Panny DV53

Dave Largent · November 2nd, 2003, 07:00 PM

Is "typing" still offered as a class in high school? Make more use of that than my 4 years of German my parents made me take. Can't recall the last time someone came up to me and started talking in German. For y'all in school yet (?Alex): What is typing class called now? Or is there no specific class for that? "Keyboarding"? Oh ya, about the DV53 ... Thinking of taking it with me tonight to the local pub to watch the Green Bay Packers play. Raining pretty good though. Want to try shooting at night. Have plans to get a wide angle and a telephoto for it but not an underwater housing.
Not really related here but can't resist passing this along. On another forum that I frequent, the subject came up of transferring
8mm film to digital. One person gave away their age by inquiring how the transfer is done. They wanted to know what type of connector the projector had on it to connect with the computer!
Had to laugh. Oh ya, about the DV 53 ...

Dave Largent · November 5th, 2003, 08:11 AM

First trouble I've encountered with the DV53. First, it's minorly annoying that the unit powers down after 5 minutes on "pause".
No stopping it. (Maybe if I left the tape door open, but haven't tried it.) You bring it out by turning it to "off" and than back to "camera". The bigger issue is this. Everytime it powers down it forgets the manual presets (which are set by use of the scroll menu) such as iris setting and white balance and it reverts to auto mode. Also, it goes out of manual focus mode and reverts to auto focus. Anyone know some 1CCD cams on the market that don't lose manual settings upon powering down. Can you
stop some from powering down? Are all the cams which have their settings done by menu this way?

Michael Gibbons · November 6th, 2003, 03:30 PM

Anyway, I had this project due in my humanities class. Normally everybody does a powerpoint presentation or a research paper. I decided to make a documentary style short.
I left myself plenty of time (4days) lined up my best friend to help me out. Wrote the script and shot list. About five minuntes before I'm going to leave for my buddy's place to get started, the stomach flu comes to my house. My two year old son starts throwing up first. My wife is next, then me and then our four month old son.
Oh yeah and the situation was further improved by freezing rain.

I managed to make the short anyway. I have a little bit of an obsessive cumpulsive problem when it comes to turning schoolwork in on time. I didn't want anyone else to get sick, so I shot it alone.

It was an experiance. Feverish delusion, coupled with heartbreaking desperation, can really add an enitirely new dimesnion to your work.I am amazed at what one motivated person with a cam and a tripod can accomplish.

The Dv53 performed fairly well throughout. Audio was a real problem, and I had to loop the dialouge in a couple of shots.

By far the coolest thing was when i got to class and found out the room had a digital projector! I have never seen anything of mine that large! It rocked!

The second coolest thing: There's this guy, Tim, in my class. We have had several classes together and he's a filmmaker- emphasis on FILM. He owns a sixteen mm but it's broken and he can't afford to get it fixed. He also thinks that a razor blade is an adequate NLE. Anyway he saw what I could do with my little consumer cam and imovie and was blown away. He asked all kinds of questions about my camera. Wanted to know where to buy one, and what to buy, and how much a mac would cost him ect... I have been talking to this guy for almost a year about DV and he just wouldn't listen. He's listening now.

Well that's my story.
What's yours?
MG

Dave Largent · November 6th, 2003, 08:30 PM

Found out that if the tape drawer is left open, the cam doesn't power down and holds it's manual settings. Unfortunately,
seeing as the tape is loaded by opening the LCD screen, if you
want to leave the tape drawer open the LCD screen will not close.
When the LCD screen is open it is illuminated and I've found that
powering the LCD screen takes about twice the battery juice as
compared to purely recording. With the tape drawer closed, the cam will record for 1 hour 50 minutes with the included battery.
If I leave the tape drawer open for 30 minutes to hold the manual setting, I can get 50 minutes of recording out of it. I suppose I could go into the menu and turn the LCD screen's illumination off.
Another thing I noticed is that, in manual, if you start setting
video gain-up (e.g. "open + 3dB", "open + 18dB") each "dB" is not
a single notched step. Rather, each dB setting has from 5 to 8 steps of lightening for more detailed adjustment. Therefore, if a person were shooting manual and using gain-up, if the cam powers down, in order to match your previous setting, you need to remember not only the gain setting, but also which "step" you
were at *within* each dB gain setting. Each *step* makes a noticable change in image brightness and degree of grain.
In auto exposure mode the max gain the cam will go to is "open + 15dB". I suppose this is done to keep image quality up. In manual you can go about 7 to 8 steps of +18dB above the auto limit. The cam also has a "low light" setting which brightens the
picture beyond the +18dB level. The low light settings aren't
elaborated on in the manual. It appears through casual observation that, rather than slowing the shutter speed from the
cam's apparent max of 1/60th, the low light mode adds gain
beyond the +18dB level.

Frank Granovski · November 6th, 2003, 08:53 PM

Quote:

First trouble I've encountered with the DV53. First, it's minorly annoying that the unit powers down after 5 minutes on "pause"

Once you get into the manual, you will most likely come across that this cam will auto shut down. If you haven't noticed, your VCR will also do this, in fact, ALL consumer miniDV cams will do this. If you don't want the cam to shut down, then take the tape out of the cam.

