Growing pains with Sony DCR TRV 900

Hey Guys-

I have been going thru all my footage from my Thailand trip in April preparing it for editing, as I have been revewing the footage I am disapointed in the quality of the picture.

I am no pro videogrpaher by any means although I have been very succcessfull with my Sea Sea DX3000 fitted with a YS 25 flash and WA lens.

I recently (8/05) jumped into video with the purchase of a Top Dawg II housing w/lights and the loaner use of a Sony DCRTRV 30 fitted with a UR Pro cyan filter and a WA lens stuffed in. The results were surprising to me that is, I was very happy with the quality of the picture and the operation of the camera itself. I have successfully made a cool DVD to share with my friends and family.

Well my next Thailand trip was fast approaching and I was still using a loaner camera, with the help of this forum I was able to research the pro's ad cons of the new Sony HD1 and the older model TRV 900-950's w/3 ccd.

Long story short I purchased a Sony DCRTRV 900 with a x0.7 WA conv lens and a x1.5 Tele conv lens. I purchased a set of Warm Cards and fitted the housing with a external UR Pro cyan filter to give me the ability to set the filter underwater. The Top Dawg housing does not allow you to flip the filter on and off like most high end housings do.

Prior to purchase the camera was serviced by a Sony service center and givin a clean bill of health, before the trip I spent some time reading thru the manual learning how to WB and becoming more familiar with the controls of the camera.

I did not have any problems with the use of the camera thru the housing, thats hard to mess up since the externals are very limited on/off zoom in/out focus auto/man etc...

I'm rambling so I'll get to the point,

The scenes appear to very soft, focused but not crisp

Colors are muted, there is no clear seperation from one color to the next.

Video image is grainy, I used FujiFilm DVC Mini DV tapes on SP recording speed (Same tape from first trip)

Focusing was challenging, it was always tricky trying to get the smaller subjects focused in?

I think in trying to better use the man WB I may have screwed things up???

Is it possible to set this camera bacl to factory settings and start over?

I would really like to hear anything that might help me figure this out, thanks so much.

Coldwaterdude

Hi. How does the camera perform if you use it on land outside of the housing? Does it suffer from any of the same problems?

I'm just wondering if there's something wrong with the camcorder itself, or maybe something like the housing's port, conversion lens, filter, etc.

Hi there.

The TRV 900 is a great camera for underwater.

Was wondering if the camera shoots okay outside, did you have the ND filter turned on when you were using it underwater? If so this would cause problems like you have mentioned.

Wags

Great question-

I did shoot some dry shots and the issues are very similar, the camera has a color bar pattern so I know it's not a function of the camera's ability to produce colors.

The more I think about this I question the WB settings - shutter speed - exposure - prog scan and gain.

20 min later

I reset the WB to auto as with the shutter speed and exposure. I turned the prog scan off and reset the gain to 0.

I took some test shots of a known color pallet, some flowers, fruit, a white folder and a baseball hat with a colored logo.

The colors are definately more vibrant, the picture still looks a little grainy. It looks much worse with the prog scan on? The manual says to keep this on if you plan on modifying the digital picture with a computer, I had this on seeing how I have been downloading directly to my mac. I question the quality of this feature? The picture looks better with this off, can anyone give me a more detailed explanation on this feature?

Coldwaterdude

Wagsy-

I cannot say if the ND was on or off at the time I was shooting. Seeing how I am still learning the in's and out's of this camera I would say it was on.

I just toggled the ND on/off and I can see the difference from one position to the other.

Thanks for asking.

Coldwaterdude

Hey Coldwaterdude

Don't use the progressive scan feature for video with the TRV900 as it's not a true progressive camera.

Go here for a read Interlaced / Progressive

I would make sure you have the ND filter set to OFF for you next dive. It will flash off in the viewfinder if there is not enough light down there if you had it on. Also if your db gain boost goes high due to not enough light, will give you a bad image.

Another thing is maybe the littlle ND filter is jammed on inside the lens assembly. It's actuallly a little mechanicsl filter that flips in. But you did say Sony checked it out B)

Wagsy-

I can actually see the ND filter flip on/off while pressing de/pressing the button so it appears to be working.

I downloaded my test shot last night and watched it side by side with the footage from the TRV30, the TRV30 has superior quality over the 900. The 900 still looks grainy and the focus is not crisp.

Thanks for link, I'll check it out.

Coldwaterdude

"Grainy" and "focus is not crisp" just don't sound right for the TRV900. You might consider taking it back to the service center and talking to them about your concerns. Or if you can find someone near you with another TRV900, you might compare the two to see if there is something wrong with your unit.

It does make sense that the TRV30 will look a bit sharper with more vibrant color... but the difference should be fairly subtle.

To make a sweeping generalization, consumer camcorders tend to have the color saturation and sharpness boosted so they appear crisper and more vibrant when someone is browsing through camcorders at the electronics shop.

This saturation and sharpness boost is not always desirable during post production (editing) and so higher end cameras (or cameras that aspire to be higher end) tend to appear more muted in comparison and often give users the ability to customize the signal that gets recorded to tape.

Still, I'd have the TRV900 checked.

Thank you both for your feedback, I will contact the local Sony Service dealer and see if they can help.

I will also try some more dry shots outside and see how that compares to the TRV30.

Coldwaterdude

Just to bring everyone up to date, I have made some side by side dry shots with the 900 and the TRV30.

The issue is still present, I did do the factory reset but the poor quality image is still present. I will be sending the 900 out for service to Mackcam in New Jersey. Anyone ever use them? Who do you usse to service your video equipment?

Thanks,

Coldwaterdude