Just got a new XA10 for use underwater and for weddings to augment my 5D2 footage.

My introduction to filming has come from the 5D (and from photography) so a lot of the features I'm enjoying are probably common to all camcorder-style cams, but I thought I'd list some things I think are specific to the XA10 that I have noticed and actually really like.

- Rack focus.

Wow. In the menu under the focus item you can preset a focus point, spin the focus ring back start recording, then press the ON menu item and see a slow (medium or fast) rack focus move to your pre-determined focal point. Wow. Loving that!

- Super IS!

I'm impressed with the IS on the camera, it rocks, or not as the case may be, but pushing the Super IS button turned the image rock solid! Fully zoomed in, hand held and apart from a slight wandering you would think it was on sticks. Loving that!

- Handle.
The extra record/zoom controls on top are super-handy. Going under-cover, break the cam down and just take the body, great!

- Image quality in low light.
What noise? I haven't done a side by side comparison to the 5D yet, but it's pretty close.


I'm not keen on....

- The dumbing down of the manual, I'd like some decent technical info other than things like 30FP - good for if you want to upload to the web. Pff, come on guys let's put some decent info in there we're not all retarded.

- 60i WTF. From what I understand it's not even proper interlaced, but that's another can of worms. Please give us 1080 60p. I knew that before I bought it, so I'm not grumbling.

- Rattling. Really? I know you probably wouldn't be banging the cam around, but there's no excuse for putting rattling bits on what will be an audio recording device.


Saying that, these are only small gripes. I love the camera and have had it in my hand since I bought it. Nice weight, feel and action. It's going out on a wedding next week, so I'll be interested to see how it performs. I have yet to pair it up with the 5D yet and still don't know if I'm gonna shoot 24 or 30. I'd be interested to hear from other wedding shooters especially if you shoot along with a 5D.

So far I've taken down the colour, sharpness and contrast down to their maximum adjustments the image looks gorgeous at 24Mbs.

Interresting to read those comments from someone coming from the DSLR world. I agree to all you made. There is a fix for the rattling buttons (a sheet available from Canon) that dampens the buttons. The camera shoots incredible video but as far as the feel goes, it you worked with a Sony EX1 or any of the larger Sony or Panasonic cams, you would probably have a different perspective of the weight and feel of the cam. But in a way the small size is what makes this cam special.

Mark, that speaks volumes!

Aside from the outstanding video and good audio qualities, it's size is the big asset.

The size and weight is also a curse but I built a rig that works with my 7D or my XA G10, with all the bulk and weight associated with such rigs (Except a cupholder).

But when I get tired of carting it around, ten seconds changes it to a single grip, ten more seconds removes the top handle, LANC, H4n and Mic and when I come to my senses, unhook the QD and stick the camera in my pack or on a tripod.

Don,

Any pics of that rig of yours?

No but I'll take a few and post them.

I did a wedding yesterday, so first real day out with it alongside my 5D. I feel a lot less pressured having the XA10 running, knowing I can take my time with the 5D. I bought a lightweight tripod that I also used as a monopod and used it for getting the camera up high and into areas I wouldn't be able to get the 5D.

As the evening progressed, I found myself using the XA10 more and more, even in the low lights of the disco at the end of the evening.

Overall it was a joy to use. It hunted a little bit in poorer light, I've yet to look at the footage, but the WB was a challenge, just mainly because the 5D on AWB is far too warm and the XA10 is a little cool, but I tried to set it manually whenever I could.

There was one moment when my assistant (wife) dropped the camera of the tripod as it wasn't snapped in properly, there was a shared intake of breath from most of the congregation as they saw it bounce off the floor, it seemed ok afterwards.



...I built a rig that works with my 7D or my XA G10


I use a Glidetrack and use 577s on all the connections so I can snap them off quickly. The glidetrack can be used as a shoulder rig, bit it is very heavy and you know you've got it on your shoulders after ten minutes or so, but it means I can go from tripod-mount, slider and shoulder mount in a matter of seconds.




