But the camera itself has never really been the ideal place to record audio, since ideal microphone placement is rarely at the camera position, so double system (a.k.a. double or dual source) sound recording (which was the standard in the days of film cameras) is coming back in vogue. Double system is the practice of recording sound and image separately in production, and then synchronizing them in post production. This used to be a laborious process, but thanks to new tools like Dual Eyes or Plural Eyes from Singular Software, this process can be automated in Final Cut Pro.

So what to record with? Professional location sound recorders can cost thousands of dollars. If you’re on a tight budget, don’t fret, you can record excellent sound with one of several portable audio recorders on the market. For example, the following four units are all under $300. and can produce good results. In the end, microphone placement is at the top of the list of those factors contributing to the quality of location sound recording for your documentary.

In a future post, I’ll look at some higher-end recorders (the downside of these little puppies is they are not as quiet as you would like them to be). In my next post, I’ll talk in some detail about some microphones to use with these small recorders and how to automatically synchronize the audio from them to the audio and video recorded with your camera using Dual Eyes or Plural Eyes from Singular Software. One comment about formats: for video editing, I suggest setting these recorders to WAV, 16-bit, 48kHz recording. Don’t use the MP3 format for location sound recording. It’s fine for notes, meetings, etc. but you want to start off with the cleanest, uncompressed recording. Better formats like 24-bit and higher sampling rates are overkill for dialog and don’t produce significantly better recordings with these little puppies due to other limitations in their design.

Manufacturer	Zoom (Samson)	M-Audio	Roland	Zoom (Samson)
Model	Zoom H2	Microtrack II	R-09HR	Zoom H4n
Street Price (U.S.)	$140	$180	$265	$299
Manufacturer’s web site	[link]	[link]	[link]	[link]
Recording formats	WAV (BWF): 16 or 24-bit @ 44.1, 48, 96kHz (Stereo) and 44.1, 48kHz (4 Channel) MP3: 48 to 320 kbps, @ 44.1kHz	WAV (BWF): 16 or 24 bit @ 44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96kHz; MP3: 96 to 320kbps @ 44.1 or 48kHz	WAV: 16 or 24-bit @ 44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96kHz; MP3: 64 to 320kbps @ 44.1 or 48kHz	WAV: 16 or 24-bit @ 44.1, 48, 96kHz; MP3: 48kbps to 320kbps @ 44.1kHz
Channels	2 or 4	2	2	2 or 4
Limiter/AGC	Limiter or Automatic Gain Control	Analog input limiter with bypass	Limiter or Automatic Gain Control	Compressor/Limiter
Low-cut Filter	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Balanced inputs:	No	Yes (TRS, Mic or Line)	No	Yes (XLR/TRS combo)
Phantom Power:	No	Yes (48V)	No	Yes (48V or 24V)
3.5mm mini-jack audio input	Yes (Mic and Line)	Yes (Mic)	Yes (Mic and Line)	Yes (Mic)
Plug-in Power on 3.5mm mic input	Yes (2.5 V)	Yes (5V)	Yes (5V)	Yes (2.92 V)
