DVX200 and O.I.S.

[Bruce Lomasky]

Some (ok a lot) of my work following a subject (walking) while shooting. Some questions:

I like the idea of shooting 4K and downsampling for the best color (and other options in post) but in 4K I don't have the option for Hybrid OIS. Trying to figure out how much more shake will be present with only plain old OIS.

Reading the manual (HA!) it seems like the blur amplitude should be set to a high number (like 5) since I would expect "significant" shake. However, that does not seems to make much of a diff. and my very unscientific testing seems that indicate that the middle #, 3 seems to offer the best result.

(Yes, I did set Customer O.I.S) to ON.

Again, the most excellent manual seems to suggest a blur frequency set to 2, which I did.

If anyone has more experience with OIS, I would love to get your feedback.


Thanks

Bruce

[Anthony Lelli]

the new "ball" system introduced by panasonic works very well but mainly for small amplitude shakes. The same for the 5-axis system (not available in 4K but not a big deal in my opinion).
The most important thing to do when walking backwards is (and has been for decades) to have the assistant grabbing your jacket and the most important thing of all is to put the camera on your shoulder. Hands down the best stabilization possible surpassed only by a steadicam or a bionic arm on a gimbal

there is a zacuto mount for the DVX200 (4 points of contact with the zacuto viewfinder)
or the simple cowboy studio that works well but with only 2 points of contact with the lcd as a viewfinder , or the back viewfinder on your eye but will be out of balance so... just 2 points of contact plus the good fit on the back of the shoulder that eliminates the need of a counterweight and the chest pad that will transfer to the camera your breathing movements. (a small price to pay for a better stabilization than nothing)

the problem with those frankenrigs is that they weight a ton (zacuto) , or they won't allow to put the camera easily down to rest a little (cowboy).

Anyway I'd go for the zacuto solution (at a stratospheric price but still the best substitute of a real shoulder mount camera)

Now to answer you question about the value of the O.I.S to select I'd go for the maximum, but again keep in mind that's only for small amplitude shakes, not really for walking shakes. For that there is our shoulder.

[Barry Green]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lomasky

I like the idea of shooting 4K and downsampling for the best color (and other options in post) but in 4K I don't have the option for Hybrid OIS. Trying to figure out how much more shake will be present with only plain old OIS.

When in UHD/4K mode, you get two axes of optical stabilization, which are pan and tilt. And it works fine, as Anthony said.

When in "Full HD", you get three more axes of stabilization provided electronically: rotation, sliding up/down, and sliding sideways. These three axes of stabilization really help to smooth out the walking-with-the-camera scenario, as that's where you're most likely to encounter the camera shifting up/down or rotating side-to-side.

The electronic stabilization is not offered when in UHD/4K. However, you can accomplish everything it does in post too. If you're already planning on shooting in 4K and downconverting in post, you can leave a "buffer" around your image (i.e., shoot a little wider than your ideal final frame composition) and then apply post image stabilization. Doing so will very likely get your footage back in the ballpark of how the 5-axis FHD stabilization would have worked, had you shot FHD instead of UHD.