Steven Dempsey
May 23rd, 2006, 02:49 PM
I don't presume to know everything about this camera but I thought the following might be interesting to newbies and whoever else is interested.
IT'S TIME TO REALLY FOCUS ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT
First on the agenda and one of the most critical things in shooting HD is to pay special attention to focusing. While most prosumer HD cameras have a wide depth of field when shooting at the short end of the lens, care must still be taken to ensure the subject you are focusing on is sharp. Otherwise you will have a shot that looks less than the resolution the camera is capable of.
An example of a challenging shot I have encountered goes like this. The main subject (a person) is standing about 10 feet away from a fence. I am quite far away and have zoomed in about half of the lens focal length. In my viewfinder, it looks like both the fence and the subject are in focus but the aperture is wide open and I know the depth of field is shallower than the viewfinder would have me believe. When I first shot this kind of scene, I blindly ran tape trusting because it's HD, everything would be in focus. Wrong! The fence looked great but my subject was soft. Since then I have instinctively made a slight adjustment in the focus to compensate for this situation and my subject has popped against the background.
Now granted, all of this could have been averted had I used an HD monitor in the field but the truth of the matter is that it's only practical for me to do that about 20% of the times I shoot. The other times are much more spontaneous so I have to remain mobile. Running around with the XLH1, a tripod and a monitor is completely impractical for me particularly as I usually shoot solo.
There are many ways to achieve focus and I use most of them but the above is just an example of one method to utilize in a pinch, albeit not scientific and completely reliable.
FEELING A LITTLE SHAKY
Don't, I repeat, do not use the optical image stablizer (OIS) when the camera is mounted on something steady (bag or tripod). OIS introduces undesireable motion stuttering. Only use this when you have to.
IT LOOKED GREAT IN THE VIEWFINDER
The brightness in the EVF is very misleading. Canon has made it overly bright and, if one relies solely on what is seen in the EVF without assessing the actual exposure numbers, then the results will be underexposed by approximately 2 stops. Yes, it's that dramatic. I lowered the brightness level as much as it would go but it is still too bright and gives a distorted sense of what is being recorded. The way to deal with this, aside from using an exposure meter is to use the zebra stripes. Zebra stripes appear as diagonal lines in areas that are overexposed or have exceeded the limit of where detail can be captured. For instance, if you are shooting a landscape on a grey day, the contrast between sky and land is going to be extreme. If you properly expose for the land and foreground, your sky will be completely white and all cloud detail will be gone. In this situation, the zebra stripes will be bouncing all over your sky telling you it's overexposed. I use this as a guide for correct exposure but mostly I just adjust the exposure to highlight a particular thing in the frame. Sometimes I have to blow out areas in order to capture my subject correctly but this is deliberate. If you are shooting a very bright source and shut down the aperture to where it is as small as it can get, you can compensate by choosing a faster shutter speed. This will virtually stop down the lens even more.
I DON'T REMEMBER CHANGING THAT
Man, are the shutter adjustment buttons easy to knock when shooting. I've had several instances where I inadvertently changed the shutter speed and it gave me unexpected results. Always check the info in your viewfinder before you shoot your magic moment. Make sure your shutter speed is where you want it to be otherwise, if it's too slow, you will get motion trails and if it's too fast, you will get a stuttering effect. These motion idiosyncrasies are not an issue if your subject is static.
WOW, CHECK OUT THESE COOL MOTION EFFECTS!
There is maybe a 1/4 or 1/2 second delay in what you see in the EVF versus the live event. This is not a huge deal but if you are critically timing something it can be an issue. If you hook up a monitor to the camera, this delay is not present. There is also significant motion trailing in the EVF display that is not going to tape so don't be alarmed if you see this.
WHAT'S THAT RUMBLING?
Do yourself a favor and purchase a windscreen. The one that ships with the camera is inadequate and, although there is electronic dampening available in the camera, I don't trust this. I purchased the EQ-XL1 Equalizer Windscreen and I am completely happy with it. It preserves the sound and really helps to reduce wind rumbling.