Built-in Microphone	Yes (W-XY mic patterns with 4 mic capsules and signal processing allows Front 90° cardioid, Rear 120° cardioid and 360° polar patterns)	No	Yes (Stereo 2 mic in T configuration)	Yes (X/Y stereo configuration can be configured with 90° or 120° recording pattern)
Headphone output	3.5mm mini-jack	3.5mm mini-jack	3.5mm mini-jack	3.5mm mini-jack
Additional inputs or outputs	Line in, Line out (via headphone jack)	S/PDIF coaxial digital input, line out (RCA connectors)	Line out (3.5mm mini-jack)	Line out (3.5mm mini-jack)
Recording Media	SD or SDHC flash cards up to 32GB	CompactFlash (CF) or Microdrives	SD or SDHC flash cards up to 8GB	SD or SDHC cards up to 32GB
Display Screen	Backlit LCD	Backlit LCD	1.5″ OLED	Backlit LCD
Interface	USB-2	USB-2	USB-2
Power	AA Batteries or AC adapter	Built in Li-Ion battery (charges battery and can be powered via USB port) AC to USB power adapter included.	AA Batteries or AC adapter	AA Batteries or AC adapter (or USB adapter, not included)
Additional features	Awesome stereo imaging with 4 microphone capsules and clever signal processing.	Add markers to BWF recordings easily, includes electret t-shaped stereo microphone, software for editing and file format conversion, 1/8″ stereo extension cable with lapel clip.	Wireless remote included; speed adjustment effects; Cakewalk Pyro Audio Creator software included	Built in reference speaker, optional remote control, can be mounted on a standard camera tripod threaded mount. Four track recording takes two channels from the built-in mic and two channels from the XLR/TRS inputs. Can be used as an USB audio interface (sampling rate 44.1 kHz)
Commentary	Popular, value priced contender, great for recording live music and ambience tracks. If you need XLR inputs, check out it’s big brother, the H4n.	A solid performer. If you are looking for a small recorder to use with separate phantom-powered condenser mics, this might be the one for you, the built-in battery is it’s Achilles heel, it will not hold much of a charge after a couple of years of use. M-Audio charges about $75. for a battery replacement. If this recorder worked with AA batteries, it would the perfect portable recorder in this price category. The first Microtrack had issues with low phantom power voltage and did not have a limiter (essential for professional recording), and those issues got fixed with this model, I hope the battery issue will be resolved in version 3.	A solid performer, if it had balanced TRS inputs with phantom power, it would be the perfect portable recorder in this price category. While I own a Microtrack v.1, I use these a lot in a educational context and they have held up well with student use and are good for teaching with their nicely organized menu, logical set of controls, and crisp, easily to read display. Having a choice between AGC or Limiter is nice.	With X-Y microphones, 4 channel recording (so you can record stereo ambience with the built-in mic and dialog from condenser microphones or mixer at the same time, what’s there not to like about this nice update to the H4? One strange thing about the design is that the 3.5mm microphone jack is located on the back of the device, and the plug-in power voltage is not a full 5 volts, but does seems to work with a reasonable number of Plug-in Power microphones.

