Canon XL H series -- various sample clips

Chris Hurd · June 6th, 2006, 12:17 AM

Shot last night, with kind of an oddball set-up: XL H1 plus 1.6x extender plus EF adapter plus Sigma 70-300mm telephoto zoom. Maximum available aperture about f/5.6, so exposure is controlled by shutter speed. Basically I just dialed the shutter up until the zebra went away. No access to EXIF data from my laptop here, unfortunately, but if someone wants that info, I can get it from home. No presets, just the default H1 image. Somewhat soft all the way around, and some significant chromatic abberation, both induced by the price tag of this Sigma lens (it was not expensive, and it shows)!

Martin Costa · June 6th, 2006, 02:16 AM

Nice shots, is that the lunar rover... Maybe they should send your setup to Mars.

Barlow Elton · June 6th, 2006, 10:34 PM

I did a little test yesterday shooting live SDI straight into my G5/Kona and captured with the Sheer "lossless" codec. Here are a few grabs:

http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/Cousins24FSDI-1.jpgx
http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/Cousins1080jpeg.jpgx
http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/LilBuds1.jpgx

Right click/download/save and remove the "x" for a 1080 jpeg pic.

The H1 is ridiculous. :-)

Yasser Kassana · June 7th, 2006, 04:15 AM

Excellent colours and textures, you live in a nice place man!

James Lundy · June 7th, 2006, 04:38 AM

I agree.

What's the DOF like Barlow? Can you throw the background out of focus quite easily?

James.

Barlow Elton · June 7th, 2006, 03:03 PM

The DOF of the 20x really surprises me. Hard to say why, but it definitely feels like there's more ability to throw out backgrounds with less hassle than with any previous 1/3" camera, and that's at equivalent focal lengths, say, to the XL1, not just the extra 4X of the stock lens. (which stops down anyway)

Yasser--that's actually my folks place up against the Wasatch range. (Utah Rocky Mountains).

My yard has a long ways to go. :-P

Pete Bauer · June 7th, 2006, 04:41 PM

My guess is that the high resolution of 1080 makes out-of-focus areas more obvious as compared to a subject that is in razor sharp focus; in other words, at lower resolutions such as DV, the apparent depth of field is widened a bit just because the smaller number of pixels in the image hides the difference between the in-focus subject and something that's just slightly out focus optically speaking. Otherwise, cameras shooting with the same sensor size, f-stop, and focal length ought to have about the same depth of field.

Chris has been asking me to do some XL H1 in 24F versus XL2 in 24p comparisons, which I haven't had time to do. But a little experiment about this DOF might be a small project I could handle this next week when I'll hopefully be a little less busy than I am this week.

Barlow Elton · June 7th, 2006, 07:11 PM

I think your hypothesis is spot on. Makes sense.

btw, that'd be a cool experiment.

Steven Dempsey · June 8th, 2006, 03:54 PM

Two new things for your viewing pleasure:

First up is a work in progress. This is the time of the year when cottonwood trees lose their cotton and it's a pretty cool site, it looks like it's snowing. There's a cottonwood in our yard and it was shedding its skin the other day and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot.

I will probably include this in a more ambitious piece in the future because I really didn't have enough footage to work with even for this short edit. Anyway, it's pretty spectacular so I wanted to share it.

This is a fairly low bitrate 24p WMV so the blocking in the water IS NOT IN THE ORIGINAL. Sorry for shouting but I don't want the focus to be on something that's a result of post process compression and not the camera's ability.

There are a couple of shots in there that I took in the middle of the night of the moon. I cranked the gain up for those shots so they are riddled with noise but that's intentional. The next time I do something like that I think I'll experiment with NR1 and NR2 to see their effects...

So here goes:

http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/cottonwood_tree.wmv

Second up is some footage from a recent Little League game my son was in. Nothing unusual here, just some random shots.

http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/baseball.wmv

Enjoy...

Ken Diewert · June 9th, 2006, 11:45 AM

Steven,

Well done on both, I find the music adds so much to your visuals. Not that they need it but it does add that extra sense of drama.

I assume you're using your 'Panalook' preset in 24f for most of your stuff lately?

Ken.

Steven Dempsey · June 9th, 2006, 11:52 AM

Yes Ken, I am using that preset exclusively now in conjunction with the incremental white balance button for warm or cool looks. I find this preset to be almost identical to what I had my DVX set to and, when lit well, I can manipulate the image very well in post if I choose.

