Unsure where best to post this; threads on the Optura Xi, when searched, seem to come from all locations. The general discussion room seems neutral enough territory.
Well, I've read and read about this new cam. I'm fairly new to dv, and so uncertain about some of what i've read and how it pertains to me, but I have a few questions, some of which may already have been asked and answered, and still, for me, need clarification.
I own a PDX10 and am wondering if the XI's 16;9 would match it perfectly well.

Is the XI's low light comparable to the PDX10 (7 lux), or worse.
I understand the XI hasn't any LANC hookup, a crime. Is there an alternative, please oh please say yes?

Does anyone have experience with both of these cams? Would their footage be wildly incomparable?

You see, I'm looking for a less expensive and interesting alternative to getting a second PDX10. The trv950's 16;9 is not the same as the pdx10's, right?
Many thanks,
Shawn

ps This really is the best dv forum website around. Thanks to all who contribute. :-)

Shawn, Allan over on the MX Forum has played and tested the Xi. He's also read every Japanese Xi test. He's actually working on writing an extensive review, which he plans on posting here. Furthermore, the experts over at my local pro cam shop also praise this cam. Now for your questions.

The Xi's 16:9 would match the PDX10's 16:9 and then maybe then some. The color saturation is also amazingly rich (from what I got with Allan and the reviews he's read). The Xi's LUX would be better, but not as good as the GS100's lower LUX requirements. Don't know about the lanc. (I thought Canon brought it back with the Xi, but I could be wrong.) Experience? Yes, Allan does. The Xi footage will look warmer. Right, about the 950's 16:9 not being the same.

Fantastic, Frank. Thanks for the quick and concise response. Sounds like the LANC Q. is the only pin left standing. I eagerly await Allan's review. A very promising camcorder.
Regards,
Shawn

Shawn, you may always post your specific question/s over on the MX forum, because Allan visits there often, or you may e-mail him. He's a very helpful individual.

Thanks, Frank!

Hi All,
First of all my best to all for this year.

I have two questions:

1. Who makes a decent and low priced neutral density filter for XI?

2. Can I shoot in Black and White using the XI, and if so, how do I do that?

Cheers,
Earon

I have no idea about the specific hardware you can put on your
camera or you can do (ie, B&W), but:

As you may or may not know you can also do color to B&W
conversion in post with your editing application or an effects
application. I usually prefer it that way because it leaves me
more options as to how the conversion to B&W is done or how
B&W I want it to be (fully, or 90% or 75% etc.).

Keep in mind that (to the best of my knowledge) there are no
native B&W DV camera's. So either the conversion is done in
camera or you do it in post.

<<<-- ...

As you may or may not know you can also do color to B&W
conversion in post with your editing application or an effects
application. I usually prefer it that way because it leaves me
more options as to how the conversion to B&W is done or how
B&W I want it to be (fully, or 90% or 75% etc.).

Keep in mind that (to the best of my knowledge) there are no
native B&W DV camera's. So either the conversion is done in
camera or you do it in post. -->>>

Thanks, Rob
I'll experiment with color curves in vegas 5. I haven't tried it yet for B&W, although I was able to turn some day shoots into night shoots in post using vegas. I'm quite new to all of this and am making ALL of the mistakes one can make as I learn.

I looked for possibilites to set the XI last night to rid the colors but couldn't find anything.

Earon

Re: black and white

scroll down to the bottom of this Tiffen page (http://www.tiffen.com/filters.htm). You'll find some filters for black and white imaging.

Here's the write up on the filters. (http://www.tiffen.com/black_&_white.htm)

<<<-- Originally posted by Earon Kavanagh : Hi All,
First of all my best to all for this year.



2. Can I shoot in Black and White using the XI, and if so, how do I do that?

Cheers,
Earon -->>>

Hi Earon:

I'm not sure on the Xi, but on the Optura 500 you can shoot either in sepia or B&W using digital effects.

Hope this helps,


R. Roman L.

Does anyone have any suggestions for nice add ons to the optura xi? (Filters, mics, lenses, etc...) Thanks.