Overall the XA10 worked well with the 5D... as I say, I'm yet to get the footage on the timeline, I'll take a look today, but so far impressed, especially now I know it bounces :O)

The cam has excellent manual controls, considering it's price. You push the focus button on the screen to go manual focus, it's fantastic. I use the touchscreen a lot for focusing and I switch from manual to auto focus all the time. It is a very nice camera. On top of that, exposure can be adjusted whilst recording, which is huge. I am absolutely in love with mine.

Im starting to play with my XA10 today....hard to believe it's so small....which is nice.

I agree the manual is a little vague.

Question...
So we have 60i,30P, and 24P..but no 60P.

I think Jeff Harper prefers 60i for weddings...has that changed Jeff?
What is the main reason some choose 30P over 60i?....is if mainly to have good stills from 30P?

I think I will shoot all auto with the XA10...that automatically puts me in 60i doesnt it?

Jeff Hinson

It's mostly preference and ease of use for me. 24p and 30p don't handle motion well for live event shooting, and this is commonly understood. They can be used quite effectively, but it depends on the nature of your style. For doc style, generally speaking, you can't do better than 720 60p, or 1080 60i.

720 60p, which the GH2 has, but the XA10 doesn't, is my favorite because Bluray supports it and 60p looks awesome. 1080 60p, even if we had it to use, is not supported by Bluray anyway.

1080 60i is supported by bluray. 60i, is supported by DVD. So for DVD you take 1080 60i, crop it on the timleline to 16:9, and render and you're good to go. I try to look at the entire workflow from start to finish, and keep post processing to a minimum.

While Nigel says 30p with pulldown is automatically handled by all NLEs, and I don't know that if that is true, and suspect it is not always the case. I remove pulldown before using footage with it, so to avoid the whole mess. In order to completely avoid issues, I try not to shoot in any "mode" that needs "translated" or adjusted prior to rendering, or at least keep it to a bare minimum.

While the asthetics of 1080 60i can be questioned, the ease of use is second to none. 1080 60i looks great, is easy to do, and is pretty much problem free, so I choose it. For some projects 24p is nice, and I reckon 30p would be fine too.

1080 60i is a default if you are in a NTSC area.

These days 1080P is sort of a "holy grail" for many folks. But what counts is what you need, what your clients/customers want, and what makes you happy.

Learn the camcorder, use it in auto when that gives you te results you want, but do try the various manual modes/settings as well. Auto mode works for run and gun when you do not have time to work manual settings, and can give acceptable video under "average" scene and lighting conditions.

There are a large number of NLEs available on the market, at a wide range of price points and capabilities. They are not all equal, and have different strengths and weaknesses. What works for one person may not fit another persons needs. Research counts before you buy. Visit the NLE user and support forums to see what kind of issues users have, and what kind of support you can get from other users. Be sure the forums are active - you cannot judge much from a forum that only gets occasional posts.

I like the look of 30P, but like Jeff said, motion 'can' be an issue under some circumstances, but mostly if you are waving the camera around a lot. But it depends on your subject, and what you are trying to achieve. I toggle over to 60i too sometimes.

The XA10 and Canon VIXIA family are fantastic for budget conscious people like myself. I can't agree more with all the positive features in this thread so far.

I used the XA10, HF G10, and two HF S200s in a recent live multi-camera event if anyone is curious:

TEDxYouth@ManhattanBeach - Hinda Talal - From No One To Someone - YouTube (http://youtu.be/bFC21-0OfUc)

This is one of a series of videos for the event. I shot everything at 24p, 1/48 shutter, highest quality for every camera, manual white balance, very light color correction in Premiere CS5.5.

On Youtube, it's hard to tell the difference of what camera was used for what angle - these Canon's cut together so well and for all the web based jobs I do in the future, I'll choose these cams over the more expensive ones (EX1s, AC-160s, etc).

Really nice video, quality of the footage is outstanding. Nice work!

I'm rethinking my approach and may start shooting in 24p more often. Just have to watch my pans, I suppose!

Nicely done. The pans aren't bad; you managed to keep up with the speaker's movements pretty well. The quality of the footage is great. The average viewer wouldn't know that the video was shot with essentially consumer-grade camcorders and it's clear that such cameras can really shine in excellent lighting.

