Assorted posts from 2002Q4 at DVinfo.net

Michael Gilmore · September 23rd, 2002, 01:28 PM

Ok all you masters of the trade... Explain something to this rookie.

I went to a conference/concert this weekend, with an attendance of about 10,000. They had a multi-camera setup with the giant projection monitors so we could see. The most interesting of which was a 25' boom camera which I paid more attention to than most of the speakers and artists.

My question arises from the fact that the lens that they used seemed to put distance between the camera and the subject that didn't exist. The camera would be 5 feet from the subject and seemed to be 20 feet away. The other thing was an incredibly deep depth of field. He would swing in from max extension to close up and never went out of focus.

What kind of lens would this be? Would the depth of field really be that much or was the operator likely just focusing on the fly.

Barry Goyette · September 23rd, 2002, 03:21 PM

I don't think there is any magic going on...it sounds like they were merely using a wide angle lens...which would cause both the perception of increased camera to subject distance, as well as almost unlimited depth of field.

Barry

Paul Sedillo · September 24th, 2002, 11:05 AM

In less than a week and a half, my crew and I will be shooting a CD release party. The club is very small and dark. My biggest concern is working with the available lighting and still producing a quality image.

Are there any tips, tricks, ideas that I should be thinking about with this up coming gig?

September 24th, 2002, 11:43 AM

The only real tip or trick is get the club to pump as much light in there as possible. This will still only give you a general fill of light to work with for wide shots, and in the background of other shots. Otherwise all these shots will be too dark or your gain will create a hell of a lot of picture noise. You will also need some kind of camera light or portable light for your foreground images, interview subjects etc.

Aaron Koolen · October 3rd, 2002, 07:00 AM

I was reading something recently that sparked me to ask this question. With most of the lenses on DV cameras, the focus mechanism is a servo one and usually not as responsive as a real manual lense. I was wondering if anyone with a cam like Gl2, Xl1, VX2000 etc that's made dramatic films ever had an issue with pulling focus during a shot? Does it really affect what you are going to shoot or do you not bother. I know that with DV cams the depth of field is greater to focus issues aren't like they are with film but I'm just interested to know, not having a cam yet myself.

Cheers
Aaron

October 3rd, 2002, 11:55 PM

I got this reply to my post...I'm not sure what he means when he says "I try to shoot so i do not clip much..."

I prefere to do it in post, which requires me to shoot with this in mind. This means that the exposed image shown on the monitor when shooting doesn't look as "spiffy" as the end result. I try to shoot so i do not clip too much. Since i can "scale" the remaining information in any range i want (black-mid-white levels) but if its clipped, then it's lost forever and anything above the clip will be a unison grey when lowered/heightened.

Rob Lohman · October 4th, 2002, 10:46 AM

What he means is that he doesn't want to have any information
that would go over 100% (in theory). So not any whites that are
too hot (whiter than white) or too much black. Information is lost.
Changing shutter speed, lens openings, adding/removing lights,
ND filters you can control the amount of difference, also known
as contrast. When you have blown out whites in the sky for
example you only see one color and no variations.

Hope this explains it a bit. Otherwise I'll try to be a bit clearer,
but I'm in a bit of a hurry now. Sorry bout that.

Jason Wood · October 10th, 2002, 10:11 PM

Don't know if this has been mentioned on this forum yet, but...oh, just click the link!

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/hd_recording_camcorder_jvc_ceatec_japan_10_02_02.htm

Ken Tanaka · October 10th, 2002, 10:22 PM

There is already a thread running on this concept camera at:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4009

David Nussbaum · October 19th, 2002, 11:25 AM

and accessories? I would like to see the price range! (it seems alot of people here have XL1s and what not)

Chris Hurd · October 19th, 2002, 12:02 PM

Sorry David, but it's important to note that our community members are from all corners of the globe, and price tends to vary dramitically depending on where you are and when the purchase was made, and doesn't neccessarily reflect what *you* can expect to pay.

