I just moved up from a GL2 to XL1S (I know, XL1S is old, but so am I). I added a MA100 and a Rode shotgun mic and ready to go but need help with a couple of things. I understand shooting modes, but what is (A) "pull down" in frame mode and (B) Knees?
Thanks for any help,

Ed

Knee: (lifted from a post elsewhere by a Laurent Andrieux)
"It has to do with how the highlights will be rendered by the camera.
You see, in video, the high levels are often a problem.
- because one is supposed not have level over 100 IRE
- because the saturated highlights don't look good (no details, chroma problems...)
- because the way video renders signal is not as "smooth" as film does
You can see this when shooting outside for instance, if you have the sky/clouds in the frame.
One solution is to "break" the curve in the highlights, giving it a lower slope, decreasing gamma (contrast) after a certain point.
It will allow you to have details in the highlights as well as being able to record highlights that would be saturated otherwise.
Then, the "knee point" is the point where this break occurs
the slope is the curve's new slope after this point.
When you set it, have a highlight (window, sky, clouds...) in the frame and notice the changes in the settings."

"pull down":
In general "pull down" refers to a method of conversion between images of different frame/field rates, often between film and video. If you check Wikipedia you can find a reasonable explanation under telecine at Telecine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine)
Or check Pulldown Explained. (http://www.zerocut.com/tech/pulldown.html) or
Film and Video 3/2 pulldown explained (http://www.kozco.com/3_2/3_2.htm)

Hope the above helps.

Have a look here at a post i started about "knee"

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/123607-can-someone-explain-knee-slope.html

and here to see some knee demos

www.vimeo.com/paulkellett


Paul.