White Paper 034 Addendum 12 (rev 1): Menu settings for Sony HD, HDC950 (and 930)

Alan Roberts

Abstract

Data for this section is taken from the handbooks of a Sony HDC950camera (serial number 10520). It closely resembles the 900, but is astudio/OB camera with base station and remote control panel. Cameraconnection is by fibre-optic cable, which is very flexible.

The menu settings result from one measurement and usage session, mostlyexploring the menus to see how it differs from the 900. In many ways itis identical, but there are some minor differences which guarantee thatusing data for the 900 will not work. I have derived ""video"" and ""film""settings for it, like the 900, and performance is very similar to the900. The manual for the 950 also covers the 930 and indicates thatthere are only very minor differences, therefore the settings arealmost certainly fine for the 930 as well as the 950.

The ""video look"" was the easiest to derive, but the ""film look"" neededlab equipment to define it. This setting mimics a film camera andneg-scan telecine, with ""best light"" transfer to tape. It's performanceshould match the equivalent setting in an HDW900 camcorder. It isalways assumed that a grading operation should be used inpost-production, the settings give the colourist the same range ofoptions as with film. The laboratory tests were made using a BTSLDK9000 as a reference camera, of the type used in the Eureka 1250-linesystem. The values for Gamma, Black Gamma and Knee allow about 2.5stops of over-exposure and one of under-exposure relative to normaloperation, although the knee has two points of inflexion which couldconceivably cause colour contouring (although this has not beenobserved in practice). This setup approaches a film-look, provided thatDetail correction is either off or set to a low level. Images aregenerally sharper than even for 35mm film, this can be an issue forproduction, but can generally be dealt with by using filters or somepost-production softening. For use in Sport or Light Entertainment, itwould probably be beneficial to switch off the Black Gamma, and toincrease Detail Level to zero (factory setting).

Many of the menu items have little or no effect on image quality. Thosethat do so are highlighted. The full set of menu items is given forcompleteness.

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