INTRODUCTION: THE DVX100 / DVX100A & DVX100B CAMERA BY DV24P.net 

THE CAMERA BASICS: OVERVIEW THE CHIP:

The AG-DVX100 features three IT (Interline Transfer) 1/3in. 410,000-pixel CCDs that employ green-offset technology to increase horizontal resolution. Panasonic claims these chips deliver more than 500 lines of horizontal resolution, a sensitivity of f/11 at 2000 lux, a low-light sensitivity of 3 lux at +18dB gain (50 IRE video output), and low vertical smear. The ?effective? ASA of the camera is around 320 ASA.

THE LENS:

Panasonic?s Leica lens is extremely sharp. The 4.5-45mm f1.6 Leica lens has a 10:1 zoom range, with an equivalent angle of view that translates to 32.5-325mm in 35mm still-photography format; 25-250mm for those of us who think in 35mm motion-picture format; or approximately 12-120mm for 16mm film format.

COLOR BALANCE:

Both Preset (3200 degrees K and 5600 degrees K) color balance and Auto White Balance (with Auto Black Balance) are available. The AWB and ATW (Auto Tracking White) modes are both reasonably accurate. However, I expect camera operators will ? especially in the 24p modes ? manually adjust white balance, zoom, focus, audio levels, and possibly iris.
3 CHIP CAMERAS:

The AG-DVX100 features three IT (Interline Transfer) 1/3in. 410,000-pixel CCDs that employ green-offset technology to increase horizontal resolution. Most cameras are sensitive to the blue and gree spectrum of light, and the DVX100 is no different in that respect to most video cameras. * Please note within the MENU system of the DVX100 and within the SCENE FILE you have the ability to shift the colors to cooler or warmer. We suggest not to oversaturate the reds or go too warm. Oversaturation towards the red spectrum may result  in the bleading of the red into other colors which could present a problem later in when color correcting your final project.

EXPOSURE GAIN:

The AG-DVX100's  includes adjustable color temperature; selectable video gain (0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB)in 30I for the DVX100, gain now enabled fully in progressive mode for the DVX100A; two user-assignable function buttons including +18dB gain in DVX100 and three user-assignable in DVX100A; two Zebra settings; Syncro Scan; SMPTE color bars; and SMPTE timecode with User Bits. The DVX100 does not, however, offer a still photo mode ? although at 30p, every frame can be used as a 720 x 480 still.

CINE-LIKE MODES:

Using the DVX100's menu system you can select among three color-matrix settings (NORM, Fluorescent, and CINE-LIKE) and four gamma settings (NORM, HIGH, LOW, and CINE-LIKE). The Fluorescent setting slightly increases red, while the CINE-LIKE setting significantly reduces blue.

SHOOT WITH THE DVX100 LIKE A GOOD "REVERSAL" FILM:

The AG-DVX100's 1/3in. chips cannot provide the latitude of film or a HD camera with sophisticated settings. Shoot with the DVX100 as if using a lowlatitude ?reversal? film. Please note: The ?effective? ASA of the camera is around 320 ASA. Use slight underexpose. Panasonic recommends an A. IRIS LEVEL menu setting of -3 when using 24P or 24P(ADV) mode ? even though it results in a full stop underexposure. (Each unit is a 1/3-stop exposure bias and the function, of course, works only in Auto Exposure mode.)
SONY PD150/170 and CANON XL1/XL2 CAMERAS

DVX100 SCENE FILES:

The AG-DVX100 has a six-memory Scene File that contains factory settings that you can use. It can also store settings you create from the DVX100's menu system.

CINELIKE CURVE:

The CINE-LIKE curve, in comparison to the NORMAL, HIGH, and LOW curves, attempts to preserve shadows and highlights by slightly elevating shadow signal level while slightly attenuating highlight signal level. Try experimenting with CINE-LIKE gamma in 60i and 30p modes. Generally, 24p modes will be shot with the CINE-LIKE matrix, while 60i and 30p will be shot with NORMAL matrix. For a warmer picture use the CINELIKE matrix in any mode. And, of course, Fluorescent can be used in any of the progressive modes.

