View Full Version : Dear Gosh... Where Is The Footage?!!


Pasty Jackson
December 20th, 2006, 10:43 AM
Ok, so maybe I'm a bit impatient, and quite possibly expecting a little bit too much from you current owners during the busy holiday season, but come on... take some pity on us poor, undeserving onlookers and give us some raw footage - if only 3 seconds worth!

I guess I'll go ahead and make this a specific footage request, while I'm at it: I'd like to see a raw m2t of 24p footage, standard gamma (no cinegamma), no black compress, and whatever other settings you want to use (just let us know what they are, especially if you use black knee or contrast enhance).

Thanks in advance to anybody that posts some 24p footage for us... you'll be a hero!

-PASTY

C.S. Michael
December 20th, 2006, 12:02 PM
It's quiet out there . . . TOO quiet. ;)

Paul Kendal
December 20th, 2006, 09:21 PM
Do these new cameras not work?
By my count, there are at least 10 people that have said that they have taken delivery of a new V1U....BUT we still have no footage posted yet.
Is everyone ashamed of what they are seeing from this camera or what?
Right now, I am leaning heavily toward the Canon XH-A1...someone please save me from going to the dark side and post some footage at least as good as what we are seeing from the A1.

Daniel Boswell
December 20th, 2006, 09:39 PM
Ok, so maybe I'm a bit impatient, and quite possibly expecting a little bit too much from you current owners during the busy holiday season, but come on... take some pity on us poor, undeserving onlookers and give us some raw footage - if only 3 seconds worth!

I guess I'll go ahead and make this a specific footage request, while I'm at it: I'd like to see a raw m2t of 24p footage, standard gamma (no cinegamma), no black compress, and whatever other settings you want to use (just let us know what they are, especially if you use black knee or contrast enhance).

Thanks in advance to anybody that posts some 24p footage for us... you'll be a hero!

-PASTY

Not exactly what you requested. ..but here is a little short clip of footage taken with the cam straight out the box.

All shot in 24p (except clips showing the "digital extender" which wont allow 24p). The only menu setting I changed was I turned the contrast enhancer on.

I imported it with iMovie and it was converted to AIC 30 fps. I then downsized it for the web.

Its nothing compelling! Don't get your hopes up:

http://homepage.mac.com/epiphany2002/v1u.wmv

Pasty Jackson
December 20th, 2006, 10:10 PM
Not exactly what you requested. ..but here is a little short clip of footage taken with the cam straight out the box.

All shot in 24p (except clips showing the "digital extender" which wont allow 24p). The only menu setting I changed was I turned the contrast enhancer on.

Its nothing compelling! Don't get your hopes up:

Hey man, thanks for the footage. It's unfortunately rendered as 12fps rather than 24, but at least it's something! Footage looks good as far as colors and lattitude, but unfortunately it's hard to tell much about clarity and motion from 12p web video.

Thanks for the footage, Daniel, but let's keep it coming!!! 24p m2t's!!!

-Pasty

Daniel Boswell
December 20th, 2006, 10:29 PM
Hey man, thanks for the footage. It's unfortunately rendered as 12fps rather than 24, but at least it's something! Footage looks good as far as colors and lattitude, but unfortunately it's hard to tell much about clarity and motion from 12p web video.

Thanks for the footage, Daniel, but let's keep it coming!!! 24p m2t's!!!

-Pasty


http://homepage.mac.com/epiphany2002/nick.m2t

Greg Quinn
December 20th, 2006, 10:59 PM
Thanks Daniel for posting the raw M2T file; the resolution looks stunning. I guess it's because it's unprocessed 24P, it looks jerky when played through Nero Showtime.

Daniel Boswell
December 20th, 2006, 11:02 PM
Thanks Daniel for posting the raw M2T file; the resolution looks stunning. I guess it's because it's unprocessed 24P, it looks jerky when played through Nero Showtime.


hmm...doesn't look jerky played with VLC.

Pasty Jackson
December 20th, 2006, 11:11 PM
http://homepage.mac.com/epiphany2002/nick.m2t

It is official: Daniel Boswell is now my hero!

Thanks for the footage, Daniel. Everyone will remember you as: "the man who brought Sony 24p to the masses." Even the cat looks glorious!