For a good basic introduction to HTML 5, see Dive into HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim. Rich media and dynamic web content has outgrown the ability of HTML 4 to describe the content of web pages. Video, audio, and dynamic interfaces that rival desktop applications are now commonplace. By adding additional HTML elements, HTML5 will provide web developers with a better way to describe the content of a web page. Significant new features include <video> and <audio> elements, improved forms handling, a <canvas> element that allows image scripting on the fly, and new ways of marking pages to support user interaction.

Video, especially, should be shown with a video player that is HTML5 compliant in order to include the new generation of mobile devices like the Android, iPhone, and iPad. With the right HTML5 player you can support HTML5 for these devices and newer browsers but fallback and use Flash in the event the viewer is using an older browses. Two examples of video players capable of this include the JW Player for HTML5 and the Kaltura HTML5 Video Library.

Industry players are currently debating the merits of HTML5. Apple, with its large deployment of iPhones and the iPad growing in popularity, neither of which supports Flash, has taken a strong position in favor of HTML5. Even after you factor away Job’s famous reality distortion field, he still makes a compelling argument for embracing HTML5, although Adobe might disagree.

Image source: HTML 5 Video Element – New Open Video Format Tags by Mark R. Robertson.

In my original review I wrote, “Transcriva transforms the process of transcribing interviews from a tedious chore into a graceful process with an efficient chat-like interface using keyboard shortcuts that is especially powerful when transcribing an interview with multiple speakers.” And that is still true. Bartas’ tag line for Transcriva is “Manual transcription with automatic transmission” and I’d say that’s a better way to put it. The program offers user-configurable keyboard shortcuts so your hands never need to leave the keyboard. You can control playback speed to match your typing speed. After a pause, when you restart the media it automatically jumps back a user-settable number of seconds to make it easier to take up where you left off. It even works with a Foot Pedal (via software interface) if you’re set up with one. The program has a Follow-Along feature that will highlighting the related sections of the transcription as the media file plays back. Clicking on the transcription text jumps to the related point in the video or audio file. Transcriva can handle just about any type of audio or video you can play with QuickTime. When you’re done transcribing, you can export the text as a plain text (.txt), RTF (.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc) file.

This new version, in addition to adding video support, offers other significant improvements over the first version: media files are no longer read into the applications own document, saving both transfer time and disk space, and transcriptions are nicely organized in folders on the left hand side of the interface and you can choose where the root folder lives. It’s Mac-like interface continues to be a fine feature of the program. Another cool feature in this version is that it can use a live audio and/or video recording as the source media, so while you record a live meeting you can type notes that will be attached to the media being recorded at the time you wrote the notes.

There are two features I’d like to see in a future version of Transcriva: First, the ability to set a time code offset in a file. Right now all transcriptions start at zero and the time code is the time since the start of the audio file or video clip. It would be nice in some situations to match the actual time code of the media file being transcribed. While this is not a serious issue on my current project using P2 media (in a file-based world referring to clip name and time from start of clip works well most of the time), however, when working on videotape based interviews it would be nice to be able to create transcripts that match the time code of the original media. Second, I’d like to see the program extending the shortcuts beyond media control, navigation, and options to include words and phrases that come up often during an interview. Perhaps it could be modeled on the word completion feature in BBEdit and programming environments like Flex.

Transcriva has made my work easier and I’m pleased with it. My experience with Bartas Technologies has been very good, with quick responses to questions and bug reports. If you need to transcribe interviews, and you’ve not yet found the right tool, Transcriva 2 might be it. Give their free trial a spin and see for yourself how much easier it can be to transcribe interviews with this simple and powerful program designed specifically for the Macintosh. For filmmakers transcribing interviews or preparing subtitles, Transcriva 2 is probably a good candidate for the job.

I’m often asked by students, “what’s a good light kit for starting out” and I find it a very hard question to answer, because it really depends on what you want to do. There really is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all one case light kit. I find that most of the commercially available light kits I’ve seen offer too many watts and not enough versatility. After years of creating a variety of make-shift kits from my lighting collection for particular shoots, I’ve settled on one configuration when I’m “traveling light,” and I think the best approach is to put together a custom kit that meets your personal lighting needs.

Drawing from my collection of lighting instruments, I put together a subset for doing interviews on my current documentary project, which has involved air travel to do interviews, so I’ve thought about a bare essentials kit that will fit into a single, manageable case on wheels that’s not too big, but offers enough versatility for doing nicely (albeit simply) lit interviews. This kit is an attempt to balance capability, cost, weight, and size with the requirement that the case could also fit in the hatchback of my car along with tripod, sound kit, and camera gear so I can park the car without any visible evidence of gear in the hatch.All together the kit draws 1,300 Watts, which in most cases works fine on a single household circuit without tripping a breaker (unless there’s already other high-current devices in use). Here are the components in the kit:

• Kata OC-88 GDC Lighting Case with Insertrolley
• Lowel LC-55 Rifa-EX soft light (lightweight and compact, most often used as a key light, sometimes used as fill with 1/2 CTB or CTB when using window light as key)
• Lowel 40 degree Egg Crate for Rifa (reduces spill)
• Lowel Rifa Balance Bar (helps to center the weight of the Rifa light on the stand, increasing stability)