MASTER PEDESTAL IN 24P MODE:

In 24P mode, adjust MASTER PED between zero and -5 to alter the contrast of your simulated film. Also, adjust DETAIL to determine the softness of your film look. Panasonic recommends setting V DETAIL FREQ to THICK so that CCD row-pair summation is used. This lowers vertical resolution to about 360 lines, preventing ?line twitter? when 24p video is shown on interlace monitors. However Panasonic advises that resolution increases in THIN which is more useful in HDTV and FILM transfers.

7 DVX10024p to HD:

When shooting 24P(ADV) for transfer to film or HD, the correct setting of MASTER PED and V DETAIL FREQ depends on the target media and the transfer process. With V DETAIL FREQ set, as recommended, to THIN to obtain 480 lines of vertical resolution, the active image will have 360 lines of vertical resolution if letterbox mode is enabled. This letterboxed image, therefore, has a vertical resolution equivalent to that of a full 4:3 image captured by interlace scanning ? and so is perfect for transfer to 35mm film. We suggest using the 16x9 Anamorphic to preserve the image and information that would be lost by cropping. Using an Anamorphic is not necessary and involves a certain amount of limitations

PROGRESSIVE FRAME VIDEO

The camera has four shooting modes: 30 fps interlace (30i), 30 fps progressive (30p), 24 fps progressive with Normal pulldown (24pN) and 24 fps progressive with Advanced pulldown (24pA). We use the term 24p for ease of use; the actual frame rate is 23.976.

The camera captures interlaced footage at 59.94 fields/second or 29.97 frames/second ("60i"), 29.97 progressive-scanned frames/second ("30p"), or 24 progressive-scanned frames/second ("24p"). The recorder (and indeed all the video I/O) runs at 29.97 frames/second, interlaced, all the time, regardless of what the camera is doing.

At 60i or 30p, the incoming video is placed into a frame buffer, compressed with the DV codec, and written to tape and/or sent out via FireWire. That frame buffer feeds the analog outputs, one field after the other regardless if it comes in interlaced or progressive, every 29.97th a second.  The video image gets written to the frame buffer, and the video image gets played out: two fields compressed as a frame for FireWire and recording, and two fields sent out one after the other for interlaced analog I/O.

24p/23.976p, 30p/29.97p, 60i/59.94i. NTSC pictures run at 30 * 1000/1001 fps (and that number is exact). Please keep this drop-frame time code in mind. 24 does not fit so cleanly into 30; for every four frames of 24p video that pass, five frames of 30p (or 60i) pass. To sum up 24 frames of 24p video is squeezed, stretched, and mashed into 60 fields of NTSC-compatible video; that results in four frames of 24p per ten fields of 60i.

PROGRESSIVE DV24P TIPS:

The PROGRESSIVE menu item allows you to select one of four shooting modes: OFF (60i), 30P, 24P, and 24P(ADV).

FILM PULLDOWN: SHOOTING IN 30P:

Shooting in 30P mode offers video with no interlace artifacts, no pulldown, and thus no judder frames ? so no editing issues. While intended for multimedia, it can also be used with the CINE-LIKE gamma and matrix for a film look. The 30-fps mode is straightforward.

SHOOTING IN 24P:

The two types of pulldown F5 (2:3:2:3 cadence) and F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) mode have caused some anxiety for DVX100 owners. Please note that both F5 and F6 mode pulldown can go back to film with absolutely no difference in quality.

If you plan or want or desire to go back to film you can use the F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) mode. Choosing F5 (2:3:2:3 cadence) or F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) is a decision based on the editing application used in post. We recommend Final Cut Pro Cinema Tools or some other application like an Avid Media Composer that has the capacity and the capability of creating 24-frame progressive from the NTSC signal.