So far I've taken down the colour, sharpness and contrast down to their maximum adjustments the image looks gorgeous at 24Mbs.

What exactly does this mean? I actually am one of the dumb guys. :-(

I've had time to digest and evaluate the footage and camera. I've said a lot of these points before, but I'll just go over what I've found after owning this camera for a couple of months.

Most of these comments come from my position as a DSLR shooter shooting with a 5D.


I found the XA10 to be very useful. It can break down into such a small size, or with tripod, shot mic, and handle on can make a very useful rig.

The lightness encourages you to fling it around a little bit too much. The 5D on the shoulder rig demands a bit more respect and attention, but the lightweight and small form-factor of the XA10 can have you skirting it around if you're not attentive to what you're doing.

The lack of buttons are a bit frustrating. Full manual mode is just barely usable on the fly. You need to assign the custom button and wheel on the back and then you can only control one element: Aperture, Shutter, Gain at a time, unless you scroll through using the wheel.

The touchscreen is laborious requiring quite a heavy gesture to make any sort of effect. You do get used to it, but iPhone responsiveness it aint. This is a bit disappointing as you need to go to the touch screen for pretty much anything. One of the +s canon have done is leave the last menu item as an icon on the bottom right so if you're forever changing White Balance for instance, it's right there, just one touch away.

The focus ring in the front is a little bit difficult to get to with the lens hood on if you have anything more than female fingers.

The Auto focus is good, but hunts sometimes (I don't have any experience with auto-focus, so this maybe the case on all camcorders.)

Out of the box, the IQ is a little bit too saturated and crispy, fortunately you can take this down in the settings.

I've seen chromic aberrations in certain situations.

The noise, or lack of, is amazing. I can pretty much bang the gain up past +15 and still have very acceptable footage, in fact the noise is nowhere near my Canon 5D, which I don't consider a noisy camera at all, especially considering that has a full frame sensor.

I can match the footage from my 5D with the XA10 with a little bit of tweaking, but looked at closely, it's easy to spot the XA10 footage.

At first it was a bit of a pain to deal with the AVCHD format. As I use a Mac, I was a bit stumped. I like to use the Mac finder to spin through the clips quickly - using the spacebar for quick preview or the filmstrip.
As the Mac doesn't support this format natively, I had to drop the clips into Premiere Pro and use PPs preview, which is not really an answer as the preview in PP sucks. Then I found Clipwrap and can't recommend it enough. It wraps the AVCHD footage in a standard H.264 wrapper allowing you Mac to view it in the finder, wow! It's totally lossless as well, big thumbs up. The wrapping takes seconds and only adds another few Mb to the file size, so if you're struggling with AVCHD and Mac, give this ago.



So, overall I'd say it's a very capable camera. I'd have liked them to have a couple more manual controls on the case , made the touch screen a bit more responsive and upped the data rate maybe another 10Mb/s but saying that, if I were back in the shop again and had a choice, I'd still go for the XA10.

I can match the footage from my 5D with the XA10 with a little bit of tweaking, but looked at closely, it's easy to spot the XA10 footage.

.

Would you be so kind as to share your particular camera settings for both your 5D and your XA10 to get them to match? I've tried several different settings that I've found on various forums and still have not found a combination that is satisfactory yet.

There are several other small annoying 'negatives', and I've listed them out on another site, but overall, the video output is pretty darn nice as you've noted.

Guys,

It seems that the Canon XA10 has raving fans, and I'm in the market for a HD Camera. Been looking at the Panny 130 and 160 as well. I will mainly be using it for my video production vlog, and may have a client shoot once in a while, but I usually hire out if I need a cameraman anyway.

For the price the XA10 seems the way to go, but there's the thought that if I'm going to buy, I should by exactly what I want.

Thoughts?

The Panasonics are great cameras, the 130 or 160 would be my choice if money wasn't an issue. It depends on the level of manual control you need. The XA10 is a fine camera, but the 10X zoom is very limiting, unless you don't need more. The Panasonic AG130 is a superior camera in about every way to the XA10 at least as I understand it. I've talked with pros that have used the XF100 and the AG160, and the AG160 was strongly preferred.

