What Optical Dissolve plugin are you referring to?

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

Yeah, which one?
JJK

Shooting with a HC7 absoluely nothing to be gained.
10bit YUV is 4:2:2, Digital Betacam cameras shoot that.

Your HC7 is 8bit 4:2:0 with rather dramatic amounts of compression.

If you're delivering SD you can get what comes close to 8bit 4:2:2 SD from 8bit 4:2:0 HDV. Personally I'd be thinking more about using a better camera if this project is of high value.

Don't confuse what people are talking about with 10bit YUV and 32bit floating point processing. Two quite different things in many ways.

Bob.

Bob - How would you compare the HC7 versus the A1U - given they are both 1 chip cmos cameras. Technically speaking, the image quality should be fairly equal - considering the A1U is marketed as a pro camera. I went with the HC7 based upon the recommendation of Robin Berg, a shooter who has used it on more than one occasion for broadcast on Discovery, Outdoor Life Network, etc.

He stated with confidence that under the right conditions, the HC7 held up against the Z1U and he had no problems using the little camera for network projects.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

What Optical Dissolve plugin are you referring to?

SMLuminance

It's free too, and looks just like film.

Use this once, and you'll never go back.

As for no benefit at all on HC7 footage? I must be getting too post-oriented, because I think of not just the camera footage, but the production with titles and effects that may, depending on their design, benefit from more bits.

Bob is correct that 10-bit and 32-bit "are not the same thing," in that 10-bit exists because it is the most common camera format at the higher levels, while 32-bit is strictly for post at this time.

Still, you can gain visible smoothness with 10 bits, if your footage (whether camera- or more likely computer-generated) has certain characteristics.

Anyone who says that it will always help or it will never help is guilty of ignorance of the first degree. :O)

I'd go further and say that under the right conditions our HC5 don't look too shabby compared to our EX1. Thing is it's too easy to not really understand what that means. Can you create those right conditions or even what are they?

So rather than answer which camera I'd suggest really getting to know the camera. Clearly neither one offers anything like the image control or latitude of the EX1. However you can control the image the camera sees, well I'm asuming you can with what you're shooting. So do some tests, what kind of lighting gives the best result and avoids the limitation of the camera. At a guess I'd say stick to low key, flat lighting. It's usually the shadows and blacks that get lots of noise with the smaller imagers but you should do you own evaluation. Even look at what colors look the best. Oh and use daylight light sources if at all possible.

Armed with this knowledge you can setup your shots to give the cleanest image from the camera. No matter what, image quality always goes down in post, small differences in the quality of two images at the start of the pipeline become big differences at the end of the pipeline. Little bits of noise or artifacts seem to grow bigger as they go through the process, do what you can to avoid them when you shoot.

Bob.

Thanks Bob - I've come to appreciate your input on the forums :-)

I have no expectations of my cameras equaling the image quality of the larger 3 chip cameras, but they're all I've got to work with for the time being and much of my work is delivered via the web - and I believe web content distribution is the future - hence my choice to use HC7's for the time being.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

10bit colour is needed (or desirable lets say) if you're gonna be doing transfer-to-film... film can take advantage of the extra colour info.

if DV/HD is the target media, all footage can be 8bit.

10bit colour is needed (or desirable lets say) if you're gonna be doing transfer-to-film... film can take advantage of the extra colour info.

If you shoot 8-bit, you first have to create something other than '0's in the two extra bits.

There are a number of specific circumstances in post work and titling where that happens.

If that happens, then it's worth going to 10-bit if your NLE supports it, or otherwise 16-bit in After Effects, or as a last resort 32-bit in Vegas (for reasons discussed in this forum many times).

In many but not all of these circumstances, working in 10-bit makes a visible difference even when the final output is truncated to 8-bit, such as for DVDs or most non-professional display systems.

(There are even circumstances where the difference can be seen even if the output is truncated to 6-bit video, such as on a cheap LCD monitor.)

Once you have a true understanding of what happens with whatever number of bits you have, you can find ways to do more with them.

The same goes for cameras. There are many cases in feature film production where the viewers are not even aware that in the next scene the camera is switched from a $200,000 Sony F35 to a cheap prosumer camera, or even a pure consumer camera. How so? Because the DP totally understands how to work within the limitations of whatever gear he has (and the "cheap gear" was used because it was smaller, lighter, faster to move, and/or expendable).

It's a waste to buy the latest famous camera if you're not prepared to put MAJOR effort into getting to know it. It is a lot of work, but it's worth it.

If you can't afford [insert latest famous camera here], then learn as much as you can from others, and then go home and shoot the heck out of your own camera to where it nearly wears out just from that. Shoot many different types of scenes and see what happens. See how you can compensate for the shortcomings of a less expensive camera with more skilled lighting.

I love working with a 10-bit camera that provides a nearly noise-free picture in light where I can barely see my own way, because it makes things easier for me. I love not having to spend so much time on thinking about DOF, because I worked hard to get a camera that has that taken care of sufficiently for my needs without extra gadgets on the front.

But sometimes I miss having that little prosumer (or even consumer) camera, because there are cases when that would be the better tool.

