Straight Up News Look on an F800?

[Peter Newsom]

Hi Everyone,

I have just been loaned an F800 to use while my trusty old F350 goes to Sony for a little work on it's viewfinder.

I'll have the 800 for a week or so, and I mostly want to slip it into my current work flow which is shooting NHL sports news, editing in FCP and up loading the compressed files via FTP to my client's server.

A quick glance into the menu and manual reveals very different settings selections and menu structures than those of my F350. I think I can get the basics figured out in the next couple of days(down time, fortunately), and I would like to achieve a similar 'everyday news look' to what I have been using with my F350.

On my F350, I use the Standard scene file, Matrix on, and Gamma 1 settings, Detail 14. I shoot 35mbs, 108060i.

Any suggestions would be helpful. My client definitely doesn't want any sort of filmic look.

My first impressions of the camera, after just getting it home an hour ago, are that it is a little bigger and heavier, but better balanced and comfortable on the shoulder. It is definitely faster, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate to give it back. My dealer is an evil man. :)


Thanks in advance.

Peter

[Steve Phillipps]

It'll use a lot more power, if my experience with the 700 is anything to go by - it seemed to eat my IDX10 batteries!
I would have thought for the look you're after the default settings would be OK, just do a reset.
Steve

[Alister Chapman]

I agree with Steve, just do a full reset and go with the stock settings. The pictures will look different to the F350, cleaner and sharper. If you want to be able to use the discs you shoot in the 700 in your F350 turn off "Mixed Format Record" and set the format to HD420 HQ. As Steve also says be prepared to go through batteries a lot faster than with the F350.

[Peter Newsom]

Thanks Steve and Alister,

I haven't done the reset yet, but I have found the matrix setting, with six presets. So far 1&2 are pretty saturated with the pinkish/orangey flesh tone look. 3&4 are kind of cold, and 5&6 start to warm up again. I guess I like 2&6 best.

Where is the full reset found?

The first pictures under daylight I took with it had a somewhat sepia tone quality to them, though the color was there. Seemed the mids were up a bit too high.

Since then I have set up a light in my shed and under mixed fluorescent it looks pretty good for portraits with the matrix on.

I'll try a reset and see what happens.

Definitely has a sharper, cleaner look.

[Steve Phillipps]

I think it's in the File menus. File03, Clear All Preset.
Steve

[Peter Newsom]

Thanks Steve, found it.

Another question, is there a memory battery in the camera?

It doesn't seem to remember my settings after I remove the power supply and battery. I have looked around the camera and checked the manual but haven't found it yet.

[Steve Phillipps]

Strange, all menu settings should stay put when switched off.
Alister?
Steve

[Paul Cronin]

Agree with Steve it should remember your settings.

Did you save your settings to the camera memory or onto a MS and properly name the file? Your settings could be under the current scene file if you over wrote the file.

[Peter Newsom]

Thanks guys for all the help. The camera seems to remember my settings now, and I did my first day of work with it yesterday. What a nice camera!

I wound up choosing Matrix setting #5, Master Gamma at -3, and Detail at 0, as I thought that it hit a nice balance of 'not too orangey flesh tones', with nice rich color.

I shot in the 420 color space at 35mbs so as to keep it in line with what I had been doing with my PDW-F350, and also be able to play the disks in the station's older XDCam decks if necessary.

As luck would have it, My first day of shooting with the 800 would throw challenges my way.

I cover an NHL team, the Ottawa Senators, and their captain Daniel Alfredson has just crossed the 1000 game mark in his career, all with the same team. Quite an achievement, and the team went all out celebrating at yesterdays game.

The morning started out with a huge mural unveiling in the stadium concourse which is lit with very ugly vapour lighting measuring around 4100K. They had put up a tungsten fresnel at each end of it in a narrow hallway filled with spectators, still photogs and other cameramen. Lots of glare, bad angles, and mixed light.

After a few moments of handwringing I decided to just shoot preset 3200K and use my Ultra-Light 20watt sun gun. It was the right decision, and the pictures looked great. I was very glad to be shooting with CCD's with all the flash units going off.

The morning rolled on with on-ice practice shots, podium interviews and scrum shooting, most of it hand-held. The camera was very nice on the shoulder, even with the AB-Hytron140 battery. In fact, that battery which seems like a brute on my F350, felt much better on the 800, with very little fatigue.

We finished off the morning shooting stand-ups(50watt Sun-gun) and transferring and editing the stuff on my laptop. The camera used up the entire 140 amp battery! My F350 would have easily done the same work with an AB Dionic 90.

The next challenge was a pre-game on ice ceremony under spot lights in a darkened arena. Fortunately I knew the spotlights would be near daylight color temperature, and I managed to grab a white balance of 5700K. There was a very strong contrast in this situation, and the still photography strobes mounted in the ceiling were also very powerful. The pictures from the camera were fantastic! The flesh tones looked great, and the camera handled the contrast with ease.

I must say that I was worried going into this shoot with a strange camera, but everything went well.

I found the view finder(HDVF-20A) to be fantastic, especially compared to my F350. The F800 handles contrast better the F350, has noticeably higher resolution and an overall finer picture. However, comparing very similar shots between the two cameras showed that the F350 does a pretty credible job as a news camera.

It will be difficult handing over the F800 when my F350 is back from service. I think my Sony dealer is an evil man, though it was very nice to be offered a free loaner.

I wonder what he wants for this demo unit? Hmm...

[Paul Cronin]

Peter thanks for the detailed follow up. The F800 really is an amazing camera.

Great to hear the camera performed above what you expected.

Sounds like a very exciting job you shot. Will this be on US TV? Or just Canada?

[Peter Newsom]

Paul, the game was aired live Saturday night in Canada, and likely in parts of the US.

The footage I shot of the pre-game event was for archival purposes, as the broadcast that night was in standard definition and my station wanted footage in HD. It will use my shots next season during one of their game broadcasts.

I'm off to shoot again this morning at a team practice as the Senators prepare for game one of the play-offs. They play Pittsburgh(the defending champions) in the first round. I'll get to love the camera a some more..... sigh

[Paul Cronin]

Cool gig Peter,

In my area they were playing the Bruins game.

Enjoy as it heats up during the play-offs.