Settings Suggestion on Quality Video Shooting

[Caleb Epler]

From experience, I can tell you that shooting in the: HDV24 setting will play a major role in pushing your follow-along video into the documentary film category. Once you capture the video you'll see what I'm talking about.

I highly do not recommend cinemode for this. Maybe use it if you want some nature shots, but not for subject shots. You should use Tv mode at a 48 shutter speed. A general rule of thumb a friend of mine told me is that your shutter speed should almost always be at least twice the amount of your frames per second. I'm sure you're wondering about exposure settings, you can adjust that in Av mode, now if you're like me and want control over your shutter and aperture, you can look around this forum for the "photo button" trick to being able to control your aperture settings while in Tv mode. It's quite handy. Now all of this requires you to switch the camera from auto mode to program mode. That setting is located on the right side of the camera on the tape housing, right beside the record button.

I highly recommend buying a monopod, and a tripod if you don't already have one. Those two links are the monopod and tripod that I own, and I love them, they are both very steady and easy to use. I'm sure you're asking, "If I have a tripod, why would I need a monopod?" Monopods are great run-n-gun stabilizers. They are great to just leave your hv30 on them and run around with it. It's great to hold the camera in the air with, get a ground shot, or to steady the camera if you need a smoother shot, you will find plenty of uses in the field.

As far as I know you shouldn't have to change anything for the RVM, the camera has an automatic limiter that helps prevent peaking. There is a lo-cut setting on the RVM (at least I think) that helps get low hiss out, and boost other frequencies. You made a very wise choice on microphones.

I recommend a polarizer to look through certain windows, and a UV filter to reduce the sun's effect on your image, maybe even a mattebox considering you'll be outside a lot. Maybe even a focus wheel if you want some great DoF shots, this would be great if you plan on doing interviews. I know there is a user here named: Irvb who makes great focus wheels and sells them for around $39 Irv's Focus Wheels

I also highly recommend you buy a good light for your camera. If you look at taky's setup, you'll see he has two lights. You should only need one but the light that he has on his camera would be perfect it's around $79 on B&H.

With all of these add-ons you'll definitely need a good battery.... or two.... or three... The BP-2L24h sould suffice. Taky (the administrator on these here forums) sells them, you can e-mail him and he will send you an e-mail on his prices. I've seen reports of the battery lasting anywhere from 4-6 hours of recording with the LCD on vs. 45min-70min on the stock battery. I will let you know after I shoot a documentary this weekend with my BP-2l24Hs for the first time.

So, let's Review:

My suggestions:
1. Monopod ~ $30ish
2. Tripod ~ $50-$70 for a good one. (The one I listed is for higher end Sony cameras)
3. Long-Life Battery ~ $38/ea plus $6 shipping, then $1 extra for each item, I've yet to find a better deal on this battery
4. Polarizer and UV Filter ~ around $5
5. Focus Wheel ~ $39
6. Camera Light ~ $79

I probably forgot some things but... oh well, any more questions I'll be glad to help you with. Have fun man!

[CycleWriter]

Caleb, great response. This is the only thing I can take issue with: "and a UV filter to reduce the sun's effect on your image..." UV filters in video are primarily for lens protection. They add almost nothing to video in terms of picture. Otherwise, good advice.

[berighteous]

The only reason to shoot DV is if storage space is an issue.

There are lots of reasons to shoot DV. One major one is DV footage is faster and easier to edit, especially if you're just trimming, adding titles and and exporting for DVD.

I shoot four hours of science classes weekly that have to be mailed on DVD the next day. It's 2-3 times faster to do the footage in DV than HDV, since no extra conversion/scaling/indexing/conforming needs to be done before you can edit the footage. Rendering times are much reduced just using DV. I can turn around an hour of DV footage in less than an hour and a half, including capture time, trimming, adding titles, rendering, encoding to mpeg2, authoring and burning the DVD.

Another reason to shoot DV when you can is you can put 90 minutes on a dv tape in LP mode.

If you don't NEED the footage in HD, or you don't want widescreen SD, you don't NEED to shoot in HDV mode. The DV footage on the HV's is excellent for many things.

