Lets talk settings on the V1.

[Ron Little]

I think we should have a tread where we can ask settings questions of the V1 collective. With this resource we can define not only what settings do but how they can be used.

No my cam is better than your cam comparisons please.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Here's a picture profile a video engineer talked me into, with my V1 shooting a chart and displayed on his scopes and reference monitor:

Color Level: +3
Color Phase: +1
Sharpness: 2
Skintone Detail: Off (factory setting)
Skintone Level: 6 (factory setting)
White Balance Shift: 0
Knee Point: Low
Black Compensation: Off
Cinematone Gamma: Off
Cinematone Color: On

I also have another profile set up with Black Comp: On, for low light situations. That will always require color correction in post.

I've had good experiences with these two profiles so far, mostly shooting interviews, both in natural light and with my hot lights.

For natural light indoors, I'm shooting quite a bit with +6db gain, which appears to be grainless and quite acceptable without further processing in post. I've not had to go higher in gain (I always travel with lights), but if I did, I'd want to check out Neat Video (neatvideo.com), the sample noise reduction images I've seen have been stunning.

Also, check out this thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=82810

PS. My V1 might be different than your V1, certainly what I like to look at is probably different than what you like!

[Ron Little]

Have you been happy with your results with the sharpness set to 2?
It seems too soft to me.

I shot a wedding with 3 and it looked out of focus when downresed to standard def. It did look ok in HD. I applied 50% sharpen filter and it was acceptable in SD. I have moved my sharpness back up to 7.

[Craig Irving]

Can we talk audio settings as well as video settings? :)

Anyone here use a Rode NT3 with their V1U yet? I took Steve's advice and set my Input Trim to -16db to obtain the best match in sensitivity since the NT3 is -39db.

But I didn't get the best results. Plus this method seems to requires work in post to bring the volumes back up. Anyone have any experiences to share with their V1U or any other microphone with a similar sensitivity?

[Ron Little]

Yes, by all means let’s talk about audio. I have a Audio-Technica mic and a Sennheiser wireless if that is comparable.

I found the audio a little soft and hard to monitor at first until I read the manual and found out how to turn up the volume on the headphones.

Now I just monitor the readout and everything seams cool. I have come home more that once with soft audio.

[Hugh Mobley]

This setting business started me wondering, so, I took a couple of days and tried all different settings for the 6 profiles. I looked at each one, made notes, rendered into mpeg2 to see how it would look, my conclusion is for the most part the defaulted settings, I switched back to the defaults on the the four settings, are pretty much right on, depending on whether its indoor, outdoor, etc.

[Ron Little]

Hugh, I think you are probably right for most situations the presets are probably right.

So it seems we should define the different situations that these settings can be used.

I have been told that the portrait setting is good for shooting weddings. So should you use that setting for the whole wedding or just the interviews?

Drawing from everyones’ experiences with this cam will help make us all better.

[Hugh Mobley]

I found that the default portrait setting is good for just that, indoor or outdoor, but for scenery, trees, etc. I am going to us the Cinema setting, it is more saturated and just looks alot better. I did over 12 gigs of 20-30 sec clips with a green screen and outdoors, each clip being a different setting, and trying all 4 presets and the custom ones. some settings were no good at all, but the ones closest to the factory default, or the factory defaults, seemed to be the best generally. I did render each bunch of clips into mpegs to see difference. The only problem might be is the time of day, overcast or sunny, morning or afternoon, seems you can't really win for losing.

[Ron Little]

Now, that is interesting! You sparked more questions than I can pose in one post. So, I will start with one.

How did the green screen stuff turn out?
Was it outside or inside?
Did it key well?
What program are you using?
What camera settings did you use?

I know that is more that one question but it is all about one thing.

[Hugh Mobley]

I had cam on full auto, and the settings were varied. I did keep notes on all of this, but after looking at all these clips one tends to see double. If you scroll thru the portrait settings you can see the changes each one has thru the lcd screen, it may be darker, light, whatever. I like a saturated look when I am outdoors, but inside I like what is closest to the real skin tone as I can get. I just sat in front of my green screen and did a clip, changed the setting and did another clip, and so on. There will be noticeable differences between the portrait, cinema, sunset and monotone. Right now I am back to the factory defaults for all of them, #6 I have the cinema setting with a sharpness of 10 instead of the default of 5, and #5 I have the portrait setting with higher sharpness, 10 i think, don't have cam with me this morning. I did not chroma key out the green screen.

[Ron Little]

10!
Now I have to try Cinema with a sharpness of 10.

How did you monitor the clips after capture? (Computer or HD TV)

[Hugh Mobley]

no, just on computer

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Ron Little

Have you been happy with your results with the sharpness set to 2?
It seems too soft to me.

I shot a wedding with 3 and it looked out of focus when downresed to standard def. It did look ok in HD. I applied 50% sharpen filter and it was acceptable in SD. I have moved my sharpness back up to 7.

I agree with you -- Sony's choice of 5 and 7 are perfect. (I like 8 as well -- and YES I've used 10 and it looks fine.) BUT, I've calibrated my monitors to near zero Sharpness.

Someone who's using a typical 50% Sharpness on their monitor will naturally set the camera lower. Someone who wants an extreme Film Look may also feel the need to squeeze all the fine detail out.

But, using anything below 5 is, IMHO, loosing the fine details that make HD.

PS: I'm also judging based on a complete production thru to HD DVD.

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Ron Little

I applied 50% sharpen filter and it was acceptable in SD. I have moved my sharpness back up to 7.

I've read that sharpening in post can amplify compression artifacts. So using 7 to 9 is smart.

[Hugh Mobley]

In all the sample clips I did I did quite a few with the sharpness cranked up to 12, 14 even 15, and down to 0, Frankly didn't see a real big difference from 6,7 or 8, the differences are so subtle that most people viewing it wouldn't see a difference or couldn't. I know I have to look at the clips over and over to find one that stands out, and that one is usually closer to defaulted settings. There are so many setting combinations available with this cam I really keep thinking about a documentary class I took, Its not the camera as much as the content!