To learn more about shooting and postwork using any program, read "The DV Rebel's Guide" by Stu Maschwitz. His credentials speak for themselves, and this book was one of the few I ever cared to pre-order sight unseen. It is 10/10.

Next step after that, well it depends on what you want to do.

Steven D. Katz' books are primarily for drama, but the second book below has application for documentaries also:
"Shot by Shot" is invaluable for learning what you should point the camera at, to get the right effect on the audience
"Cinematic Motion" is invaluable for understanding blocking (this is a must have if you're not a "blockhead" yet :O)

Lots more worthwhile books, and quite a few DVD-based programs on lighting, including for example VASST's "Light It Right" which offers a good understanding of how to get the most out of inexpensive lighting equipment, including DIY ditto. [You can search this forum for past posts on that program, no complaints about it ever as I can recall, just praise from many different people.]

Of course, none of this matters if you don't care about the quality of what you do.

If you couldn't care less, you'll be in very good company with some of the most famous people in Hollywood (and I'm not knocking Hollywood in general, it has the highest concentration of truly top class professionals anywhere in the world).

So make your choice up front: Do you care, or do you just feel lucky?

The latter works too sometimes.

It's free too, and looks just like film.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but does the SMluminance only work on stills or DV also?

Supported bitmap formats for those running WinXP are .bmp, .gif, .png, .jpg, .tiff, .wmf, .emf or .exif - those running other OSes .bmp, .gif, .png and .jpg files .....
I guess this is the part that confusses me
Thanks,
Randy

It's for video only.

the SMLuminance transition can be used for video or still transitisions. It can use a greyscale still to create a custom transition or it uses the luminance off the incoming and outgoing video to create a transition.

If you have used any of the transition packages (like digital juice or such) many of them use this type of plugin to create clockwipes, swirls, checkerbox and other kinds of visual transitions.

Dave T2

very cool...thanks very much!!!

Well, make that video only, whether the video is transitioning between two stills or not.

The functionality is simply to fade in and out while adding the luminance of the A and B clips in a different way from the standard in Vegas and most NLEs.

A hugely visible difference.

"Well, make that video only, whether the video is transitioning between two stills or not."

Not trying to argue, but just wanted clarification on what you are saying. It can transition between stills on a timeline or video on a timeline. I thought the original question meant can it be used only to transition between stills. My answer was clarifying that it can be used to transition between video or stills .

Thanks
Dave T2

A timeline indicates video.

This is not a morphing program that can only work between stills.

It just fades down the A clip and ramps up the B clip, while adding up each pixel in each overlapping frame with different coefficients for highlights and shadows, just like film gamma curves.

Okay, I see what you meant. I was referring to a video timeline. Didn't even think about a standalone morphing program or anything.

Dave T2

I think the video angle is covered.

What about audio? How are you going to capture and what are you going to use to edit it with?

I don't know anything about the HC7, but I am guessing it's not suitable to capture even low quality production audio.

I would start thinking about a stand alone digital audio recorder.

Amen to that.

Parallel sound makes a big difference, and today it is so much cheaper for good gear.

Slate the beginning and end of each shoot, and label your audio files carefully.

Actually, the HC7 does a very good job with audio - just because it has a mini jack doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile camera. I asked that question over at dvinfo forums and there seems to be no appreciable difference in sound quality between xlr and mini jack - only the number of mics available for each connector.

I've been considering the Ambient Recordings TinyMike for my next shotgun mic and it has very positive reviews about it - comparable to larger more well known shotguns mics. The size and apparent sound quality is perfect for cameras like the HC7/HC9 type cameras. I'm also looking to get the Sennheiser G2 wireless lav kit as well and for an audio recorder - a Samson Zoom H2.

Audio will be edited in either Vegas Pro or Sound Forge 9 depending on my needs.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

Reading any of the standard books on lighting for video is perhaps the worst thing you could do. Film is typically lit the opposite way around to video.
In videoland light is added as needed, positive lighting.
In filmland light is removed from where it's not wanted, negative lighting. Considerable effort is also expended to control everything in front of the camera e.g. if it can't handle specular highights they get dulled down.

Film is typically lit to a stop, not the other way around. Neither of the two DVDs I have on lighting for video even mention using a light meter. The key to success is lighting for the dynamic range of what's shooting the scene and the best way to do this is using a light meter.

Probably also worth mentioning that the "10bit" used in film is 10bit Log which is a very different beast to the 10bit YUV used in video land.

Much of the advantages of the 10bit YUV DB cameras comes from the 2/3" CCDs. Even truncating the 10bit to 8bit and using Vegas's 8bit pipeline they'll still give a stunning image compared to the 1/3" DV cameras.

Bob.

..............Much of the advantages of the 10bit YUV DB cameras comes from the 2/3" CCDs. Even truncating the 10bit to 8bit and using Vegas's 8bit pipeline they'll still give a stunning image compared to the 1/3" DV cameras

Exactly!!!!! and to add the 32 bit in vegas aint 22 bits better than the 10 bit in the mentioned cameras