As an aside, remember that this is in a 60i stream when viewing, so don't be thrown off if your NLE or media player displays "incorrect" stream information... but this is, in fact, 24p footage.

Daniel Boswell
December 20th, 2006, 11:28 PM
It is official: Daniel Boswell is now my hero!

Thanks for the footage, Daniel. Everyone will remember you as: "the man who brought Sony 24p to the masses." Even the cat looks glorious!

As an aside, remember that this is in a 60i stream when viewing, so don't be thrown off if your NLE or media player displays "incorrect" stream information... but this is, in fact, 24p footage.

LOL.

More to come!

Michael Y Wong
December 21st, 2006, 10:48 AM
WOW the resolution on this camera appears incredible!

Chris Medico
December 21st, 2006, 12:13 PM
What is the best way to post some RAW footage?

As an alternative I have a server connected to the net set up to do FTP. I wouldn't want to post that info publically though.

Chris

Thomas Smet
December 21st, 2006, 04:46 PM
That shot of the cat clearly had the oil pint effect that the 25p cameras have. You really notice it when the camera is zoomed out. The video may look great when viewed on a HDTV but I am really worried about this camera when it comes to visual effects projects and keying. so far I have seen the oil paint effect in this shot as well as some of the images posted by Steve Mullen. It isn't as extreme as the 25p models but it is there.

Pasty Jackson
December 21st, 2006, 07:02 PM
That shot of the cat clearly had the oil pint effect that the 25p cameras have. You really notice it when the camera is zoomed out. The video may look great when viewed on a HDTV but I am really worried about this camera when it comes to visual effects projects and keying. so far I have seen the oil paint effect in this shot as well as some of the images posted by Steve Mullen. It isn't as extreme as the 25p models but it is there.

The footage is completely fine - looks beautiful, crisp, accurate, and devoid of any "oil paint effect". If you're seeing some sort of noise reduction smear on your computer, it's most likely due to your player, not the footage.

Ken Ross
December 21st, 2006, 09:30 PM
The footage is completely fine - looks beautiful, crisp, accurate, and devoid of any "oil paint effect". If you're seeing some sort of noise reduction smear on your computer, it's most likely due to your player, not the footage.

Yup, couldn't agree more. I played the clip on my 50" plasma and it looked great with natural colors and sharpness...much like my FX7 footage.

Thomas Smet
December 21st, 2006, 10:24 PM
Guys it is much much better then the 25p cameras but there is still something going on. It is small enough to maybe not notice when you watch the footage on a HDTV or even on a normal sized computer monitor but it is there. This is something that is not on any of the FX7 clips I have looked at but is on this clip. I noticed it the second time I looked at it although you have to see certain details just right in order to see it.

I would rather this come up now so it can get fixed before a lot of the cameras are sold. I for one would not want to composite any footage that had this look. It is not natural and doesn't look anything like the FX7 footage I have seen.

I have played this on 3 different computers in many different players and NLE's and it looks the same no matter what.

Here is a full resolution cross section of a still from the video. I know still images are not a good way to judge quality but it does show that the 24p may have the same issue as the 25p cameras but just not as bad. I would hope SONY would fix this right away but if we refuse to see it then why should they. I didn't want to see it but it is there. Perhaps I am doing something wrong here but I doubt it. I have been playing HDV footage from every single HDV camera on the market and this is the only time I have ever seen anything like this.

If somebody else can show me that it isn't there please post a sample and show me because everything I do shows it.

Pasty Jackson
December 21st, 2006, 11:14 PM
Well, possibly the problem could lie in your decoder then? Here is a grab from my system. It's from the same footage, but I'm not seeing the same problems.

Chris Rentzel
December 21st, 2006, 11:22 PM
Patsy I believe your grab was when the camera was not moving as much, and I think Thomas your grab was while zooming. Correct me if I'm wrong. It seems the images while zooming could lead to a paint-effect. Not sure that wouldn't happen on any camera though. If you put the camera on a tripod and let it shoot something, that'll probably be more accurate.

Thomas Smet
December 22nd, 2006, 12:21 AM
The still I took is when the camera wasn't moving.

Pasty it would be nice to see a shot from you at or around the same moment of time.

This paint effect is much more subtle with these versions of the cameras and sometimes can only be seen with certain types of details. Your shot of the cat head looks exactly the same as what I can pull here of the same image.