NOT THE WHOLE STORY
I cannot believe that Canon did not include overscan on such an expensive camera but c'est la vie. Underscan is usually what you see on a regular TV. It works out to be about 90% of the recorded image but now, with the advent of HDTVs, some display more than 90%. Also, if you are posting your work on the Web, the full 100% image will appear. Why am I rambling on about this? Because what you see in the EVF is only about 90% of the image (maybe even less) so you need to be aware of not getting mic booms or little Johnny picking his nose in the areas that you cannot see. Again, you can hook up a monitor with underscan capabilities and this problem goes away but if you cannot use a monitor always check by moving the camera up and down and left to right. That will give you a sense of any possible obstacles to your great framing.
MY FAST PANS LOOK LIKE CRAP. THIS CAMERA SUCKS
If you are going to be recording in 24F mode, be very careful to avoid fast pans and tilts. You will get a stuttering motion that is very undesirable. This is a product of using 24 fps recording. The same problem is encountered by motion picture cameras. There are formulas on the Web about how fast you can go but I just know instinctively at this stage not to whip the camera around from north to south.
Also, I don't care what anyone else says because I have seen this for myself, 24p video stutters more than telecined film. I have watched hundreds of films and I can see the motion is a little smoother than on a 24p video camera. The point is that it is all the more critical to avoid fast movement unless it is de-emphasized with a relatively slow moving object or person in the foreground to take the audience�s focus off the fast, stuttering part of your scene.
I SAID "CUT!!" DAMMIT
Okay, this has screwed me a lot. With the DVX, I had aural cues to tell me when I was recording and when I was on pause. One beep for recording, two beeps to stop. I don't have that cue with the Canon and I find that one must be very deliberate in pressing the ON/OFF record button. I don't know how many shots I have of my feet when I thought I had paused recording and it continued to record. Even with tally lights on, you can�t always see them on a bright day. Always check that the camera is indeed paused when done with your shot.
15 SECONDS OF FAME
For those of you who are shooting non-narrative stuff and want to capture some pretty images of places you visit, keep the following in mind. Always try to have a basic edit in your head and roll enough tape for each scene to give you enough footage to work with. If you notice that you got a great shot when everything is captured and you only got 8 seconds of it, it may not be long enough for you to include in your final edit. I usually roll for about 15 to 20 seconds if I'm shooting nature vistas, for instance. I find this gives me plenty of time to play with. It's better to go long than short when recording, in my experience anyway.
BREATHING SPACE
Don't stick a tape in and begin recording your footage right away. It's not adviseable to do this without giving the tape a little slack. Also, most NLEs need a few seconds to back up before they begin capturing footage so get in the habit of flicking on the color bars and record about 20 seconds first.
NOT SO TIGHT
The tightening ring for the EVF is not very effective. I find it keeps coming loose and I am loathe to tighten it too much. Anyone with a solution?
TAKE CARE OF YOUR BABY
If you are going to be shooting outside a lot, invest in a good rain slicker for the camera. Also, it goes without saying, you should also have a robust carrying case, preferably with room for accessories. The latter is incredibly important so don't go buying Glidecams and cranes and leave nothing in your budget for the absolute essentials.
Other things to invest in before the big stuff are batteries (as many as you can afford), a lens cleaning cloth, a head cleaning tape (use only when you have to) and lots of tapes (good choice would be Panasonic's MQ series). Next you will need a good tripod. There are many options for tripods that are beyond the scope of this post.
Keep in mind that all of these things help to protect your investment. It's not so cool when your cam craps out on top of the coolest crane in the world because it got wet or your only battery ran out.
Always keep a flashlight, gaffer tape and screwdriver set in your bag. You never know when you need this stuff.
THE JUICE
Try to figure out a system that lets you differentiate between used batteries and freshly charged ones. Use some masking tape to write the date of charge so that you know they are ready to go. Take the tape off before you put it on the camera. That way, you'll know that the batteries without tape in your bag are dead and you won't loose critical seconds trying to figure out the good from the bad.
