PDX10 -- various questions

Tom Hardwick · May 24th, 2006, 06:02 AM

I have a Tecpro 0.5s. This is a 2 element zoom-through wide-angle converter that unscrews in the middle. Once you've done this you're left with a +10 dioptre powerful close-up lens which can be used at full telepho for some quite oustanding closeups. Bit soft round the edges though, so best to shoot at smallish apertures (difficult on the TRV900 and HC1000 as neither allow it).

The front element can also be used as a partial zoom-through wide-angle converter, and it's WIDE - something like 0.4x, but with lots of barrel distortion.

tom.

Neboysha Nenadich · June 22nd, 2006, 04:17 AM

well, I just bought x0.43 fish eye from COKIN for my pdx-10... my eternal dream, to have fish eye, at last, weeiii... :)
anyhow, I am considering to buy couple of filters (ND, polarizig, etc)... so, how can I attach both my wide adapter and filters on my camera? sorry for my ignorance, heh, but what things exactly do I need in order to achieve that?
I am considering to order all that brom b&hphotovideo...
thanx ...

Tom Hardwick · June 28th, 2006, 01:50 AM

Does your fisheye lens vignette the corners of your image at the moment - in other words do you have 4 black corners when you use this lens?

If so, when you fit any filter between the lens and the camera's zoom this 'cut-off corners' effect will increase, so beware.

I doubt if the 0.43x Cokin has a filter thread to accept filters or hoods up front, so you'll have to improvise with square filters (also sold by Cokin).

The polarisor is a goodie but I wouldn't bother with extra ND. There's three of them built into the PDX10 already, and if it's incredibly bright I'd simply up the shutter speed a notch to soak an extra stop. Beware of going too far though as CCD smear quickly takes hold.

tom.

Neboysha Nenadich · June 28th, 2006, 05:41 AM

well, this is image captured from camera... no zoom. vignette is out of safe frame, only can be seen on computer.
http://www.15minutespictures.com/beat/prdavaac.jpg
weird, there is black vignette only on the right side...

and, I took a photo of my camera, with cokin fisheye attached so you can see...
http://www.15minutespictures.com/beat/kameraw.jpg

so, u think there's no need for ND? okay...
do you think some "sky" filters will be a goodie too? you know, sometimes, when adjusting exposure on subjects, to avoid overexposing sky, etc... or, what other filter do you recommend?

Tom Hardwick · June 28th, 2006, 06:46 AM

All four corners are vignetted, but you're right in that the RHS is worse. Your lens is off axis with the centre of the chip - no big deal.

A graduated filter can be useful to control the over-exposure of the sky, but you have to be oh-so-careful when you use filters with a camera with such tiny 1/5" chips. If they're not spotless and well hooded you can get nasty flare and spots when you're using very short focal lengths.

My recommendation? Don't use any filters unless you absolutely must. For dusty, sandy conditions and sticky-fingered children's parties, yes. But otherwise no.

tom.

Dan Eggleston · August 8th, 2006, 08:31 AM

Would I be crazy to replace my VX-2000 with a PDX10? My primary reason for considering the switch is size and weight. I'm getting to where I can't stand watching my hand held camera work with the VX-2000 anymore...not steady enough. The camera is so front-heavy, actually just heavy period for it's size. At work I use a DSR 300 and that heavier shoulder-mounted camera is easier to use hand held than the VX-2000.

I'd really like to get a glidecam to help with the stability issue, but I can't imagine how hard it would be to use for average to longth periods of time with a VX-2000. I assume a PDX10 would be more manageable.

What will the trade off be between these two cameras as far as video degradation? How about low light sensitivity? Lense differences? If it matters, I acquired my VX-2000 in March '02. Any info you fine folks can share would be wonderful, I really enjoy this board.

Jeroen Elbertse · September 19th, 2006, 08:33 AM

I've got a problem with my PDX10 camera. Today i wanted to capture some video, so i connected the camera with a firewire cable. Then this happends: on the LCD display of the camera appears "dv in" and that's it. In the capture window of Premiere, the only thing i see is: "Capture device offline".

Is this a known problem or is my camera broken?

James Connors · October 5th, 2006, 03:24 PM

An old question I know, but have you tried changing the firewire cable?

Dave Spiers · October 19th, 2006, 10:31 AM

Hi

Firstly, great to see forum for the PDX10. I've had mine for a couple of years and love it, however, on the last shoot the picture started jumping slightly to the left, then back to normal centre position and then left again etc etc

I did find that if I turned it off and left it for a while, when I used it again, I could get about 10 mins before the same thing happened.

I thought that I'd be able to fix it in the edit by adjusting the frames accordingly and then cropping but actually it seems that when it jumps left it also expands the vertical picture very slightly. This meant that although I could get the jump-left images centred, it still didn't sit correctly.

