I have started work on a number of "How to Guides" for XDCAM HD and EX owners. The first couple are for all to see on YouTube.

YouTube - Shooting Timelapse with XDCAM EX. How to guide from XDCAM-USER.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_EanxVfgcE&fmt=18)

YouTube - Progressive v Interlace and using shutter to reduce motion blur (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DvLBsLb3CQ&fmt=18)

I have started work on a number of "How to Guides" for XDCAM HD and EX owners. The first is here for all to see on YouTube. It's a simple guide to Timelapse.

YouTube - Shooting Timelapse with XDCAM EX. How to guide from XDCAM-USER.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_EanxVfgcE&fmt=18)

thanks Alister
Great video.
Do you have one showing different settings ie. ever 1/2/4/8/16 sec or so?
Wish the Ex-1/3 had a 30sec cache preroll.

Very nice. Thank you.

Super grande excellente' fantastico!

I didn't cover longer intervals as the effect is essentially the same, you are just speeding things up further. For most of my TL work I use 1 second. If I find the clip still isn't fast enough then I can speed it up further in the edit. I suppose I could add an extra caption at the end with some examples such as:

For a 10 second clip at 25fps:
1 second interval = 4.1 mins of real time
2 seconds = 8.3 mins
5 seconds = 20.8 mins
30 seconds = 2 hours
60 seconds = 4 hours
5 mins = 21 hours

More! More!

Have you considered putting this stuff on your site and charging admission? I'd pay.

The Vortex DVD's pretty good, too. It was well-worth the money.

Hi Alsiter. Thanks, Very clear and concise.

Well done, Alister. I bet what people would appreciate is the frame accumulation and alike..

Great job, Alister, and very helpful. Keep 'em coming!

Was that a time lapse fly I saw at 1:15?

Yes it was a fly. Little swine crawling across the lens... grrrrr.

So what topics would you guys like?
Color Matrix, Detail, Gammas?

I'm working on a little piece about lenses at the moment.

Its very kind of you to take the time to put the tutorials together. As a new EX-1 owner they are extremely useful.

Great work indeed Alister! Keep them coming!
Regards,

Ofer Levy

Very nice, good work.

I would love to see a comprehensive collection of settings gamma color matrix etc.

In a few different settings.

I have been thinking about making a set of samples myself as reference. It is time consuming though.

I am thinking a studio setup with black bg some flowers a model std 3 pt lighting and maybe some high contrast as well.

Also a sunny outdoor scene with trees water and people.

And then a dull day.

It would be great to have maybe 10 settings in 3 scenes for reference.

I think this is definitely something you could charge for. After posting a few teasers.

I didn't cover longer intervals as the effect is essentially the same, you are just speeding things up further. For most of my TL work I use 1 second. If I find the clip still isn't fast enough then I can speed it up further in the edit. I suppose I could add an extra caption at the end with some examples such as:

For a 10 second clip at 25fps:
1 second interval = 4.1 mins of real time
2 seconds = 8.3 mins
5 seconds = 20.8 mins
30 seconds = 2 hours
60 seconds = 4 hours
5 mins = 21 hours

Thanks Alister.
I have been using the TL for quite a while now and find it fasinating.
One can make a TL of a trivial thing and it becomes interesting.
just though the newbies would like some more info.
Thanks again.

Thanks Alister!

very informative

Alister:

I enjoyed your story on interlace, but would like to make a small comment. I agree with you that most converter programs do a poor job of going from 50i to 50p (60i to 60p over here), however the fact remains that the 50i footage has more motion information and that an excellent deinterlace program can often generate better 60p from 60i than from 30p. In particular, the Shake program does a nice job with interlaced footage. Now, you never said that this was not so with sophisticated programs, but I thought it would be a nice addition to observe this fact. This would be a nice demonstration.

John Woods

Very nicely done, Alister. I especially enjoyed your comparisons showing the impact of shutter speeds on panning blur. One thing I'd suggest strongly is to keep your cel phone away from you when you are recording. You could hear it during the early part of the timelapse video piece.

But John, almost no one has any real delivery options for 60P at the moment. 60P from 60i will have more temporal resolution, true, but there will be a lot less spacial resolution than 30p. it should be remembered that with current cameras 60i has less spacial resolution than 30p due to the line averaging that takes place to generate fields in current CCD and CMOS sensors. Temporal resolution isn't everything and to try and go into too much detail in a 2 min video would probably confuse and cause more questions than answers.

