Jvc gy hd110e

[Tim Lewis]

Hi All

I have introduced myself in the "People in your neighbourhood" section, so it is time to jump right in and ask some probably amazingly, or even ordinarily, stupid questions.

I have just bought a JVC GY HD110 with a DR-HD100 and V-mount batteries. I have yet to receive it, but am all too eager to learn more.

Are V-mount batteries all the same across brands? The camera I have bought has Swit batteries, are they the only brand I can use on the V-mount?

The Camera I bought has the DR-HD100, is it powered from the camera? I have downloaded the manual but can't find an answer to that question.

Can anyone recommend a good, low cost, matte box?

Cheers

Tim

[Don Bloom]

I have an HM700 with V-lok. I have 3 IDX and 2 Bescor. I've used Sony. So the answer is V-lok is pretty much V-lok. I don't mix chemistry. I only use NiMH but as long as it's got enough juice to power the camera, go for it.

[Tim Lewis]

Thanks for that Don. The camera came with 4 batteries, only one of which is a little iffy, so I should indeed be able to "go for it"!

[Tim Lewis]

I have just collected and unwrapped my camera. The box was sent through Pack & Send and travelled securely. The batteries are on charge and I will try some footage over the weekend. It needed a wee clean here and there with a cotton bud.

I was able to get:
JVC GY HD110E with standard Fujinon lens
4 Swit S-8080S batteries (I was told by the seller one is a bit old)
2 Swit 2-battery chargers
Original JVC dual battery charger
Sony Headphones
DR-HD100 80GB
Original manuals for camera and hard drive.

The only mysterious part of the unpacking was to find that although unlisted by the seller, the package included a Fujinon WCV-82SC 0.8X zoom through Wide Angle converter. BONUS!!!

I am very happy with the deal.

[Paul R Johnson]

I think you will be very pleased with the camera. Especially the hard drive recorder which makes transfer so simple. The only negative issue I've had on the two I have had was firewire transfer. It works on some PCs, but not others - and is a common and known problem that has no real solution. However the DR-HD100 solves that problem.

[Tim Lewis]

Thanks Paul, I have charged the batteries and I am hoping the weather will stay fine tomorrow as I want to test it and maybe get some UWOL footage. I have read that the HD recorder allows frame by Frame time-lapse in the camera, that looks interesting too. Did you ever try that with yours?

[Paul R Johnson]

Ha! I never even knew that, so I've not tried it out - but sounds interesting.

[Tim Lewis]

I asked about a cheap matte box for my camera earlier hoping someone might know a good option. I have found something suitable at around the $250 mark, but even that is a bit steep at the moment. I decided I would make one.

The starting point was the original hood. This is what I have come up with:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/...7-mattebox.jpg

I can't get the picture to show, so you will have to click it to see.

The top and side flags are held on with Velcro. The are made from a Weeties box. I used the pre-existing folds in the box for the hinges. The outside of each flag is covered with gaffer tape for strength and durability. The top flag has velcro running along the front, which is what the side flags attach against. The side flags are reversible, with two different angles for the top flag.

The inside of each flag was coloured in with a black marker pen (twice) to dull it down. The whole assembly cam be removed in seconds and packs flat.

[Tim Lewis]

By the way, that is my homemade dead cat (kitten) on the mic too.

[Don Bloom]

Ha, your dead cat looks like the one I made for my shotgun about 10 years ago and I still use it to this day! It does the job when I'm shooting outdoors.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
Nice job on the matte box as well.

[Adam Letch]

Hey Tim,

just remember firewire is not a true hot swappable connection, so don't plug your drdh100 into the camera when powered up, or your computer, power them down connect and then turn on. Make sure to download some scene files, Paolo's True Colour 3 is the way to go, there's a couple of othersout there as well. There are other Vmount options out there like globalmediapro etc. You can also power your DRDH100 using a Dtap off the battery, another good option which I did, is buy a new and larger capacity laptop harddrive to replace the original, which in my case doubled the capacity and halved the power draw so you can record longer on the inbuilt lithium battery, enjoy

[Tim Lewis]

Hey Adam

Great to hear from another local forum member! Thanks for the tips. I had already read the threads about the firewire while waiting for my new camera to ship to me, so I have the heads up on that. Really, the forum paid for itself then and there for me!

I have downloaded the HD100 series scene files but Paolo's TC3 is not there anymore. Do you know if the HD200 series ones work with the 100 series cameras?

The DRHD100 is already powered via the D-tap connection off the V-mount adapter. I was really lucky with this camera, it came incredibly well set up. The suggestion for the hard drive is a good one though. Do you reckon it can be just any matching size drive I can get somewhere like Austin's for the replacement.

