Steve Mullen
May 23rd, 2009, 07:07 PM
1) When shooting in bright outdoor light, a 6-stop reduction from as tacked pair of 3X ND filters keeps shutter-speed at 1/100th to 1/50th. This is correct for 30fps. This really cuts down on the terrible strobby look you too often get. And, don't forget to ONLY pan following movement and always pan with a moving object. (This is true of ALL cameras where you can't lock shutter-speed.)
2) The AE system will open the aperture as wide as it can based upon zoom: f/2.7 (W) to f/4.6 (T).
3) When you shoot in darker areas -- gain will be added. Once gain reaches 200 -- ideally switch to only 5-stops of ND. Or, if it moves to 400, drop to 3-stops. When you shoot in really bright situations where the shutter-speed naturally increases above 1/100th -- avoid shots of motion. Or, use powerful ND filter.
4) iMovie 09 has a stabilize function that computes the maximum anti-shake correction needed. Essentially I've found no difference between the camera's AS on or off. So, set it off and you'll be set for both monopod or tripod use. And, you'll not introduce movements that may conflict with iMovies's stabilizer. Using a software stabilizer is mandatory with the F1!. But, you also need to avoid wild camera motions because rolling-shutter screws-up stabilization.
5) You may not notice when shooting, but unless you lock exposure it will hunt very slightly and you'll see it in the sky.
6) I wouldn't handheld zoom past 100mm which is really 130mm in 720p mode. That's about 3X or 1/4th of the total zoom range.
7) The Continuous AF works while shooting. But, beware the handheld zoom. The longer the focal length the more shake AND the worse AF becomes. Now, when you try to stabilize, the hunting AF pixels become gross looking.
8) When shooting Wide you can use AF. But, if you are going to zoom much past 50mm, either use MF or Infinity or Lock AF. Outdoors I need the VF to see focus which is why I can't image a DSLR where you have only an LCD to look at.
9) If you set the Lock button to AE and AF -- then the routine is:
a) press shtter half-way and wait for green box to indicate focus.
b) You MUST release the shutter-button.
c) Quickly press Lock and look for the WHITE Lock indicator.
d) press the Record button. Unless you see the WHITE Lock AE/AF indicator while shooting it's not locked!
e) at the end of a shot, optionally you can take one still. The data on this still tells you what the settings were for the video recording.
10) The whole world gets better if you shoot progressive and not interlace.
11) Use Multi-area AE mode. (You can't use anything but Spot AF for video.)
12) Increase Saturation to +2 to get more punch.
13) Expand+1 sets the video slightly over 100IRE which provides a bit of headroom. When set to +2 you really do get more dynamic range when view it via HDMI. But, many NLE's (iMovie) clip at 100IE so an edited movie looks worse.
14) I keep Sharpness and Contrast at zero. If I want to crush shadows it's safer to do so in post. iMovie has a great real-time color corrector!
15) I have no idea what the color filter does. Likewise, I've yet to try dozens of neat features. I had no idea the F1 shot Panaramas. It looks like Sony was trying out it's HX1 modes on the F1 as it has many/all of the HX1 "special" modes. The 7fps flash mode is fantastic for cat movies. I know of no camera that can do this.
16) Many of the BS modes raise the shutter-speed which in general is not what you want if there is motion in a scene.
17) If you want the AF Assist light to work well, you need to pull off the shade. I'm going to see if there is any kind of quick-release ND filter+shade unit because it's a pain screwing in/out filters.
18) There is a great review at: http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Casio-EXILIM-EX-F1-Digital-Camera-Review-18683.htm
Fundamentally, the F1 is a much better camera than the other $500 products. Only the GH1 looks to be better.
19) The use of H.264/AVC is such a blessing over AVCHD. There is no conversion time and no generation loss. And, no 4X larger files. A Project is exported directly to H.264/AVC for the web or for a Western Digital Media Player. The use of AVCHD is not an advantage for the GH1.
20) It's taken a long time to get decent video out of the F1 because of all the workarounds and rules. However, other the GH1, the use of Live Mode for video is a huge pain-in-the-a$$. A camcorder is far simpler!
