GL / XM assorted posts, 2003

[Ken Tanaka]

Brian,
"Lefties" often have a tough time with respect to industrial design, don't they?

I am right-handed but can tell you that the amount of fine deterity required of the right hand is modest and should be easy to master. Basically, holding the camera via the hand strap, you only need to run the zoom rocker and the record button. The most dextrous maneuvers are actually required of the left hand, pressing small buttons and rotating/pressing small wheels. So, at least in the case of the GL2, you may actually have the advantage.

[Rob Lohman]

If you want a sharp picture it is best to go with interlaced (normal)
mode and shoot with shutters like 1/100. Also you might chance
the sharpness level in the menus (although too much can cause
sharpening noise)....

If soft is what you want shoot in frame mode with 1/60 or 1/30
shutter and turn down sharpness... etc.

[Steve Nunez]

Rob's suggestion is spot on.

Don't turn up the sharpness much- it will have a harsh-edged look to the video.

[Jay Staya]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying the Sony ECM-Z157 shotgun MIC for use with my XM2.
I'm just wondering if this is worth buying , does it perform well? or am I wasting my money and should go for the more expensive senheizer brand?

[Aaron Koolen]

Hey all. I'm shooting a seminar on the 18th and someone offered me the use of a Canon 430i as a secondary camera to my XM2. I've had no experience with this cam but from what I've read it seems to offer a few manual controls like white balance, exposure and shutter speed. I was wondering if anyone's had experience with this camera, and what you all thought of the idea of using it. Will I be able to match the footage so they look similar and not be too distracting? Should I just flag it and try and hire another XM2 or XM1 maybe (I'm not being paid for this so it's out of mny own pocket if I do)?

Cheers
Aaron

[Don Palomaki]

Probably works OK, but being realistic the price is too low for it to be to be a high "quality" mic. (Sony is not noted for underpricing their products.) Certainly it is not in the class of the Snnheiser ME66, and based on price it may be a bit below the MKE300 in overall quality

[Bud Kuenzli]

if you white balance them together and shoot some footage and replay it you could further tune one of them by adjusting the color or doing a second white balance with an appropriate color card...or you could do some color balancing in post. I've taken people's gym shots done without white balancing, almost completely orange...and brought them to a reasonable color balance before so I'd think that if you had two camera's in a reasonably close white balance that it would not be too touch to color match them close enough for non-critical work.

[Aaron Koolen]

Thanks Bud. I'm hoping to get hold of this second camera several days before the shoot so that will give me some time to do some tests.

Cheers
Aaron

[Fred Beukema]

I'm having some difficulty with capturing footage into Premiere 6.5 in winXP. Whenever I go to the movie capture window, I get a single frame of what's on my GL2 screen, and then my system resets.

I read a thread from January of someone who had a similar problem, but I never head if there was a solution.

Here are my system's vital stats, as reported by System Information:
http://fbeukema.tripod.com/hardware.txt
http://fbeukema.tripod.com/components.txt
http://fbeukema.tripod.com/software.txt

I'm using a Biostar-made VIA M7VIP mainboard, a Kouwell KW-F7002 USB/IEEE 1394 hub, a Chaintech-made GeForce 4 video card, and a Soundblaster Audigy sound card. Before posting this problem, I made sure I had the drivers for all of these things updated.

Any ideas?

Thanks very much.
-Fred

[Fred Beukema]

an addendum:

I'm capturing to a Western Digital 200GB hooked up through an Ultra ATA controller card.

Thanks again.

-Fred

[Jay Staya]

Your thoughts and opinions on this mic would be greatly appreciated.

-What situation (if any) would this mic be useful for?
-Have you had any issues with it? ie mounting, impedance matching, etc..


Thanks in advance

Jay

[Bud Kuenzli]

got my GL2 this weekend (you might have heard me holler if you live in the northern hemisphere) but after recording 10 minutes and playing it back using a new Sony Excellent tape, I had audio dropouts and one or two video glitches. I tried another new tape with similar results. I ran it through 10 sec. of a Sony cleaning tape and I think that might be all it took but only time will tell. I find that rather odd for a new machine. Canon support reiterated the need to use only one brand of tape, but the fellow admitted that he had no numbers on that issue; it may be a geek legend at this point. :)
no real question here...just thinking outloud. :)

[Chris Hurd]

I always recommend running a head cleaning tape for about 5 or 6 seconds through any brand new camcorder, regardless of make or model.

[Bud Kuenzli]

I wish I had such a wealth of experience ( or a budget to allow...) to be able to discuss all the various dv cams I've bought (grin) but since this is just #2, I was surprised to find audio dropouts. glad to hear it isn't highly unusual to need such preventative cleaning. I've not had time to verify that the problem is solved but I sure hope so. Otherwise I'll not be doing any video taping on my upcoming vacation. cross some extra fingers for me. :)

[Stewart McDonald]

I will be buying a Canon XM2 this summer, and for the moment am just planning on what accessories I need to buy. I have been looking into the glidecams, because I want to make short films and love the smooth long shots that steadicams produce. Which glidecams are good for the XM2? I don't want to spend more than I need to really. Also, I live in the UK and want to know if it's advisable to order from bhphotovideo.com, as this is the only website I know that you can order from. Are there any places in the UK that sell them? Getting a Glidecam 2000 from b&h would cost me $100 extra just for shipping, and who knows what charges I'd get for import.

Thanks