Use the supplied AC adapter when capturing. That way, you will be assured of a relatively trouble-free transfer.
IT'S TIME TO REALLY FOCUS ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT
First on the agenda and one of the most critical things in shooting HD is to pay special attention to focusing. While most prosumer HD cameras have a wide depth of field when shooting at the short end of the lens, care must still be taken to ensure the subject you are focusing on is sharp. Otherwise you will have a shot that looks less than the resolution the camera is capable of.
An example of a challenging shot I have encountered goes like this. The main subject (a person) is standing about 10 feet away from a fence. I am quite far away and have zoomed in about half of the lens focal length. In my viewfinder, it looks like both the fence and the subject are in focus but the aperture is wide open and I know the depth of field is shallower than the viewfinder would have me believe. When I first shot this kind of scene, I blindly ran tape trusting because it's HD, everything would be in focus. Wrong! The fence looked great but my subject was soft. Since then I have instinctively made a slight adjustment in the focus to compensate for this situation and my subject has popped against the background.
Now granted, all of this could have been averted had I used an HD monitor in the field but the truth of the matter is that it's only practical for me to do that about 20% of the times I shoot. The other times are much more spontaneous so I have to remain mobile. Running around with the XLH1, a tripod and a monitor is completely impractical for me particularly as I usually shoot solo.
There are many ways to achieve focus and I use most of them but the above is just an example of one method to utilize in a pinch, albeit not scientific and completely reliable.
FEELING A LITTLE SHAKY
Don't, I repeat, do not use the optical image stablizer (OIS) when the camera is mounted on something steady (bag or tripod). OIS introduces undesireable motion stuttering. Only use this when you have to.
IT LOOKED GREAT IN THE VIEWFINDER
The brightness in the EVF is very misleading. Canon has made it overly bright and, if one relies solely on what is seen in the EVF without assessing the actual exposure numbers, then the results will be underexposed by approximately 2 stops. Yes, it's that dramatic. I lowered the brightness level as much as it would go but it is still too bright and gives a distorted sense of what is being recorded. The way to deal with this, aside from using an exposure meter is to use the zebra stripes. Zebra stripes appear as diagonal lines in areas that are overexposed or have exceeded the limit of where detail can be captured. For instance, if you are shooting a landscape on a grey day, the contrast between sky and land is going to be extreme. If you properly expose for the land and foreground, your sky will be completely white and all cloud detail will be gone. In this situation, the zebra stripes will be bouncing all over your sky telling you it's overexposed. I use this as a guide for correct exposure but mostly I just adjust the exposure to highlight a particular thing in the frame. Sometimes I have to blow out areas in order to capture my subject correctly but this is deliberate. If you are shooting a very bright source and shut down the aperture to where it is as small as it can get, you can compensate by choosing a faster shutter speed. This will virtually stop down the lens even more.
I DON'T REMEMBER CHANGING THAT
Man, are the shutter adjustment buttons easy to knock when shooting. I've had several instances where I inadvertently changed the shutter speed and it gave me unexpected results. Always check the info in your viewfinder before you shoot your magic moment. Make sure your shutter speed is where you want it to be otherwise, if it's too slow, you will get motion trails and if it's too fast, you will get a stuttering effect. These motion idiosyncrasies are not an issue if your subject is static.
WOW, CHECK OUT THESE COOL MOTION EFFECTS!
There is maybe a 1/4 or 1/2 second delay in what you see in the EVF versus the live event. This is not a huge deal but if you are critically timing something it can be an issue. If you hook up a monitor to the camera, this delay is not present. There is also significant motion trailing in the EVF display that is not going to tape so don't be alarmed if you see this.
WHAT'S THAT RUMBLING?
Do yourself a favor and purchase a windscreen. The one that ships with the camera is inadequate and, although there is electronic dampening available in the camera, I don't trust this. I purchased the EQ-XL1 Equalizer Windscreen and I am completely happy with it. It preserves the sound and really helps to reduce wind rumbling.
