What is the best configuration for a film-like, cinematic result.

basically want to know:

progressive on or off?

shutter speed? some people suggest 1/30, some suggest 1/60

NTSC? PAL? if pal, how do I set the PD150 to pal?

DV or DVCAM mode?

anything else?

i'm also very interested in getting a film look with the pd170 so hopefully someone will respond soon. i've seen the "flash" digital effect (on the lowest setting) give a drop frame somewhat filmly look but i'm hoping it's just the tip of the iceberg.

The PD cameras have a progressive scan recording mode, but it's not something that you should ever use to shoot video; it's more for capturing quality stills. If you turn on Progressive on a PD, you'll be getting no more than 15fps, which is pretty much useless.

And there's no way that you'll ever be able switch an NTSC camera to record in PAL format. NTSC will always shoot NTSC, PAL will always shoot PAL. Different resolutions, different framerates. If you want to shooti n a different format, you'll have to shoot with a different camera that is *designed* to shoot in that format.

Shutter speed is entirely a function of how you want the scene to look. Faster shutter speeds give a sort of frantic illusion. (Lots of new movies shot on DV are abusing high shutter speeds and are making 100% of their shots look like garbage.

Achieving a film-look is much easier on Panasonic's DVX100 line, or even Canon's XL line. Sony chose not to include Progressive Scan on their PD series because they were being made at the end of the SD era. I believe their HD cams all have Prog, but to the best of my knowledge, there's no such thing as an SD Sony cam that can shoot progressive.

If you want to make your PD footage look more like film, you'll have to do almost all of it, short of lighting and shooting properly, in post production. Filters and grain effects and whatnot.

I've been on YouTube looking at lots of footage shot with the pd150 and 170. There seem to be a significant amount of film school students shooting their short film projects on the 150 and 170.

From what I've seen of their footage, it seems like both the 150 and 170 CAN achieve that "film look". Some of the students are using an M2 adapter, some aren't. One of them said he edited his 150 footage on Premiere Pro CS3. I asked him today if that's how he got that film look, so I'll post again when he responds.

What NLE you use will not, in and of itself, give you the Film Look. Frankly, neither will the camera if you don't know what it really is you're looking for.

I'd suggest starting here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=34

There are, of course, a variety of settings you can make in the camera which might help, and there are a variety of plug-ins that work with all the different editors to simulate the film look.

Lighting and shooting technique are most important of all.

__________________
Adam
Proud owner of 8 Sony HDV cams. Checking into rehab next week.
"There are no experimental failures. There's only more data."

I've seen footage of the 170 that was edited on a variety of NLE's, including FCP, AVID, Premiere, etc. The filmmakers whose footage I've seen are saying that they are doing color correction on their NLE's and it's enhancing their final product.

With YouTube I've been able to see what the 170 can do.

Alot of the 170 videos are being done with no lighting and they look amazing! The color palette of the 170 is spectacular! It's a camera perfectly suited for my project. I'm sold!

While color correction can be done in any NLE, there's nothing inherently "film look" about that process.

A little further digging seems to indicate that to apply "film look" artifacts, you'd need to use After Effects, part of CS3 but not the part you edit with, which is Premiere.

Glad you like the 170. A lot of people do and it's a great cam. But you're sure you'll never need widescreen? You will not be distributing on film or any widescreen TV format? Not showing publicly on a large screen? Because YouTube is, frankly, not the place to judge picture quality.

You might actually want to do some studying before you commit to a $2500 cam that may not do what you want. I only say this because nearly everything you've said you're after, the PD170 won't do. It sounds like you've maybe fallen in love with this cam and are looking for reasons to use it. But the truth is you don't need to justify your love for this beast. Just make sure you're in love with it for the right reasons.

__________________
Adam
Proud owner of 8 Sony HDV cams. Checking into rehab next week.
"There are no experimental failures. There's only more data."