A tip on custom settings....

[David Heroux]

I'll try again when I get home to my PC. Do they have this for MAC? I live in both worlds.

[David Heroux]

I downloaded it this evening. It is going to come in very handy.
Thanks

[Peter Vaughn]

Ash;

do you recommend any Custom Settings for working indoors(under household flourescent light), as well as outside (filming houses, pool areas). I currently shoot a real estate show with an XL-2, and am having trouble finding the exact best settings to bring out the details, as well as when I pan(stuttered effect of 24P when I watch thru LCD tv). Is the stuttered effect just because I'm looking at it thru a tv, before its edited through VEGAS?
I would love to know the best settings for indoors for b-roll 24P, interviews indoors & out, as well as just filming the houses outdoors.
If I can get the pans to look like the pans in 60I, we plan to shoot everything for the show in 24P.
I want the b-roll footage to have tons of detail, & the interviews to be a little softer in tone.
thanks;

Peter V.

[Ash Greyson]

Make sure you OIS is off... make sure your shutter is 1/48th... make sure your pans are smooth and not too fast. If you are doing it for domestic TV, you may consider 30p which will give you nice progressive images but less motion blur.



ash =o)

[Matt Mercer]

I'm actually having a problem installing the drivers for the program, sadly. I am running Windows XP x64, and when I am defining the correct folder to locate the drivers for the XL2 (as detailed in the Installation instructions), I receive the message "The Hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software. If a driver was provided, make sure it is designed to work with Windows for x64-based systems."

Is this program and the attached drivers NOT compatible with Windows XP x64 edition?? Thanks for your help!

[Lee Stokes]

The XL2 Presets Manager wouldn't happen to be compatible with Windows Vista would it?
I don't want to DL it if it isn't.

Thanks
Lee

[Jennifer Eidum Zinchuk]

I'm also trying to get the presets manager working (everyone raves about it and it is easier than handwriting everyone's recommended presets), but I also have Vista and got the device drivers working, but I cannot get the program to read preset 1/2/3. Any ideas if they are compatible? Or how to get around this problem?

[Chris C. Collins]

Originally Posted by Peter Vaughn

Ash;

do you recommend any Custom Settings for working indoors(under household flourescent light), as well as outside (filming houses, pool areas). I currently shoot a real estate show with an XL-2, and am having trouble finding the exact best settings to bring out the details, as well as when I pan(stuttered effect of 24P when I watch thru LCD tv). Is the stuttered effect just because I'm looking at it thru a tv, before its edited through VEGAS?
I would love to know the best settings for indoors for b-roll 24P, interviews indoors & out, as well as just filming the houses outdoors.
If I can get the pans to look like the pans in 60I, we plan to shoot everything for the show in 24P.
I want the b-roll footage to have tons of detail, & the interviews to be a little softer in tone.
thanks;

Peter V.

I have a question for you as another fellow Vegas user.

When you render, do you set your frame rate to 24 (film) or do you leave it at NTSC?

[Jasmine Marie Adams]

Hullo! New XL2 user, here, still getting used to things. My partner and I will be fiddling with the presets to see what we can get out of them, but at the moment we are still trying to figure out what does what. We'll share what we get.

In the meantime, anyone want to give a crack at an Identity preset?
http://us.imdb.com/gallery/ss/030969...hint=nm0000131

At first I thought the colour was a little washed out, but there are some beautiful golden tones, which seem to conflict greatly with the very silver look of the film. I know enough to figure a good wack of it is lighting, but there may be some in camera tricks we can use.

[Michael Krumlauf]

i think one thing i would be interested in finding out is doing HDR with the XL2. Is it possible doing HDR with DV video?

[Nik Skjoth]

Hey guys, so maybe its my turn to chip in.

I would use the preset manager, if it dident make a runtime error everytime I try to use it, so I guess I have to do it like in the ole days. If someone can transfer those numbers into a preset file. It would be appreciated.

I got 3 presets for you, that I created for general use.

These presets are intended to setup the XL2 for 3 different light conditions, but without "burning" a specific look into an irreversible state. In other words those presets will not give you the film look, or any other specific look, but instead it will give you the best (well as good as I can tell) footage, before you go in your editing studio to tweak the final look and mood.