Has anyone had eny experience of this and tell me what is wrong before I trudge off to the local repairshop?

Thanks for any pointers.

Dave

Boyd Ostroff · October 19th, 2006, 12:42 PM

Welcome to the group Dave. I've never seen anything like this on my PDX-10. I wonder if it might be related to the image stabilization system? Have you tried turning steadyshot off? Hard to tell from your description, but it might just be a drop-out problem of some kind on the tape also.

Dave Spiers · October 20th, 2006, 03:06 AM

Hi Boyd - thanks for the reply.

I was using it as a front-end for a stop-frame animation video so there was no film in the camera - I was literally grabbing stills via firewire to a Mac. (actually, the jumping effect didn't ruin the shoot and possibly added to the lo-fi flavour ;))

I first noticed the computer monitor jumping and re-booted, but then I noticed it was happening on the camera display so I changed the firewire cables etc but still the same thing occured. That's when I powered-down the PDX and noticed that I got the 10mins of normal use upon powering it up.

I will, as you suggest, turn off the steadyshot and see if that helps.

Thank you again

Dave

Dave Spiers · October 20th, 2006, 07:23 AM

Damn - sadly that didn't do the trick :(

On closer inspection though, it seems to be a kind of picture stretching, as opposed to jumping, and the right of the picture isn't affected at all. Very odd indeed.

I think it's time for the menders :-/

Dave

David Chia · November 20th, 2006, 10:16 AM

Hi Dave,

there is a web site here by sony europe in 2005 about faulty LCD screen problems on some pdx10p and pd170p . it gives all people a free repair on the stated serial number. I hope it helps

this is the site:

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArtic...site=odw_en_GB

david

Dave Spiers · November 20th, 2006, 11:00 AM

Thanks very much for that David - for a moment there was a glimmer of hope :)

Sadly though, my serial number is higher than those.

I might call the number on there though. You never know.

Thanks again

Dave

Boyd Ostroff · November 20th, 2006, 11:20 AM

David: see my other post here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...d=1#post577133

The recall is not for LCD problems, but for CCD problems.

June 22nd, 2006, 04:17 AM	#272
Neboysha Nenadich Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: serbia Posts: 50	pdx10, wide and filter... well, I just bought x0.43 fish eye from COKIN for my pdx-10... my eternal dream, to have fish eye, at last, weeiii... :) anyhow, I am considering to buy couple of filters (ND, polarizig, etc)... so, how can I attach both my wide adapter and filters on my camera? sorry for my ignorance, heh, but what things exactly do I need in order to achieve that? I am considering to order all that brom b&hphotovideo... thanx ...

August 8th, 2006, 08:31 AM	#276
Dan Eggleston Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 31	Switch from VX-2000 to PDX10? Would I be crazy to replace my VX-2000 with a PDX10? My primary reason for considering the switch is size and weight. I'm getting to where I can't stand watching my hand held camera work with the VX-2000 anymore...not steady enough. The camera is so front-heavy, actually just heavy period for it's size. At work I use a DSR 300 and that heavier shoulder-mounted camera is easier to use hand held than the VX-2000. I'd really like to get a glidecam to help with the stability issue, but I can't imagine how hard it would be to use for average to longth periods of time with a VX-2000. I assume a PDX10 would be more manageable. What will the trade off be between these two cameras as far as video degradation? How about low light sensitivity? Lense differences? If it matters, I acquired my VX-2000 in March '02. Any info you fine folks can share would be wonderful, I really enjoy this board. __________________ Dan Eggleston - Panasonic AJ-PX800 / Panasonic AJ-PX270/Adobe CC on Mac Pro. http://www.youtube.com/pcctv1

September 19th, 2006, 08:33 AM	#277
Jeroen Elbertse Tourist Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 2	PC will not recognise PDX10 I've got a problem with my PDX10 camera. Today i wanted to capture some video, so i connected the camera with a firewire cable. Then this happends: on the LCD display of the camera appears "dv in" and that's it. In the capture window of Premiere, the only thing i see is: "Capture device offline". Is this a known problem or is my camera broken?

