I got the camera on Monday but between a hectic life and crappy weather, I haven't really had a chance to try it out. I'll be writing a review at a later date.

For those who don't know, I just sold my XLH1 in favor of the lighter A1, much more suitable for my kind of shooting because of form factor and weight.

This morning, there was about a half hour of sun so I dropped by my favorite park (Marymoor in Redmond, WA) on the way to work.

What you see here is just raw footage right out of the camera. There is no color correction at all. The only thing I did with the footage was apply a 2.35:1 matte.

Rendered at 10mbps, it's about 93mb. There is definitely a drop in the sharpness due to this high compression and a little noise is there that's not at all obvious in the original footage.

All of these shots are at the wide end of the lens because I really wanted to shoot to show off the pixels.

I'm using my PANALOOK preset which is still my favorite. Thanks to Chris Hurd for the conversion from XLH1 to XHA1, he did a nice job.

Anyway, enjoy:

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/XHA1/marymoorHD.wmv

Right click and "save as"

Steven, very nicely done! Your compositions and subject matter are always satisfying.

I am always scouring xh a1 forums looking for quality clips to convince me to take the plunge and upgrade to HDV. I swear that Canon should buy your footage to show off their camera.

It looks great, well exposed, beautiful composition.

great footage!
what type of video card do you use to capture the scences in 10 bit?

I'm using the hdmi intensity with aspect HD and Im not that close to that video quality.

huh?

I think he just captured to mini DV tape on his A1 and then firewired to computer later. Right? Do you think that he is using a G1 with uncompresseed output capabilities?

Very Nice Steven!

huh?

I think he just captured to mini DV tape on his A1 and then firewired to computer later. Right?

Right.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

so how do you like your new camera, steven? do you have an opinion yet?

the first footage i shot was a custom presets reference movie, which i shot straight out of a window, to familiarize myself with the preset options.

http://www.planetestudios.com/specialsituation.html

(if anyone cares...)

tomorrow will be my first day in the field with it, shooting my UWOL Challenge entry (my exempt-from-judging entry....), and i can hardly wait.

i shot a bit of B roll tonight using NATURALO, and tomorrow i'm gonna test-drive PANALOOK, among others. thanks for the presets.

In a nutshell, it's about the best camera I've owned in terms of my specific needs but it's a little early to say for certain yet. I will write a review soon.

Steven,

I looked at your Snoqualmish (sp?) film on your website
and wanted to compliment you on your compositional ability.
You make widescreen composition look easy and obvious,
and we all know it's not.

Nice work.

David

That's a great compliment David, and one I really appreciate.

Meryem, I just posted my impressions of the XHA1:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=88842

Looks great. Absolutely cannot discern any difference in quality from your H1 efforts so I think you have knocked it out of the park with your change to the A1. I might be imagining it a little but the shots seems to be a lot wider. Maybe that's because I know you have the 32mm range on the A1....but it feels more spacious to me.

Good Luck!

Yeah Marty, it definitely feels (and is) way wider. Compared to the XHA1, the H1 felt a little compressed at the wide end. I'm really happy about that :)

Hey Steven,

If you like the wide end of the XHA-1 zoom, wait til
you put on the w/a lens adapter...but better get a
good workout program going too, it gets 'way front-heavy
if you hand-hold anything.
But it's a nice piece of glass for the price.

David

Hi Steven, thanks for sharing such fantastic movie. Now I found that you are contributor of the 'panalook' preset. I like this preset and really thank you very much!!

what type of video card do you use to capture the scences in 10 bit?

I'm using the hdmi intensity with aspect HD and Im not that close to that video quality.

Jose, why not?

I'm looking intoi the HDMI capture from Sony V1U into Aspect HD 4.3.1, and if there are issues, please let me know.

That's a great compliment David, and one I really appreciate.

Meryem, I just posted my impressions of the XHA1:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=88842

Thanks for taking the time to write your personal review. I have one question. I'm in the game for higher motion video such as the video I have shot (sample link below). I love everything about the A1, went to B&H and messed around with and I'm absolutely in love with it but not so much HDV. Everything I hear about fast pans and high motion (like sports) with HDV have had very bad results. I'm questioning if I should wait longer for technology to improve to help adress this problem or bite the bullet and go with it. Honestly the only thing holding me back is how well the HDV format will hold up to what I'm shooting. Any advice? Thanks for your time.

My Sample Edits (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MGorski)