I have a musical background (played in various rock bands for 12 years) and that plays as important a role to me as the visual image. I tend to "see" music when I hear it and it dictates all kinds of imagery in my head that inspires what I shoot.

James Go · June 9th, 2006, 03:15 PM

I am a drummer .......10 years

nice to meet u ....man !

rock ....metal....jazz....fusion......

now I own a show band club........

and thinking about to make movie

Darrell Essex · June 11th, 2006, 12:26 PM

Hay everyone, I uploaded footage of the water fall clip that Steven Dempsey posted earlier.
I took the clip and tried to look at as if I were the Producer of an upcoming movie.
"You know, that's a great shot of a water fall, but, can you give me more"?
"And that building by the water, can you move it closer to the center of the frame"?
"And the hotel, I'd like to have a more rooms so our actor has to go into a seperate section of the hotel. Can you do that with HDV?
I think the answer is YES.
Please give me some feed back.
The link http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/fallsfx.mov

Here is a picture of the orginal footage in case anyone can't play Quicktime movies http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/falls orginal frame.jpg

Here is a picture of the finished VFX shot. http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/fallsfx.jpg

Darrell
FIRST CINEMA PICTURES

Steven Dempsey · June 15th, 2006, 04:01 PM

Perpetual Motion. Shot at Snoqualmie and the Montlake Fill here in Seattle.

http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/disject...ual_motion.wmv

Christopher Glaeser · June 15th, 2006, 06:27 PM

Love watching your sequences. Do the first couple of pans use OIS enabled? There appears to be some OIS twitching. Could be my playback.

Best,
Christopher

June 6th, 2006, 12:17 AM	#76
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	Lunar Landscapes Again Shot last night, with kind of an oddball set-up: XL H1 plus 1.6x extender plus EF adapter plus Sigma 70-300mm telephoto zoom. Maximum available aperture about f/5.6, so exposure is controlled by shutter speed. Basically I just dialed the shutter up until the zebra went away. No access to EXIF data from my laptop here, unfortunately, but if someone wants that info, I can get it from home. No presets, just the default H1 image. Somewhat soft all the way around, and some significant chromatic abberation, both induced by the price tag of this Sigma lens (it was not expensive, and it shows)! Attached Thumbnails __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

June 6th, 2006, 10:34 PM	#78
Barlow Elton Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UT Posts: 945	SDI Uncompressed frame grabs... I did a little test yesterday shooting live SDI straight into my G5/Kona and captured with the Sheer "lossless" codec. Here are a few grabs: http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/Cousins24FSDI-1.jpgx http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/Cousins1080jpeg.jpgx http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/LilBuds1.jpgx Right click/download/save and remove the "x" for a 1080 jpeg pic. The H1 is ridiculous. :-)

June 7th, 2006, 04:41 PM	#82
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	My guess is that the high resolution of 1080 makes out-of-focus areas more obvious as compared to a subject that is in razor sharp focus; in other words, at lower resolutions such as DV, the apparent depth of field is widened a bit just because the smaller number of pixels in the image hides the difference between the in-focus subject and something that's just slightly out focus optically speaking. Otherwise, cameras shooting with the same sensor size, f-stop, and focal length ought to have about the same depth of field. Chris has been asking me to do some XL H1 in 24F versus XL2 in 24p comparisons, which I haven't had time to do. But a little experiment about this DOF might be a small project I could handle this next week when I'll hopefully be a little less busy than I am this week. __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

June 8th, 2006, 03:54 PM	#84
Steven Dempsey Disjecta Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Seattle, Washington Posts: 937	A couple more things Two new things for your viewing pleasure: First up is a work in progress. This is the time of the year when cottonwood trees lose their cotton and it's a pretty cool site, it looks like it's snowing. There's a cottonwood in our yard and it was shedding its skin the other day and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot. I will probably include this in a more ambitious piece in the future because I really didn't have enough footage to work with even for this short edit. Anyway, it's pretty spectacular so I wanted to share it. This is a fairly low bitrate 24p WMV so the blocking in the water IS NOT IN THE ORIGINAL. Sorry for shouting but I don't want the focus to be on something that's a result of post process compression and not the camera's ability. There are a couple of shots in there that I took in the middle of the night of the moon. I cranked the gain up for those shots so they are riddled with noise but that's intentional. The next time I do something like that I think I'll experiment with NR1 and NR2 to see their effects... So here goes: http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/cottonwood_tree.wmv Second up is some footage from a recent Little League game my son was in. Nothing unusual here, just some random shots. http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/baseball.wmv Enjoy... __________________ Try my Digital Therapy: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/digital_therapy.html Films on ExposureRoom: http://exposureroom.com/members/disjecta.aspx/videos/