• Arri 300W Fresnel with barn doors and scrim set (Fresnels offer crisp, easy to control light with the quality of sunlight, used as a back light or kicker)
• One or two Lowel Tota-Light(s) with umbrella (often used as a background light, for overall fill, or as a fill light if needed)
• Flexfill 38″ Silver/White reflector (often used as a fill light bounce attached to a microphone stand)
• Three or four Avenger A625B Light Stands, these extend to 7.8′ but are a compact 26″ when closed (depending on the number of Totas in tow)
• Hypoallergenic transparent powder base and make-up pads (for reducing shine on the subject’s face)
• Spare lamps in plastic foam-lined case for all units
• Two or three extension cords and cube taps
• Electric circuit tester
• Gloves
• Small tool kit including a Leatherman
• Flashlight
• Expendables (gaffer tape, C-47s, black wrap, trick line, and assorted gels and diffusion including half CTB and CTB sized with holes to fit the Rifa light).

This kit has worked out well over the course of over a dozen interviews since I put it together. It originally started out in a larger Pelican rolling case with additional instruments, but that quickly got the nickname “the beast” and I eventually trimmed down to the configuration above.
The Rifa LC-55 (500W) produces just enough light for most situations, and it’s the right choice for a lightweight and compact kit, however, if I could spare the space and weight, I’d rather be using a Kino Flo Diva-Lite. I’m considering adding to the kit (I still have a little room left in the case) one or two LED lights. These offer the advantage of small size and practical battery operation. I’m considering the Zylight Z90 (total creative control in terms of color and wireless control, however, a tad pricy) and the Lowel Blender (more affordable than the Z90, however, not as versatile as the Zylight). Back in July, I posted a comparison of four LED lights summarizing the results of my research.

Special thanks to Joseph Ingoldsby for asking the question that resulted in this post.

Update, July 15, 2010: The Avenger A625B Light Stands are no longer available, a reasonable replacement with a new stacking feature would be the Manfrotto 1051BAC Light Stand, Black – 6.75′ extended and 26″ when closed, not quite as tall as the older stands but for a portable kit, the stacking feature means they will nest more snugly in the case. — David.

Update, December 29, 2011: If I had to do it all over again, I’d get the Lowel V-Lights instead of the Totas, but I purchased the Totas long before the V-Light existed. I’m also thinking of adding one or two 150 W Arri Fresnels to the kit as accent lights along with replacing the cords on all the Arri’s with smaller cords that will fit better in the case. Some LED lighting is also on the horizon as costs come down. — David.

The original Microtrack 24/96 and the current Microtrack II from M-Audio are nice little audio recorders, I like having a small recorder in my backpack ready for anything. I love the fact it has balanced TRS inputs so I can use it with my professional microphones, as well as 1/8″ mini-jack inputs with plug-in power for use with a wide range of inexpensive microphones (including the small stereo electret condenser it comes with). However, the little critter is far from perfect. The original Microtrack (the one I own) had three design flaws from my perspective: 1. it lacked a limiter, 2. it did not provide true 48V phantom power, and 3. unlike many other small recorders, it does have a user-replaceable battery. On the other hand, the fact it can be powered from USB is a really big plus and overall it’s a really nice device.

The newer Microtrack II added a limiter (hooray) and real phantom power, but it still has a non-user-replaceable rechargeable battery. I guess two out of three ain’t bad, and I bet the Microtrack designers disagree with me regarding #3 above. Well, like many iPod owners have discovered, non-user-replaceable rechargeable batteries are fine for the first year or so of frequent use, but then the battery starts to decline in capacity. The Lithium-Ion rechargeable batteries used in small devices are good for a certain number of charge-recharge cycles, and then their capacity declines dramatically. So after three years of using my Microtrack, it no longer holds a charge as long as I would like. One solution is that M-Audio offers a battery replacement service to Microtrack owners. But instead, after thinking about it and shopping around, I decide to spend less money for a more versatile and much higher capacity powering option: The Kensington Portable Power Pack for Mobile Devices (#K38021US available for around $50 from a variety of retailers).

