On 28 Dec 1999 16:34:28 GMT, millstone@valley.net (David Millstone) wrote:

>A colleague and I are planning a two-camera shoot of an indoor event on
>January 1. I'll be using a TRV900 and she has a VX1000. We did a test
>shoot of a similar event in the same hall several weeks ago, white
>balanced our cameras at the same time, and set the exposures and gain at
>the same levels. When we looked at the footage aftewards, though, there
>was enough of a difference in the picture quality that it would be awkward
>editing between the two. The 900 had a brighter, sharper image; the 1000
>was more muted.

Setting identical shutter-speed/aperture/gain with different
models is unlikely to produce exactly the same exposure on
tape.

>We got together afterwards and spent a few hours in her studio, tweaking
>the settings. One obvious thing is to bring a field monitor with us and
>switch back and forth between the two cameras at the start of the shoot,
>adjusting aperture and gain as best we can to make the picture quality
>more similar. We're also planning to bring additional lights into the
>hall, on the theory that this will make it easier for each camera to
>produce a good image.

Yes, this is a good idea. The TRV-900 can handle a somewhat
lower light level than the VX-1000, and camcorders lose color near maximum gain, exaggerating didfferences between
these cameras that are already quite noticeable in good
light.

>Can anyone suggest additional steps we can do to bring the two cameras
>into closer alignment? Is there something that we can do using color bars
>at the start of the shoot that will let me adjust colors slightly in
>post-production? (I'm using Final Cut Pro.) Anything to be done about the
>sharpness issue? (I don't think the TRV900 allows me control over that,
>and I don't know about the VX1000.) Ultimately, I'd like to be able to cut
>from one camera to the other in my final project without having different
>picture quality be a distraction. It seems that doing everything possible
>ahead of time will make it easier in the long run.

Once the cameras' color balances are set (if manually
balanced), or allowed time to auto-balance completely,
shoot a large white card with both - this should make
it easier to balance exposure and color during editing.
One thing I would do (and will - I just ordered a
TRV-900 to be used with my two VX-1000's...) is place
both in similar lighting conditions to those you
will be shooting in, with a switcher and monitor,
and adjust the "custom controls" of the VX-1000 to
more closely match the TRV-900 (there is control over
hue, saturation, sharpness, AE-bias, and gain-bias on
the VX-1000) - you will not get a perfect match
(especially in color balance - the TRV-900 tends toward
red-blue, the VX-1000 toward yellow-green in daylight,
with different biases under low light), but everything
other than color-balance differences can be made
reasonably close. The TRV-900 and VX-1000 have about
the same resolution, but with the sharpness control
of the VX-1000 centered, edges aren't as crisp-looking
as with the TRV-900 - raise the sharpness on the
VX-1000 (and give it more light), and you should see
little difference in sharpness between them. I have
used up to three different camera models/brands
simultaneously, and matching them has been fairly
easy in Premiere. BTW, using cross-dissolves instead
of straight cuts when editing can conceal a lot of
ills...;-)