I filmed this all in 24f, Most of the clips have different settings depending on what I was shooting. I noticed that the quicktime file seems to de-saturate the footage a bit kinda weird. Also the compresion seems to acent the noise, because when I veiw it in FCP I barely see noise if any at all.

www.joesimonproductions.com/shootout/downtown.mov

Looks awesome - what were you using to stabilize the cam for the moving shots?

very nice clip of the city. i love it. please keep the clips coming so I have something to do while im waiting for my A1 to get here :)

Thanks Joe. Nice footage. I'm so excited that my A1 arrives tomorrow. I can't wait to tweak out!!! Christmas came early this year. Happy Hanukkah!

Joe, that footage looks great. Much better low light quality than I've gotten with the GL2. I've been particularly wanting to see an example of changing depth-of-field with the A1, thanks. Did you mount it to your car? I'm also interested in how you stablized the camera.

This site is amazing. I've seen A1 footage from Japan and New York (have not been to either) and now downtown Austin where I'm within walking distance. Fun to see while I'm waiting for it to arrive.

Looks awesome - what were you using to stabilize the cam for the moving shots?

I used a skateboard while shooting handheld for the moving shots.

What shutter speed did you use on these clips?

Many thanks Joe. These clips look off the chart! I'm sat here in the UK waiting for the buggers to announce a release date, but these clips really do whet the appetite...

The mixed pace of the static and moving cars is fantastic! Is that acheived in camera?

What shutter speed did you use on these clips?


I used shutter speeds - 1/48, 1/24, 1/3

Thanks so much for putting that together and posting it!

hey joe. i've noticed the desaturation thing happening here too when i go out to quicktime. in any case, the footage looks great. thanks.

Thank u for posting that! I am being SOLD on the low light performance of the A1.

hey greg. i've noticed the desaturation thing happening here too when i go out to quicktime. in any case, the footage looks great. thanks.

QT stinks when it comes to saturation. I always compensate for that.

But now I do everything in Flash for that reason.

Fantastic. Thanks for sharing the footage. Looks fantastic. I can't believe how excited I am about this little camera (ordered today).

And to think at the start of the week I almost bought an HVR-Z1... :-o

Love how you put it all together with the music.. it really brings the footage to life.. gives me a better idea as to what the footage looks like when being used for an actual application!

Thank you.. great job!

Oh.. and did I mention the night looks absolutely amazing.. seriously surprised at how well it looks!!!!!
Super excited - my two cams arrive tomorrow!

Joe, how much Gain did you use in these shots (if any.. doesn't look like it:)
Also did you crush the blacks?

Joe, how much Gain did you use in these shots (if any.. doesn't look like it:)
Also did you crush the blacks?


The Gain ranged from 0 to 12db depending on how lit it was. When I was using 6 or 12db I had NR1 at Low which did a great job of getting rid of the noise. My black setting was at middle and bpress, I find that the XHA1 black setting is best at bpress( gets rid of that milky look). I played a lot with the CP settings, and I changed almost everything in there for different shots.
I didn't do any CC this is straight out of the camera.

Very nice work, Joe.

(I wondered why the human shadows were left creeping into shot...but now that you've told us, we can see that it is you on the skateboard :)).

Hat's off to you...plot's a little thin, but the visuals were amazing...seriously high-end looking

My favorite scene is the dof change on the parking meter. Do you remember how zoomed in you were on that shot? What your aperture was?

I'm curious to know the music source you used. Was it a local band?

Nicest night nighttime montage I've seen since the Vienna footage posted when the XL2 was released.

It's Chicago by Sufjan Stevens, I had bought this album for a friend as a gift and she made me a copy of it

Never did see the Vienna footage, do you know where it might be?

The original footage was shot by Johnnie Behiri in 2004. I checked the originating web site, but it looks like it's been taken down. Nice stuff and it convinced me to buy an XL2. I may still have the download somewhere, but I'd have to find Johnnie to get his OK to post it again.

Oh, and I bought the CD.

Paul

I love this video!
Is there any chance you would post it in full1080?

Joe, are you living here in Chicago? Maybe we should get together. I love these shots. I'm just finishing a project and am considering getting a new camera G1 BTW who does the music on this. The scenery and the music together are great. I plan to shoot about five minutes of footage like this for DVD extra for my film.

-Nate

Nate
I'm in Austin TX, thats where I shot this Night footage. Never been to Chicago it looks nice though! The song was Chicago by Sufjan Stevens.

