On 28 Mar 2003 10:47:13 -0800, ongwanshu@yahoo.com (rolento) wrote:

>I have been a digital photographer for a few years and gonna shoot a

>digital short film real soon. however, i am very sure that i don't

>have enough technical knowledge to bring the best out of the digital

>files that i am gonna get from my dvcam. i know there will be ways to

>optimize because with digital photo files, i can do wonders with a

>2mega pixel picture and print a super sharp picture at 8R size. Thus,

>i hope the experts in the following areas can help me out. I am most

>probably shooting with a 3ccd dvcam, and hope to have the most

>versatility to either make it into 16:9 format or 4:3 format. Would

>also like to have the most versatility in converting into film or

>video as end product.

>

>1) I know that in photography, shooting in TIFFS and RAW format have

>the least quality loss as compared to JPEG. What about the various

>formats in digital video cameras? which SHOOTING FORMAT has the least

>quality loss? Sorry but i know nuts abt DV formats.

Yes....;-)

Basically, most "cheap" DV is "D25", which is a fixed,

frame-by-frame 5:1 compressed format, though it comes

in different "flavors": D8 (using Hi-8 tape), Mini-DV

(using Mini-DV tape), DVCam (using Mini-DV or DVCam

tape), and I think a less-used Panasonic variant...

Within most (not DVCam), the recording speed can

be LP or SP - but the results of all the above at

all speeds are essentially the same but for dropout

rate probability... At a much higher cost is "D50",

with considerably less compression (and motion-

artifacting) and more color info, but with the same

maximum resolution. The major differences are in the

cameras used - and only the most expensive in D25

have CCDs optimized for 16:9 (with the almost-exception

of the DVCam version of the Sony TRV950...).

>2) In photography, I use a lightmeter to measure aperture and shutter

>speed given a certain ISO setting. I read something about "lux" as the

>measuring unit of light for DVcam. what is the device i use to measure

>light for DVcam? can my lightmeter double up as that?(if DVcams has

>ISO setting of coz)

"Lux" is a rating used for comparing low-light reach

of various cameras (though it may not be reliably and

comparably reported by various manufacturers...;-).

External light meters are generally not used for

video, since there are three variables: aperture,

shutter-speed, and gain (similar to variable-filmspeed...).

Some camcorders have good built-in metering; some have

very good viewfinders for judging exposure; some have

"zebra stripes" for showing overexposed areas - but

some people connect the camera to a good, known monitor

for picture color-bias, brightness, and contrast

adjustments (depends on type of work whether or not this

last is practical...). Almost anything but overexposure

and poor focus can be saved during editing, though...

>3) In Digital Photography, I always convert any JPEG files to TIFF,

>PSD to minimise loss of quality and details when i am enhancing it

>digitally. eg, brightness, contrast, colour balance, sharpening. This

>is because saving in JPEG format repeatingly reduces the quality over

>and over again. What abt in video editing softwares? which format

>should i work in (either Premiere 6 or Final Cut) to minimise quality

>loss after repeatingly saving it

It is the quality of the codec used that determines

the amount of quality loss with each "rendering"

(unchanged footage is not rendered - it stays in original

form). In Premiere and probably in other good editors

(people generally like Vegas Video, also...) the codec can

be changed to use the best one; in FCP, I don't think it

can be changed... (For a 10-generation rendering example

using the Canopus codec [one of the better ones, along

with MainConcept], see:

www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/original_vs_10th-gen.htm.)

>4) Film is 24fps, while video is 30fps(if i m not wrong). Web

>streaming is 10fps. For maximum versatility, should i shoot in the

>highest fps (30fps) and throw frames away when converting to other

>formats that require less fps?

Yes, generally shoot at 29.97 (NTSC), and generally

"interlaced", too for general purposes, unless the

footage will be used ONLY for a specific purpose using

a different frame-rate (only the Panasonic DVX100 can

shoot odd frame-rates, though...). - conversions can be

made from 29.97fps interlaced to the others, but not the

other way around very easily...

>5) What esle can you guys advise me on making the best out of a cheap

>3ccd DVcam?

Choose gear well, and know your gear well...

BTW, this may be scarey, but this site has examples

of various video image characteristics to look out

for (some can be avoided or minimized, some can't):

www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/vid_pict_characts.htm.