June 9th, 2006, 11:45 AM	#85
Ken Diewert Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Vancouver Island, Canada Posts: 1,200	Steven, Well done on both, I find the music adds so much to your visuals. Not that they need it but it does add that extra sense of drama. I assume you're using your 'Panalook' preset in 24f for most of your stuff lately? Ken. __________________ C100, 5DMk2, FCPX

June 6th, 2006, 02:16 AM	#77
Martin Costa Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 76 Images: 2	Nice shots, is that the lunar rover... Maybe they should send your setup to Mars.

June 7th, 2006, 04:15 AM	#79
Yasser Kassana Major Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: UK Posts: 223	Excellent colours and textures, you live in a nice place man!

June 7th, 2006, 04:38 AM	#80
James Lundy Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: West Lothian - Bonnie Scotland Posts: 51	I agree. What's the DOF like Barlow? Can you throw the background out of focus quite easily? James.

June 7th, 2006, 03:03 PM	#81
Barlow Elton Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UT Posts: 945	The DOF of the 20x really surprises me. Hard to say why, but it definitely feels like there's more ability to throw out backgrounds with less hassle than with any previous 1/3" camera, and that's at equivalent focal lengths, say, to the XL1, not just the extra 4X of the stock lens. (which stops down anyway) Yasser--that's actually my folks place up against the Wasatch range. (Utah Rocky Mountains). My yard has a long ways to go. :-P

June 7th, 2006, 07:11 PM	#83
Barlow Elton Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UT Posts: 945	I think your hypothesis is spot on. Makes sense. btw, that'd be a cool experiment.

June 9th, 2006, 11:52 AM	#86
Steven Dempsey Disjecta Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Seattle, Washington Posts: 937	Yes Ken, I am using that preset exclusively now in conjunction with the incremental white balance button for warm or cool looks. I find this preset to be almost identical to what I had my DVX set to and, when lit well, I can manipulate the image very well in post if I choose. I have a musical background (played in various rock bands for 12 years) and that plays as important a role to me as the visual image. I tend to "see" music when I hear it and it dictates all kinds of imagery in my head that inspires what I shoot. __________________ Try my Digital Therapy: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/digital_therapy.html Films on ExposureRoom: http://exposureroom.com/members/disjecta.aspx/videos/ Last edited by Steven Dempsey; June 9th, 2006 at 03:16 PM.

June 9th, 2006, 03:15 PM	#87
James Go New Boot Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: HongKong of CHINA Posts: 7	same James I am a drummer .......10 years nice to meet u ....man ! rock ....metal....jazz....fusion...... now I own a show band club........ and thinking about to make movie

June 11th, 2006, 12:26 PM	#88
Darrell Essex Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: kelseyville, ca Posts: 123	VFX on XL-H1 Footage Hay everyone, I uploaded footage of the water fall clip that Steven Dempsey posted earlier. I took the clip and tried to look at as if I were the Producer of an upcoming movie. "You know, that's a great shot of a water fall, but, can you give me more"? "And that building by the water, can you move it closer to the center of the frame"? "And the hotel, I'd like to have a more rooms so our actor has to go into a seperate section of the hotel. Can you do that with HDV? I think the answer is YES. Please give me some feed back. The link http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/fallsfx.mov Here is a picture of the orginal footage in case anyone can't play Quicktime movies http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/falls orginal frame.jpg Here is a picture of the finished VFX shot. http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/fallsfx.jpg Darrell FIRST CINEMA PICTURES __________________ darrell

June 15th, 2006, 04:01 PM	#89
Steven Dempsey Disjecta Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Seattle, Washington Posts: 937	Another Short Subject Perpetual Motion. Shot at Snoqualmie and the Montlake Fill here in Seattle. http://media.dvinfo.net/xlh1/disject...ual_motion.wmv __________________ Try my Digital Therapy: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/digital_therapy.html Films on ExposureRoom: http://exposureroom.com/members/disjecta.aspx/videos/

June 15th, 2006, 06:27 PM	#90
Christopher Glaeser Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Pleasanton, CA Posts: 258	OIS Panning Motion Love watching your sequences. Do the first couple of pans use OIS enabled? There appears to be some OIS twitching. Could be my playback. Best, Christopher