I might post a 1080 version.

Some of those buildings actually look like Chicago.

-Nate

Hi,

Sorry for my stupid question, I am begineer of Video.

I bought My SONY HC1, HC3 for my baby video..
Almost shooing in indoor (Hong Kong), however, I found there has
a lot of NOISE problem on the video..
I read a lot of A1 samples, they are excellent and even in M2T unprocessed format when low light..

My question is, is it related to the machine problem or my misuse of HC1/HC3?
If I get a A1, can process same clear video for my baby in door?
Because A1 noise processing is far better from SONY HDR-HC1/HC3?

Of course I know they are different grade of products..
But I still wonder if I misuse of HC1/HC3 or really depends on the machine.

Thank you!

I used a skateboard while shooting handheld for the moving shots.
I must be misunderstanding you: Are you saying you filmed with your expensive new Canon camera while skateboarding? If so, aren't you afraid of falling and breaking that beautiful new camera? By the way, nice footage.

Yeah i actually fell down...haha. I've been skating for a while so that usually doesn't happen while I'm filming, but I was focused on the shot and hit a pot hole (ouch!). Camera never hit the ground just me.

A skateboard. I caught a little shadow of you in the end, I thought you were standing on a truck-dolly. I still can't believe this footage. I'm going to try to do something like it here in Chicago maybe for an upcoming shoot. In the mean time I have to download this for inspiration.

-Nate

Excellent, nice footage. Thanks

By the way, the song is called "Chicago" and it's by Sufjan Stevens. It's beautiful. I'm addicted to this clip.

-Nate

a belated "great job!" the footage really is beautiful, and I'll surely be buying this camera ASAP.

Yeah i actually fell down...haha. I've been skating for a while so that usually doesn't happen while I'm filming, but I was focused on the shot and hit a pot hole (ouch!). Camera never hit the ground just me.

Joe, do what race car drivers normally do before a race, "walk the track" to learn the course... lol

BTW, you have inspired me and I may now have to take up "skateboarding" too... (another tool for the toolbox).

Thanks!

I just bought that A1, and as soon as I saw your footage, I ran outside to the street and messed with the camera. Now thanks to your post, I think I got it. Thanks a bunch! This camera rocks...

Yeah i actually fell down...haha. I've been skating for a while so that usually doesn't happen while I'm filming, but I was focused on the shot and hit a pot hole (ouch!). Camera never hit the ground just me.

I remember me attaching my sony trv120 to my bike and riding down the street. Riding over water-gathering hole (sorry i dunno how it's called) my bike trembled and the battery of the sony fell into it ;D. Had to buy a new one.

nice footage btw

Joe ...

The footage is amazing. I think it's important for you to know. Any particular preset and/or compression format you use specifically for the web?

Best regards,

--Brandon

I filmed this all in 24f, Most of the clips have different settings depending on what I was shooting. I noticed that the quicktime file seems to de-saturate the footage a bit kinda weird. Also the compresion seems to acent the noise, because when I veiw it in FCP I barely see noise if any at all.

www.joesimonproductions.com/shootout/downtown.mov

I use compressor to export to the web. It is done at 1300 kbits. I found this to work great for all web videos.

Hey Joe.. great video! Is that H.264 from compressor? Do you ever run into any of the gamma-shift problems (desaturated look) that H.264 encodings often run into?

The Gain ranged from 0 to 12db depending on how lit it was. When I was using 6 or 12db I had NR1 at Low which did a great job of getting rid of the noise. My black setting was at middle and bpress, I find that the XHA1 black setting is best at bpress( gets rid of that milky look). I played a lot with the CP settings, and I changed almost everything in there for different shots.
I didn't do any CC this is straight out of the camera.

Have you tried the Black settings in other situations other then nighttime?

I have to compensate the settings for the H.264 . In compressor I bump the saturation up to +5 and the brightness down -2, this way it equals out the same as my original footage.

I pretty much always use bpress or lower the set level to crush the blacks. If its really dark I'll won't drop it that much so I can retain more detail and then do my final adjustments in post.

Hey Joe, what did you use to monitor focus and color in the field? With all the on the fly changes you made, did the LCD cut it for you?

I always use the onboard LCD when shooting stock lens with this camera. Once you get used to what it needs to look like it works great!

You've convinced me that an A1 is completely worth it.