GL / XM assorted posts, 2003

[John DeLuca]

I caught it! Yes he was using film, but the videographer behind him wasnt(guy shooting him, shooting film). His flim cam looked like it was for documentry(16mm, after all he is shooting one) not a 35mm, super 35mm, or 70mm movie film cameras like in real films. I could be wrong, but thats my 2cents. BTW- Did you see Ice Cubes Film camera in "Anaconda". Sweet!




John DeLuca Akron, Ohio

[Bo Smith]

Real films still use 16mm film, all though they are lower budget flims, but 16mm is still a viable format.

I was wondering if they exclusevly used the GL2 for the video shots. I know filming took place over the course of three years, so they couldn't have been using it at the start.

And what was their audio situation? Were they useing the on camera mics or not?

-Bo

[Bob Harotunian]

It was a very quick shot but the videographer was holding a GL2 and there did not appear to be an on-board mic. Thought I was seeing things but you guys confirmed it. It would be nice to know if GL2 scenes were actually shown.

[Dale Anthony Smith]

Filters - DVX Lens Hood "Mattebox"
I am trying to avoid buying either a mattebox or 3 of each filter to fit the standard (72mm), the Century .6WA (95mm), and the tele extender (105mm).
The tech at Century says that there is no fitting to put a filter on the .6WA without vignetting. He said to tape a filter to the front of the lens is the only way so far... and that they were "developing" something for that lens.
One solution could be to hold the square filter in place in front of the lens with flex arm clips. OR... I was looking at the lens hood... It measures 4"X 4.5". There are those four screws on the front to remove the plate... Has anyone thought about or tried to put a 4X4 filter into the lens hood? The open back of the lens hood could be covered with some douvatine or black velvet to keep the light from hitting the back of the filter. Might just work...


__________________
Multi-Media

[Charles King]

Noah. There's a link or two on the HBS site under tips. Ross Had done a drawing of matte box for his XL1 but it can also be used with the GL1/XM-1 camera.
Here's my matte box: http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/charlesmattebox.html

[Bo Smith]

Is Frame Movie Mode on the GL2 the same as 30P?

And does Deinterlaceing Blending look somewhat like 30P?
(For any one who doesn't know what this is. Take two layers of the same video and deinterlace the upper fields on the top layer, and deinterlace the lower fields on the lower layer, and set the upper layers opacity to 50%)

-Bo

[Alex Knappenberger]

Yeah, I suppose you could call it that. It is 30fps progressive, but I'm not quite sure, and I think I read somewhere before that it's not as good as the "real thing", or something. I'll let someone else comment on that...

Also I never heard of deinterlacing blending. What editing software do you use? If you use Vegas 4 (great software :D) then the best thing is to export at 24P, looks good.

EDIT - NVM about Vegas, I see your on a mac.

[Bo Smith]

I'm useing Final Cut Express.

I don't know if thats exactly what it's called, but it takes away the video look of 60i. I've also been told that it keeps close to full quality.

-Bo

[Ken Tanaka]

Not a "stupid question" at all, Bo.

For most practical considerations, Canon's "frame mode" is prit near 30P (in NTSC). While it is not "true" progressive scan (as found on the DVX100 and other high-end cams, for example) it uses a proprietary algorithm to capture both fields while removing temporal artifacts.

Adam Wilt's site features some information on this subject as well as anything else that strikes his fancy. A very informative place.

[Trig Simon]

When I take a still shot with the memory card on my GL-2, the card logo blocks the picture that I shot, so I cannot see if I got a good smile or not. Is there any way to get rid of the logo, so I can see if I need to take another shot?

[Kirk Tutterrow]

I'm getting serious and repetitive audio dropout, crackle when I capture video from my GL1 into Premiere 6.5. This occurs only on tapes which were recorded on another camera.
It occurs through both the firewire and when using the A/V jacks, but is not heard when listening to playback on the camera.
The tapes were originally shot on DVCPro and transferred to MiniDV.
I've tried capturing on a Alienware 2.53 GHz P4, Matrox RT.X100 card, and Creative Audigy Platinum eX sound card, running XP Pro and a Sony Vaio laptop running XP Pro. This happens on just about every tape not originally shot on the GL1.

Any ideas?

thanks,
Kirk

[John Fitch]

While looking around at Target today, I noticed that packages of Fellowes brand "Wright Right" screen protectors (a thin polymer film that helps prevent scratches and glare) for Palm Pilots were on sale for a little under $4.00. I decided to buy a pack not to use on a Palm Pilot, but rather as a protective cover for the LCD display on my GL2. I know Fellowes manufactures a similar product for the small LCD displays on digital cameras, and my guess is that the Palm screen protectors and digital camera screen protectors are the same material just cut to different sizes. Nonetheless I thought I'd ask if anyone has cut PDA screen protectors to the proper size and used them on a GL2 or other camera with an LCD display. I'm assuming that if the film is safe to use on a PDA screen, then it could be safely used on an LCD display, but I just thougt I'd ask for your opinions.

[Jeff Price]

I was looking for a case for my GL2, mostly to support it while it sat on the floor of my van, between the seats, but also some to protect it when I travel by air.

I considered a hard case but I really will be using it more in the car than needing to ship it so I thought soft would work better. I looked at the Portabrace (nice, too expensive). I was leaning toward the Kata for a while but haven't been able to find one locally to look it. The Lowe Pro bag was (and may still be) an option.

In searching around for a cheaper alternative I stumbled across a bag that may work well. It is called "Uncle Mike's Deluxe Range Bag" and is designed to haul your gear to a shooting range. It is designed for law enforcement use and is about as rugged as I've seen. It is padded, though not soft padding. The camera fits inside well but it will need some additional foam put in in order to hold in place better. At the moment the camera is sitting on top on my Sennheiser mic box on the bottom of the bag but I think I'll take the mic out of the box and put it in one of the padded side pockets.

The cost? $44 at Galyan's, a local sporting goods store. I'll certainly be giving it a try this weekend to see if it's a keeper.

[Joshua Badour]

Ok.

I was filming an interior scene the other day for my upcoming film and I got a window in the shot. Big mistake. The window was recorded as just a white image where the trees would be (as shown through the window).

I was on a tight timeline, so I just refilmed from a different angle. However, to avoid doing this again, I was wondering if there was any way to fix this. I had it on manual recording, and just recently purchased the cammy. Could I fix this by putting it on "auto"?

Thanks

[Jeff Donald]

The scene exceeded the exposure range of your camera and format. Changing the aperture and/or shutter speed might have lowered the overall exposure, but your shadows would have gone black.

The easiest way to control a window is to cover it with an ND gel material to lower it's exposure value. You could also have added light to the interior to make it brighter and more closely match the brighter exterior. But just adusting the exposure can't bring the scene into the range your camera and format can reproduce. You need to make the brightness values of different elements within the scene closer to each other.