Hey everybody,

Mike's posted quite a few clips on his iDisk for those interested. Almost all were shot with the 16x manual lens.

Feedback would be appreciated.

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/6/wo/UTZa5y6GYAETdrR0.1/0.2.1.2.26.27.97.0.35.0.1.1.1?user=pappasarts&fpath=%20CANON%20XLH1%20HI-DEF%20FOOTAGE&templatefn=FileSharing1.html

So Pappas got a H1 after all?
(I thought he had gone HD100 at the last minute)

I'm a Mac user, what is the best player for an .M2T file? I have quicktime pro, do I need the Mpeg2 component?

VLC Media Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Manually change the .m2t to .m2v
and open with VLC

Muchas Gracias for the link.

Hi Barlow, or Mike for that matter,

I've downloaded some footage, I does look to to to red to me or do I have a setting wrong over here..? I'm using VLC.

So Pappas got a H1 after all?
(I thought he had gone HD100 at the last minute)

He owns both currently. Still doing extensive testing, but I think he'll go with the JVC for it's pro feel and bang-for-the-buck. Who knows, may just keep both. They intercut very well.

Hi Barlow, or Mike for that matter,

I've downloaded some footage, I does look to to to red to me or do I have a setting wrong over here..? I'm using VLC.

Vincent,

He's an extremist when it comes to color and acquisition. All it really needs (IMHO) is a little desaturation in VLC (under "extended controls") and it's pretty nice. Play with the gamma control too, it's pretty cool. At least it's not the out-of-the-box-same-old flat look.

VLC Media Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Manually change the .m2t to .m2v
and open with VLC

Actually, the .m2t should play fine in VLC. If it downloads with a .txt added to the file, just remove the .txt manually and drop it in vlc and you should be good to go.

FWIW, I looked at 3 or 4 of the clips in VLC and also found them to have an extreme reddish/magenta cast, whereas this has not happened on anyone else's clips previously. It isn't a generalized oversaturation, it is a quite unflattering color cast. If Michael intended it to be that way (seems doubtful, but you never know), so be it, but if not something isn't set right somewhere between the camera settings and final encode.

Pete,

I'm not going to post stuff from Mike all the time, but he asked to just post this:

"I don't like to have middle of the road images. Take a look Bob Richardson's work with Oliver Stone or what the two Scott's do with their films. Look it what Sigel did with Three Kings or what Fincher does as well. From Carrivagio to Sergant they have played a major role at how I feel light and color needs to be for me. Modern century paintings from Rockwell to Odd Nerdrum play a role too! Very saturated to black and white, extreme color shifts and values is the way I have been doing it forever. I don't mind watching middle tone work from others artists, however I can't seem to stay level for myself. If I did, I would be completely dissatisfied and bored with my work. I like the extremities. I'm an extremist in nature so it carries over to my cinematography and everything else."

Pappas


I would tend to agree that the images are insanely reddish, but I liked playing with it in cc, whether in VLC, FCP, Motion, or AE.

That's cool. Without an advisory that the clips were deliberately reddened and what technique was used and maybe even why, it made folks wonder if it might be on their end. Now that we know it was intended, I guess the next logical question would be whether he did it in-camera, or in his NLE.

Since it comes to mind, I suppose it might be worth a general reminder for everyone who might want to post clips that:
- If the purpose of posting is to share one's artistic work, the DV for the Masses (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=39) is the best forum.
- If the purpose is to highlight particular capabilities of a particular tool (eg XL H1 or a NLE), then that tool's forum is the place -- along with the settings or techniques that the shooter wishes to share. Gotta have the "how I got there" to make the clips illustrative!

Cheers!

That's cool. Without an advisory that the clips were deliberately reddened and what technique was used and maybe even why, it made folks wonder if it might be on their end. Now that we know it was intended, I guess the next logical question would be whether he did it in-camera, or in his NLE.

I thought I did say something about the color, but that might have been in another thread.

Just for the record, Mike pumped up saturation and used filters, and played with the Kelvin button on the camera to just go wildly "warm". Yeah, like most of you I found it to be a bit over the top, but there are some really nice shots there. If people aren't familiar with it, VLC has great real-time (on my G5 at least) image controls so you can play with the image and it doesn't seem to be recompressed either.

I took the really red clips and desaturated a bit, then they looked really nice.

Very Psychedelic

I wonder if boosting the color saturation in-camera and then adjusting overall saturation in post is better than shooting neutral and boosting saturation later?

Does the camera process the overall color in 10-bit uncompressed before processing? Does boosting saturation highly in-camera lose picture detail?

I wonder if boosting the color saturation in-camera and then adjusting overall saturation in post is better than shooting neutral and boosting saturation later?

Does the camera process the overall color in 10-bit uncompressed before processing? Does boosting saturation highly in-camera lose picture detail?

Not sure about the saturation, but I think there may be a bit of a limit to what you can get with 4.2.0, but it's plenty to work with in post. I think if you do an SDI tap you won't want to push chroma saturation so much...that is, if you're acquiring in 4.2.2

My belief is the DIGIC chip is at the very least processing 12bit, and then spitting out 8bit HD signals, whether HDV or SDI.