Check out this thread (click here) (http://www.dvinfo.net//conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36851)

I thank you kindly sir.

This might be a little off topic, but I have just found two of the best accessories ever to improve my Optura Xi shots, and they are free!

They are plugins for my editor;Vegas Video: link is below:

http://www.vasst.com/training/Vegasplugs.htm

The Auto-Leveler is amazing. It's like the auto-level control in PhotoShop. With one click, it auto balances all the colors and white and black levels. Also has some film-level settings in there too.

I got it last week, and couldn't believe the difference. Looks like I used a completely different camera. Gone are the grayish blacks, and the over-shifting to orange and green. It was like seeing through a clean window for the first time. I am going to put all my footage through this now. It's much more like the Sony color I prefer. Pure whites and blacks with lots of blue. I've spent hours trying to get the same effect with the color wheels, but couldn't get anything close to the results I got with one simple click here.

It also makes almost no difference in rendering times. The only drawback is that on certain shots where you are panning around, it occasionally gets lost and causes a color flickering effect. This was rare though. It's version one, so it would be cool if they put a "Hold" function in there that would freeze the values on a clip.

The other amazing freebe in that link is the "Smart-Smoother". Wow! I've seen expensive de-grainers that do the same thing. Basically, you set a threshold, and it removes the grain and chroma noise from within a shot, without effecting any of the detail. Amazing. Used tastefully, it makes the purest looking DV footage I've ever seen. It also does a good job at rescuing low-light footage. Also, your footage re-encodes much better to Mpeg 2 without adding more compression artifacts that way.

Anyone who is using Vegas out there with your Optura, try these and let me know what you think.

My basic accessories now that are must haves, are the Tiffen Soft/FX3, an ND, and a Polarizer lens filters, with the two plugins above , and Magic Bullet Editors. Oh my God....look at the difference. THAT footage came out of an $850, single chip camcorder?? :)

All I need now is something that rebuilds artifacts and gets rid of the DV blocking you get on reds, and some contrasting edges. It's not a fault of the camera - -it's from the DV codec itself. Anybody know of anything?

<<<-- Originally posted by Kevin Sturges : This might be a little off topic, but I have just found two of the best accessories ever to improve my Optura Xi shots, and they are free!

....
My basic accessories now that are must haves, are the Tiffen Soft/FX3, an ND, and a Polarizer lens filters, with the two plugins above , and Magic Bullet Editors. Oh my God....look at the difference. THAT footage came out of an $850, single chip camcorder?? :)

All I need now is something that rebuilds artifacts and gets rid of the DV blocking you get on reds, and some contrasting edges. It's not a fault of the camera - -it's from the DV codec itself. Anybody know of anything? -->>>

Kevin,
Can you post some footage?
Earon

Hello Earon,

I do not have any kind of server space to put any video files. Do you have any ideas? I could do a WM9 file, that would be a little less resolution, but would be a lot smaller than a raw DV file. You could still see the dramatic processing difference that way.

Also, I do mean to update my Optura Xi web page, and put some before /after still frame grabs up there. I have just been totally swamped for time lately, and will be out of town again all weekend. ( I have to type these posts in on the quick while I’m at work….) I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m giving an excuse, to try to back out of validating my statements above, about all the filters. I will see what I can do about getting some frame grabs up in the next week or so, time willing.
Kevin

Kevin,

I've been playing around with the auto-levels and smoother, very nice! I'll post some footage in another thread. (http://www.dvinfo.net//conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38952)

I bought the SC-A60 with the XI. I couldnt tell from the picture, but it is extremly small and can only carry the camera itself and only a few accessories. Is there a good case that can fit the XI very snuggly and hold much accesories?

I like to have a case for every item, then I can pack them all into a larger bag.

I use a large lens case to hold the Xi. I have one from Lowe Pro and one from t.64. Both can hold the Xi with a BP-535 battery and WA lens snugly. Both can be slung my shoulder for quick draw action, or the case can be thrown into a larger bag/backpack.

