Cine mode settings?

[Ron Lemming]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

I think so--The HV20 is tricky as you need to use the joystick to activate it.

You press it once...and you navigate using the joystick to EXPOSURE and select.

And then you have an option of increasing/decreasing exposure or leaving it alone.

Ah okay, that's good. Since you say "navigate", what are the other options in that menu?

[Dennis Vogel]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

Here are two clips from the HV20 with Cinemode on and off.

These two files have .ts suffixes. What codec did you use to create them? I would have expected .m2t suffixes for HDV files.

Good luck.

Dennis

[Barry Green]

In response to questions asked here: CINE mode is a fully automatic exposure mode. None of the parameters (shutter, iris, or gain) are "locked", they can all vary depending on the lighting conditions. However, the camcorder does seem to try very hard to maintain 1/48 shutter and 0dB of gain whenever possible.

But that's not guaranteed, and in a dark interior setting you may find yourself with 9dB of gain and a 1/8 shutter. So always make sure to feed the camera enough light and you should usually get 1/48 shutter with 0dB.

You can lock exposure though, and force the camera to use 1/48 and 0dB, but you'd have to do so by forcing exposure to some known quantifiable setting first. My trick for that is that I've loaded up a white JPG on my cell phone; I can fill the HV20's screen with that white JPG and lock exposure and know that I've got 0dB and 1/48 on the EXP+/- scale all the way from -11 up to +6. Going to +7 through +11 will involve gain and slower shutters, so I avoid that.

[Wes Vasher]

Originally Posted by Barry Green

My trick for that is that I've loaded up a white JPG on my cell phone; I can fill the HV20's screen with that white JPG and lock exposure and know that I've got 0dB and 1/48 on the EXP+/- scale all the way from -11 up to +6. Going to +7 through +11 will involve gain and slower shutters, so I avoid that.

That's a great tip Barry. Thanks.

[Peter J Alessandria]

Originally Posted by Barry Green

You can lock exposure though, and force the camera to use 1/48 and 0dB, but you'd have to do so by forcing exposure to some known quantifiable setting first.

Barry - how do you "lock" anything on the HV20 other than the shutter in Tv mode and apeture in Av mode? Won't the camera automatically compensate [either shutter, apeture or gain, as appropriate] as the scene(s) change?

[Chris Hurd]

Peter -- when in Tv mode, use the Exp. Lock button on the back of the camcorder.

[Peter J Alessandria]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Peter -- when in Tv mode, use the Exp. Lock button on the back of the camcorder.

Thanks Chris. You're talking about using the "Manual Exposure Adjustment" [manual p 48-49]? The joystick setting that allows you to choose -1---0---+1? I see this as EV compensation ranging from -1 to +1 but I guess it will also "lock" in that compensation number. Do we know if this setting survives turning the camera on and off? Or do I have to set it each time?

Edit: thinking about this, I don't think it locks exposure; rather it allows you to add or subtract 1 EV brightness but the camera will still adjust it's exposure. Am I missing something?

[Elmer Lang]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

Here are two clips from the HV20 with Cinemode on and off.

This was shot late afternoon near the 59th Street Bridge.

24p+Cinemode ON http://www.filefactory.com/file/e20c24/

24p+Cinemode OFF http://www.filefactory.com/file/6a1618/

The files are about 22-24 megs each.

How do you download those files?

The layout's confusing, there's nothing to click on, when I hit "download with basic" I get nothing to download with and I still don't see where to download. Very irritating.

[Barry Green]

Originally Posted by Peter J Alessandria

Thanks Chris. You're talking about using the "Manual Exposure Adjustment" [manual p 48-49]? The joystick setting that allows you to choose -1---0---+1?

Yes.

Do we know if this setting survives turning the camera on and off? Or do I have to set it each time?

It does not; you'd have to set it every time.

Edit: thinking about this, I don't think it locks exposure; rather it allows you to add or subtract 1 EV brightness but the camera will still adjust it's exposure.

It does force it into fixed exposure mode. You can tell it you want the image brighter or darker, but you cannot tell it *how* to make the image brighter or darker. The camera will decide whether it should open up the iris, or add gain, or change the shutter speed; you don't get to decide that.

However, it does it the same way every time. So if you lock the exposure to a set IRE value (such as I do with the cell-phone-LCD trick) then any + or - adjustment of the EXP will result in predictable behavior. I've verified that using the cell phone trick, it locks in at 1/48 and 0dB, and I can change all the way down to -11 with it adjusting exposure only by changing the ND or iris; and up to +5 with it only opening up the iris. Any further than +5 and it will bring in gain or change the shutter.

[David Garvin]

Originally Posted by Peter J Alessandria

Thanks Chris. You're talking about using the "Manual Exposure Adjustment" [manual p 48-49]? The joystick setting that allows you to choose -1---0---+1?

I don't think it locks exposure; rather it allows you to add or subtract 1 EV brightness but the camera will still adjust it's exposure. Am I missing something?

I don't have the camera but, from my reading, you are correct about the "manual exposure adjustment" However, what I think Chris is talking about is something different that allows you to 'lock' the exposure and then adjust it up and down by 11 notches (or something like that)

Again, I'm only working from what I've read, but I think there is an EXP lock joystick setting that allows you to adjust the overal exposure.


Here, check out this greatly informative post by Dennis Wood. It has lots of great info, but also references the expsure settings that go up and down a total of 22 notches (I guess): http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....1&postcount=13

I placed the HV20 in shutter priority mode (TV), pressed the joystick to bring up EXP and toggled it on. I went from -11 to +11

[Ron Lemming]

Originally Posted by Barry Green

Any further than +5 and it will bring in gain or change the shutter.

Will it change the shutter even if you have locked the shutter in Tv mode?