The Kensington Portable Power Pack is a rechargeable, external battery pack. Most people purchase it to add dozens of extra hours of iPod playback time, or extra hours of mobile or smartphone talk time, however, it’s also a perfect companion for the M-Audio Microtrack, and it’s about the same size. I attached my Power Pack to the Microtrack using industrial Velcro for a secure fit, and I hacked together a short USB cable to power the Microtrack without any cable clutter. I can’t tell you how long the Microtrack will record with one of these batteries, since it lasts so long I’ve not come close to reaching the end of the battery capacity, but we’re talking several hours of recording. And a nice plus is that the Microtrack still fits in it’s original little pouch with the battery attached.

The Kensington Power Pack comes with a USB to Mini-USB cable to charge and drive devices and a AC adapter (with USB connector) for charging the Power Pack. A gorgeous blue LED battery gauge tells you much power is left in the Power Pack and if it runs out, you still have reserve capacity using the Microtrack’s internal battery, which charges while connected to the Power Pack. The Power Pack contains a Lithium-Ion Polymer battery with a 5VDC (Mini USB) input (1A Max) and 5VDC (USB) output (1.5A Max). The capacity of the battery is 1800mAh (7W/h). And unlike so many of the generic electronic devices sold today, the Kensington Power Pack comes with a respectable 2-Year warranty.

Here are some resources associated with my session, “Practical Sound Recording and Editing Techniques For Better Video” recently given at the 4th Annual New Media Expo held in Las Vegas.

Presentation Slides

Here’s a copy of my presentation slides, available in two flavors.

Sound-Better-Video-4NME.pdf
A PDF of the presentation slides (34MB).

Sound-Better-Video-4NME-Notes.pdf
A PDF of notes to accompany the presentation slides (236K).

Dialog audio clips

The following files are available for download as a zip archive: dialog.zip (8.7MB)

David-123.wav
Recording made with an RE50 omnidirectional, handheld microphone, from three distances, 1 foot, 2 feet, and 3 feet. Note how the audio level falls off dramatically as we move farther away from the source, there’s also some background noise.

David-123-levelator.wav
The above recording processed with Levelator, notice how bringing up the level of the second and third recordings brings up the noise level too. Keeping the mic close the source keeps the level of the voice well above the room noise. The farther away the mic, the less difference between the dialog level and room noise level. Levelator is a good tool for quick and dirty balancing of levels of an audio track, but can sound strange when the original recording is not perfectly clean. Note how the three recordings are progressively worse, since Levelator has to deal with more noise.

Scott.aif
The baseline audio clip, recorded in a room with hard walls, note the reverberation that results, this is impossible to remove.

Scott-Levelator.aif
The Scott.aif clip processed through Levelator

Scott-3Comp-2Gain.aif
The Scott.aif clip processed with 3:1 compression and +2dB gain, zero attack, gentle decay

Scott-3Comp.aif
The Scott.aif clip processed with 3:1 compression, zero attack, gentle decay

Scott-6Gain.aif
The Scott.aif clip without compression but +6dB gain

MS audio clips

The following files are available for download as a zip archive: MSdemo.zip (11MB)

MS-1M-2S.aif
The baseline clip recorded with an MS microphone, M in Ch. 1 and S in Ch. 2. See notes in presentation for more details.

MS-M-only.aif
The mid capsule (short-shotgun) only. This is also good demo of how a source to the side and in front of a short shotgun sounds, notice how the off-axis sound is not only muted, but it’s colored. See notes in presentation for more details.

MS-S-only.aif
The side (figure-of-eight a.k.a. bidirectional) capsule only. Also a good demo of just how much side-rejection a bidirectional mic is capable of. See notes in presentation for more details.

MS-M+S-mixed.aif
The M and S channels mixed.

MS-Stereo-M+6dB.aif
The M and S tracks put through an MS matrix to covert Mid/Side to Left/Right, M channel given +6dB gain to emphasize the speaker in front of the mic.