HDV gives you a lot of flexibility in SD projects, though, since you can scale and move the footage around to frame just the shot you want in post production. I shoot most of my multicamera big projects in HDV so I can have that flexibility. I can keyframe zooms and pans, cut between different parts of the same wide shot, since the resolution of HDV is effectively 3x SD. I intentionally shoot wider than I would for DV. The learning/experimentation curve is steep for that kind of editing, but I'm getting good results so far.

[CycleWriter]

I respectfully disagree. Even if you know you will be outputting to SD, you shouyld still shoot in HDV and then just use DVLock when you capture if ease of editing and file size is your concern. Then archive the tape and you'll have an HDV backup should at some point later in life you decide, "Gee, I wish I had HD footage of that stuff I did last year now that I have a BD burner." Like I said, unless storage is a concern, shooting in HDV makes more sense. And using DVLock even storage is a negligible concern.

What you think you need today may not be applicable 6 months or 2 years from now. Why not futureproof yourself as much as possible?

[Caleb Epler]

What you think you need today may not be applicable 6 months or 2 years from now. Why not futureproof yourself as much as possible?

I agree, I use DVLock a lot, and have gone back to a previous project's original HDV tape before for many things. And I'm almost positive that even if captured in SD, workflow'd (not even a word) in SD, produced in SD, and distributed in SD, you will always appreciate the greater quality of the nature in whatever country you're going to in HD. It also gives you an easier feeling when considering your backups.

Caleb, great response. This is the only thing I can take issue with: "and a UV filter to reduce the sun's effect on your image..." UV filters in video are primarily for lens protection. They add almost nothing to video in terms of picture. Otherwise, good advice.

Thank you! And yeah, I guess that's what I get for not proof-reading. If I look REAL closely the natural contrast of the picture is slightly, SLIGHTLY better, but you are correct, the real purpose is protection. My bad.

[jj1807]

Great responses, so far. Caleb... appreciate the list. Very helpful. I will continue to do some experimenting before the trip, based on what has been recommended here. This is definitely a documentary-type project. I hope to figure out how to capture some of those "depth of field" shots.

If any of you use Final Cut Express, can you tell me if it will perform differently as the video gets longer and more titles or transitions are added to the project?

[Fred Dwyer]

You already have a number of great suggestions here, but I can't resist two more. Try 30i, I find it delivers great footage across a broad range of conditions. Use the zebra stripe feature at 100% and you'll catch areas that will blow out. You can then compensate, if necessary, using the exposure lock. A great deal of how you shoot will depend on how much is shot under controlled conditions and how much is run and gun.

[2Bdecided]

I hope you pay equal (or greater) attention to story telling, your actual subject, getting interesting scenes, cut-aways, framing, lighting, sound, and editing - to all the "techie" camera stuff.

With all due respect to those who can do everything properly, if you get the above right but shoot everything in 60i full auto, it'll still be a much more watchable DVD than getting all the "techie" stuff right while getting the above all wrong!

I'd agree with practice practice practice - make sure you do the entire work flow, if even just for 1-2 minutes of footage, and watch the result.

Cheers,
David.

[Fred Dwyer]

IWith all due respect to those who can do everything properly, if you get the above right but shoot everything in 60i full auto,

Points about artistic story telling well taken, but make that full auto 30p. IMHO it's normally at least = to, and usually better than, 60i. Comb distortion avoided and you get an extra stop in low light. There may be some argument for 60i as a better basis for slo-mo, but that depends greatly on what effects system you are using to generate the slo-mo.

[2Bdecided]

Oh, it wasn't a suggestion - it was an example of picking the worst possible settings on the camera but still getting a good result because you concentrated on the right things, shot well, and told the story properly!

Though FWIW my camera never strays off 50i. I hate the "film look". I just said 60i because most people here hate the "video look"!

Cheers,
David.

[Fred Dwyer]

Oh, I didn't notice you're from PAL land. You don't have 30p. I tend to agree that "the film look" is a bit over emphasized, guess it depends on what you wish to shoot. As I see it 30p looks just like 60i without comb distortion and with extra low light sensitivity. In other words, just cleaner video.

[dog88]

My suggestions:
1. Monopod ~ $30ish
2. Tripod ~ $50-$70 for a good one. (The one I listed is for higher end Sony cameras)
3. Long-Life Battery ~ $38/ea plus $6 shipping, then $1 extra for each item, I've yet to find a better deal on this battery
4. Polarizer and UV Filter ~ around $5
5. Focus Wheel ~ $39
6. Camera Light ~ $79

I probably forgot some things but... oh well, any more questions I'll be glad to help you with. Have fun man!