The XA10 is crippled control-wise compared to the Panasonic, but again, it comes down to what you need.

I echo what Jeff said. You really need to look at what your deliverable is and the kind of shooting you do. I know this is the obvious answer that most people give, but it's true. The top cameras I would consider are:

Panasonic AC130/160
Sony AX2000
Canon D5 (or another DSLR if it fits your needs, and a separate audio capture device)
Canon XF100 (especially if you want/need 4:2:2 for broadcast)
XA10

Now, if portability and on-the-go shooting is hyper critical to you, or, your budget is pretty limiting, then simply invert the list. The XA10 shoots outstanding video but for true professional work, if you need manual controls, the Panasonic and Sony are probably the better cam for your situation. Plus they look more professional, and there are times paying clients want to know you use what looks like 'pro' equipment. Not all, but sometimes. Double-check the low light on the Panasonic, I read the initial batch weren't all that good in low light, but it's only what I read. I would consider a DSLR too depending on what your shooting locations are like. I like Sony cams. You could also consider getting a used Sony EX1R too, but then you are looking into more money for the batteries and SxS media and I'm not sure what the payback on that would be considering the new cameras like the XF100 offer a lot of great features and low light with the manual controls.

Certainly not trying to talk you out of the XA10, it's a great little cam. Actually, it's an outstanding little cam. Might be just what you need too. Might make the perfect b-roll cam since you often hire out your camera work. I believe it can shoot A type footage, but you have to weigh the features, if you need the manual controls (maybe you don't), lack of ND filters and a few other key things and see how the overall 'package' fits your shooting needs, delivery method/s and business model.

Good luck.

...lack of ND filters ...
Actually, there is a ND filter, but its operation is different from most other camcorders. It is integrated into aperture setting, not as a separate setting.

I echo what Jeff said. You really need to look at what your deliverable is and the kind of shooting you do. I know this is the obvious answer that most people give, but it's true. The top cameras I would consider are:

Panasonic AC130/160
Sony AX2000
Canon D5 (or another DSLR if it fits your needs, and a separate audio capture device)
Canon XF100 (especially if you want/need 4:2:2 for broadcast)
XA10

.

Mark, I'm curious about the D5. Why would you recommend that over the GH2?
(I'm using a 7D BTW as well as the XA10)

...Panasonic AC130/160...Sony AX2000...Canon XF100...The XA10 shoots outstanding video but for true professional work...the Panasonic and Sony...look more professional, and there are times paying clients want to know you use what looks like 'pro' equipment...
This is a valid issue, esp if shooting with a "consumer-looking" camcorder. However I'm not sure clients are that sophisticated they can differentiate between an XA10 with a Rode Video Mic and video light mounted, vs an AC130. They go by superficial bulk and complexity, and if you have several things hanging off the XA10 that probably looks "pro" in their mind.

It also helps if you arrive with your gear packed in quality foam-lined hard cases, not cardboard boxes.

Mark, I'm curious about the D5. Why would you recommend that over the GH2?
(I'm using a 7D BTW as well as the XA10)

Sorry, that was a mix-up. Need to slow my typing (and thinking). I'm not recomending it specifically, I meant to recommend a DSLR as a 'potential' alternate camcorder.

Interesting comments. I'm looking at getting "client cam" to loan out (yikes!) and I've seen some great stuff out of that CMOS Pro sensor on the XA10, HF G10, and HF M4x/M4xx series. Can anyone comment on the Automatic settings on the Canons? Or thoughts on how effectively I could set one up and forget about it?

I personally think the automatic settings work great. The only thing I would want to show a renter, if I were renting out a cam, would be how to adjust the white balance (using the presets). The automatic white balance is very good, but like any camcorder, there are always wierd lighting situations where you can get better colors by finding the right preset. It's easy to do. Using manual focus wouldn't hurt too, but the auto focus works very well on my cam. Would also want to show how to adjust the volume. But I think that goes w/o saying. The one left-out feature this cam could really benefit from is auto-limiting audio on the xlr's. So, ya gotta adjust the dials from time to time. Other than that, should be good to go.