Questions about the Crew's Equipment

lhmaloney - Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - 07:52 Tags: Random Creatureface Films

What I wanted to know was did you guys shot all your films with the Panasonic AG DVX100A and if so did you use the 24fps. Does it really work very well. I have been trying to contact everyone under the soon for feedback and I have got none. Also what are some of the cons. Have you worked with other cameras with 24fps and if so, how do they compare. Thanks guys and keep up the good work.

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Ok so I take it no one got

Mike - Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - 11:26

Ok so I take it no one got back to you. I just emailed you. But with that, I can give you some info. All I can say is that I love this camera. I have actually been temped to buy another just because I love shooting with it so much. Yes it takes some playing around and time to figure things out, but you won't regret it. Are you planning on shooting narrative? industrial? Weddings? I've used it for all of these things and everytime clients or audience member are amazed by what we got with VIDEO! I looked at the one on ebay you sent me the link to and that is CHEAP! If you can get it for that, even $500 more! you are set. I have used the HVX which is panasonics HD version of the DVX and it works good as well. It is 6 to 7 thousand more dollars though. Right now, I would stick with Panasonic. They are very intuitive and have mind boggling image quality. Now, this also isn't a camera you can just shoot under any lighting conditions. It kind of expects you to shoot like film. You need to light! I've done some experimenting without lighting (KILL YOUR KILLER) and got decent results, yet I have to recommend lighting your scene for best image quality. We shot our feature, SUMMER SCHOOL and I shot a short KILL YOUR KILLER with it. Let those be perfect examples. I'm happy with how the image quality of those films turned out.
Any other questions let me know.

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Summer School and, I assume,

BenT - Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - 13:07

Summer School and, I assume, Kill your Killer were both shot on the F5 setting of the DVX100A (2:3:2:3 cadence). Which is 24p but still has the recompression. If that's to technical basically it means 24p with 29.97 timecode. Where as F6 setting is straight 24p 23.97 timecode. If you are working in Final Cut Pro or Vegas Video they are setup to remove the pull down on both giving you pure 24p if you so desire or plan to go out to film.
I'd suggest renting one for a weekend if possible. Get it with a small light kit and shoot random stuff with different settings. But be sure to switch tapes and label them. On a single tape you'd end up with busted time code which makes FCP flip right the fuck out.
Settings for the camera should still be set like this here.
Or somewhat similar. I might have tweaked it slightly before we started shooting Summer School. I, honestly, don't remember.

Mike, I told him to post his question again on the site so now we can link this post to others who have the same questions.
Thanks Lee.

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