Preset1:
Optimal light conditions such as in a studio. For this setting I used a pair of 5000 kelvin daylight bulbs (I think they are called flourecent studio lights)

Gain: -3

Gamma: Cine
Knee: High
Black: press

Color matrix: Cine
Color Gain: 0
Color Phase: 0

R: 0
G: 0
B: 0

V detail: Normal

Sharpness: 0
Coring: 0

Setup Level: -3
Master Ped: -4
Nr: off

This preset could also be used for outdor shooting on a good sunny day.
Remember to use your ND filter tho.


Preset 2:
Good lighting conditions, but not near as controled like preset 1. This should be mainly used for arenas, concert halls, or other indor enviroments where the ligthing is ok.

Gain: 0

Gamma: Cine
Knee: High
Black: Middle

Color matrix: Cine
Color Gain: 0
Color Phase: 0

R: 0
G: 0
B:-2

V detail: Normal

Sharpness: 0
Coring: 0

Setup Level: 0
Master Ped: 0
Nr: low


Preset 3:
This preset is specialized for really dark scenes. I have been shooting quite a lot of event shows at night clubs, where in some instances the only light available is the Video light on my XL2. In other words. If you have to shoot with +12 gain. Use this preset.

Gain: 12

Gamma: Cine
Knee: Middle
Black: Stretch

Color matrix: Cine
Color Gain: 0
Color Phase: 0

R: 0
G: 0
B:-2

V detail: Normal

Sharpness: -2
Coring: 0

Setup Level: -3
Master Ped: 0
Nr: High

Some of you might be asking, why I use the Cine gamma in such a dark enviroment, when the normal mode brightens the overall image.
Thats true, but even tho the image becomes slightly darker with Cine Gamma, it also removes lots of noise from the shadow areas. And you can always brighten the footage in your NLE to compensate if needed. Still you will end up with a more clean result, than if you dident use Cine Gamma.
Overall you might just as well crush the blacks in dark conditions, cause you will not get any detail of them anyways. Just like the spotlight mode.

[Ian Hollow]

Hi all ,i have sent a pm to Ash but he is a busy man and may not get it in time .
I have been thrown in the deep end with a rush job tomorrow filming racing cars, choppers , boats hi action thing. My thing is doco so has to rethink my presets . The question The sport preset looks to be the goods was wondering if any one could offer advice I shoot Pal its for broadcast TV will 50dpi be okay its a small change from the preset.

[David Odell]

I have started using more detail after som lookaround in the forum.

Now using:

Gain: -3

Gamma: Cine
Knee: LOW
Black: STRECH

Color matrix: Cine
Color Gain: +1
Color Phase: +1

R: +1
G: 0
B: 0

V detail: LOW

Sharpness: +3
Coring: 0

Setup Level: -4 / -6
Master Ped: -3
Nr: off

It's nice to see how well the cam uses high detail settings. If I compare to my previous DVX100A the grain would stand out with the Pana cam.
Off cource viewing this on a broadcast monitor makes it look even better. This was shot handheld from the waist. Lens was 16X manual.

[Anthony Marotti]

Hello,

Great detail with the cat!

I find that when I'm shooting general topics for my corporate work that I have ti soften the sharpness to eliminate shimmer. SD DV has many challenges like stair stepping, bending off lines, etc. although shimmering is not limited to DV, it seems to be more pronounced in DV.

Your cat is organic and the sharpness is great for detail, but non-organic objects such as metal or especially metal grills on cars where you compound the metalic shimer with line complications can drive you crazy.

What are your thoughts on that?

Thanks!

[David Odell]

Hey Anthony,

I will try that out, going out sometime soon again. I’m still learning so it will be interesting.

What I have noticed is that organic object, like faces, also often looks better when viewed on a broadcast monitor with lower detail settings, although this is assumptions. These below are with -2 in detail, and it also helps making the focus soften between prime focus and a bit of. With the viewfinder I find if often hard when fining proper focus with moving objects.

I'll post again with something non organic.