MS-Mono-fr-StM+6dB.aif
The stereo MS-Stereo-M+6dB.aif track collapsed to mono. The +6dB gain added to the M channel messes up the stereo imaging a bit.

In terms of first impressions shooting with the camera goes, the first thing I noticed is that while the camera is a bit on the heavy side for hand-holding in “handycam” mode, the adjustable handle with the ergonomics of a pro 2/3″ zoom lens handle made it easier to use as a handheld camera. Of course, on a tripod the camera is right at home. A camera’s handholdability is all relative, I’ve grown used to shooting with my HVR-A1 and a friend’s Sony HVR-V1 over the past year, so I find the EX1 to be a big change in terms of weight. But the extra weight is worth it, for the image quality is absolutely spectacular. Goodbye HDV (and good riddance to videotape), hello XDCAM EX!

The PVM-EX1 features a 14x zoom with pro-style controls
and real focus and iris rings. More photos available on Flickr

There’s lots of serious glass in this camera, as the 1/2″ sensor requires a larger lens than 1/3″ chip cameras like the Panasonic AG-HVX200 (still an excellent performer). And while it’s still not providing the 2/3″ image sensor look of a professional camcorder, the 1/2″ sensors are a big improvement over 1/3″ sensors in most prosumer cameras. It’s easier to get separation between the foreground and background. I’d like to see Sony come out with an APS-sized single sensor camera (like a documentary form-factor Red) someday, but I digress. The EX1 is clearly not in the middle of the pro-sumer price range, it straddles between pro-sumer and low-end professional gear in terms of price. While the camera alone sells for $6,500.00, by the time you add a couple of 16G memory cards and extra batteries (which you’ll need), a wide-angle adapter, and a few other gismos, you’re looking at something hovering around a $9,000.00 purchase. That’s a serious chunk of change when you compare it to the HVR-Z1 HDV camcorder, but if you look at it another way, this camera does most of what the Sony PDW-F350 XDCAM HD camcorder does for much less dough. So it’s either a very expensive pro-sumer camera or an amazing price/performance breakthrough in professional level cameras.

Not all things are rosy, however. Audio was clearly a second-thought with this camera, with digital recording there is no reason why Sony can’t support four channels, but it only supports two. One of the features I’ve really enjoyed with the Panasonic HVX200 is recording camera mic audio on channels 3 and 4 while running audio from my mixer into channels 1 and 2. Having the ambient sound is a nice plus, as well as it often makes it easier to hear a director’s questions in an interview. Battery life is short, so you’ll have to buy one or two additional high-capacity batteries with this camera. In addition, for folks who shoot with a 35mm lens adapter, you’ll not be pleased with the camera’s inability to invert the viewfinder image. There is no ability to shoot in standard definition, so for those quick and dirty jobs that require standard definition deliverables, your stuck converting in post. But no camera can be all things to all people, and this camera seems to have most of the bells and whistles most people want.

Since I’m Macintosh and Final Cut Pro user, I found this camera integrated seamlessly with my Final Cut Pro workflow. I have previously worked with XDCAM HD and I found the workflow to be pretty much identical, except there is no need for a camera or deck. If you’ve got a MacBook Pro you’re all set, you simply slide the SxS card into the ExpressBus/34 slot. Otherwise, you can use the camera to transfer media via USB2 to your computer or use an external USB2 SxS card reader available from Sony. For all of this to work, you’ll need to download two pieces of software, the SxS card driver (from here) and the XDCAM Transfer Utility (from here). It was a snap to ingest footage, rename the clips, and bring them into Final Cut Pro. The much fast transfer time of the SxS cards was a welcome change from having to do HDV captures in real-time. And the footage shot in the HQ mode looks spectacular. Ahh, the beauty of real high definition progressive scan images, simply breathtaking. Some sample images and images of the camera can be found in my Sony PMW-EX1 Flickr set.

