Digital Workshop

Where has Melanie been? Where is she? Is she on holiday? I don't have an email address for her and I'd like to contact her re the collaborative magazine project! If anybody else has means of contacting her other than PM (which she hasn't checked for a while) could you aske her to contact me please? I'm certainly not going to ask for her email to be posted here.. she obvioulsly doesn't want it to be freely available.. THANKS - my email etc are on my profile

I found her email adress...

Hello,

Very sincere apologies for not being around for such a long time. I sprained both shoulders at Easter and got progressively worse so that I could no longer type and all online stuff drifted into the frustrating fog of never-never.....

If anyone needs to contact me, I'm happy to pick up pm's again.

I see that collaboration has not gained any points in the popularity stakes. Never mind. Maybe I misjudged or mistimed, or mis-something'ed. I hope no-one holds it against me.

I've just come back to the world of Opus and I have to say, I don't understand much of my previous scripting (eeek!), but "Thin Air" the Multimedia Extravaganza, is still worth finishing, if only to make an infinitessimally small ripple in a tiny pond of mediocrity!

Meanwhile, I'm trying to understand my previous scripts. I have a (database) master-detail that's unfinished - it's read only - I didn't get to the insert/update/delete. Is this useful or has it been covered? If it's useful, I'll upload it - let me know - but I don't want to duplicate effort and I haven't got up to date with all the posts I've missed yet.

I also have a fun thing that uses variables from a database to populate a script. It's called Holllywood Blockbuster - let me know if you're interested.

Best wishes,

Melanie

Hello Melanie,

Sorry to hear you've had problems with your shoulders. It must be a real pain (no pun intended) to be at a keyboard with the problem.

I see that you have Opus Pro XE 04.50 -- You would be VERY impressed with all the new features in 05. Someone may know a link where you can download all "what's new" in 05. (I'm only mentioning this in the event you have been away from the forum since the announcement of the newer 05 version.) Also, I think you can download a trial version of 05. DW should be commended for such a well polished upgrade in this version. You can even publish to DVD, which may be of interest to you.



As always, some people will agree with proposed ideas and others will not agree. All opinions have their valid points and subjective views, but I don't see how anyone would ever "hold it against you".

As for your database enquiries, sorry can't help as I don't use them. (but others who use database may be keen to see a sample of your Hollywood Blockbuster.)

As for your shoulders getting better, all the best with it.

Take care and God bless.

Hello Steve, yup, I'm hoping to upgrade at some point but I'm out of dosh at the moment, so I'll have to continue with (the still very wonderful) 4.50. D'you know - I've gone off DVDs as a game/multimedia format - I tried one out and found that the slow response and continual pointing and pressing at the screen was kind of annoying. Maybe it's just my ultra-cheap DVD player but it always seems to take 3 pushes to get a response. It's agonizing.

My latest toy is a dv camera. My first video camera ever. No more borrowing other people's old analog cams and suffering with dropped frames. Ha! But it's so flimsy and tiny and plasticy. It's been built to break and I'm terrified of it's tiny little buttons and popoff plastic connection covers. In the instruction book every other page has a caution and a warning about what not to do in order to prevent the product malfunctioning.

It's not broadcast quality tho. And for some (naive) reason I thought going digital would mean broadcast quality... Fred, if you read this, what are your thoughts on this?


Cheers,

Melanie

Melanie --

Each time I buy new equipment -- it gets more expensive, but then when I use the more sophisticated stuff, I appreciate why it costs so much.

I've got a Sony DVR2100 digital video camcorder which records on miniDV tapes with 3 light sensors behind the zoom len. It's spectacular! I've invested in a unique Sony tripod which connects to the camcorder so all controls (Record, Stop, Zoom, Photos) can be operated from the handle rather than on the camcorder. Again, it's expensive, but well worth it when you see the results.

Audio is a huge part of any finished production. I've purchased an audio mixer which connects under the camcorder, between the camera and the tripod. This allows me to have several microphones which I can turn On/Off as needed. I can have several people each with a microphone. I have shotgun microphones, and wireless mics (Sennheiser) which are very expensive. When you hear the quality you immediately understand why they cost so much.

The old question of "which comes first, the chicken or the egg" should come up when you buy equipment. If you've got several paying jobs which require high end equipment, then it's easy to justify spending the extra money. On your next job, calculate extra money to start to cover the cost of your new equipment. Make sure you explain to your client you've got really good equipment -- not consumer toys.