If so can you post links? Another thing I'd like to see is uncompressed. Anyone have either?

I can't find anything with the Xi...

not many people actually use this camera for films..dont get me wrong its a awesome camera, i've seen a few music videos around here shot with it...actually i've done a music video myself with it http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2659341 if you have AIM i could send you a few seconds of uncompressed footage.

I've done one music video and one very simple short film. The music video is an mpeg4 file at

https://webspace.utexas.edu/rjs539/www/

and the short is on a free short film site called www.triggerstreet.com (must join though) and is called Just Before Noon.

I'm not sure if this bag is much better, but you be the judge
http://www.eastcoastphoto.com/nav/itempage.asp?itemid=5285&catid=266&hid=349

Riley,

Would you be willing to share your output settings? The music video looked great, by the way. And only 8+MB! Seems like no matter what settings I choose in QT, I end up with huge files. I have a 4 minute film shot with an Optura 30 that was 20MB using QT7 H.264, but when I chose MP4, it became 100MB!

John

I actually can make it even smaller now and look better with some settings a kind person gave me. I use Final Cut's built in compressor with these settings for the most part for internet compression (sometimes takes a little tweaking).

OUTPUT - .mov, flatten/cross-platform/fast-start, compress movie headers, create html

TRACKS - process video, audio, mpeg

IMAGE - manual crop, 320x240, deinterlaced, noise reduce

ADJUST - Gama 10, Black restore 15

ENCODE - Sorensen, Millions, 10 fps, Keyframe every 100, 146.1 kbits/s

SORENSEN - Highest Qualitly, Smoothing

This is by no means the only way to do it, but it works for me. Compressing is an art and takes a lot of fiddling. Hope that helps out a little.

Does anyone here use a Beachtek XLR adapter with their Optura XI? I'm trying to figure out which would fit it better, the DXA-2s or the DXA-4p. I'm going to be purchasing the Audio-Technica AT897 shotgun mic soon and I know this would be the best way to use it with my camera. Thanks for the help.

I don't recommend the Xi / DXA-4P combo for handheld use. It creates more problems than it solves. An XLR belt adapter is a much better accessory for the Xi when it comes to handheld shooting. I'm very happy with Studio 1's XLR-BP belt adapter.

The problems when handholding the Xi / DXA-4P combo are:
1. When the XLR cables are plugged in, there aren't solid places or ways to grip the camcorder.
2. The weight of the XLR cables unbalances the Xi and makes it very difficult to get steady shots.

And finally, you need to take apart the whole setup to switch tapes.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. I figured the tape changing would be an issue, and it looks like this would save me a pretty penny.

I know the optura xi has a 16:9 mode that is used so you can play back your video on a widescreen Tv. However I have a video that I shot with a trv58 and I shot that in 16:9 widescreen mode which was more like cinema, I could view it on my normal TV though without it looking stretched and out of place. I have footage from the XI and trv58 that I need to match up but im afraid the cinema mode I shot in won't match the XI's widescreen mode. Does the XI have a mode that is just cinema so I can play it on my normal TV(not widescreen tv) show it matches my other footage. Thanks guys

I don't know the answer to your exact question, however I do know that you can shoot like normal 4:3 and then letterbox (add a black bar above and below) in post. The technique varies depending on your editing software, but it should be very easy. It sounds like your old camera just added black bars to 4:3 footage.

BTW, this yields inferior results when played on a widescreen TV because you have thrown away all those pixels in the black bars. The XI has a high quality 16:9 mode which uses all those pixels. Another strategy would be to shoot in the XI 16:9 mode, capture the footage, then letterbox it for 4:3. Again, I don't know what software you use, but in FCP this would be as simple as dropping the clips in a 4:3 sequence. This way you would still have the original high quality 16:9 footage available if you ever wanted it.

I don't know the answer to your exact question, however I do know that you can shoot like normal 4:3 and then letterbox (add a black bar above and below) in post. The technique varies depending on your editing software, but it should be very easy. It sounds like your old camera just added black bars to 4:3 footage.