Minor revisions were made to this post on 22-Feb-09.

1. Lindcraft Gel Packs: these have one pocket that holds gels (standard sheet size and smaller) and it rolls up and secures with Velcro straps keeping your gels in order and protecting them from handling. Easy to use by laying it out on a flat surface. I have three, one for the diffusion/ND series, one for CTB/CTO/tint series, and a third for theatricals (a.k.a. party) colors. Check out Gel Packs on the Lindcraft web site.

2. Expanding File Folders: For smaller pieces (it’s handy to have small pieces ready to go for smaller lights) I keep them in three accordion multi-compartment file folders, one for the Diffusion/ND/CTB/CTO set, and another for tints and theatricals. I label the tabs with the gel type so when I ask an assistant, “put some opal on the 150 and 1/2 blue on the 300″ they can quickly find the exact gel needed. It does take some discipline to sort everything back to the right section after the shoot, but if you do it as you go, it pays off in efficiency in the moment of lighting. No more hunting for the right piece. You can find these in any office supply store and I found some plastic ones are pretty rugged. People who do theater usually use file boxes, but I don’t have that many small gels and I like to be as portable as possible, all my gels and accessories and extension cords go into a single duffel bag.

3. Another tip: write on two opposite corners with a sharpie the gel number. On the set when its dark and your in a hurry, you don’t want to try to figure out which gel is which. Writing the Rosco or Lee number on the gel will speed things up while lighting and makes putting things back much easier.

I asked Aaron Swartz about the genesis of Jottit and he explained to me that he had a site called Google Weblog with a submit form for people to submit ideas for posts. And he found that, “people coming to the site through Google kept submitting their stories of their day,” and so on and so forth. Aaron explained that they thought, “it was just the way to post stuff to the internet.” So he thought, “why not just make posting to the internet that simple?” And thus Jottit was born. Code is poetry and Jottit is the latest haiku.

Suggested DVX-100 Settings

• Vertical Detail Frequency: Thin [See Note 1]
• Vertical Detail: 0
• Detail: -3 [See Note 2]
• Detail Coring: 0 [See Note 3]
• Skin Detail: Off
• Chroma: 0
• Phase: +3
• Gamma: Cine Gamma
• Matrix: Cine Look
• Master Pedestal: -3 to -6
• Format: 4:3 or 16:9 LETTERBOX [See Note 4]
• Time Code: Record Run
• First Record: Preset (set Tape #)
• Shutter Speed: 1/48 [See Note 5]
• Exposure: Use spot meter (”Marker”) in camera, highlights with some textural detail at 90%, “middle grey” ay 45-55%, dark areas with textural detail at 10-15%
• Mode/Frame Rate: 24P or 24P Advanced [See Note 6]

Start by resetting all camera settings to their default values, then set your scene settings and then name and save them into one of the camera scene files. Double check settings each time you insert a new tape or power-up the camera. These settings are a starting point, you should do your own testing and establish the look appropriate for your project. Refer to your DVX-100 User Manual and Barry Green’s most excellent DVX Book and DVD (links below) for more details.

Notes

1: Vertical Detail Frequency. If you are intending to do a video to film transfer, up-convert to HD, or plan to project at festivals and other venues that are using 720P projectors, use the Thin setting. This provides the full 480 lines of vertical resolution the DVX is capable of and yields a better image when the SD video is up-converted (start with the sharpest and best image you can). The problem is that most television monitors are interlaced and thus can’t handle the high resolution, so you see what’s called line twitter (as a result of interlacing), but if you’re using a progressive display, projector, going out to film, or able to do post-processing in post production, it’s the way to go. The Mid setting brings the vertical detail down to about 400 lines reducing the twitter artifacts on an interlaced display. The Thick setting offers about 360 lines without any artifacts and ideal for material intended for SD broadcast. You will notice the twitter effects of the Thin setting when looking at a scene with lots of fine detail on an interlaced display. Another alternative is to shoot with the Thin setting and process the video in post to lower the resolution if you need material for both up-conversion to HD an SD.

