vertical lines due to light

whenever a mini dv camcorder is pointed at a bright light it creates

a vertical line in the picture, obviously to avoid it would mean not

to shoot against bright light but what if you have to? is there

anything that can be done to avoid it, or at least to soften the

effect? would it help having a very bright light cam light coming

from just above the lense?

Robert:

 

I'm not sure which dv camera you are using, but the problem you are experiencing can be prevalent in all cameras. It has nothing to do with the format, but the actual chip itself, and the way the light is brought to it. The XL1 for example, when pointed at a bright light, will give a rather nice looking star effect most times, but this may just be the XL1. I would try using a cross - star filter.At least the effect will be attractive. Barring that, another trick to soften down the problem might be to use an old UV filter, and smear a little coat of vasaline just around the outside edge of the filter. This makes a very nice soft focus filter as well, but be sure to use a low depth of field (below f:4) When you're done, just clean the filter with warm soap and water.

It is just a form of lens flare. It is impossible to get rid of it if you are shooting directly into a light source. If you really want to see serious flare, take something like the Canon GL-1, stick the .7 - 58 wide angle converter on the front, and shoot anything in the half space that includes the sun. There are so many elements in this set up that flare begins as soon as the entrance pupil can begin to see any part of the sun, and when you're looking head on into the sun, the flare is so wild that you could consider using it as a special effect.

 

If you don't want lens flare, make sure the lens can't see any part of the light source. Use a lens hood for shots where the light source would be close to the edges of the half space. To further minimize flare, use a lens with relatively few elements (although I know that few amateur camcorders give you a chance to pick your lens).

Sorry ... This is NOT lens flare. It is an anomolly caused by a bright light in all digital camcorders. You should never point your camera at a bright light anyway, and if you must, do it very breifly and keep the camera moving. Exposure to intense light may destroy pixels in your CCD or burn it. These damages are permanent, and are not repairable without replacing the CCD chip. Your instruction manual should adress this issue.

I'm not going to get into a p**sing contest about whether its lens flare or not. It becomes a progressively greater problem as the point light source approaches the optical axis of the lens. If you want to kill it, you have to get the light source out of the field of view. Maybe its not lens flare. FWIW, it does not appear to be a problem if you shoot into a bright, non-point source.

 

Maybe someone could explain why it is an artifact of the CCD cell, if that is the case. If it is just an artifact of the CCD cell that is caused by a bright point source, then you could just deal with it with neutral density filters. I've seen some mitigation with ND filters, but I've never knocked it out with ND filtration.

thanx for all the contributed answers.

 

the reason I was asking is because I was filming outside on the street at night, the problem is any and all lights at night seem to create the vertical lines

 

however professional digittal camcorders used for let say news, do not exhibit this kind of behaviour, and if they do, then if very minimal

Maybe its "minimal," but its still present when they do use it as a special effect (shooting into the sun for some other reason). The key to not getting this effect is to avoid backlighting from significant point sources.

Glenn:

 

My appologies. I was not attempting to get into any "contest". Just a matter of terminoligy. What I was trying to say, again, is that this phenomena is present with all CCD camera chips. As we recal, the old tube cameras did not produce this, but instead presented trails and image lag when exposed to light sources. CCD's on the other hand, produce this very annoying line which eminates from the source and goes (usually) the entire way up and down the screen.

 

My understanding of the word "lens flare" deals with the effect of light coming in the lens, creating sometimes very nice effects - colorful images which are the outline of the actual arpeture inside the lens. These can be singular or multiple depending upon the number of lens elements and the angle of light. In fact, my editing software has an effect called "lens flare" which nicely reproduces this effect.

 

In any case, you are correct in that there is no way to eliminate this with bright point light sources, however the use of a cross star filter, will make it look as though it was at least intentional.Also, the XL1 (and probably all Canon's) utilize what they call "pixel shift" technology, whatever that is, which lessens the effect greatly and produces a very nice star effect all on it's own. I hope I've been more clear. I have visible samples of both here somewhere which I will send along in the next little while if it's possible, to clarify even more.

By Best to all.