You might find someone here who got what you think is a superb deal, and when you go hunting for a similar deal and can't find one, it'll lead only to frustration. What matters is not how much you paid for it, but what you're doing with it -- that's what really counts.

As this invariably leads to the question of "where to buy," I'm going to close this thread with the strong suggestion that you check pricing through our authorized DV Info Net sponsors (see www.dvinfo.net/sponsors) for a realistic expectation of what to pay. You'll find their prices are often well below suggested retail (MSRP).

In short, any price below MSRP is a good price. Hope this helps,

Zac Stein · October 21st, 2002, 09:44 PM

general impressions of the camera?

quality nice?

how does it compare to the xl1/s?

does it have a frame mode type function as well?

thanks for your help,

kermie

Chris Hurd · October 22nd, 2002, 08:00 AM

A search turns up some previous discussions. See these threads:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1335&highlight=DV500

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2071&highlight=DV500

Please post any replies directly to those threads, so we can keep the discussions together. Thanks,

Scott Silverman · October 23rd, 2002, 10:11 PM

I was wondering if anyone knew where I might be able to buy or get a poster of either the Canon XL1s or GL2. Thanks for your help!

Chris Hurd · October 23rd, 2002, 10:48 PM

If you can find a local walk-in authorized dealer, they should be able to obtain one for you. They're fairly slick, good marketing material, but they're designed for camera stores... in other words, chock full of text, blurbs, hyperbole, etc. The biggest one I'm aware of is half-sheet size or roughly 18" tall by about 30" wide or so.

Sorry, I don't have any.

September 23rd, 2002, 01:28 PM	#1
Michael Gilmore Tourist Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Petoskey, MI Posts: 4	Assorted posts from 2002Q4 Ok all you masters of the trade... Explain something to this rookie. I went to a conference/concert this weekend, with an attendance of about 10,000. They had a multi-camera setup with the giant projection monitors so we could see. The most interesting of which was a 25' boom camera which I paid more attention to than most of the speakers and artists. My question arises from the fact that the lens that they used seemed to put distance between the camera and the subject that didn't exist. The camera would be 5 feet from the subject and seemed to be 20 feet away. The other thing was an incredibly deep depth of field. He would swing in from max extension to close up and never went out of focus. What kind of lens would this be? Would the depth of field really be that much or was the operator likely just focusing on the fly.

September 24th, 2002, 11:05 AM	#3
Paul Sedillo Major Player Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 607	Low Light Shooting In less than a week and a half, my crew and I will be shooting a CD release party. The club is very small and dark. My biggest concern is working with the available lighting and still producing a quality image. Are there any tips, tricks, ideas that I should be thinking about with this up coming gig? __________________ Paul Sedillo Image::Studio http://www.image-studio.com Houston, Texas

October 3rd, 2002, 07:00 AM	#5
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	Anyone have focus pulling issues with their DV cams? I was reading something recently that sparked me to ask this question. With most of the lenses on DV cameras, the focus mechanism is a servo one and usually not as responsive as a real manual lense. I was wondering if anyone with a cam like Gl2, Xl1, VX2000 etc that's made dramatic films ever had an issue with pulling focus during a shot? Does it really affect what you are going to shoot or do you not bother. I know that with DV cams the depth of field is greater to focus issues aren't like they are with film but I'm just interested to know, not having a cam yet myself. Cheers Aaron

October 3rd, 2002, 11:55 PM	#6
GreenRubberPlant Posts: n/a	A mystery within a post I got this reply to my post...I'm not sure what he means when he says "I try to shoot so i do not clip much..." I prefere to do it in post, which requires me to shoot with this in mind. This means that the exposed image shown on the monitor when shooting doesn't look as "spiffy" as the end result. I try to shoot so i do not clip too much. Since i can "scale" the remaining information in any range i want (black-mid-white levels) but if its clipped, then it's lost forever and anything above the clip will be a unison grey when lowered/heightened.