2: Detail. Detail enhances edges, too much and the image starts to look electronic and artificial, like oh too many bad wedding videos. Leave off unless you have a specific need for it. A slightly softer image is part of the film look. Exaggerated edge detail is part of the video look.

3: Detail Coring. When you enhance detail, you add noise, especially in the shadows. Detail Coring reduces the added noise.

4: Aspect Ratio. Shooting 4:3 of 16:9 letterboxed within the 4:3 frame assures it plays on every TV, if you choose squeeze, you limit your screening to televisions and projectors capable of 16:9, which is not yet universal, also, some experts suggest even if you want squeeze, the scalers you can use in post will do a better job than the scaler built into the camera for creating a squeezed 16:9 version. Shoot 4:3 with vertical detail set to thin and you will get the best up-convert to 16:9 HD or film out possible. And while it’s more work to do the squeeze in post, the creative advantage is you can correct framing slightly up or down in post, so you might even consider shooting 4:3 even if your final destination is a 16:9 video.

5: Strobing. When shooting 24P, because you are “exposing” 24 frames per second (rather than 60 fields per second as with video) you will notice “strobing” when you do a fast pan. This can be reduced by panning slowly. The rule of thumb is it should take seven seconds for an object to cross the screen as you pan. Another approach is to move with the subject and distract the viewer’s attention from the strobing background. Another way to deal with strobing is to use a lower shutter speed, the default for the DVX is 1/48 when shooting 24P, you can lower it to 1/24, for example. This will increase motion blur (not always a bad thing, it’s kind of cool and another element of the film look). At the 1/24 shutter speed there is less strobing that at 1/48, however, more motion blur. Shooting at 30p exhibits less strobing, however, this format does not convert gracefully to other formats like film (24fps) or PAL (25fps).

6: Frame Rate and Scan Mode: For the standard video look, shoot 60i. For the film look, shoot 24P Standard or 24P Advanced. Unless you understand clearly why you want to shoot 24P Advanced, Shoot 24P Standard and capture your project at 60i in Final Cut Pro (or 30i in Avid Xpress Pro). 24P standard will provide you with the film look and the ease of editing a standard video project at 29.97fps. If you chose to shoot 24P Advanced, make sure you capture the project as 23.97. 24P advanced has advantages if you want a 24fps master, which is what I personally prefer. It’s easy to derive 60i from 24P. Getting 24P from 60i involved reverse telecine and some loss of quality. For web video 24p is a good choice. For 24P DVD 24P is a good choice. True 24P (shooting Advanced w/ the camera) is a universal standard easily converted to other standards. 24P advanced uses a 2:3:3:2 candence to encode 24p onto 60i video and then the editing system reconstitutes the 24fps video from the 60i. Your editing system needs to know how to handle this. Some argue that it’s easier to simply shoot 24P standard which uses the standard video to film cadence of 2:3 and edit standard 29.97 (60i) video in your editing system. If you are OK staying in 60i, then it’s OK to shoot 24p standard. I prefer a true 24p master and I think the extra trouble in capture is worth it. Test before you leap.

Recommended DVX100 Information Resources

• DVX100 Pages on DVinfo.net
• DVXuser Forums
• Adam Wilt’s DV FAQ
• Adam Wilt’s DVX Page
• DVX100 Color Rendition by John Beale
• Cinematography Mailing List index of Video/DV notes
• “AG-DVX100 Setup Menus” by Harry W. Foulds
• The DVX-100A Owner’s Manual
• The DVX-100B Owner’s Manual
• The DVX Book by Barry Green (includes DVD with examples)

Note: some minor editorial changes were made to this post on November 16, 2008 including the addition of some updated links and fixing some minor typos.