I am using many different decoders and coming up with the same results. With that said this is the only camera where I notice this sort of effect using any of my decoders and is exactly the same problem as noted with the 25p camera except on a much smaller scale which is sometimes very hard to see.

I also see this issue with the still image shots Steve Mullen has posted and those were decoded by him on many different systems and decoders as well.

Remember it is not my aim to put the camera down since I also want it to look good.

Chris Rentzel
December 22nd, 2006, 12:33 AM
The still I took is when the camera wasn't moving....

Hey Thomas, with all due respect: I have the same video file the grab came from, because it was posted as video in this forum. That particular frame (and those directly before and after) was in the middle of a zoom. You can play it back over and over and it's in the middle of a zoom. That's why I thought it wasn't good to judge that particular grab.

Not that I'm for or against the camera, but I have yet to see any bad grabs when the cam is on a tripod.

Regardless, I do think it's good to have this dialog so early in the infancy of a camera, and thanks for taking time to post.

Chris

Thomas Smet
December 22nd, 2006, 12:43 AM
Hey Thomas, with all due respect: I have the same video file the grab came from, because it was posted as video in this forum. That particular frame (and those directly before and after) was in the middle of a zoom. You can play it back over and over and it's in the middle of a zoom. That's why I thought it wasn't good to judge that particular grab.

Not that I'm for or against the camera, but I have yet to see any bad grabs when the cam is on a tripod.

Regardless, I do think it's good to have this dialog so early in the infancy of a camera, and thanks for taking time to post.

Chris

Yeah the camera zooms out and then stops for a second and then zooms back in slightly before the end of the clip. I took the still when the camera wasn't zooming for about 1 second and when it had the least amount of movement from being handheld. The camera did move a few pixels I'm sure but show me any other camera that does this during slight movement. Even if it was zooming that sort of effect doesn't happen in the FX7 shots I have seen during zooming. If you would watch the clip carefully you would notice that the zoom stops for a short time period.

Remember this was only a section of the image I took and not the whole frame. When the camera zooms all the way out to where you see the girl's head and stops shaking for a few frames before it zooms in again that is where I took the image. I know better then to take an image in the middle of a zoom.

Ken Ross
December 22nd, 2006, 07:47 AM
Tom, could you point out in the frame grab of the cat's head what exactly you are seeing that's not quite right? I've looked at that grab and I'm having trouble seeing any issues. It might be helpful if you could point out precisely the problem in that grab. Thanks.

Thomas Smet
December 22nd, 2006, 09:50 AM
The image of the cats head wasn't the one I posted but the image under the post with my name. It is the shot of the stones and the cats rear end. Look at the pattern in the stones, rock and weed. Also the texture on the cat is all wrong. The girls head looks a little funny but it is border line and it could pass as normal I guess.

The shot of the cats head is really hard to tell because the hair has lots of detail and I don't think this issue shows up in areas of high detail. If the person who posted the shots of the cats head wants to help prove that my image was done with a bad decoder then he should have chosen the same image. The image I picked is pretty easy to find because it was the image that was zoomed out and that has the least amount of movement due to hand shake. That is why I picked that image and not just some random image.

If it is my decoder on 3 different systems with 3 different NLE's on each system why is it that the decorder doesn't do this with any other type of mpeg-2 footage? I can even play shots from the FX7 and they look fine compared to these shots.

Todd Giglio
December 22nd, 2006, 10:17 AM
Thomas,

Did you notice any of these artifacts in the clips I posted? I don't see anything out of the usual. The clips I posted are under the title:

3 V1U clips coming soon...

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=82265

I'm trying hard to find these flaws, but I don't see it (I did in the 25p images). I definitely don't see it when the video is playing (I did stare at stills, but I see nothing out of the usual).

Todd

Chris Medico
December 22nd, 2006, 03:18 PM
Here is a fused file I just put together from a rainy day here in NC. I didn't have my tripod with me so its a little shaky from being hand held while leaning over in the car trying to keep the camera out of the rain. ;)

The camera settings were Gain - 0db, A - F2.8, shutter 125, zoom 20x.

Color and other settings were out of the box stock. It was shot in 1080/60i

http://www.filefactory.com/file/a66e41/

Pasty Jackson
December 22nd, 2006, 08:07 PM
Would somebody mind shooting and posting a 24p clip with the sharpness bumped down a few notches, or all the way down... or both?

