Ok, so I have been testing up a storm in all sorts of variables, I had put up a post slating grainy results some weeks back, lighting seemed to be the common response. where I am at now is a close quarters corridor shot, studio lighting with softboxes to illuminate the entire hall, I setup 2 camera's both same results, a very grainy output when imported to FCS 2. HOWEVER, here is the part i dont get, at one point I zoomed in on the targets face unconciously, and when I had her shoulders and face in the frame the picture was crystal clear. When I am shooting the scene I have the camera's pretty close ( 4 and 7 feet away respectively) with the zoom all the way out so I can fit the Max amount of the scene. Is there a difference in resolution/clarity from full zoom in to full zoom out? I have at this point over 3 hours of various settings and shots and all net near the same results when captured into FCS 2, thank you in advance for your help everyone, i really appreciate it, i am so lost on this, exspecially when i see how sharp and beautiful the subjects face is when i zoomed in without realizing it, must have hit the remote by accident as i am running 2 cameras on my own

Good evening,

I remember your posts from a while back. From what you have said, all I can imagine the problem could be is capturing into fc2.

you might try and down load scenalizerlive demo and capture some footage with it and then compare.

I still have my gl2 and wont selll it because it takes such excellent standard definition footage. I have done quite a few two camera shoots with the gl2 and an xl2 and blend them together well.

I can;t imagine that you could have got two faulty gl2's!!!


Video Capture Software - download ScenalyzerLive (http://www.scenalyzer.com/download.html)

this is my prefered dv cature utility. also catures multiple audio tracks too!

"HOWEVER, here is the part i dont get, at one point I zoomed in on the targets face unconciously, and when I had her shoulders and face in the frame the picture was crystal clear"

This made me think of the light meter in my Nikon dslrs. You have a choice of several ways of metering, one among them "spot". If you choose spot , you will only measure the space where you point it at and it will not average the available light reflected of the overall scene. So you may get under or over exposure and/or get noise in certain areas. The GL2 light meter does do spot metering, I think and not give you the option to choose ...

If you have a handheld light meter, you could find out.

rgds,

Herman

Well here is the thing i've done countless hours of testing and searching, I have come to the conclusion that the GL2 can never seem to have enough light, exspecially in indoor situations. I am still highly disappointed with the footage I get when compared to what i see of others. this is of course with and without post production introduced. I am shooting in full manual, shutter 1/60, f 2.0, as I said earlier I white balance manually and use the auto focus only to get my focus and then switch to manual. I just can't seem to get a level of clarity in comparison to others output, my real problem here is that the finish product is intended for a drive in screen over a projector this winter, and I am still clueless as to how I can capture good enough footage to do that at this point

Ok, so 7 hours of test footage, every manual option the camera has to offer and I just cant seem to get usable footage imported to FCS 2 that is usable, less the close up face shots and even those are pixelated and blocky at points. So I decided, being the absolute tech nerd that I am, to bring out a 55" LCD TV to use as and on location monitor and ran the AV to the TV to use instead of the viewfinder or small LCD on the camera. AND OH MY LORD! the picture showing on the 55" monitor using a few of the suggestions found on these forums was AMAZING!!!! why am I not able to record and transfer the same picture I view on the monitor? I am using FCS 2 now, but have also tried capturing into Vegas as well with identical results

Computer monitors and TVs are different - very differnt. Also you can get into scaling and frame dropping effects in the image presented in a NLE monitor overlay. The NLE image is mainly for editing (cuts, transitions, and maybe color correction and some effects - more composition than critical viewing). The best way to judge video in on the exact system upon which it will ultimately be viewed. Next best is using a a high quality video monitor to ensure it is spot-on the video specification.