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David Heroux · April 29th, 2005, 08:51 PM

I have 16+ years of professional shooting under my belt. I’ve had my XL2 for about 3 weeks. I shot about an hour of footage before shooting my nieces wedding last weekend. The footage looks horrible. No color hardly at all. The sky was a vibrant blue and the trees were very green, but not on tape. The shots all look milky. I white balanced for each scene etc… I was shooting 24p with the settings just touching the (cine look) with the blacks crushed a little. I did not shoot in 30p. Should I have? I’ve shot with the Panasonic 100A and have gotten great shots without a lot of effort. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks, Got Milk?

Chris Hurd · April 29th, 2005, 10:25 PM

Which program mode were you shooting in?

David Heroux · April 29th, 2005, 10:35 PM

Hi Chris, I was in the M (Manual) mode the entire shoot.

Douglas Robbins · April 29th, 2005, 10:57 PM

Test the camera while it is hooked up through an s video cable to a reliable and fairly color correct tv. Try adjusting the Custom Preset settings, including the saturation level.

Douglas

David Heroux · April 29th, 2005, 11:33 PM

Ya, Guess I just need some more tapes run through this thing. More buttons means more chances to mess up. Well, at least it was a free shoot I did it on.

Rob Lohman · April 30th, 2005, 06:04 AM

The film look may have contributed to this as well. However, you should be
able to punch the colors up quite a bit in post with a good color corrector.
Did you try this already?

David Heroux · April 30th, 2005, 09:49 AM

Rob,
No not yet, just looked at the raw. I just expected more. I'll work on it, and bring a monitor next time.

Chris Hurd · April 30th, 2005, 12:24 PM

Just as a one-time experiment, try shooting in the "A" Automatic mode (it's basically a Program AE mode) and take a look at the results you get. I'd very very curious about how that looks to you.

Barry Goyette · April 30th, 2005, 04:01 PM

David,

Some food for thought here at:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=32223

and accompanying footage at

http://homepage.mac.com/barrygoyette/FileSharing24.html

chow

Barry

Frank Aalbers · April 30th, 2005, 05:16 PM

I have had very nice results so far on my XL2.

I think the XL2 is much more accurate to real colors. I truly believe we are so used to watch over saturated footage on TV's where the color is cranked up all the way or film that is more saturated than real life. And I think this is good !

If you really want more colors , you can always do that in post or crank up the saturation on the cam. But I like starting from reality and go to where ever I want to in post.

Frank

Michael Hamilton · May 2nd, 2005, 08:55 AM

Yes, the colors seem to be more close to reality, but I prefer the more vivid colors inherent to the XL1 and XL1S. I've tried to mimic that in the XL2, but hav'nt been able to as yet.

Michael Hamilton

Kevin Kocak · May 2nd, 2005, 09:43 AM

I experienced the same thing. We shot a series of interviews with a dvx and the footage came back extremely saturated. When we shot the second set of interviews with the xl2 I was shocked at the difference in color. The XL2 was very cold and not very vibrant at all. It was very easy to fix in post. The colors you want are there you just need a little tweak of the saturation. And I agree with one of the previous posters that we are all too used to viewing oversaturated video. The XL2 shoots very true colors and I will wager if you had a monitor there you could have adjusted in camera to get the look you want.

April 29th, 2005, 08:51 PM	#1
David Heroux New Boot Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Gulf Breeze FL Posts: 12	Milky Shots I have 16+ years of professional shooting under my belt. I’ve had my XL2 for about 3 weeks. I shot about an hour of footage before shooting my nieces wedding last weekend. The footage looks horrible. No color hardly at all. The sky was a vibrant blue and the trees were very green, but not on tape. The shots all look milky. I white balanced for each scene etc… I was shooting 24p with the settings just touching the (cine look) with the blacks crushed a little. I did not shoot in 30p. Should I have? I’ve shot with the Panasonic 100A and have gotten great shots without a lot of effort. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Got Milk?

April 29th, 2005, 10:25 PM	#2
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	Which program mode were you shooting in? __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

April 30th, 2005, 06:04 AM	#6
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	The film look may have contributed to this as well. However, you should be able to punch the colors up quite a bit in post with a good color corrector. Did you try this already? __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

April 30th, 2005, 12:24 PM	#8
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	Just as a one-time experiment, try shooting in the "A" Automatic mode (it's basically a Program AE mode) and take a look at the results you get. I'd very very curious about how that looks to you. __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

April 29th, 2005, 10:35 PM	#3
David Heroux New Boot Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Gulf Breeze FL Posts: 12	Hi Chris, I was in the M (Manual) mode the entire shoot.

April 29th, 2005, 10:57 PM	#4
Douglas Robbins Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: san bruno, ca Posts: 60	Test the camera while it is hooked up through an s video cable to a reliable and fairly color correct tv. Try adjusting the Custom Preset settings, including the saturation level. Douglas

April 29th, 2005, 11:33 PM	#5
David Heroux New Boot Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Gulf Breeze FL Posts: 12	Ya, Guess I just need some more tapes run through this thing. More buttons means more chances to mess up. Well, at least it was a free shoot I did it on.

April 30th, 2005, 09:49 AM	#7
David Heroux New Boot Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Gulf Breeze FL Posts: 12	Rob, No not yet, just looked at the raw. I just expected more. I'll work on it, and bring a monitor next time.

April 30th, 2005, 04:01 PM	#9
Barry Goyette Trustee Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: San Luis Obispo CA Posts: 1,195	David, Some food for thought here at: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=32223 and accompanying footage at http://homepage.mac.com/barrygoyette/FileSharing24.html chow Barry

April 30th, 2005, 05:16 PM	#10
Frank Aalbers Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Oakland,CA Posts: 135	I have had very nice results so far on my XL2. I think the XL2 is much more accurate to real colors. I truly believe we are so used to watch over saturated footage on TV's where the color is cranked up all the way or film that is more saturated than real life. And I think this is good ! If you really want more colors , you can always do that in post or crank up the saturation on the cam. But I like starting from reality and go to where ever I want to in post. Frank

May 2nd, 2005, 08:55 AM	#11
Michael Hamilton Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Falls Church Virginia Posts: 61	Yes, the colors seem to be more close to reality, but I prefer the more vivid colors inherent to the XL1 and XL1S. I've tried to mimic that in the XL2, but hav'nt been able to as yet. Michael Hamilton

May 2nd, 2005, 09:43 AM	#12
Kevin Kocak Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Tampa, Fl Posts: 149	I experienced the same thing. We shot a series of interviews with a dvx and the footage came back extremely saturated. When we shot the second set of interviews with the xl2 I was shocked at the difference in color. The XL2 was very cold and not very vibrant at all. It was very easy to fix in post. The colors you want are there you just need a little tweak of the saturation. And I agree with one of the previous posters that we are all too used to viewing oversaturated video. The XL2 shoots very true colors and I will wager if you had a monitor there you could have adjusted in camera to get the look you want.