[Don Bloom]

You know, I was just re-reading thru this thread and I see I said I used NiMH. DoH! I guess my fingers just typed that and I didn't catch it. I use LiON and have for years. The last NiMH batteries I used were AB Hytron 100/120's and I got rid of those for Dionics. I switched to V-Lok LiON when I got the 700 since it was all set up for them and came with some when I got the camera. Not that it made any difference but I'm kinda OCD about stuff like this and I figured I better correct my dumb a** moment or I wouldn't be able to sleep!

O|O
\--/

[Adam Letch]

Just open it up, read the Hdd tag for its power rating, go to austins or ple and get a appropriate laptop Hdd with a lower draw. When I got mine I went from 60 to 120GB and halved the power. Heck these days you can probably get solid state drives that size. Just remember its a old unit and it'll be a IDE connector. I just remembered it was Tim Dashwood who had some good colour matrix profiles, and maybe it was only TC1 or 2 for the 100 series. I have a 251 so not sure

[Kennedy Maxwell]

FYI - Here is Paolo's set-up.


May 2006
As much as we like to have absolute, scientific reference points, the purpose of what we do with the camera is to reproduce, for the most
part, real life situations. At least this is the goal of my TrueColor configuration. So, after playing with the chart, there is a point when you
need to have a "reality check". This opportunity happened for me when I've been asked to work as DIT for a series of commercials shot
by Image Line for their client, MGA
The scene had several objects of vivid colors and, during the setup day, I noticed that the HD100 tended to render the pinks and
magentas as red. This is, as I learned recently, a characteristic of HD cameras in general. They tend to be "red happy". Now, keep in
mind that my HD100 was connected to an HD Sony monitor via component cable so the signal was as good as it gets. In order to verify
the color matrix settings I also monitored the color via a vectorscope.
Now the fun part begins. As you can imagine, I thought it would be logical to lower the gain of the red channel. I tried that but I didn't get
any significant correction for the magentas. Now, if you look on the VectorScope the blue channel is the one opposite to the red one. So I
started moving the blue. Specifically, I lowered the gain a couple of notches. Voila', the red shifts ever so slightly clockwise toward the
magenta and the pinks and magentas render just fine. Skin tones are affected a bit, as red and yellow are the main components. You
don't want to upset the balance too much. I moved the blue gain from 3 to 1. You can try setting at 2 just to keep skin tones more
vibrant, it depends on what you shoot. For the majority of scenes I believe that Blue Gain at 1 should be fine.
Encouraged by the sucess I verified the black levels. The blurred spot on the photo is where the toy is placed. I can't show it yet because
it's a new product, but I can tell you that it has black parts over blue areas. There were several spots in the scene that needed good
capture of dark tones. TrueColor V2.0 works fine for this but I decided to try a different approach. After a few minutes of work I found a
solution that I considered more satisfactory. I called Neal Brown, the DP, and Brad White, the director, to get the opinion of people with a
sharp eye for details. They both agreed that the new black settings define the dark tones with lots of subtleties while at the same time
they don't seem to affect the midtones as much as V2.0 did. Not thsat V2.0 was bad, it's just that V3.0 is better. Basically I moved Master
Black from -2 to "Normal" and I disabled Black Stretch. V2.0 had Black Stretch at 1.
So, in conclusion here are my revised settings, from now on nicknamed "TrueColor Version 3.0"

Master black Normal Color Gain Normal
Black Stretch OFF Color Matrix Standard
Detail MIN R Gain 3
White Clip 108% R Rotation 4
Knee Manual G Gain 2
Level 90% G Rotation Normal
Cinelike OFF B Gain 1
Gamma CineLike B Rotation -3
Gamma Level -1

I'm confident that this configuration will improve the look of your footage compared to any of the stock settings. Keep in mind, though,
that any two HD100 might have slightly different reactions and you should calibrate your own HD100 with a chart.
One note about the use of these settings. I spent a considerable amount of time to get an engineering approach to color calibration. If
you use these settings or configuration derived from them in a professional production I would appreciate if you credit the source. Also, if
you have the chance, drop me an email to let me know which features/shorts/commercials have been shot with the HD100 calibrated as
described here.
Ciao!
--
Paolo
PS: sorry about the watermark. I just found out that some people on a Japanese blog are copying the about table and not only not
mentioning the source but crediting it with their name!
JVC HD100 Calibration http://www.paolociccone.com/hd100-calibration-3.html


Ken P.S. - I am using this set-up with both a HD100U and a HD200U cameras and they look identical. . . and great.