Calibration? at DVinfo.net

Dave Dodds · February 10th, 2007, 09:58 AM

In an article one of the users linked about David Lynch and the PD150, I noticed the following things that Scott Billups said.

"I calibrated the PD-150 that he'd purchased to a denser, more film like profile."

and

"One of the great things about some of the newer DV cameras is their wide latitude for calibration. By using a good chart (DSC CamAlign) and a the waveform monitor that comes with computer software like Adobe Premiere or Apple FinalCut Pro, you can tweak the gamma curve, histogram and color density range to create a substantial number of looks. A nice thing about the 150 is that you can save all of your presets on a Memory Stick."

How? I feel dumb asking this - I'm pretty sure I read the manual thoroughly. However, I don't recall seeing things about altering the gamma and what not in-camera. How can I do this stuff that Billups mentions?

Thanks!

~~Dave

Don Bloom · February 10th, 2007, 11:31 AM

Don't feel dumb-I've been using 150s for going on 6 years now and have never seen gamma adjustment or anything else in the pd150 menu anywhere.
the only thing I can think of is that he set some presets in his NLE and saved them to the memory wtcik but I can't see how he would have done that.
I'm not as smart as some but it really doesn't make sense to me.
In the Custom Presets you CAN make some adjusts to WB,color sat and color level (as well as gain limit) bit that's it.
With most all of the full size cams I've owned thru the years of course you can certainly adjust the gamma, don't understand histogram in the camera but again maybe I'm getting dumber as I get older. My old JVC5000 aloowed all kinds of adjustment as you would expect a professional type camera to do but my 150/250 --- nope, not so much.
Again the only thing I can think of is he made some adjusts to the setting of the wavefrom, histogram scopes and somehow saved those settings to a memory stick but I don't see how he would have made them work in the camera.
Maybe I missed something

Don

Boyd Ostroff · February 10th, 2007, 12:41 PM

I can't put my finger on it, but somewhere I read that Lynch worked with an engineer (from Sony possibly) to come up with tweaks to the PD-150 by hacking the firmware with the RM-95 remote. For a little info on the RM-95 see this page from John Beale's website: http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/rm95.html

February 10th, 2007, 09:58 AM	#1
Dave Dodds Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: New York Posts: 204	Calibration? In an article one of the users linked about David Lynch and the PD150, I noticed the following things that Scott Billups said. "I calibrated the PD-150 that he'd purchased to a denser, more film like profile." and "One of the great things about some of the newer DV cameras is their wide latitude for calibration. By using a good chart (DSC CamAlign) and a the waveform monitor that comes with computer software like Adobe Premiere or Apple FinalCut Pro, you can tweak the gamma curve, histogram and color density range to create a substantial number of looks. A nice thing about the 150 is that you can save all of your presets on a Memory Stick." How? I feel dumb asking this - I'm pretty sure I read the manual thoroughly. However, I don't recall seeing things about altering the gamma and what not in-camera. How can I do this stuff that Billups mentions? Thanks! ~~Dave

February 10th, 2007, 11:31 AM	#2
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	Don't feel dumb-I've been using 150s for going on 6 years now and have never seen gamma adjustment or anything else in the pd150 menu anywhere. the only thing I can think of is that he set some presets in his NLE and saved them to the memory wtcik but I can't see how he would have done that. I'm not as smart as some but it really doesn't make sense to me. In the Custom Presets you CAN make some adjusts to WB,color sat and color level (as well as gain limit) bit that's it. With most all of the full size cams I've owned thru the years of course you can certainly adjust the gamma, don't understand histogram in the camera but again maybe I'm getting dumber as I get older. My old JVC5000 aloowed all kinds of adjustment as you would expect a professional type camera to do but my 150/250 --- nope, not so much. Again the only thing I can think of is he made some adjusts to the setting of the wavefrom, histogram scopes and somehow saved those settings to a memory stick but I don't see how he would have made them work in the camera. Maybe I missed something Don

February 10th, 2007, 12:41 PM	#3
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	I can't put my finger on it, but somewhere I read that Lynch worked with an engineer (from Sony possibly) to come up with tweaks to the PD-150 by hacking the firmware with the RM-95 remote. For a little info on the RM-95 see this page from John Beale's website: http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/rm95.html