BTW, this yields inferior results when played on a widescreen TV because you have thrown away all those pixels in the black bars. The XI has a high quality 16:9 mode which uses all those pixels. Another strategy would be to shoot in the XI 16:9 mode, capture the footage, then letterbox it for 4:3. Again, I don't know what software you use, but in FCP this would be as simple as dropping the clips in a 4:3 sequence. This way you would still have the original high quality 16:9 footage available if you ever wanted it.


Thanks for the reply, yeah I guess I could probably shoot in 16:9 mode and just letterbox it for 4:3, I'm sure Adobe encore can do that. I use Permiere for editing and I suppose adding a black bar above and below wouldn't be hard and it will be flush with the other video. I know that camera didn't have proper 16:9 it just added black bars like you said. Anyway I will probably just end up adding black bars in post. The only thing that sucks is if I ever get a widescreen and play the footage, the crapy 16:9 mode from the other camera would just be a small square in the middle :(.

This was my choice, Xi seems to fit nicely in the top bag portion. I like the removable bottom for having batteries and my cables and power cords, but can unzip it and lighten the load when I know I am just out with the kids.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=276051&is=REG

Guys,

I have a Canon Powershot G3 digital camera (52mm lens barrell) and I am planning to buy the Canon Optura XI camcorder soon.

I currently do not have any filters/zoom or tele lenses or any other accessory.

1)I was wondering if it would be possible (actually more if it is recommended or absolutely a no-no) to share accessories between my camcorder and my camera?
I know I will need an adapter or adapters like maybe a 46-52mm adapter for the camcorder and then buy 52mm accessories (filters/lenses).
2)What filters would be essential/recommended given the characteristics of the camera and camcorder? I have read here and elsewhere that a polarising filter would be a good investment? I am thinking of also buying the light that was recommended here by Kevin Sturges: http://www.camerabright.com/index.htm. Thanks Kevin!
3) I currently use Ulead VideoStudio8. Any suggestions on whether Adobe Premiere Pro or Vegas or something would be better?
Also am considering buying a Mac, in which case how does iMovie compare to Ulead and Premiere etc?

Thanks in advance and I wanted to thank all the people here, you guys helped me narrow it down to the XI ( I was looking at Panny GS250, GS400, XI etc..and have decided on the XI for my budget and features)

I am a relative noob in terms of videography so pls padron me if some of these questions sound naive....:-)

Thanks,
Ketan

You can also share the BP-511 battery. It works in both products. And you can share one good tripod.

To share filters and lenses with the Xi you'll need to get a 46-52mm step up adapter.

A wide angle lens, polariser or an ND filter to share between both cameras is a great idea and highly recommended. But you may want to wait until you experience a true need for it, before committing to those purchases.

Re: software
Since you already have it, I'd say stick with Ulead VideoStudio. iMovie for the Mac and Windows Movie maker are both basic editing programs. VideoStudio is much more advanced and competes with Premiere, Vegas, and Final Cut Pro.

with the XI? Or rather more appropriately, is it BETTER (lower noise, distortion etc.) to use a 46 mm accessory directly on the XI vs. with a 46-52mm step-up adapter?

Will using the step-up adapter introduce a degradation in performance in any way?

And yes, the fact that they share the same battery is one more reason I am planning on going with the XI....

Thanks for the reply!
-Ketan

Yes you're right, there's a chance you may get some vignetting and/or flaring, that's the trade off. Several people here use a step up adapter with their Raynox wide angle lenses and are happy with the results.

you don't want to wait til you're in encore to do that. do it in premiere before you output it for dvd authoring. if you have the adobe video bundle, after effects is a good place to do it too.

if I ever get a widescreen and play the footage, the crapy 16:9 mode from the other camera would just be a small square in the middle :(.

