Any new JvC hd200 recipes?

[Jonathan Rosenberg]

I just got a jvc Gy-hd200u. I saw some of the recipes on here from a 2006/07 post. I changed the settings on my cam accordingly but I wasn't thoroughly satisfied with the colours they produced from those recipes. they were good but still some of the colours seem a bit washed and not as punchy as my 100u (I got the 100u recipes from the same sorta thread and i think those recipes are excellent, thank you for them). I was just wondering if anyone has any truer colour recipes for the 200? or have any suggestions to optimize my picture/colour quality more so?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

-Jonathan

[Sean Adair]

Jonathan,
Without having a direct fill for your request, I've got 3 suggestions:
1/ The existing set from Tim Dashwood is well conceived for my purposes, but they are by no means shake and bake recipes. In several cases you have to modify your approach to exposure, and some settings really have to be hand tweaked for each particular lighting setup.

2/ There is no substitute for having a color chart and a good monitor along with some time to tweak yourself. The cameras vary a little, approaches to lighting and exposure vary withy the DP, setting, and intent of the scene.

3/ In the end, the safest approach these days is to capture the widest dynamic range you can, even if it's butt ugly. Preserve color information, and don't burn bridges by crushing blacks or tinting the scene in camera, when these can be dialed in easily, non-destructively, and precisely in post.

[Jonathan Rosenberg]

I appreciate the video lesson, but I was just wondering if anyone with some experience with the 200 had any suggestions or new recipes to offer....



...and just wondering.. what do ppl think about it's low light quality? anyone have any beef with how it picks up low light?

[Sean Adair]

Don't want to get into snooty territory here, but I have 18 months experience with the 200 (see the sig) and these "suggestions" I made aren't obvious to everyone. In fact, I too was very eager for "recipes" when I first got my camera - there were none shared here for nearly a year. Forced me to understand a bit more about working the process controls, which wsas probably a good thing
Generally, for a scene where I have time to tweak, I'll adjust the black stretch or compress, and less often the white clipping and knee (and leave the "advanced proccess" settings from an overall setting)

I've made at least 15 saved scene settings myself I store on cards - but they are highly derivative - in some cases just a short-cut to formats and defaults I need to switch quickly between on occasions (eg indoors/outdoors on a run 'n gun day). So, not worth sharing. I think Paolo Ciccone's True Color for HD200 may not be directly linked in that thread, but if you track his website down, you'll find his settings along with a lot of calibration discussion. It's a more punchy, saturated look, that you may find more pleasing without color calibration - although Paolo is definitely an advocate of post color-correction for "looks"

But I don't find Tim's settings "washed out" - which scene(s) exactly did you have this experience with? I do keep the low light setting available, since this realizes over a stop more light before adding gain (from OEM settings - several other recipes are better than stock). This is a bit of a dull look - but cleans up well with a bit of color boost and black adjustment in post - keeping the dreaded noise and grain to a minimum.
Low light is not a strength of these cameras, and if you are forced to shoot in those situations, you need all the tricks in the book to keep a nice image for those extra stops.
(video lesson repressed - but it's in the archives!)

The ultra-wide" latitude setting is what I like to use for my own material I can control (and have budget to manipulate) through post. It looks a bit dull, but it is more responsive in post than some of the naturally punchy footage.

Is there some specific usage or look that you are trying to achieve? I'd welcome some discussion on that as well.