how to read gain on HV30/HV20

[mARIOb]

You probably know that but I'd like to share my observations with you; I recorded tape in HV30 and used Sony HC1 as a playback deck. To my surprise it showed me "db" on the screen; It looks like when HV30 was on auto (full gain) then camera goes to some kind of hyper gain (no db readings on Sony), for exposure "-2" it shows 18db, "-4" shows 15db, "-6" shows 12db etc.

[voodeux]

Cool...why can't Canon include that on their LCD info.

[Ian-T]

Yeah mARIOb.....that was something we found out some time last year with the HV20. You would think they'd update that feature in the HV30.

[Rumpelgeist]

* 1 f-stop == 6 dB
* Canon EV scale uses 4 steps per f-stop
* Canon EV scale does not make difference between real f-stops and gain in terms of how they are represented on the scale, this simplifies calculations.
* Therefore, one EV step equals to 6/4 == 1.5 dB
* EV scale has no fixed "0" point, therefore it is meaningless to say that -2EV == 18dB or something like that.

Read more here: http://www.elurauser.com/articles/manual_mode.jsp