Can somebody offer me some advice? I'm a novice filmmaker (just bought the Xl1 last December)....every time I shoot outdoors..the footage comes back COMPLETELY desaturated. I was at the beach yesterday on a gorgeous sunny afternoon...beautiful blue sky, golden sand and green ocean....and all the footage is practically black and white because it is soooo desaturated. I've shot both manual and in that "Green Box" setting...I've got the ND filter on...what could I be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Vinny

HELLO,
May I suggest that you stay away from the green box.

The other problem is the beach. You might as well be in the snow. If you go to F/18+ with the ND filter and still have a problem, try changing the shutter speed( if a XL-1 and not the "s" , go to your manual pg.45 top of pg. If this doesn't work I'd send it in under warranty.

Good Luck

Bruce

Yes, stay out of Green Box mode. While you're at it, stay out of Manual mode until you truly feel like a master of the camera. If I were you, I'd shoot in Av (aperture priority) mode. Set the exposure to something in the middle, like f/5.6 or thereabouts. The shutter will automatically compensate for the bright sunlight. You should see much better color. If not, try adding more ND, through more powerful screw-on Neutral density filters over the lens or a matte box with larger drop-in ND filters. If I'm not mistaken, a polarizing filter will help too, maybe someone else can weigh in on that.

One more recommendation. Given the beach setting you noted, make sure you have a UV Haze filter on the lens, too. This is one setting where this filter can provide more than just lens protection for your shooting. It won't alter your exposure per se, but it can keep you from getting the blues.

Thank you all very much! I'm going to give those suggestions a try and see what happens!

Vinny

Just one more to confuse you a bit more. I shoot surfing quite a bit and I alwas use the folloying settings with good results.

AV Mode f5.6
ND off
Circular Polarizer
gain - 3db

Thanks Adrian, you confirmed what I thought would work... Av mode at f/5.6. I figured a polarizer would help. Do you use a UV filter also?

I'm about to make a post about settings. Check it out.


Test out the camera! You can not trust auto modes if you want truly beautiful shots. It can work, but generally only in a vastly changing environment.

It sounds like an exposure problem. In cameraland, the saying was f/8 and pray. Well video is much less forgiving than negatives. It requires precise settings, much like shooting slides (what you see [on the slide] is what you get).

Just got through reading the posts on shooting in snow conditions. Seems that using Av is the best answer for starters and then going on from there.

I am just wondering about filters. I have the regular lens that came with my xL-1. Where do I get a uv filter and polarizing filter. I assume you can't use the two together?

You can most certainly use the two together. I have a UV filter permmantly on my lens and alwys use a polarizer when shooting outdoors. you can get the filters from any good camera shop. I have found the best results with a circular polarizer but other people here find that a linear polarizer produces good results to.

One more thing that is particularly important when shooting in snow is to set your Exposure Compensation Dial to +1-2 stops. As the snow reflects a lot of light your camera will want to shut down the apature therefore reducing the amount of light hitting the CCDs. This results in grey snow and the desaturated colours that Vinny was experiencing. Also don't use the auto focus as it doesn't deal with the snow very well.

I think I once shot in AV mode, and ended up getting a strobing effect, kinda like a flicker.
Is that the shutter trying to compensate for the various light conditions?

Please advise thanks,
Shlooky

Regarding shooting at the beach, I shoot here in Hawaii and have a fair amount of experience at it. Beach sand usually isn't nearly as bright as snow so it's very possible to get good detail off the sand and in the lighter shadows.

The problem could be over-exposure. Set your exposure manually and use the camera's zebra stripes, making sure you don't see any of the zebra pattern show up anywhere except in the clouds and off bright spots in the water.

Even white objects shouldn't show much zebra pattern.

Hope this helps.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions