EVI-D70 Camera Image tuning

Our stake is doing a webcast using the installed EVI-D70 for the first time - I've not had issues with bandwidth, but I'm not liking the picture quality when I'm zooming in. I don't know much about the capabilities, I've been reading through the forum and found different pieces of software that help me configure different aspects of the camera. I'm wondering if someone has a good idea of how to configure that camera to have the best picture available for a typical stake webcast.

Do I enable/disable digital zoom?
Do I set white balance to auto/indoor?
etc...

From the default settings I see this data for the camera:

80 01 06 02 18 17 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF Pan/Tilt: Home
80 01 06 07 00 00 0F 07 02 05 0F 0E 07 00 FF Pan/Tilt Limit: movable range to maximum (down left)
80 01 06 07 00 01 00 08 0D 0B 00 04 0B 00 FF Pan/Tilt Limit: movable range to maximum (up right)
80 01 04 47 00 00 00 00 FF Zoom Position: Wide end
80 01 04 06 02 FF D-Zoom: On
80 01 04 36 00 FF D-Zoom: Combine
80 01 04 38 02 FF Focus: Auto
80 01 04 28 08 00 00 00 FF Near Limit: 8000 (29cm)
80 01 04 58 02 FF AF Sensitivity: Normal
80 01 04 57 00 FF AF Mode: Normal
80 01 04 27 00 05 00 05 FF AF Run Time: 5 Sec, Interval: 5 Sec
80 01 04 35 00 FF WB Mode: Auto
80 01 04 39 00 FF AE Mode: Full Auto
80 01 04 5A 03 FF Slow Shutter: Manual
80 01 04 3E 02 FF Exposure Compensation: On
80 01 04 0E 00 FF Exposure Compensation Setting: Reset
80 01 04 33 03 FF Backlight: Off
80 01 04 59 03 FF Spot AE: Off
80 01 04 29 00 08 00 08 FF Spot AE Position: X=8, Y=8
80 01 04 42 00 00 00 05 FF Aperture Level: 5
80 01 04 01 02 FF IR_Receive: On
80 01 7D 01 13 00 00 FF IR_Return: Off
80 01 04 40 00 00 00 00 FF Auto Power Off Timer: 0
80 01 04 61 03 FF LR Reverse: Off
80 01 04 62 03 FF Freeze: Off
80 01 04 63 00 FF Picture Effect: Off
80 01 04 01 03 FF ICR: Off
80 01 04 51 03 FF Auto ICR: Off
80 01 04 15 03 FF Display: Off
80 01 04 75 03 FF Mute: Off
80 01 04 74 03 FF Title Display: Off
80 01 04 6B 03 FF Alarm: Off

Personally, I'd turn off digital zoom. That just degrades the resolution once you exceed the optical zoom limit. Since this is a video cam and not a still cam, I'd imaging the degradation would be significant. (Still cams usually have way more pixels than can be used for video, so they can stand to use digital zoom when doing video.)

However, turning off digital zoom does limit how far you can zoom in. You may need to reposition the camera. Or, you'll just have to limit yourself to what optical can do.

I had no idea you could control these settings. How? I have a conference this weekend and would love to try changing the white balance.

craiggsmith wrote:I had no idea you could control these settings. How? I have a conference this weekend and would love to try changing the white balance.

Well, it's not on the remote, but I think there is a way to use the remote to get to the menu and do it. Although I never found it for our conference today.

The other thing I am trying to do is figure out how to adjust the speed of the pan and tilt on the remote. Right now, if I want to tilt down a little at the pulpit, I tap the tilt button on the remote and then look at the floor. And a very short tap of the pan button takes me from the pulpit to the hymn numbers at 100 degrees per second. There ought to be some way to adjust the pan and tilt speed so it is usable on the remote.

But I have yet to find it. I have six months to play with it now before I should need it again.

I found the remote unusable. We use the D70 Commander software.

http://www.cwshop.com/LDSSoftware/D70Cmdr/d70cmdr.html

craiggsmith wrote:I found the remote unusable. We use the D70 Commander software.

Yeah, but how do you get those commands into that little infrared port? (Just kidding.)

I read the camera manual again last evening and found one line that may help. I will test it on the way home from work this evening. If it works, we will be able to use the remote. If not, we'll need to get the FM group to help us wire in something different.

I suppose we could put a guy on a ladder at the back of the chapel, but that probably would not help the reverence of the meeting, either.

craiggsmith wrote:I found the remote unusable.

Nearly, but it's all I have for now.

In the wish I knew it before Sunday category, there was one line in the camera manual that hints at how so slow down the pan and tilt. I played with it yesterday.

If you press the slow zoom in button on the remote, the next press of a pan or tilt button will provide a slow pan or tilt. Zoom out does not work, and the second press of either the pan or tilt button will send the camera flying again. You get one slow pan or tilt, not both, after you press the slow zoom in button each time.

I guess the intent is that you can make a small directional adjustment after you zoom in. If you are broadcasting, do not press the button twice, and do not press one button (pan/tilt) and then the other. The second press undoes everything.

This knowledge would have been very helpful for me Sunday because the six presets were not set well enough when we got into the actual meeting. I wound up wanting dearly to adjust the camera position just a little and not being able to do it.

Interesting, good to know!

The main thing we have done is to use the presets. We get the 3 or 4 spots and zooms that we want programmed in and then the person controlling the remote only uses those presets. It zooms and pans a bit fast, but at least it doesn't look jerky.

That's good to know about the slow pan.

jonesrk wrote:The main thing we have done is to use the presets.

Presets are great until you need to adjust the camera because someone is invited up on to the stand with the speaker, or there is a discussion down in front of the pulpit during a training meeting. The only way I could compensate for that (without violent camera swings) was to just zoom out, but then I caught all sorts of things not needed in the picture, including the hanging lights in the chapel that blow away the picture.

Here is a hint for those presets if anyone is interested. I used paired presets. #1 was a normal fairly close in pulpit shot. #4 was the same position but zoomed out to a wide shot. #3 was a close in shot of the music director (hope he or she stands in the same place every time) and #6 was the same position zoomed out to a wide shot. With paired settings, I could zoom out, switch to the next zoomed out position without as much jerking, and then zoom in where I wanted to be.

I adjusted preset #5 just before the meeting to capture the actual choir, because they were fewer in number and got lost in a shot of all the choir seats. But when the meeting started, there was a new choir member two seats away that was cut in half with the preset. My only smooth option was to zoom out, but that brought other problems into the pictures.

I wish there were a way to adjust the default rate of pan and tilt using the menu, but I have not (yet) found it, if there is. I am a lot like Goldilocks. The slow zoom is too slow; the fast zoom is too fast. You know the story. Always trying to improve.