October 19th, 2006, 10:31 AM	#279
Dave Spiers Tourist Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: UK Posts: 4	PDX-10 Picture jumping Hi Firstly, great to see forum for the PDX10. I've had mine for a couple of years and love it, however, on the last shoot the picture started jumping slightly to the left, then back to normal centre position and then left again etc etc I did find that if I turned it off and left it for a while, when I used it again, I could get about 10 mins before the same thing happened. I thought that I'd be able to fix it in the edit by adjusting the frames accordingly and then cropping but actually it seems that when it jumps left it also expands the vertical picture very slightly. This meant that although I could get the jump-left images centred, it still didn't sit correctly. Has anyone had eny experience of this and tell me what is wrong before I trudge off to the local repairshop? Thanks for any pointers. Dave

May 24th, 2006, 06:02 AM	#271
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	I have a Tecpro 0.5s. This is a 2 element zoom-through wide-angle converter that unscrews in the middle. Once you've done this you're left with a +10 dioptre powerful close-up lens which can be used at full telepho for some quite oustanding closeups. Bit soft round the edges though, so best to shoot at smallish apertures (difficult on the TRV900 and HC1000 as neither allow it). The front element can also be used as a partial zoom-through wide-angle converter, and it's WIDE - something like 0.4x, but with lots of barrel distortion. tom.

June 28th, 2006, 01:50 AM	#273
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	Does your fisheye lens vignette the corners of your image at the moment - in other words do you have 4 black corners when you use this lens? If so, when you fit any filter between the lens and the camera's zoom this 'cut-off corners' effect will increase, so beware. I doubt if the 0.43x Cokin has a filter thread to accept filters or hoods up front, so you'll have to improvise with square filters (also sold by Cokin). The polarisor is a goodie but I wouldn't bother with extra ND. There's three of them built into the PDX10 already, and if it's incredibly bright I'd simply up the shutter speed a notch to soak an extra stop. Beware of going too far though as CCD smear quickly takes hold. tom.

June 28th, 2006, 05:41 AM	#274
Neboysha Nenadich Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: serbia Posts: 50	well, this is image captured from camera... no zoom. vignette is out of safe frame, only can be seen on computer. http://www.15minutespictures.com/beat/prdavaac.jpg weird, there is black vignette only on the right side... and, I took a photo of my camera, with cokin fisheye attached so you can see... http://www.15minutespictures.com/beat/kameraw.jpg so, u think there's no need for ND? okay... do you think some "sky" filters will be a goodie too? you know, sometimes, when adjusting exposure on subjects, to avoid overexposing sky, etc... or, what other filter do you recommend?

June 28th, 2006, 06:46 AM	#275
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	All four corners are vignetted, but you're right in that the RHS is worse. Your lens is off axis with the centre of the chip - no big deal. A graduated filter can be useful to control the over-exposure of the sky, but you have to be oh-so-careful when you use filters with a camera with such tiny 1/5" chips. If they're not spotless and well hooded you can get nasty flare and spots when you're using very short focal lengths. My recommendation? Don't use any filters unless you absolutely must. For dusty, sandy conditions and sticky-fingered children's parties, yes. But otherwise no. tom.

October 5th, 2006, 03:24 PM	#278
James Connors Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Cardiff, UK Posts: 223	An old question I know, but have you tried changing the firewire cable?

October 19th, 2006, 12:42 PM	#280
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Welcome to the group Dave. I've never seen anything like this on my PDX-10. I wonder if it might be related to the image stabilization system? Have you tried turning steadyshot off? Hard to tell from your description, but it might just be a drop-out problem of some kind on the tape also.

October 20th, 2006, 03:06 AM	#281
Dave Spiers Tourist Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: UK Posts: 4	Hi Boyd - thanks for the reply. I was using it as a front-end for a stop-frame animation video so there was no film in the camera - I was literally grabbing stills via firewire to a Mac. (actually, the jumping effect didn't ruin the shoot and possibly added to the lo-fi flavour ;)) I first noticed the computer monitor jumping and re-booted, but then I noticed it was happening on the camera display so I changed the firewire cables etc but still the same thing occured. That's when I powered-down the PDX and noticed that I got the 10mins of normal use upon powering it up. I will, as you suggest, turn off the steadyshot and see if that helps. Thank you again Dave

October 20th, 2006, 07:23 AM	#282
Dave Spiers Tourist Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: UK Posts: 4	Damn - sadly that didn't do the trick :( On closer inspection though, it seems to be a kind of picture stretching, as opposed to jumping, and the right of the picture isn't affected at all. Very odd indeed. I think it's time for the menders :-/ Dave

November 20th, 2006, 10:16 AM	#283
David Chia Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Singapore Posts: 427	Hi Dave, there is a web site here by sony europe in 2005 about faulty LCD screen problems on some pdx10p and pd170p . it gives all people a free repair on the stated serial number. I hope it helps this is the site: http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArtic...site=odw_en_GB david

November 20th, 2006, 11:00 AM	#284
Dave Spiers Tourist Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: UK Posts: 4	Thanks very much for that David - for a moment there was a glimmer of hope :) Sadly though, my serial number is higher than those. I might call the number on there though. You never know. Thanks again Dave

November 20th, 2006, 11:20 AM	#285
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	David: see my other post here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...d=1#post577133 The recall is not for LCD problems, but for CCD problems.