You will also need a video capture card, and video editing software. I bought a Video Advantage card which not only was easy to plug into an open slot inside my computer, but it also has connections which fill an open bay on the front of the computer, so I can plug in DV or analog cables without having to climb around on the floor behind the computer. I've had great success with Pinnacle's Studio 9 for editing. They now have Studio 10 which is a totally different "engine." The customer reviews have stopped me from even thinking about upgrading. Pinnacle was purchased by AVID, which appears to have a year or more of work to make Studio 10 work correctly. (See, everybody has software issues.)

Please let me ask you a question. Is "dosh" an English expression for "cash" or did your fingers hit the wrong keys? I've not heard that expression before.

Good luck with your new camera. They've made them smaller with each model, but it's still the talent and skill of the camera operator which makes the biggest difference. Plan to let the action happen in front of the camera rather than zooming, panning, or moving the camera around. Watch TV programs for their camera techniques. You'll notice the professionals do very little zooming or moving. They shoot in short seqments to keep your attention. "Home movies" tend to be painful because they bounce around too much, and the segments are too long and boring.

Hope that helps.

If I might stick my nose in ...

Welcome back Malenie. Fred, in replying I wonder if you might say a bit about 'prosumer grade' DV camcorders? I'd love to get one, but I have to watch my dosh (yes it is Brit slang for cash) and wondered if I could get away with prosumer.

Melanie, what brand of camcorder have you got?

best regards,

Brian

Please accept my apologies for mis-spelling your name, Melanie


Brian

You've probably noticed that electronic equipment generally gets cheaper the longer it's on the market, and often you get more features a year or two after something is "introduced." DVD players were at least $500 USD when I bought my first one. Today you can get one with lots of features for $25 USD. Unbelievable!

Camcorders are the same -- to a lesser degree. They seem to stay the same price, but you get more and more features. While they introduced HD and DVD media for camcorders, I have found miniDV has the highest quality, and it's easy to stack the small tapes for different projects. The DVD camcorders use a mini DVD which only records 30 minutes on each side. DVD is MPEG-2 which is a compressed file. MiniDV tapes are not compressed, so your quality is better in any side-by-side tests with a DVD camcorder.

Consumers tend to want convenience over quality, so that's why miniDVD units are available. You can just pull them out and then play them in a standalone DVD player. If you want to do editing, I'm not sure what you do.

Sony used to be the only company using 8mm tapes. Their higher-end camcorders now use the industry standard miniDV tapes. While smaller in size, they capture a higher quality picture. 8mm tapes are 2-hours at Standard speed, while miniDV tapes are 1-hour.

The consumer electronic firms now want to see who can make the smallest camcorder. Unless you are using a tripod, you are going to have bouncy/bumpy video -- especially with the really small camcorders. It's also hard to push their buttons. Their quality is quite good, but if you are shooting video for long periods of time, you'll want something larger.

Canon has some very nice prosumer camcorders. Their professional cameras start at $4000 USD. They have interchangable lenses and built-in audio mixers.

I selected the Sony DCR-VX2100 because of cost, 3CCD Progressive Scan, and size. I paid $2500 USD over the Internet -- actually, I was robbed on the Internet the first time of $1800. That's another story.

If you are just getting started with doing videos for your OPUS presentations, buy the most expensive equipment you can afford, otherwise you will be kicking yourself in the future that you don't have the advanced features you really need, then you'll have to buy another camcorder. Buy a good tripod, and invest in a wireless mic. Those two accessories will make your videos so much better than hand-held with the camera's built-in microphone. Learn from my mistakes!

Hi both,

It's a JVC GR-DF460EK. It was RRP at £399 at one point (don't know if it still is), but I got a refurbished "A grade" one on ebay for £200. It's ridiculously small - the battery pack (5 hours) is almost as big as the camera and sticks out so far that I can no longer get my eye to the viewfinder!

I'm not sure whether the design priority was smallest or cheapest, or a mixture of both. I picked this one because it has an inbuilt light, a "biphonic" mike input, colour low light ability, steadycam, and AV as well as DV out.

Actaully, I thought it was AV/DV in as well when I bought it, but no, nothing so useful.

The low light thing is not useable - the shutter speed is so slow that any movement blurs across the screen very slowly. The built-in light is not bad though, good for spooky investigations! The steadycam thing jitters from quantise-point to quantise-point, especially zoomed in. I don't think I can turn it off.

I haven't shot any film in good light yet, so everything so far has been in dimly-lit artificial lighting. I'm getting colour-bleed (particularly reds) - I don't know if brighter lighting would improve this. I need to experiment more...

Overall it's unergonomically small and extremely flimsy and looks and feels like a child's toy.

All in all I wouldn't recommend this camera to anyone. But you get what you pay for and this is just a home consumer product designed to last a couple of family holidays. However, as I couldn't afford anymore than that, needed the spec and I've never had any kind of video camera of my own before, I'm still enormously pleased to have it, despite its flaws.



