Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you would be generous enough to share your menu settings and discuss why you like your settings.

I am most interested in the color/image settings such as Cine, knee, color matrix, etc. etc. etc...... I have tried to find a "Missing Manual" type book which describes all of the settings in detail (XL2 manual is anemic), but have had no luck.

With potentially thousands of different combinations of settings just for the image control, this is kind of a nightmare not having a manual that gives us some template settings.

Sure does seem like someone could make a few dollars by experimenting and providing template information to the xl2 community... for example, "If you want a 1950's color look set your camera as follows...", or "if you want maximum skin tone saturation... set your camera to....", "Need to match the default settings of a DVX-1000, set your camera to..."

Matt

Hi;

Trouble is it's really a project driven choice, For example I'm about to shoot a short about a ghost haunting an English coastal landscape, due to the nostalgic tone of the directors screenplay were going for a look where the greens are saturated but all the other colors are very natural, Our basic setup is;

1x Tiffen soft con filter .3 strength

menu settings;
gamma-cine
knee-low
black-stretch (for a lower con look)
color matrix-cine
V detail-norm
NR-off
Color Gain-+1 (1 click above center)
color phase- G+1 (1 click toward G from centre)
Red Gain-0
Green Gain-+3
Blue Gain-0
Sharpness-3 (-3 clicks from centre)
coring +1
set up level 0
master level 0

I guess if you made all the green pushes centred this could be a basic look for you to start with, however I would suggest you think about the looks you like in films and then try to brake them down into elements you can apply to the XL2 menu. It's all subjective......

Olly

It would be cool though, I kind of guide with all different set-ups from the menu, for certain looks...
I don't know if there are people here from the boards who would like to do something like it, or make an article for the dvinfo website...?

Rachel,
you are right that it is all subjective, but even the color setup that you and shared helps us to all better understand how this works.

I have a shoot coming up where I am having to use my XL2 as second camera to a higher end Sony. OH MY it would be cool to have a searchable reference that would allow me to get close to the default settings of the main camera.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, and thanks for sharing your information.

You may want to pick up the "Ultimate Guide to the Canon XL2" DVD. (www.canondvguide.com)

Among other things they spend about 30 minutes going through every single setting in the menu tree, including the color/image settings. While I would say that it will not make you an overnight expert with the settings by watching, it will give you a good (visula + audio) overview of what each setting is for, what it affects, as well as some tips for using some of the more tricky ones.

Hope that helps...

~J