But, because progressive video is almost always recorded as interlace, applications such as iMovie see it as interlace and do destructive things to the video. It really is time for camcorder progressive to SDHC be true progressive video.
2) The AE system will open the aperture as wide as it can based upon zoom: f/2.7 (W) to f/4.6 (T).
3) When you shoot in darker areas -- gain will be added. Once gain reaches 200 -- ideally switch to only 5-stops of ND. Or, if it moves to 400, drop to 3-stops. When you shoot in really bright situations where the shutter-speed naturally increases above 1/100th -- avoid shots of motion. Or, use powerful ND filter.
4) iMovie 09 has a stabilize function that computes the maximum anti-shake correction needed. Essentially I've found no difference between the camera's AS on or off. So, set it off and you'll be set for both monopod or tripod use. And, you'll not introduce movements that may conflict with iMovies's stabilizer. Using a software stabilizer is mandatory with the F1!. But, you also need to avoid wild camera motions because rolling-shutter screws-up stabilization.
5) You may not notice when shooting, but unless you lock exposure it will hunt very slightly and you'll see it in the sky.
6) I wouldn't handheld zoom past 100mm which is really 130mm in 720p mode. That's about 3X or 1/4th of the total zoom range.
7) The Continuous AF works while shooting. But, beware the handheld zoom. The longer the focal length the more shake AND the worse AF becomes. Now, when you try to stabilize, the hunting AF pixels become gross looking.
8) When shooting Wide you can use AF. But, if you are going to zoom much past 50mm, either use MF or Infinity or Lock AF. Outdoors I need the VF to see focus which is why I can't image a DSLR where you have only an LCD to look at.
9) If you set the Lock button to AE and AF -- then the routine is:
a) press shtter half-way and wait for green box to indicate focus.
b) You MUST release the shutter-button.
c) Quickly press Lock and look for the WHITE Lock indicator.
d) press the Record button. Unless you see the WHITE Lock AE/AF indicator while shooting it's not locked!
e) at the end of a shot, optionally you can take one still. The data on this still tells you what the settings were for the video recording.
10) The whole world gets better if you shoot progressive and not interlace.
11) Use Multi-area AE mode. (You can't use anything but Spot AF for video.)
12) Increase Saturation to +2 to get more punch.
13) Expand+1 sets the video slightly over 100IRE which provides a bit of headroom. When set to +2 you really do get more dynamic range when view it via HDMI. But, many NLE's (iMovie) clip at 100IE so an edited movie looks worse.
14) I keep Sharpness and Contrast at zero. If I want to crush shadows it's safer to do so in post. iMovie has a great real-time color corrector!
15) I have no idea what the color filter does. Likewise, I've yet to try dozens of neat features. I had no idea the F1 shot Panaramas. It looks like Sony was trying out it's HX1 modes on the F1 as it has many/all of the HX1 "special" modes. The 7fps flash mode is fantastic for cat movies. I know of no camera that can do this.
16) Many of the BS modes raise the shutter-speed which in general is not what you want if there is motion in a scene.
17) If you want the AF Assist light to work well, you need to pull off the shade. I'm going to see if there is any kind of quick-release ND filter+shade unit because it's a pain screwing in/out filters.
18) There is a great review at: http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Casio-EXILIM-EX-F1-Digital-Camera-Review-18683.htm
Fundamentally, the F1 is a much better camera than the other $500 products. Only the GH1 looks to be better.
19) The use of H.264/AVC is such a blessing over AVCHD. There is no conversion time and no generation loss. And, no 4X larger files. A Project is exported directly to H.264/AVC for the web or for a Western Digital Media Player. The use of AVCHD is not an advantage for the GH1.
20) It's taken a long time to get decent video out of the F1 because of all the workarounds and rules. However, other the GH1, the use of Live Mode for video is a huge pain-in-the-a$$. A camcorder is far simpler!
But, because progressive video is almost always recorded as interlace, applications such as iMovie see it as interlace and do destructive things to the video. It really is time for camcorder progressive to SDHC be true progressive video.