Hi all,

Some of you may be interested in seeing the results of a 1 camera-man shoot using the Canon XF305.

Full HD, 25p, superb IS modes, all-new focussing system, etc, etc.

See my short review, and end result (EVERY shot was from 1 x XF305):
Naz and Adam - Wedding Highlights (using Canon XF300, XF305) on Vimeo

and here are some of the raw, untreated framegrabs for you to download too:

http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_1.jpg
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_2.jpg
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_3.jpg
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_4.jpg
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_5.jpg
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_6.jpg
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/downloads/XF305/XF305_fxfilms_framegrab_7.jpg

Richard,

Have to say, I reckon you'd do a good job with a few box brownie prints stitched together..... :) There's some nice camera work in there.... :)

Just for giggles, I copied the first grab and puffed it up to 3140 x 1766......pretty impressive

I'm envious......

Al

well alan, i like a challenge :)

vimeo isn't doing the clip justice unfortunately, but hopefully the framegrabs are.

i forgot to put in the original post, that there is a short review write-up if you all follow the vimeo link

cheers

Very nice work Richard. Frame grabs look stunning too.

Great video - quick tech question though,
How did you do the transition at 0:29 - 0:30?
Looks simple enough and I've seen it a bunch of places, but not sure how to do it...

Now I want one!!!

Ironically when I saw these videos taken with the Canon 5D Mk II (which is a stills camera) I knew that I needed to buy one. Paris and San Franciso videos by night - Chris MacAskill's Photos | SmugMug (http://cmac.smugmug.com/gallery/6677452_e9rL5#427227023_AsXNo)

Now that I have seen these still photos from the Canon XF305 (which is a video camera) I know that I need to buy one.

looks like a lovely camera. Just about to buy a sony HVR-Z5 and I'm now quite depressed about that!

Richard, did I buy a used FX1 from you (probably ebay) a couple of years ago? I recognise your site so I'm sure it was you!

Anyway, lovely looking cam

wow, great memory david - yeah, that was a sad moment, i loved the FX1! but obviously i had no regrets with my camcorder/camera choices after that :)

glad you all seem to like the camcorder...and obviously if you get a chance (e.g. at expos), you MUST get a hands-on try of it!

The framegrabs look very good and like you said, vimeo compression doesn't do the image any good, the vimeo footage actually looked a lot of what a xh-a1 produces but the framegrabs do show better looking footage.
Did you apply some effects to the footage of vimeo, the whites seem to "bleed" as if you applied a glow filter to it?
The xf305 is out of my (financial) reach unfortunately but to be honest, I"m not sure if I would buy it. I never liked the color Canon (video) camera's produce, too cold. In that way i would prefer a Panasonic if I ever would upgrade and I even wouldn't mind a bit softer image. My older dvx100 was th eonly camera I ever got complemented on by clients how nice the colors were, and that was right out of the box without any modifications.

Edit: you really have to share how you do that tilt transition from image to text and back again, it looks very simple but I think there is a bit more to it. :)

this is just a guess for the transitions: sliding transition between two videos and horizontal or vertical gausian blur on the respective clips. for example, if sliding sideways, use horizontal gausian on the two clips. can't remember if there's a sound effect (at work, no sound), but that's easy enough to add.

Hey Richard....

I love it...The fact that you were able to use a glidetrack, glidecam, tripod and handheld all on a one camera shoot, is a testament onto itself....

Question:
Did you find editing this footage to be very taxing on your NLE?
How much colour correction did you do with some of the outdoor shots??

I'm having a hard time distinguishing what's native, and what's done in post..

cheers Dan - and yes, sfx added afterwards enhances it.

Peter, fortunately i have CS5 (on my i7, 12gb ram, 64bit Win 7) which means I literally drag/drop the .MXF footage clips on to the timeline and away I go (amazingly, CS5 actually has a 'Canon XF' project preset!!). Zero stuttering, even with colour-grading.

I did minor colour correction in post, and zero pre-adjustments (i.e. camera presets). That is why I included the raw, ungraded, unprocessed framegrabs so you can hopefully get a proper indication (indoors, outdoors, detail, colours, white balancing etc).

Noa - I can see why people might prefer a richer, more colourful look straight from camera. Certainly user-defined presets for the camera can help with that, but I personally prefer a 'raw' look so that I have better grading scope afterwards (i've always shot like this with the XH-A1's too).

cheers

at long last, my friend Pete over at Engage Cinematic, has uploaded his own XF305 clip...worth a look:

Canon XF 305 footage on Vimeo

Richard,

Your mates is good, great quality, but I like your style better.

Al

nice of you to say, but bear in mind pete only took a few shots and only on a steadicam, so those really are just test shots...whereas i shot the whole wedding on it, so had more scope for an actual highlights clip

thanks though ;)

at long last, my friend Pete over at Engage Cinematic, has uploaded his own XF305 clip...worth a look:

Is it just me or do the whites appear to "glow" again? At 01:10 there are several glidecam sequences where the whites are blown out yet the background appears to be quite dark. How is the dynamic range on this camera? it almost seems if it has problems with bright white colors?

Richard, thanks for sharing- and great edit to boot. I'm a huge Canon fan and currently own 3 XH-A1s which I shoot weddings with, and a 5DmkII and 7D which I use for mostly commercial/corporate work. As others have stated the IQ on Vimeo doesn't look any better than an XH-A1 however the full res screen grabs truly show it's strength in resolution.

If Canon had priced these a bit lower (ie in the 4k) range I may have entertained the thought about switching. However the 7k+ price tag, IMHO, is too rich- especially in lieu of the ultra affordable Canon DSLRs. I can imagine the Canon Photo Division putting quite a hurting on the Video Division.

Either way- thanks for sharing, and keep up the great work!