-Pasty

Marcus Marchesseault
December 22nd, 2006, 08:12 PM
Chris, after while watching that footage I felt cold and damp. It's 80 degrees here today! I don't know what is the best camera in the world, but it would take a lot to convince me the V1 isn't one of the best. I can't believe how easy it is to get good color with this camera. Perhaps it is all the image controls and a good layout and maybe it's the CMOS that does the job. Maybe I've improved my techniques where I finally need a camera with these controls to match my style. Whatever blend of these factors helps make better images, it has really impressed me on the screen. On a big HDTV, the images just draw you in. It's intoxicating.

The still images don't really do it justice, but I'll try to attach a few. This is my first try at attachments, so forgive me if it's botched. Image 2 is taken from the tape. Images 7 and 8 are stills shot directly to memory stick. On a big screen, the resolution of the video looks fantastic and you can get an idea of the color from the stills.

Tony Tremble
December 23rd, 2006, 02:14 AM
Chris, after while watching that footage I felt cold and damp. It's 80 degrees here today! I don't know what is the best camera in the world, but it would take a lot to convince me the V1 isn't one of the best. I can't believe how easy it is to get good color with this camera. Perhaps it is all the image controls and a good layout and maybe it's the CMOS that does the job. Maybe I've improved my techniques where I finally need a camera with these controls to match my style. Whatever blend of these factors helps make better images, it has really impressed me on the screen. On a big HDTV, the images just draw you in. It's intoxicating.


My feelings _exactly_. All the concerns of 1/4" chips have been forgotten. The image really does have a certain something about it that makes people double take. Everyone I've shown images to had a similar response and these people are either camera ops or work in post like me.

This camera is the mutts nuts.

TT

Chris Medico
December 23rd, 2006, 11:13 AM
Yea, when I played it back at home I was stunned in the detail. Everything I've seen so far posted by everyone looks really good.

I shot the trees to see how the camera would handle backlighting. I was impressed to say the least. It was also one of the only things I could find that wasn't going to look black and white.

When the weather breaks I'll be shooting more interesting stuff. Oh.. I'll not forget to bring my tripod with me next time either.

The next trick is to get a good output workflow together to retain as much of that great picture as possible while making the product deliverable.

Marcus, I would love to see the video you made those stills from. That is some serious beauty.

Chris

Robert Ducon
December 24th, 2006, 05:24 AM
Beauty. I have Hi8 footage from 1991, from a Sony (i've since transcoded it to HD - cropped top and bottom of the frame). That looks a mite bit better though. Other than the sharpness and great colour, I notice a lack of compression artifacts, which sets this camera far apart from the Z1U and FX1 I continue to use. Thanks Marcus and others for posting.

Daniel Boswell
December 25th, 2006, 12:31 PM
Would somebody mind shooting and posting a 24p clip with the sharpness bumped down a few notches, or all the way down... or both?

-Pasty


Pasty...Here is a clip with the following settings:

24pA
Gain 6db
Iris 2.4

Tweaked Picture Profile:

Color Level -1
Phase = 0
Sharpness = 4 (turned down from 7)
Skintone DTL = Type 3
Skintone Level = 4
Knee Point = Middle
Black Stretch on
Cinetone Gamma = Type 2
"" Color = On

Sorry..another cat.

http://homepage.mac.com/epiphany2002/24p.m2t

Drew Long
December 25th, 2006, 01:47 PM
Daniel
Are you sure you shot that in 24PA?
I see combing interlace effects from when the camera is moving.

Adam Palomer
December 25th, 2006, 03:41 PM
That's a beautiful cat. Does he/she know how famous s/he’s become? I like how the camera can resolve individual hairs. The color reproduction is amazing too.

Daniel Boswell
December 25th, 2006, 05:34 PM
Daniel
Are you sure you shot that in 24PA?
I see combing interlace effects from when the camera is moving.


Umm yeah. It is. For sure.

Chris Medico
December 27th, 2006, 07:26 PM
OK. Here are some video clips I shot yesterday. They were all shot 1080p30.

Mode - AUTO, all picture profile settings stock

The video is FUSED with AVID Liquid so it is not re-rendered.

