Video and software expert Adam J. Wilt has seen it all when it comes to DV camcorders. Read along and he'll let you in on a few secrets he's discovered in his ongoing DV adventures.

DVCAM tapes can be used in DV recorders. I used DVCAM tapes in my DHR-1000 when I couldn't get DV tapes longer than 60 minutes in my neck of the woods. To figure out what tape you need, take the DVCAM running time and multiply by 1.5 (since DV uses a 10 micron track pitch to DVCAM's 15 microns). For example, a PDV-94ME runs for about 141 minutes when recording DV.

Recording DV unlocked audio via FireWire with the DSR-30 DVCAM VTR: Press and hold down RECORD and PAUSE while turning on the power. The deck will emit a sustained beep, at which point you can release the buttons. It will now accept unlocked audio. It'll record 15-micron DVCAM still, but the audio will be unlocked. This trick is also supposed to work with the DSR-200 camcorder. Note: the DSR-20 will record unlocked audio without needing this trick.

Color bars on the DCR-VX1000 and DSR-200: Press and hold PHOTO and the START/STOP red button while turning the camera section on. You'll get full-field bars which you can record, along with any incoming microphone audio. You'll have to turn the camera off to get rid of them.

Color bars on the Canon XL1: Turn on the camera to the fully auto mode (green square).  Then press both the shutter speed buttons simultaneously for a few seconds, and full-field bars will appear. Pressing both buttons again for another few seconds turns them off (a definite improvement over the Sony).

Playing DV or DVCAM on DVCPRO VTRs: First, make sure your machine is up-to-date: VTRs made before June 1997 need an EPROM upgrade to play DVCAM. Check the serial number: it's of the form MYxxxxxxx, where M is a month letter, A-L, and Y is the last digit in the year. F7xxxxxxx means the machine was built in June 1997, and it's OK. H6xxxxxxx would mean the machine was born in August of 1996 and the EPROM upgrade is required. Second -- and this is very important -- use the setup menus to specify DV or DVCAM before you insert the tape! The playback mode "locks in" when the tape is inserted, so if you set DV or DVCAM mode after loading the tape playback will still be attempted as if the tape were a DVCPRO tape, and you'll get really crappy results.

Line inputs on the VX1000 (or other consumer cams)? You can fake it: first you'll need a 3.5mm dual-mono-to-single-stereo Y Adapter, Radio Shack Cat. No. 274-375B; this'll give you right and left channel mic inputs on separate mono jacks. Use an Attenuating Audio Cable with an RCA plug on the line end and a 3.5mm miniplug on the mic side: Radio Shack Cat. No. 42-2461A. Sony also makes a stereo pair version of this; if you just need one, peel the two cables apart. You can now jack into line-level audio sources. With a bit of luck, you can even plug a line source into one side, and a mono mic into the other -- and the levels might even match up... If you follow this route, be sure to gaffer tape the cables out of the way so that they don't get pulled or wiggled during the shoot, and avoid touching or moving the $%#@&! delicate miniplugs. Also, only use battery power when recording via these jacks lest any residual power-supply ripple or ground loops cause intolerable AC hum problems.

Using monophonic mics on cameras like the VX1000: the mic input on the VX1000 and most similar cameras is a standard 3.5mm stereo minijack. If you plug in a mono mic, you'll only get one channel of audio. Use a mono-to-stereo adapter available from Radio Shack to fix this: part # 274-374. Or, use a 3.5mm dual-mono-to-single-stereo Y Adapter, Radio Shack Cat. No. 274-375B to give you separate mono right and left channel inputs for two mics.

Line/Mic adapter boxes and cables: if you don't want to mix 'n' match cables as described above, both Beachtek and Studio1 make very nice adapter boxes allowing switchable line/mic inputs and the use of XLR cables with many of the small consumer cameras. Equipment Emporium and Calrad both carry pre-made XLR-mini adapter cables of various sorts, many designed specifically for solving these sorts of connection problems.

Those Canon IF lenses on the DSR-500WS and possibly the DSR300 are so pleasant to use and make such nice pix -- if you can avoid bumping the %$#@* macro button! The 18x on the DSR-500, at least, has a large and easily-pressed macro ring lock button located on the left side of the lens. Older Canon lenses had a lock button you had to pull up on to move the macro ring; it was virtually impossible to bump the lens into macro mode accidentally. The new lenses have a push-to-unlock button with such a light touch that accidental macro shots are almost impossible to avoid. On two occasions now I've managed to just brush against it while groping for other lens controls or when moving the tripod to a new setup, bumping the button and turning the ring just enough to screw up focus but not enough to be readily visible in the finder... I suggest gaffer-taping the macro ring in place so it doesn't get moved accidentally.

Adam J. Wilt is in the middle of an illustrious career involving a multitude of disciplines. His experience includes serving as Project Lead Senior Software Engineer for the Abekas A72 video character generator and a video software designer for ABC-TV and Pinnacle Systems, among many others. His fields of expertise include film & video production/post-production, stop-motion animation, still photography; computer graphics, interface design, object-oriented design and programming, graphical user interfaces, and real-time hardware control. See his Web site at adamwilt.com.

Copyright 2000 Adam J. Wilt