Steve Rosen
December 28th, 2005, 12:04 PM
I've had my H1 for two weeks and I've shot six tapes for a one hour documentary I'm producing (no I'm not going to post footage, sorry, but I don't have a site where I can do that) and here's what I think.
While I was considering HDV, I read many comments about what a terrible acquisition medium it is from pundits, not unlike those on COURT TV that proclaim the obvious guilt of people like Michael Jackson. Then I saw actual footage a friend of mine shot with his Sony (the Pro model, I'm sorry but I have trouble keeping all the Zs and Xs straight in these damn model numbers). I was blown away. It looked terrific, it looked like video, true, but really good video.
I figured that if the Canon was even an inch better it was worth the extra four grand. It's way more than an inch better.
True, there's no deck that'll play all it's capable of, and there isn't a solid tapeless sollution yet.. But...
The picture is fantastic. As I've said in other posts, I'm using the 20X and the 16X from my XL2. The auto exposure is a little hot, as some have said, but with Cine Gamma2 and Master Ped at -4 it gives me a good exposure using the TV setting. And the return of the aperature dial (replacing the XL2's horrible little switch) makes it easy to tweak. It's been mentioned that the color seems shifted slightly to magenta. In my camera it seems slightly cyan - so this seems to vary from camera to camera. Easy to adjust with the settings available in the extensive menu.
The auto focus on the 20X lens is sluggish. I don't like to use it much, but when I do I'm dissappointed in it's slow response. Sony cameras are much better. But the image from this lens blows them away.
There is a little "sparkling" with fine detail, like leaves in trees. I'm still trying to find the best tune to deal with that. It is probably because these lenses are very contrasty (a good thing) and it needs to be handled with the proper combination of Detail, Sharpness, Coring and Set-Up.
The biggest negative, as we've all discussed elsewhere, is the audio with HDV. The work-around for projects with good sound systems in their future is double system recording, using another audio recorder. For most TV and dialog recording it's acceptable - just.
And the AGC sucks. I sometimes need it with the nose mike (an AT), and am used to the terrific quality of Sony's AGC on the DSR-300 and PD-150. The Canon "breathes" too much. It would be nice if the audio dials were on the outside of the camera body so manual adjustment was possible while shooting. For most recording my sound man uses a Shure mixer and sends me a wireless signal, so we dial it in to match the mixer.
The above mentioned pundits talk about 4.1.1, 4.2.2 and 4.4.4. color space. Interestingly enough many of these same people fell down in awe of Nancy Schreiber's excellent work on NOVEMBER (with the DVX) where she dialed the Chroma way down and set her Master Ped at minus 7. One of my filmmaking mottos is "turn disadvantages into advantages". That's exactly what she did with on that film.
I wish this camera was the last one I will ever have to buy, but it probably isn't. In the past few years I've owned, and made documentaries that have been on regional and national television, with a DSR-300, PD-150, DVX-100A, XL2 and now the H1. I know the H1 isn't the last I'll own because of the diarrhea of technological advancement, not because of any overwhelming inherent problem with this camera.
This camera is a tool, a great tool, but all tools have compromises. The XL H1 may not compete across the board with a $100,000 camera, but used carefully, with an understanding of it's strengths and limitations, it can produce an astounding film-like image that more than satisfies my current needs. Oh, and I haven't had a single drop-out yet (Sonny ME DVM63 HD tapes)...
This will be my last post for a while because Christmas is over and I've got to get out of the office and back to shooting, but I've enjoyed everything I've learned from all of you... Steve Rosen
While I was considering HDV, I read many comments about what a terrible acquisition medium it is from pundits, not unlike those on COURT TV that proclaim the obvious guilt of people like Michael Jackson. Then I saw actual footage a friend of mine shot with his Sony (the Pro model, I'm sorry but I have trouble keeping all the Zs and Xs straight in these damn model numbers). I was blown away. It looked terrific, it looked like video, true, but really good video.
I figured that if the Canon was even an inch better it was worth the extra four grand. It's way more than an inch better.
True, there's no deck that'll play all it's capable of, and there isn't a solid tapeless sollution yet.. But...
The picture is fantastic. As I've said in other posts, I'm using the 20X and the 16X from my XL2. The auto exposure is a little hot, as some have said, but with Cine Gamma2 and Master Ped at -4 it gives me a good exposure using the TV setting. And the return of the aperature dial (replacing the XL2's horrible little switch) makes it easy to tweak. It's been mentioned that the color seems shifted slightly to magenta. In my camera it seems slightly cyan - so this seems to vary from camera to camera. Easy to adjust with the settings available in the extensive menu.
The auto focus on the 20X lens is sluggish. I don't like to use it much, but when I do I'm dissappointed in it's slow response. Sony cameras are much better. But the image from this lens blows them away.
There is a little "sparkling" with fine detail, like leaves in trees. I'm still trying to find the best tune to deal with that. It is probably because these lenses are very contrasty (a good thing) and it needs to be handled with the proper combination of Detail, Sharpness, Coring and Set-Up.
The biggest negative, as we've all discussed elsewhere, is the audio with HDV. The work-around for projects with good sound systems in their future is double system recording, using another audio recorder. For most TV and dialog recording it's acceptable - just.
And the AGC sucks. I sometimes need it with the nose mike (an AT), and am used to the terrific quality of Sony's AGC on the DSR-300 and PD-150. The Canon "breathes" too much. It would be nice if the audio dials were on the outside of the camera body so manual adjustment was possible while shooting. For most recording my sound man uses a Shure mixer and sends me a wireless signal, so we dial it in to match the mixer.
The above mentioned pundits talk about 4.1.1, 4.2.2 and 4.4.4. color space. Interestingly enough many of these same people fell down in awe of Nancy Schreiber's excellent work on NOVEMBER (with the DVX) where she dialed the Chroma way down and set her Master Ped at minus 7. One of my filmmaking mottos is "turn disadvantages into advantages". That's exactly what she did with on that film.
I wish this camera was the last one I will ever have to buy, but it probably isn't. In the past few years I've owned, and made documentaries that have been on regional and national television, with a DSR-300, PD-150, DVX-100A, XL2 and now the H1. I know the H1 isn't the last I'll own because of the diarrhea of technological advancement, not because of any overwhelming inherent problem with this camera.
This camera is a tool, a great tool, but all tools have compromises. The XL H1 may not compete across the board with a $100,000 camera, but used carefully, with an understanding of it's strengths and limitations, it can produce an astounding film-like image that more than satisfies my current needs. Oh, and I haven't had a single drop-out yet (Sonny ME DVM63 HD tapes)...
This will be my last post for a while because Christmas is over and I've got to get out of the office and back to shooting, but I've enjoyed everything I've learned from all of you... Steve Rosen