Eeeek! That's just what I was afraid of!



Good tips, Fred, thanks - I think I suffer from both the bouncing and the boring things!



What sort of price range are these?

Best,

Melanie

IMHO prosumer grade camcorders have the size and some of the features of professional cameras, but not the full broadcast quality. The little camcorders you can put into your pocket are consumer toys -- regardless of their price (and some get very expensive).

I'm going to estimate prosumer camcorders start around $1800 USD. Sorry, I don't remember the current conversion factor into English Pounds or Euros. Professional camcorders start at around $4000. I understand Steven Spielberg's cameras for Star Wars III each cost $150,000, so there's quite a large spread for the top-end equipment.

I'd hold off on buying anything until next year. High Definition (HD) cameras are just coming out. I've seen a Sony HD DV for $3500. They record to miniDV tapes, but since there are currently no HD DVDs (Bluray and HD DVD aren't scheduled for US release until Spring/Summer '06) you can't store or play anything you record except back through your camera... All of that technology is so new, I think DW can relax for awhile about someone adding to the "Wish List" the ability to display HD or record to an HD DVD.

Are you receiving any HD programs in Europe yet? I've had a 60" Sony HD set for almost a year. I get about 14 HD channels including two movie channels via cable TV along with a very high speed Internet modem (4MB/sec). I also can view another 75 digital channels, but once you've seen true 1080i (interlaced) or 1080p (progressive scan) in the 16x9 HD format with Dolby Digial (AC-3) 5.1 discrete sound -- you don't want to watch anything else.

Wow Fred!

I'm very grateful for the detailed information; I'll do some more research. Seems good advice to wait to see how HD settles down here in the UK and in Europe, so I won't do anything until the new year.

best regards,


Brian

Yes thanks very much, Fred, for all that expert info, especially about the mikes as well. Do you have any examples of your work in the showcase? Your gear is really extensive - proper broadcasting stuff - must be fascinating work.

Do you know what causes reds to bleed or ghost?

Sound thinking, Brian, about more research, makes sense to get the best possible. Might be able to get refurbished "pro" stuff.

The other thing about new formats coming out is that the old formats suddenly take a drop in price...

Cheers, Melanie

Ah, but what is 'broadcast quality'? ...it's a bit like 'CD quality', I don't think either term has ever really meant much

MiniDV in itself is an excellent format, and capable of producing results that are indistinguishable from what you see on your TV set. Now whether or not any particular camcorder can make the most of the miniDV format is another matter entirely, and depends on the amount of money the manufacturer spent on lens and sensor, among other things.

I also have a Sony VX-2100 (there's even a picture of it on my website right now!), and second Fred's comment that this is a fantastic camera. The 3x CCD's and the quality lens make the most of the miniDV format. It also scores over cheaper 'consumer' cameras in areas like low-light performance, manual control, etc.. UK price for the VX-2100 varies between £1600-2500 depending on where you buy. The next model up is the Sony PD-170, which is the exact same camera but with a DV-cam tape format which is more easily integrated into professional edit suites. The BBC make extensive use of PD-170's (and it's predecessor the PD-150), but I've also seen VX-2100's in use, and several smaller miniDV camcorders - especially on motoring programmes.

Melanie - red's will always bleed to some extent, given the way a video image works. A video image is (more or less) a detailed black and white image, with colour information loosely 'splodged' around on top of it. More expensive equipment leads to more accurate splodging of the colours - and therefore less colour bleed. It used to be a major problem when the only way to edit video was to copy from tape to tape - each copy degraded the image quite badly and made the bleeding worse. With digital editing, things are better, but the quality definitely needs to start at the beginning - silk purse, and all that!

In Nottingham there's a place where independent film-makers can join and then hire decent camcorders at subsidised rates for specific projects ...I've no doubt there would be similar places elsewhere.

Rob Kirkwood
www.visibleform.co.uk

Hi Rob, thanks for info. Yup I guess it's down to the quality of all the components etc. The lenses. What's the sensor?

I have to say, the worst possible feature on this "toy" camera is the automatic power down. "To save battery power" if the camera is not recording (in pause mode for example) it completely shuts down after 5 mins, taking all of it's settings with it. Even when you're running off mains using the adapter. This is the most stupid and annoying feature - so unfriendly that I'm wondering if it's a deliberate cripple of some kind to creat price-point functionality difference between product ranges.

I'm assuming that the pro cameras don't have anything so silly on them?

Camera & equipment hire - yes, that's a good idea. You could even try a pro camera out by hiring it before buying...

Cheers, Melanie