Adam Wilt's Reviews of DVX100 & DVX100A
 

DV Magazine

DVX100
http://www.dv.com/features/features_.../2003/wilt0203

DVX100A
The pre-press version of Adam's DVX100A article is flawed by various typographical errors (not of his doing -- blame his editors); however it is available at dv.com.

Frame Grabs from DVX100A at:

http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/

4.5 stars from dv.com. That's pretty high. The JVC Streamcorder only got 3.5, and the PDX10, 4, from what I recall. Lot a beef in that DVX. :)

Wow! I'm really starting to question my plans on gettin the xl1s.

Has anyone had the chance to compare any wide angle add ons for the DVX to the 3x of the xl1s.

A wide angle shot and cinema look are on the top of my list.

Any insight would be great.

<<<-- Originally posted by Humby Valdes : Wow! I'm really starting to question my plans on gettin the xl1s.

Has anyone had the chance to compare any wide angle add ons for the DVX to the 3x of the xl1s.

A wide angle shot and cinema look are on the top of my list.

Any insight would be great. -->>>

I am not an expert. I have researched and scrutinized every angle on getting the XL!s to the DVX100. I have decided I will be purchasing the DVX100.

Go to www.ladyxfilms.com

There you will see a bunch of 'episodes'. In the production details of each one you will see 'what camera' was used. I looked at the DVX100 to the XL1's and I have to say, the DVX100 footage was above and beyond in terms of filmlook goes.

Also, check out www.highart.com (i think thats it) that feature was shot with the DVX100 and it looks very impressive.

Also check out www.zerobudgetfilms.com

The footage shot is excellent.

28 days later was shot with the Canon, but attached to it they had the killer prime lenses, etc. I wish they had the DVX100 that looked like the canon, but, look only matters in the finished product i guess.

Anyway, that's my insight.

I just got the Century .6 wide (the .7 is probably more like the Canon 3X) but as the DVX100 is wide to begin with, with the century adaptor you get a nice wide angle.

Image available?

I wil ldef be looking to get a wide screen adtp

<<<-- Originally posted by Humby Valdes :

Has anyone had the chance to compare any wide angle add ons for the DVX to the 3x of the xl1s.
-->>>

The Canon 3X is 3.4mm at its widest. The DVX is 4.5mm at its widest. You can get add-on wide-angle lenses that will make the DVX much wider. I use the Century .6x, which means the wide-angle is 2.7mm, much much wider than the Canon 3X.

You can see sample pictures of the Century .6X, .7X, and Fisheye adapters at www.icexpo.com/dvx100/century.html. You can see the Panasonic .8x at www.icexpo.com/dvx100/index.html

<<<--
A wide angle shot and cinema look are on the top of my list.
-->>>

Sounds like you're exactly the customer Panasonic had in mind. The DVX has an incredible cinema look and the widest stock lens of any DV-format camera.

Out of interest, I was looking at the DVX specs and couldn't see anywhere where it had a manual focus ring, or more specifically a focus ring that you could mark for focus points and rack (repeatedly from take to take) accurately. Does it have this? I have an Xm2 and I noticed when our camera op tried to do this, it was a disaster.

This alone has made me think about getting an Xl1s with manual lens.


Cheers
Aaron

Does anyone know how fast Adam Wilt's Mac is. In my current project we may be required to print 24pa footage back to tape.

Aaron,
No, unfortunately the DVX100's focus ring does not feature any calibrated markings. It operates the same as the XM2/GL2. The XL1s' 16x Manual Servo or the 14x Full Manual are the only lenses with such a feature in this range of cameras.

Jake, you can always e-mail Adam Wilt and ask him. He does reply to his e-mails.

Ken, that's really interesting. Obviously it's not a major issues cause lots of people will be using DVX100's for movies, but filming my LadyX episode with my Xm2, we just couldn't get any good focus pulls happening in one scene where we wanted them. After that I was like, next camera I get is going to be able to do that. As it's a technique that I like in movies and would like to use on occasion.

Aaron

Century Optics makes a focus ring for the DVX100.

Aha, well there you go! Indeed they do.

Thank you, Stephen!

A clarification on the DVX's focus ring: it is NOT a "servo" ring, like the VX2000/PD150's. A servo ring is (per my understanding) basically a motor switch: turn it one way and it engages the autofocus motor to move the lens elements, turn it the other way and it triggers the motors to move the other way.

Near as I can tell the DVX's focus ring is a true mechanical manual focus ring, with the difference being that it doesn't stop at infinity or at minimum. But you can do precise focus moves with it, and the focus marks are repeatable. Century's ring, near as I can tell, just adds hard stops at each end, and industry-standard-pitch gear teeth to make it compatible with follow focus and jib arm focus motors. If you added Century's ring, you should theoretically be able to add your own distance marks on it and have a full, pure, true manual focus ring.

Barry, excellent, thanks just what I was wanting to know. It seemed strange to me that they'd gone all out to make a movie makers video camera and left out the ability to accurately pull focus.

Cheers
Aaron

Well, Aaron, they sort of did leave out that ability, until Century made it happen for them.

I chatted with the Panasonic reps at NAB when the camera was still a wooden mockup, and noted that the focus ring didn't have gearing to dovetail to a follow focus. The rep got said it would add to the cost of the camera. I suggested that the contoured molding of the provided ring could just be molded into the shape of a .32 pitch gear instead of little nubbies. He got annoyed. I gave up.

I've used the Century setup, it works nicely.

I think Adam Wilt is on Vacation. I'm just wondering how fast a mac has to be to perform 2-3 pulldown on 24pa footage.

"It seemed strange to me that they'd gone all out to make a movie makers video camera and left out the ability to accurately pull focus"

Check out this page:
http://www.flickerfactory.com/egpdownloads/DVX100_Focus_Chart.pdf

It's Evin's focus chart for the DVX, which translates lens position into distance. The marks are completely repeatable, which again shows that the DVX has an actual mechanical manual focus ring. It's too bad they didn't put the option in the menu to have the readout in MF00-MF99 as well as meters or feet/inches, but I actually find the MF00-MF99 completely usable, it's a bit easier to remember that your rack focus is from 82 to 51 rather than trying to remember 14' 7" down to 3'11". But it would have been nice to have distance markings as an option.

Barry, I guess Panasonic could update the firmware to achieve that, but I think the main issue is if you add a wide, tele or ana lense, these numbers would all be wrong. Hence the generic "percentage" numbering system.

Yes, that's an excellent point! With the anamorphic adapter attached, the focus points definitely change. I guess there was a good reason after all for going with the percentage system...

And also with +1 to +4 diopter 72 mm lenses for closeup work. Hoya makes a set which I plan to try out soon.

All things 24p explained (by Adam Wilt)
 

Adam Wilt has done an excellent two part series on 24p with focus on the DVX100 for DV Magazine:

Part 1:

http://dv.com/columns/columns_item.j...l+Difficulties

Part 2:

See current issue of DV Mag - will post link when available

also see http://www.adamwilt.com/24p

In addition, the focus numbers which appear in the LCD and viewfinder are also repeatable... and a LOT easier to remember and note than actual feet and inches...

The focus distance charts are now here

http://www.eric-petersen.com/more/mo...vx100focus.htm