Dave: I was wondering who would spot that first! When I record the next VO's I'll re record those sections. The phone was in the room next door, but against the wall where I had the mic. DOH!

Thank you Alister. Your tutorial on "why to use a shutter when shooting progressive" was a huge help to me. You made the light bulb come on above my head. Much appreciated. :)

Alister:

I guess by 30i you really mean 60i. I guess the best acquisition 60i or 30p for conversion to 60p depends on the scene with its spatial and temporal detail. However, it is not clear that one choice is always best.

Alister, that's one of those sounds that jump out at me instantly when I hear it. I used to produce two podcasts for the newspaper I used to work for (three guesses what happened to THAT job) and I was always plagued by people bringing their GSM phones into the studio. "But I muted it....isn't that enough??" I'm hearing it a lot on network shows (!) which is really surprising.

nicely presented. concise.

Well done!

Picture profiles would be awesome, also tcls.

thanks

Greg

John you are correct, I meant 60i and I have corrected my post above. You are correct that there is no clear right or wrong way to do it. It will depend on your specific requirements. That's why I don't say you must or should shoot P. I simply state that I choose to shoot p.

Awesome Al, thanks for the videos!

Here's another

YouTube - Aperture, Depth of Field and Diffraction. How to Guide. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rowSqppkIB4&fmt=18)

Aperture, depth of field and diffraction.

Great work Al, keep at it!

Thanks Alister for a lot of good tips.

I have been wondering about lengthy time lapse shots of things like plants growing or flowers blooming where providing uniform illumination would be a problem. Is there a way synchronising a flash with each frame?

With an EX only by building a controller and then using frame record, but it would be tricky to set up. For those kinds of sequences a simple digital stills camera is the way to go, stiching the stills together with you edit software. I've done sequences over weeks and months that way. There are plenty of cheap controllers on ebay for timelapse with DSLR's.

Thank you Alister. Well done.

With an EX only by building a controller and then using frame record, but it would be tricky to set up. For those kinds of sequences a simple digital stills camera is the way to go, stiching the stills together with you edit software. I've done sequences over weeks and months that way. There are plenty of cheap controllers on ebay for timelapse with DSLR's.

Thanks Alister

With an EX only by building a controller and then using frame record, but it would be tricky to set up. For those kinds of sequences a simple digital stills camera is the way to go, stiching the stills together with you edit software. I've done sequences over weeks and months that way. There are plenty of cheap controllers on ebay for timelapse with DSLR's.

I've had a controller made by these folks for several years. I used this one:

Digisnap 2100 | Harbortronics (http://www.harbortronics.com/detail.php?id=18)

to make this short timelapse on Vimeo:

Twilight timelapse on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/857794)

Their other models can control all sorts of camera functions including flash.

dave

I have posted another XDCAM EX how-to video on you tube. This one is on the Matrix.

YouTube - XDCAM EX Color Matrix Setup and How To instructional video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gerb8QjfeA)

Thanks Alister,
It was nice to see examples of the different matrix settings.
Well explained.

Kevin Jones

Great tutorials clips Alister , since i see you everywhere on internet can i ask about your workflow from HD to SD.

I got a very informative discussion about it with Doug Jensen of Vortex Media here.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/238986-pmw-ex-1-dvd-sd-question-doug-jensen.html

By the way your demo on Sony website for NAB 2009 was very great to look at.

I think doing it for HD and SD at the same time is probably like what i need the most.

If the main use of the material is SD then I shoot 720P50 edit at 720P then output as SD PAL, you would use 720P60 and NTSC. If the primary use is HD or uncertain then I shoot 1080P25 with detail level set to -10. I edit HD then downconvert using compressor.

Alister;
That's the best explanation of matrix settings I have ever seen. Thanks for that.

Pete

Glad you like it. Cinegammas will be the next one.

I have posted another XDCAM EX how-to video on you tube. This one is on the Matrix.

YouTube - XDCAM EX Color Matrix Setup and How To instructional video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gerb8QjfeA)

Howdy,

I like your calm and measured style. It is unconvoluted and to the point instead of going in 10 different directions explaining one thing.

Was it by eye only that you determined preferences of level +30 and the different matrix looks or was it in conjunction with a vectorscope.