to endure the observation of unreasoned enactment outage of cinematographer frustration on the set even if recalicitrant talent or overbearing directorship therein resides.

Thou shalt take due recourse to the vigilent observation of the battery condition, phantom power switch and the LCD bar graph, lest your images be struck mute and lifeless.

Thou shalt not offer up to the camera, any lens by means of the bottle-opening method, but by the device of a subdued rearwards excursion, duly centred axially.

Thou shalt avoid at all costs the evil practice of carrying the tripod and its burden, the HD100, by means of the HD100 carry handle.

In the dead of night when there be no sufficient illumination, thy passion shall not be to lick the exposed pins of the XLR microphone extension cable to determine if the journey of the phantom power is at an end.

Adam.

Do you know what the Rosendorff's ad on Ch7 was shot on. It looks a little bit Letus35/JVC or Letus35/CanonXL to me but I could be imagining things.

The most recent Satterley's Brighton spot was shot on the JVC GY-HD100/Mini35-400. That is also being run periodically on Ch7.

Look out for starting this Saturday on Ch7, a new campaign for Daren Reid and the Soul City Groove. This was also shot on the same JVC GY HD-100/Mini35. A Peleng f3.5 8mm fisheye was used for the limo interiors.

These are all very good "commandments"

Thou shall follow all the above suggestions. I love the humor. We can all use this sometimes.

Everyone have a very Happy New Year.

thou shalt feed line level into thine XLR's else ye may be smited with the hiss of thine word and your ears shall burn. also I say unto you, that thou shalt also secure the 48V's else you shalt release the blue genie of death upon thine gear and ye shall be filled with sorrow.

thou shalt always check thy shutter, for its easy to change its ways. so as you checketh thy shutter, so should one checketh thy ND filter or darkness may fall upon thy land.

in the land of 60hz when creating images unto the CCD at 23.976, thou shalt properly engage thy shutter when using the light of the HMI or ye shall be cursed with flicker.

this I say unto you.

- when in darkness thou shalt resist the urge to open the iris full wide lest you be stricken with the magenta-green plague.

- thou shalt always check the audio levels in the viewfinder, even if your most trusted boom holder promises not to screw it up this time.

- thou shalt not trust the white balance.

- whenever the day of the shoot is nigh thou willst check and recheck all of
thine equipment yourself, to do otherwise is a sin unto god and those working with you.

- whenever the morning of the shoot is upon you, you shall take due dilligence to load your preferred settings from the holy wafer.

- thou shalt not give your camera into the hands of the unworthy and untrained, to do so will give cause for the wrath of fate.

- thou shalt always keep a satchet of the holy granules of silica within thine camera receptacle lest you be stricken with the plague of corrosion.

- thou shalt use the blue lines of focus assistance or be smote with blurryness.

- thou shalt make backups.

- thou shalt not jam the plug of the power cord into the brick with recklessness, lest thou hast to beseech the blessed JVC technician in the early morn to fix the connecting pin.

- thou shalt utilise the powerzoom because you can and be merry.

- thou shalt disengage the zoom motor before attempting such powerzooming.

Thou shalt always power down devices before ye connect firewire cables, lest ye end up with a roasted and thus non functional capture interface.

Thou shalt color correct all footage.

Thou shalt not use the viewfinder for extended periods of time, lest you find yourself with sore eyes.

Thou shalt add extra weight/batteries to the rear portion of the camera to ensure a proper balance for shoulder work.

Thou shalt not trust the color levels that are seen in the viewfinder.

This I say.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you,

no mate I don't know, I do know that our church advert for 'Metro' church has at least half shots on HD101's with stock lenses, I think it's on channel seven at the moment. I only shot some of the material so I'm not sure what was shot on the other.

If there was one thing that this camera seriously needs other than a real microphone, is some real glass. And that will be my mission for 2008. The stock does the job, and will pay my way through 2008, but I always itch for wider and longer lens, and less CA and more resolving power.

(But in the spirit of this thread, take thoust all foundation principles of shooting video, and thus apply liberally (in a circular fashion if thoust liketh) to all thus which falleth under basicus commonsensicus, and thy heart shall be merry and thy video divine.)

Thou shalt shoot 24p mode in all USA/NTSC/HDV world

Thou shalt use screw in ND filters in addition to electronic ND filters to keep the aperature at least 5.6 or more open in broad daylight.

Thou shalt keep shutter speed between 1/48th to 1/100th unless you have a damn good reason not to... and not having a ND doesn't count. (hint buy at least one)

Thou shalt remove the stock mic and give it to small child to play with and attach a proper shock mount and Sennheiser mic with muff and forget about problems for ever after. (think $1,000 range for mic/capsule/mount)

Thou shalt turn off motion smoothing

Thou shalt use a varizoom controller for smooth zooms

Thou shalt to endless experimenting

thou shalt defend thy good name against all HVX heresy
thou shalt beam proudly in the midst of laughter when all indications are that your 135mm/brevis/stock lens/hd100 is a magnificent symbol for all to envy

---- and when conjoined with thy 50mm-500mm Sigma zoom at full extension, at the very equine, nay, very elephantine sight, shalt they tremble in their inadequacy. (an thet's enooff arf thes abseen folly Roobbit.)

Levity aside, it would probably be a good thing for all the true techical stuff to be distilled from this and other like threads and posted as a troubleshoot in the sticky threads which head this subforum.

I am only a tourist who occasionally runs up against the JVC so it won't be my lot to compile it as I would be sure to misinterpret something. (Wishing I had held off and had one but I am now beholden to Sony which came along first.).

- Do turn peaking up

Why?

- Don't shut the iris down

I thought it only applied when using the stock lens? It sure seems to be related to the lens rather than the camera as I shoot with the iris wide open with the Mini35 all the time and it looks great. Both relay and taking lens.

I find turning peaking up helps to find focus.

As for the iris reference, you are right, I was referring to the stock lens.

I thought it only applied when using the stock lens? It sure seems to be related to the lens rather than the camera as I shoot with the iris wide open with the Mini35 all the time and it looks great. Both relay and taking lens.

Wide open is usually less problematic than "iris shut down" as Eric mentions. Especially with your lens rig, where the small iris isn't only showing flaws in the lens, but it can start to "see" the ground glass with the extend DOF. The grain of the ground glass and motion better be optimal, especially used with wider lenses closed way down.
Wide open with glorious bokeh blur of out of focus elements both disguises and distracts from the minimal open aperture lens issues on the rigs.