F5 Vs F6 MODE "FILM LOOK"

F5 (2:3:2:3 cadence) or F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) pulldown can be output to film but the F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) allows native DV editing applications the ability to create 24p from the NTSC signal without recompression. It takes time to convert the fields of the "C" frame (see diagram) in order to create a new progressive frame. The C frame within a Standard pulldown cadence is comprised of two (2) fields but from two (2) different frames (starting with field 2 and then field 1). To make a progressive frame from this type of pulldown requires that the field order be flopped, and then a progressive frame created.

F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) is intended to achieve the possible recovery of the original 24 frames for output to film.  All four original frames can be recovered from self-contained 60i frames; the green frame in 60i now contains the "extra" B and C fields and can be discarded, since all the information for B is contained in the yellow frame, and all the information for C is in the magenta frame.

Extracting progressive frame 24p clip from a 60i recording requires copying data for the red, yellow, magenta, and blue frames into a new 24p file. F6 (2:3:3:2 cadence) skips the green frame altogether. There is no decompression or recompression.  Recovered 24p frames retain firstgeneration quality. No clipping or other loss is incurred.

Final Cut Pro Cinema Tools gives you the choice of creating a new 24p file, or simply rewriting the QuickTime frame pointers in the original file to skip over the green frames. Rewriting the file is faster and your "new" 24p file is about 25% bigger. It contains the discarded frames. Please note that you can no longer go back to that file and play it as a 60i file: Cinema Tools has no "undo" for rewriting the frame pointers once you have removed the "pulldown".

The issue with F5 (2:3:2:3 cadence) via FireWire and native DV is the recompression that is needed in order create the extraction needed to create video that will be rendered to film. Obviously F6 is the way to go because recompression can sometimes add noise, mosaic artifacts, create problems with audio in sync, color shift etc. Some folks may dispute this. As the technology gets better I'm certain it will become less a problem, but who wants to take those kind of chances.  This is something that most do not think about until postproduction. The fact is that recompression is not a terrible thing but it can sometimes add problems to a poorly planned production, takes more time and create confusion for those not familiar with the technology.  It's not something we want to deal with, but we address it in this paper.

SUMMARY OF 24P AND 24PA: SHOOTING IN 24P (NORMAL): The 2:3:2:3 pulldown used in 24P mode provides the same ?judder? as is found when film is transferred to NTSC video. Use 24P when you want video with a traditional film look. When you plan a transfer to film or HD, do not use 24P use the 24PA (ADVANCE) mode.

SHOOTING IN 24PA (ADVANCE): The 24P(ADV) mode should be used only when you plan to transfer to film or HD. The 2:3:3:2 pulldown is designed for NLEs that can capture ?2:3:3:2 video? via FireWire and then edit at 23.98fps. (These include Final Cut Pro and In-Sync's Blade 2.) See the chart on page 37.

Your 24P(ADV) production can be encoded to MPEG-2 for a DVD; recorded by a 24p VTR; or recorded by NTSC, 1080i60, and 720p60 VTRs after a 2:3 pulldown has been applied. (Reverse pulldown will recover the 24p video during the transfer to film.)

The Sony PD150, PD170 and Canon XL1s are excellent 3 chip cameras that have some variation of this green-offset offset technology to increase the apparent resolution and render an excellent clean video image. The difference on how the image is rendered on the DVX100 is more of a software issue than a mechanical issue. The use of anyone of these cameras is subjective and based on the needs of your production. The XL2 now supports true 30p and 24p progressive frame video in the same fashion as the DVX100A. It also has a sophisticated ?CINE LOOK? and other great functions addressed separately in the technical paper for the XL2.

You will need to judge for yourself what works best for your production and the kind of "film look" you want to obtain using the DVX100 series camera.