The walkway in the butterfly house is so narrow it was impossible to setup my tripod and not block the path so I have to apologize if the video is a little shaky again.

I'll likely return when its not so busy and try again with the tripod.

Birds ~F2.4, 6-9dB, T30 - http://www.filefactory.com/file/dc16c7

This video shows a bit of noise. It did run at 9dB of gain for most of the clip though. I created a low noise picture profile but was under some time constraints so I couldn't really try it.

Butterfly 1 ~F6, 0dB, T30 - http://www.filefactory.com/file/b468a0

Butterfly 2 ~F4, 0dB, T30 - http://www.filefactory.com/file/0c7939

Walk ~F4, 0dB, T30 - http://www.filefactory.com/file/d18c37

Zsolt Gordos
December 27th, 2006, 07:36 PM
Cannot download the files. The file name is displayed but no link where to download...or no download stats automatically.

Chris Medico
December 27th, 2006, 07:42 PM
Check the page and click the link that reads:

Download for free with FileFactory Basic

Zsolt Gordos
December 27th, 2006, 08:41 PM
Great shots Chris! I love these birds. Where do you shoot this footage, somewhere in the tropics?

Chris Medico
December 27th, 2006, 08:47 PM
Great shots Chris! I love these birds. Where do you shoot this footage, somewhere in the tropics?

Thanks!!

Shooting in the tropics would be nice but no, it was here in North Carolina. :)

There is a butterfly habitat at the local Natural Science Museum in Durham North Carolina.

You can check out their page here - http://www.ncmls.org/

Pasty Jackson
December 28th, 2006, 05:03 PM
Pasty...Here is a clip with the following settings:



Looks pretty sweet. As usual, thanks for the footage Daniel!

-Pasty

Chris Medico
January 13th, 2007, 08:14 AM
Yesterday I had an opportunity to shot some video of my neighbor helping me get my cat out of a tree. Obviously the cat would be heavily backlit against the sky.

Toby is about 40' up in a pine tree. Lots of thin needles that moved around a bit. When I started looking at the footage later I realized how much of a struggle it was for the CODEC in the camera to handle these conditions. All these small objects moving around in a very high contrast setting seems to exceed the bandwidth available in HDV. I shot using the histogram and the AE bias enabled so I could bring up the foreground a bit. The camera was set in AUTO @ 1080p30. The gain was 0db for the whole time (as indicated on the VF).

Anyway, I didn't shoot this to be a demo piece but I think it does well to show what the camera does under certain conditions. I'm not posting it to bash the camera either. I'm quite happy with it. I didn't think at the time how much trouble these conditions might be. This goes into the file for later reference I assure you! :)

I'll post some RAW files when I can but if you check out the HD WMV file on my blip.tv page (link in sig) you can see what I'm talking about. The WMV encoder had fits with the pine needles in the tree and GREATLY magnified the problem. Obviously the RAW file looks better but even in the RAW file you can see a good bit of blocking and noise from running out of bandwidth.

Thats my take anyway. I'd certainly like to hear the thoughts of others.

Chris

Brian Williams
January 15th, 2007, 01:08 PM
I shot and cut this at 24p. There is no color correction or FX of any kind. It is only 1/2 resolution and there is a little web compression, but it does a nice job of showing off the camera, I think.

RIGHT CLICK AND DOWNLOAD THE LINKED FILE:

http://www.sharing.ramjetfilms.com/Rocky_Peak_540p.mov

Michael Y Wong
January 15th, 2007, 04:06 PM
^^

WOW, the image is very very detailed... and the harsh sunset shots are well handled by good dynamic range of the camera.

Impressive!

Zsolt Gordos
January 15th, 2007, 04:32 PM
Great skin details! And I love the dirt on the specs :)

Chris Medico
January 15th, 2007, 10:15 PM
I shot and cut this at 24p. There is no color correction or FX of any kind. It is only 1/2 resolution and there is a little web compression, but it does a nice job of showing off the camera, I think.

RIGHT CLICK AND DOWNLOAD THE LINKED FILE:

http://www.sharing.ramjetfilms.com/Rocky_Peak_540p.mov

Hi Brian,

Nice work, I really enjoyed it. It makes me want Avid to release the update for Liquid that handles 24p ingest sooner than later.

Chris