Hi Friends,

Well I've taken the plunge and just purchased my new DVC30. I would appreciate some help with my journey in getting to know how to get the most out of my new camera. Now that I have a cam that is designed for manual shooting I need some help with the driving instructions as I have been a mainly auto shooting filmer prior to this.

I'll just start off with a couple of simple questions. ( I hope. )

What is the difference between field shooting and frame shooting?

Is it essential to attach the ferrite cores to the firewire cable?

Thanks, Ian

This is what i've found with the DVC30.

I like the look of frame mode but not really the resolution. Frame mode basically looks like it lops off a field. so sharp edges look stair steppy. I'm now shooting in normal mode which is interlaced video.
I like shooting in anamorphic or squeeze because I have a 16:9 tv, but lately i've been shooting normal with a 16:9 template on the LCD. That way it allows me to have a little up and down movement when I letterbox.
Go ahead and get the XLR adapter if you are going to get an external mic which I recommend. It made my life much easier and opens up more options. If not, I have an xlr to mini sure transformer for sale if you want to buy it :-).
If you shoot at a shutter speed of 1/30, it looks exactly like frame mode except with more light.
One useful thing i've found is if you setup one of the user buttons to autofocus, it's nice to be able to hit that button, let it focus and then release it to go back to manual. There is also an option to AF + zoom which is helpful in getting a nice quick focus on a particular item.
The preset white balance options seem to work nicely. sun, bulbs. I don't always have a white card on me.
no need to put a clam shell on the firewire, use it for your external mic cable.

set the setup to zero, not 7.5.

I think i've spent more on extra junk than I paid for the camera.

Thanks Michael.
I need the higher res so I'd better stay with normal.
what do you mean by "set the setup to zero, not 7.5."

Under camera setup menu at the bottom, you'll see an option for setup.

Hey Michael,
I think you mean in the Scene File menu under settings where you can set the levels? Are you in OZ and can you give me some more info on the transformer?

Does anyone have any tips on shooting sunrises and sunsets?

Will the white balance be affected in manual mode if I cover the sensor after the initial selection or setting has been made? I like to cover the camera with a protective cloth when I'm outdoors - especially near salty sea breezes.

Enough for now I think!

Thanks Ian

if you are going to use an external xlr mic and you don't have the xlr adapter, you should use an xlr to mini transformer to match the impedence. Sure makes one for about $36 that does this, it also records to both channels. But the mini plug input is cheap and if your running around, I found that it could be real easy to break the input socket if you weren't careful. The xlr adapter input is so much more rugged and sturdy.

no, not the scene file. it's under the setup menu. at the bottom you'll see a setup selection. you have two options 0 and 7.5.

White balance, when set, will stay set until you shut off the camera. but I find the sun and bulb presets to work very good.

as far as sunsets, i've been playing around with different shutter speeds as opposed to closing the iris. I'm not sure if this affects whether or not the ND filter engages or not. I'm not really sure when the the ND filter gets engaged or how it's determined.

Ian,

One thing I really miss on the DVC30 is a manual ND filter. With the auto filter you just don't have the creative control you may need. Go out an buy a screw on ND filter for those times ND is necessary and you will be happy you did.

Regards,

Mark

Thanks Guys,

I do have a ND(x4), a polariser and a UV filter - all Hoya. I will experiment with them.

Maybe I'm blind Michael! All I have in the camera setup is synchro scan and aspect conversion. I can't see anything that resembles this 0 or 7.5 setting in the recording setup either. Do you have PAL like me or NTSC model?

that's the right menu, just look down at the bottom of that page. I have an ntsc model.

This is a mystery.

Does anyone have a PAL DVC30 with this setting on it that Michael is referring to? It definitely is not on my cam - unless they left it out. What is it used for Michael? Is it important? Maybe it is only on NTSC.

I didn't realize you had a Pal version. It's only on NTSC. It's a confusing setting regarding black level in the US, but only on the analog out. But some cameras record it to tape which raises the black level.

Can anyone tell me if when set to "Auto" does the DC30 camera have a compressor similar to the Sony TRV900 or VX2000.

I have the full size version of the 30 the DVC62 and can't believe it does not have auto level control as result I am getting really bad audio spikes!!!!

Can't you just go XLR to mini?

yes you can. You should use an impedence matcher like the sure A96f line transformer. It also routes the signal to both channels too. This combined with a shotgun can be very long, so make sure you take that into account. I think it runs $36 at B&H. I bought one before I purchased the xlr adapter, but I still use it when I rent a camera now and then like the vx21000 that just has mini in.

Thanks, lifesaver. How's about if I wanted to use a simple behringer mixer (2-4 channel) into the camcorder? Could I just use an attenuating cable? All because, in my business I may go from an interview needing one mic one day to a choir needing 4 the next.

I've done same. I'm very impressed, it's a lot of camera for not much money, great features but compact and comfortable. The manual to auto focus and AF zoom functions mentioned are very useful in low light where you want to use manual focus so that there's no AF searching but also want to be sure you're focus is accurate.
Can anyone advise how to use the zebra function?
I'm also going to experiment with shutter speeds for shooting sports. My Panny GS400 has a pre set 'sports' mode, what shutter speed would that be?
What is the 'down side' to increasing gain when increasing shutter speed. Does it introduce more noise?

Well i shot some test footage at my son's volleyball game. 1/250 seemed ok, checking it frame by frame in my nle each frame was still in focus on action shots. Trying zebra pattern, the white line on court showed with a slight zebra pattern so I dropped back 3db of gain to lose it, pretty handy function. Can't see a good reason why you wouldn't leave that on while shooting manually. The part I don't understand with zebra is marker setting. I can see the percentage increases when the object inside the small marker square is lighter. Anybody? The more I use it the more I like it!

Thanks, lifesaver. How's about if I wanted to use a simple behringer mixer (2-4 channel) into the camcorder? Could I just use an attenuating cable? All because, in my business I may go from an interview needing one mic one day to a choir needing 4 the next.

I'm using a Behringer UB1202 with my DVC30 and am having problems. I'm taking one of the main outputs from the UB1202 and feeding it into the external mic mini jack of the DVC30 and getting a ton of noise that I can't tune out without reducing levels to the point that they are meaningless. Anyone have success using this or a similar setup?