24P OR 30I EDITORIAL TIPS:

You need to consider if your footage will be edited in 24p or 30I.  If you plan to use a mix of film and 24p DV, then you will want to shoot with the Standard pulldown to give the motion a consistent look. The use of F6 Mode Advanced pulldown almost dictates the use of inverse telecine or frame removal because the cadence is a bit easier for the eye to detect. Final Cut Pro Cinema Tools has the ability to initiate inverse telecine. The two long frames (three fields) are in sequential order, creating more of a bump to the motion than with Standard pulldown, where the long frames are spread out between the short frames. When outputting to NTSC for broadcast or when encoding MPEG2 from an NTSC output, you will want to make sure the render or the playback is done with Standard pulldown.

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN GETTING A FILM LOOK USING THE DVX100 CAMERA

These areas are important in approaching the DVX100 "film look" in most DV24P projects:

1. Try using a frame rate at 24p using a 1/24 degree shutter for most work. Please note that a slow shutter results in ?motion blur? which can give the impression of film.

1a. WHEN TO USE A FAST SHUTTER ANGLE: A fast shutter of 1/100 and above should be considered for extreme sports fast action or motion tests where the progressive frames in 24P or 30P need to be crisp without motion blur. (You will need to determine what works best for you) A faster shutter of 1/100 and above may help where the timeline is extended in postproduction. If the action needs to be slowed down in the timeline of the editing program used to give the kind of effect in film when over cranking a camera to give the impression of SLO MOTION. We advise shooting SLO MOTION EFFECTS by testing out the various SHUTTER ANGLES. Note this also effects the amount of light and exposure will be reduced according to shutter angle.

2. Raster: I prefer to use cinema tools and capture in 24p eliminating the 30i and going back to 24p on a higher end format. We try to stay away from interlaced analog video if we can help it because of jitter or problems that result from this. USE THE F6 setting to avoid problems and try setting the parameters according to the settings presented in this paper.

3. Cine gamma settings within the scene file are important. For most work we suggest CINELIKE. The LOW, NORMAL AND HIGH settings function in pushing the apparent gain in 1/3 increments the highest setting probably gives around 3db more sensitivity. (ONE STOP) IN THE DVX100A the gain function is functional. We do not recommend using gain unless absolutely necessary. Pushing the gain even by 3db counters the CINELOOK gamma settings and defeats the purpose of creating a film look.

We have not made an accurate test but if you are in a low light situation and want to gain more sensitivity to your DVX100 it might be helpful to set the GAMMA to high since the camera for the DVX100 does not have a gain function.  This might give at least a little bit more exposure with the grain or milkyness in the blacks that comes with it.*Please note that the DVX100a now has the gain function enabled.

4. The use of a consistent aperture, set at 5.6-8.0 to enable wide apertures with less depth of field.
5. The use of the Panasonic anamorphic 16x9 lens. (Recommended only if necessary for film or HDTV) More pixels at your disposal but we have not seen any problems in cropping the image to 16x9 straight to HDTV.
6. Using a low con or promist  1/4 - 1/2 strength filter to even out the contrast if going straight to regular standard video.
7. The use of the Glass ND filter to enable the operator to use a wider aperture resulting in less depth of field for a more accurate cinema look.
8. In Post Production utilizing Tape to Tape color correction for completed work.
9. IMPORTANT CAMERA SETTINGS THAT HAVE RESULTED IN QUALITY FILM LIKE RESULTS FOR TRANSFER TO FILM AND HDTV.(Please test and confrim your own results. Interestingly we have found color temperatures differences and looks between different cameras and models! )

?  DETAIL LEVEL   -3
?  DTL CORING +5 (this feature only in DVX100a) Noise decrease with + level increases in ? setting!
?  CHROMA LEVEL   -3
?  CHROMA PHASE   -3
?  COLOR TEMP   -3
?  MASTER PED   -5 (for adjusting black master pedestal)
?  A.IRIS LEVEL   -3 (used to help underexpose the image)
?  GAMMA   CINE LIKE
?  VIDEO DETAIL FREQUENCY  THIN (Thin setting enable higher resolution than THICK according to Panasonic.)
?  MATRIX  NORMAL(indoors) or CINELIKE (Outdoors or indoors) ?  SKIN DETAIL   NORMAL