Not necessarily. I have 17" and 22" 16:9 LCD screens and a 37" plasma. They all have a "zoom" mode which is specifically made for this situation. So if you're watching a letterboxed 4:3 broadcast on TCM for example, it will zoom the image to fit the width of the 16:9 screen.

Now of course it depends on the quality of your original letterboxed footage; there's not much help for poor optics or CCD's. But modern widescreen TV's have pretty decent realtime image scalers. So you won't have to settle for a small rectangle in the midde of your widescreen TV.

With a clean cable transmission, 4:3 footage looks surprisingly good on my 37" plasma screen in zoom mode. In fact, this is how I leave the screen set most of the time. There will be the occasional chopped off head, but more often than not I get the impression that stuff is being shot so as to protect the 16:9 image area. Regardless, I'd rather see everything in the proper proportion with the top and bottom cropped as opposed to using the stretch mode which makes everyone look short and fat ;-)

I'd like to get a 35mm lens and an adapter for it on my XI.

Im pretty sure this is doable, but what lens and adapter would be best for this camera?

Im also sure I would need a step up ring.

and how much would all this cost?

thanks.

One of the reasons I got the Optura Xi was because of its ability to handle depth-of-field on its own without the use of a mini35, but the cinematographer in me told me to build a mini35 for the Xi and I can say without a doubt, it's not worth it. It isn't a practical device for smaller form-factor cameras like the Optura Xi.

I'm really a big fan of focus-pulled shots and that is easier to accomplish with the mini35 system. With the Xi's lens, I always over do the pull and have to go back which always annoys me.

My opinion on the disadvantages of the mini35:

1.) Upside down images makes it hard to follow action
2.) Image is somewhat soft due to the ground glass
3.) Focusing with such a small focal plane can drive one crazy without a 20" CRT monitor to reference to. The LCD is already useless on the Xi, the mini35 makes it worse.
4.) The weight of the mini35 with lens (I use a Canon FD lens) is incredible; it's near impossible to handhold.
5.) You have to remember that lens functions (focusing and zooming) need to be operated on the 35mm lens, not the camcorder's lens. With a diopter on the Xi, if you even touch the zoom button, you are out of focus. It took me a while to get it back.
6.) Let there be light!!! OMG!!! I was amazed at how poor the image looked even in bright sunlight. People aren't kidding when they say if you use one of these adapters, you really do need to light like film.

When I have time again, I will do one of these follow focus systems for the Xi. But who knows, I might just save my efforts and energy for a Sony HVR-Z1U.

Actually it works great with my camera and all you have to do is use the magnet method to flip the image. I'd recommend Quen's Letus35 adapter for your camera. I wish it would have been there when I started making mine. As long as you have a decent tripod, you should be fine.

Could you explain the magnet method?

I've never heard of such thing.

What would be a good lens for this adapter and the Xi?

People seem to really dig Canon and Nikon lenses for their adapters. I would say the best starter lens is a 50mm f1.4 as it gives a nice shallow depth of field and a good amount of light. If you haven't seen the site, it's http://www.letus35.com.

As for the magnet method... Here's a fairly recent pic of my camera with my adapter that shows where to put the magnet which in turn flips the image on your screen. https://webspace.utexas.edu/rjs539/www/Fullcam.jpg
I found some smaller magnets which I'm using now but you can see where it goes. The camera is "tricked" into thinking the LCD screen has been flipped to the front view mode so you see everything the right way and then flip the image in post. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Hi, long time no talk everyone. It's been a while since I messed with video. I've been busy with work and other stuff like training to actually make my promo video. Anyways, I've previously looked into fisheye lenses and wanted this boards input. I really want to go with century optics but want to make sure that it will fit.


I inputted the optura series and got this result.

http://www.schneideroptics.com/ecom...D=1069&IID=1755

I've always liked this next one and was told by a store that I would just need to purchase a step up ring for it to fit on my camera.

http://www.schneideroptics.com/ecom...ID=1071&IID=859

What do you guys think? The first one is definitely cheaper and I don't think it was offered before when I did my first search about a year ago. Any information, suggestions and opinions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Esoteric