Where do you find a quality polarizer and UV filter for $5?

[Krane]

I respectfully disagree. Even if you know you will be outputting to SD, you shouyld still shoot in HDV and then just use DVLock when you capture if ease of editing and file size is your concern. Then archive the tape and you'll have an HDV backup should at some point later in life you decide, "Gee, I wish I had HD footage of that stuff I did last year now that I have a BD burner." Like I said, unless storage is a concern, shooting in HDV makes more sense. And using DVLock even storage is a negligible concern.

What you think you need today may not be applicable 6 months or 2 years from now. Why not futureproof yourself as much as possible?

Hmm, better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Note: I wrote that!

I hope you pay equal (or greater) attention to story telling, your actual subject, getting interesting scenes, cut-aways, framing, lighting, sound, and editing - to all the "techie" camera stuff.

With all due respect to those who can do everything properly, if you get the above right but shoot everything in 60i full auto, it'll still be a much more watchable DVD than getting all the "techie" stuff right while getting the above all wrong!

I'd agree with practice practice practice - make sure you do the entire work flow, if even just for 1-2 minutes of footage, and watch the result.

Cheers,
David.

Oooh, such talent here. The trained eye will appreciate getting the technical stuff right, but even the untrained eye can appreciate a good story. If it's not interesting, nobody will care about the rest.

[kadzbiz]

I know there is a user here named: Irvb who makes great focus wheels and sells them for around $39 Irv's Focus Wheels

Thanks for this link. I'm getting one, as soon as they come back in stock. BTW, your comments on the monopod are spot on. I've been using one for some time. Very practical.

[coolstuff]

does anyone know how long it usually takes for the focus wheel to come back in stock? Months? Weeks?

[tvnewsbadge]

Caleb, great response. This is the only thing I can take issue with: "and a UV filter to reduce the sun's effect on your image..." UV filters in video are primarily for lens protection. They add almost nothing to video in terms of picture. Otherwise, good advice.

Actually, the UV filter is traditionally used to
cut out the excessive blue light and haze one often finds at higher altitudes. The skylight or clear filters are best if plain lens protection is desired.
That said, the UV filter can serve that purpose too, but that's not it's primary job.

[tvnewsbadge]

Where do you find a quality polarizer and UV filter for $5?

You don't. Good filters are VERY expensive, but it all depends on how much image degradation you can live with.

[cellos]

It seems that the focus wheel from Irvb has been out of stock for quite a long time...

[askclifford]

i agree

[henrinaiara]

I think a quality of video can look by a resolution of video

[w.pasman]

I agree with the Tv mode and story line remark.
I disagree with the 25p (I'm using PAL). Playback 25p on a big screen stutters waaay beyond tolerance and gives me instant headache. It is only ok for computer playback. Maybe modern displays can 'interpolate' to make something acceptable out of it, but it's a big no in my book. Try recording some action stuff in 25p like football or even a moderately quick pan and compare it with the smoothness of a proper 50i recording.

[Janke]

Playback 25p on a big screen stutters waaay beyond tolerance and gives me instant headache.

So you are unable to watch real movies?

(As opposed to videos, all movies are shot at 24, in PAL land shown at 25 fps.)

[Black Lotus Studio]

You should use Tv mode at a 48 shutter speed. A general rule of thumb a friend of mine told me is that your shutter speed should almost always be at least twice the amount of your frames per second.

I was told you wanted to get as close to 80 without going over as possible because that was what film was originally shot with. This would be to produce a "film look". Is that not the case with the HVs?

[dean1979]

I respectfully disagree. Even if you know you will be outputting to SD, you shouyld still shoot in HDV and then just use DVLock when you capture if ease of editing and file size is your concern. Then archive the tape and you'll have an HDV backup should at some point later in life you decide, "Gee, I wish I had HD footage of that stuff I did last year now that I have a BD burner." Like I said, unless storage is a concern, shooting in HDV makes more sense. And using DVLock even storage is a negligible concern.

What you think you need today may not be applicable 6 months or 2 years from now. Why not futureproof yourself as much as possible?

This seems very sensible to me. I think I will be doing this. What is DV lock and how do you use that?