November 6th, 2003, 03:30 PM	#33
Michael Gibbons Major Player Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Loveland, Colorado, USA Posts: 292	made a short with my dv53 this weekend Anyway, I had this project due in my humanities class. Normally everybody does a powerpoint presentation or a research paper. I decided to make a documentary style short. I left myself plenty of time (4days) lined up my best friend to help me out. Wrote the script and shot list. About five minuntes before I'm going to leave for my buddy's place to get started, the stomach flu comes to my house. My two year old son starts throwing up first. My wife is next, then me and then our four month old son. Oh yeah and the situation was further improved by freezing rain. I managed to make the short anyway. I have a little bit of an obsessive cumpulsive problem when it comes to turning schoolwork in on time. I didn't want anyone else to get sick, so I shot it alone. It was an experiance. Feverish delusion, coupled with heartbreaking desperation, can really add an enitirely new dimesnion to your work.I am amazed at what one motivated person with a cam and a tripod can accomplish. The Dv53 performed fairly well throughout. Audio was a real problem, and I had to loop the dialouge in a couple of shots. By far the coolest thing was when i got to class and found out the room had a digital projector! I have never seen anything of mine that large! It rocked! The second coolest thing: There's this guy, Tim, in my class. We have had several classes together and he's a filmmaker- emphasis on FILM. He owns a sixteen mm but it's broken and he can't afford to get it fixed. He also thinks that a razor blade is an adequate NLE. Anyway he saw what I could do with my little consumer cam and imovie and was blown away. He asked all kinds of questions about my camera. Wanted to know where to buy one, and what to buy, and how much a mac would cost him ect... I have been talking to this guy for almost a year about DV and he just wouldn't listen. He's listening now. Well that's my story. What's yours? MG __________________ " When some wild-eyed, eight foot tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head against a bar room wall, and looks you crooked in the eye, and he asks you if you've payed your dues, well, you just stare that big suker right back in the eye, and you remember what old Jack Burton always says at a time like that, 'Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes sir, the check is in the mail."

November 6th, 2003, 08:30 PM	#34
Dave Largent Trustee Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 1,483	More On Manual Control Found out that if the tape drawer is left open, the cam doesn't power down and holds it's manual settings. Unfortunately, seeing as the tape is loaded by opening the LCD screen, if you want to leave the tape drawer open the LCD screen will not close. When the LCD screen is open it is illuminated and I've found that powering the LCD screen takes about twice the battery juice as compared to purely recording. With the tape drawer closed, the cam will record for 1 hour 50 minutes with the included battery. If I leave the tape drawer open for 30 minutes to hold the manual setting, I can get 50 minutes of recording out of it. I suppose I could go into the menu and turn the LCD screen's illumination off. Another thing I noticed is that, in manual, if you start setting video gain-up (e.g. "open + 3dB", "open + 18dB") each "dB" is not a single notched step. Rather, each dB setting has from 5 to 8 steps of lightening for more detailed adjustment. Therefore, if a person were shooting manual and using gain-up, if the cam powers down, in order to match your previous setting, you need to remember not only the gain setting, but also which "step" you were at within each dB gain setting. Each step makes a noticable change in image brightness and degree of grain. In auto exposure mode the max gain the cam will go to is "open + 15dB". I suppose this is done to keep image quality up. In manual you can go about 7 to 8 steps of +18dB above the auto limit. The cam also has a "low light" setting which brightens the picture beyond the +18dB level. The low light settings aren't elaborated on in the manual. It appears through casual observation that, rather than slowing the shutter speed from the cam's apparent max of 1/60th, the low light mode adds gain beyond the +18dB level.

November 2nd, 2003, 07:00 PM	#31
Dave Largent Trustee Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 1,483	Is "typing" still offered as a class in high school? Make more use of that than my 4 years of German my parents made me take. Can't recall the last time someone came up to me and started talking in German. For y'all in school yet (?Alex): What is typing class called now? Or is there no specific class for that? "Keyboarding"? Oh ya, about the DV53 ... Thinking of taking it with me tonight to the local pub to watch the Green Bay Packers play. Raining pretty good though. Want to try shooting at night. Have plans to get a wide angle and a telephoto for it but not an underwater housing. Not really related here but can't resist passing this along. On another forum that I frequent, the subject came up of transferring 8mm film to digital. One person gave away their age by inquiring how the transfer is done. They wanted to know what type of connector the projector had on it to connect with the computer! Had to laugh. Oh ya, about the DV 53 ...

November 5th, 2003, 08:11 AM	#32
Dave Largent Trustee Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 1,483	First trouble I've encountered with the DV53. First, it's minorly annoying that the unit powers down after 5 minutes on "pause". No stopping it. (Maybe if I left the tape door open, but haven't tried it.) You bring it out by turning it to "off" and than back to "camera". The bigger issue is this. Everytime it powers down it forgets the manual presets (which are set by use of the scroll menu) such as iris setting and white balance and it reverts to auto mode. Also, it goes out of manual focus mode and reverts to auto focus. Anyone know some 1CCD cams on the market that don't lose manual settings upon powering down. Can you stop some from powering down? Are all the cams which have their settings done by menu this way?