NOT THE WHOLE STORY
I cannot believe that Canon did not include overscan on such an expensive camera but c'est la vie. Underscan is usually what you see on a regular TV. It works out to be about 90% of the recorded image but now, with the advent of HDTVs, some display more than 90%. Also, if you are posting your work on the Web, the full 100% image will appear. Why am I rambling on about this? Because what you see in the EVF is only about 90% of the image (maybe even less) so you need to be aware of not getting mic booms or little Johnny picking his nose in the areas that you cannot see. Again, you can hook up a monitor with underscan capabilities and this problem goes away but if you cannot use a monitor always check by moving the camera up and down and left to right. That will give you a sense of any possible obstacles to your great framing.
MY FAST PANS LOOK LIKE CRAP. THIS CAMERA SUCKS
If you are going to be recording in 24F mode, be very careful to avoid fast pans and tilts. You will get a stuttering motion that is very undesirable. This is a product of using 24 fps recording. The same problem is encountered by motion picture cameras. There are formulas on the Web about how fast you can go but I just know instinctively at this stage not to whip the camera around from north to south.
Also, I don't care what anyone else says because I have seen this for myself, 24p video stutters more than telecined film. I have watched hundreds of films and I can see the motion is a little smoother than on a 24p video camera. The point is that it is all the more critical to avoid fast movement unless it is de-emphasized with a relatively slow moving object or person in the foreground to take the audience�s focus off the fast, stuttering part of your scene.
I SAID "CUT!!" DAMMIT
Okay, this has screwed me a lot. With the DVX, I had aural cues to tell me when I was recording and when I was on pause. One beep for recording, two beeps to stop. I don't have that cue with the Canon and I find that one must be very deliberate in pressing the ON/OFF record button. I don't know how many shots I have of my feet when I thought I had paused recording and it continued to record. Even with tally lights on, you can�t always see them on a bright day. Always check that the camera is indeed paused when done with your shot.
15 SECONDS OF FAME
For those of you who are shooting non-narrative stuff and want to capture some pretty images of places you visit, keep the following in mind. Always try to have a basic edit in your head and roll enough tape for each scene to give you enough footage to work with. If you notice that you got a great shot when everything is captured and you only got 8 seconds of it, it may not be long enough for you to include in your final edit. I usually roll for about 15 to 20 seconds if I'm shooting nature vistas, for instance. I find this gives me plenty of time to play with. It's better to go long than short when recording, in my experience anyway.
BREATHING SPACE
Don't stick a tape in and begin recording your footage right away. It's not adviseable to do this without giving the tape a little slack. Also, most NLEs need a few seconds to back up before they begin capturing footage so get in the habit of flicking on the color bars and record about 20 seconds first.
NOT SO TIGHT
The tightening ring for the EVF is not very effective. I find it keeps coming loose and I am loathe to tighten it too much. Anyone with a solution?
TAKE CARE OF YOUR BABY
If you are going to be shooting outside a lot, invest in a good rain slicker for the camera. Also, it goes without saying, you should also have a robust carrying case, preferably with room for accessories. The latter is incredibly important so don't go buying Glidecams and cranes and leave nothing in your budget for the absolute essentials.
Other things to invest in before the big stuff are batteries (as many as you can afford), a lens cleaning cloth, a head cleaning tape (use only when you have to) and lots of tapes (good choice would be Panasonic's MQ series). Next you will need a good tripod. There are many options for tripods that are beyond the scope of this post.
Keep in mind that all of these things help to protect your investment. It's not so cool when your cam craps out on top of the coolest crane in the world because it got wet or your only battery ran out.
Always keep a flashlight, gaffer tape and screwdriver set in your bag. You never know when you need this stuff.
THE JUICE
Try to figure out a system that lets you differentiate between used batteries and freshly charged ones. Use some masking tape to write the date of charge so that you know they are ready to go. Take the tape off before you put it on the camera. That way, you'll know that the batteries without tape in your bag are dead and you won't loose critical seconds trying to figure out the good from the bad.
Use the supplied AC adapter when capturing. That way, you will be assured of a relatively trouble-free transfer.