High quality DV cam capture tips

[racer-x]

I wanted to start this thread to help get some tips on high quality DV captures to all the readers out there. First of all, let me say that I’m no pro, but I am a pretty good amateur. I’ve been DV video editing for about 3 years now and have learned a few things along the way. One of my favorite resources is this site. So I like to help other people whenever I can.

I’ve got what you might call a low end DV cam. It’s a Sharp VL-WD450U that I bought about 3 years ago for $600 US. It’s less that 1 Mega pixel, but it has a 26x optical zoom. That’s important to me, because most of my home movies involve outdoor sports. I can be on the sideline and zoom in on my son in centerfield and get a great looking shot. You can’t do that on a 10x optical zoom. So if you’re in the market for a DV cam, carefully consider the optical zoom. Disregard the digital zoom, It’s useless unless you want crapy video.

Even though I have a low end DV cam, I can get very good quality video out of it. It’s important to remember that DV cams need a lot of light or you’ll end up with grainy video. Try not to move the camera around a lot. Try to keep it still as long as possible and let the subject movie in and out of the shot. Every time you move the camera, it has to refocus and that takes time.

Here some tips that work great on my camera;
* Disable the Digital zoom (it’s useless, if I need more zoom I can use video editor).
* Disable the DIS (digital image stabilization) You’ll get a better picture, but you’ll need to use a tripod more often, which is a good thing. If you don’t believe me, try it.
* Set the audio to 16 bit mode. You’ll end up with 48 khz PCM and a much better sound.

I do all my editing with Adobe Premier 6.5 It’s very powerful but has a steep learning curve just like Photoshop, my favorite image editor. You can use what’s comfortable for you. Whenever I edit in Premiere I also have Photoshop open. That way I can create the effect I want in Photoshop then import it in Premiere. The two Apps were made for each other. When I finish editing I output the timeline to the Main Concept encoder in Premiere 6.5. My setting are CBR – 8000 kbps with the quality slider @ 50. I use PCM audio on separate streams with the video. I end up with an m2v and a wav. This results in a very high quality video.

Anyway those are my tips. If you’ve got any to share, feel free to post.

[kazzer]

Interesting post...I think more and more people are getting into DV, especially for digitizing analog footage.

Anyway......I'm having a problem as it happens with my Canon MV550i. The problem is the tape mechanism makes a constant hum, and this is picked up on the recording

I think Canons are notorious for this problem. Its very irritating. The Canon external shotgun mic is very expensive, so I was thinking of just using an el cheapo external mic and keeping it as far from the camera as possible. Would this help?

Anyone got any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

[arcorob]

I have similar experience. I use low-end digital sony's. Yes, disable digital zoom. and if using a tripod, lose the image stablization. It is actually a NEGATIVE on a tripod. DONT MOVE AROUND trying to follow the action, let teh action come to you.

The hum...hmmm..I have it too and it annoys me. One way I lose part of it is I use Vegas instead of Adobe (have both) . Premier is great but that learning curve for the interface is a bear.

Anyway, in vegas, I do a sampling of the noise in a quiet part (say between speak, no sound) and let it sample the hum. I can then tell it to eliminate that frequency. To a degree. I do have to be cautious. Too much and it actually adds a TWANGY flange effect to the rest so I use it sparingly.

The worst was a hitachi digital I had. Sounded like it had a belt driven wheel on an air conditioner compressor. Very load.

Heres another tip. Get used to using manual exposure for indoor shots where lighting changes.

example, I was filming a dance floor near a kitchen door. Every time they opened the door, bright light from the kitchen would make the camera step down. Close door step up. Looked like fade in and out. By using manual Exposure, you can set the scene and it stays stable.....

[linda92841]

I dont know if you guys can help me with this but i have a canon zr25 dv cam and i want to capture date and time when i transfer it to my dvd, but it seems that adobe premiere will not capture it. Is there a way i can do this? thanks

[rsuave5]

image stabilization is great on my sony trv 350! dont disable it! only on tripod do i disable. otherwise pretty good post and some good beginner tips

[racer-x]

linda92841

Why not create a title in Premiere with date and time? You can put it anywhere you want in the video.

[linda92841]

racer x, video clips that i have are very short and the date/time changes frequently. It's video of my 2 little boys and i would like to capture date and time. it would be very time consuming to look back at dv and put the exact date and time on the video being captured...

[racer-x]

linda92841
Sorry, I've never recorded date and time on camera. I always did it while editing video. Does it show date and time on TV when played through camera, but won't be there when captured through 1394?

If so mayber you can record to an other camera through composite out. If it shows up on the new video, then capture that video via 1394.