Camera setup

[<Colorist>]

Quick question on my camera. It is the lowest of the low, being a UVW-100, but it does have some menu functions for gamma, crispening and such...I shot some stuff with the gamma lowered today, a bit better looking. Do Ivan, Terry, or John have any good tips or hints as to what to do in general to these levels to make it a bit "prettier"?

 

[imported_blank]

I don't own my own betacam

and the shops don't really let me fool with internal settings too much as they have employee techs doing that stuff . Although sometimes I do fool around - I luv stuff like that SHHHH!!! Don't let anyone know - too late.

Anyway in my opinion you can't really give settings over the internet - its like calibrating TV monitors, you really have to be there to see the changes as every cam may react a little diferent.

I do appreciate your confidence in me. BTW I don't think the 100 is the lowest, I'd take one over a handycam any day.

You may give this a check
http://members.tripod.com/~Camera_Dave/analog-2.htm

Or ask Dinosaur.

 

[SHOOTFIRST]

Hey there Colorist....

Though you may have already done this...If you do have the ability to play aorund (sadly I'm like Ivan, the shop boys get a little pissy playing with the menus) Anyways, if you do get to play aorund, go somewhere and light a simple scene and hook a monitor to your camera and keep playing around until you see something you like. One hint though, make sure that the monitor your using is calibrated by a engineer.

Hope that helps

N

 

[Thomas]

To set up a video camera you need a waveform monitor and a vectoscope. You also need to know what the baseline setting for video and chroma levels need to be. If you don't have the gear or the knowledge, you are a direct threat to the integrity of the images you have been hired to photograph.

For now, stick with warm cards for white balancing enhancement. Make sure your lens' back focus is correct. Learn how to light. Then go find a copy of the out of print book "Electronic Cinematography" and read it cover to cover. That will point you in the right direction.

By the way, most people who own good cameras don't really mess with them. They have them set up by a good engineer and then they vamp off that platform using the warm cards or pre-programmed set-up cards with different looks in them. The use of filters and lighting technique also enhances the electronic image.

It's a step by step, trick by trick process.

 

[Dedline]

I would keep them set to default unless your station chief or engineers have all the cameras setup the same way (could you be the first to break this ground? likely).Tweaking a camera's gamma and deeper level settings is not for the faint of heart. If you continue, I hope you have a setup card,so you can save your settings now and go back to them if the sjit hits the fan.

The most underrated adjustment?? IMHO it's the contrast switch. Try it, I use mine all the time now. If you're looking for deeper blacks, deepen your contrast. It really does help compensate for those bad eye shadows in high sunlight (lighter contrast).Hook your camera up to a monitor (or your next live shot truck) then switch the contrast around to check it out.Hopefully you have a programmable button for it like on our DVCPro's.
let us know how you do.