October 4th, 2002, 10:46 AM	#7
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	What he means is that he doesn't want to have any information that would go over 100% (in theory). So not any whites that are too hot (whiter than white) or too much black. Information is lost. Changing shutter speed, lens openings, adding/removing lights, ND filters you can control the amount of difference, also known as contrast. When you have blown out whites in the sky for example you only see one color and no variations. Hope this explains it a bit. Otherwise I'll try to be a bit clearer, but I'm in a bit of a hurry now. Sorry bout that. __________________ 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

September 23rd, 2002, 03:21 PM	#2
Barry Goyette Trustee Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: San Luis Obispo CA Posts: 1,195	I don't think there is any magic going on...it sounds like they were merely using a wide angle lens...which would cause both the perception of increased camera to subject distance, as well as almost unlimited depth of field. Barry

September 24th, 2002, 11:43 AM	#4
videostar Posts: n/a	The only real tip or trick is get the club to pump as much light in there as possible. This will still only give you a general fill of light to work with for wide shots, and in the background of other shots. Otherwise all these shots will be too dark or your gain will create a hell of a lot of picture noise. You will also need some kind of camera light or portable light for your foreground images, interview subjects etc.

October 10th, 2002, 10:11 PM	#8
Jason Wood Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 87	Behold...JVC Prosumer HD cam.... Don't know if this has been mentioned on this forum yet, but...oh, just click the link! http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/hd_recording_camcorder_jvc_ceatec_japan_10_02_02.htm

October 10th, 2002, 10:22 PM	#9
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	There is already a thread running on this concept camera at: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4009 __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

October 19th, 2002, 11:25 AM	#10
David Nussbaum Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Issaquah, WA Posts: 69	How much did you get your camera(s) for? and accessories? I would like to see the price range! (it seems alot of people here have XL1s and what not) __________________ Proud Owner of the AG-DVX100 :D

October 19th, 2002, 12:02 PM	#11
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	Sorry David, but it's important to note that our community members are from all corners of the globe, and price tends to vary dramitically depending on where you are and when the purchase was made, and doesn't neccessarily reflect what you can expect to pay. You might find someone here who got what you think is a superb deal, and when you go hunting for a similar deal and can't find one, it'll lead only to frustration. What matters is not how much you paid for it, but what you're doing with it -- that's what really counts. As this invariably leads to the question of "where to buy," I'm going to close this thread with the strong suggestion that you check pricing through our authorized DV Info Net sponsors (see www.dvinfo.net/sponsors) for a realistic expectation of what to pay. You'll find their prices are often well below suggested retail (MSRP). In short, any price below MSRP is a good price. Hope this helps, __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

October 21st, 2002, 09:44 PM	#12
Zac Stein Major Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 730	any jvc gy-dv500 users here? general impressions of the camera? quality nice? how does it compare to the xl1/s? does it have a frame mode type function as well? thanks for your help, kermie

October 22nd, 2002, 08:00 AM	#13
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	A search turns up some previous discussions. See these threads: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1335&highlight=DV500 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2071&highlight=DV500 Please post any replies directly to those threads, so we can keep the discussions together. Thanks, __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

October 23rd, 2002, 10:11 PM	#14
Scott Silverman Major Player Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Cupertino, California, USA Posts: 301	XL1s or GL2 Posters? I was wondering if anyone knew where I might be able to buy or get a poster of either the Canon XL1s or GL2. Thanks for your help! __________________ Scott Silverman Shining Star Digital Video Productions Bay Area, CA

October 23rd, 2002, 10:48 PM	#15
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	If you can find a local walk-in authorized dealer, they should be able to obtain one for you. They're fairly slick, good marketing material, but they're designed for camera stores... in other words, chock full of text, blurbs, hyperbole, etc. The biggest one I'm aware of is half-sheet size or roughly 18" tall by about 30" wide or so. Sorry, I don't have any. __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!