HFS-10/100 Capturing fast-moving images

[Eric Kueper]

I have watched alot of HFS-10 sample footage but most of it is scenic shots of trees or flowers or slow pans of cities. Does anyone know how well it captures fast motion? I dont mean capturing a higher frame rate, I just mean if you were to hold your camera still, and shoot something like a fish being caught, jumping and flopping around very quickly, does it still look smooth? I went in and toyed around with one the other day, and in 60i it seemed smooth but as soon as i tried its 24p setting, any motion looked very poor, it looked like it was in 15fps (and 24p is what I am most interested in)

Has anyone seen any example footage of fast moving images? (Still debating hv40 or hfs-100)

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post

[Tripp Woelfel]

Someone might be hanging about here with a technical analysis of this topic that could chime in. Until they do, I'll tell you that I use an HV10, HV30 and HF100 locked off to capture motor racing. Aside from the differences between AVCHD and HDV, there really isn't much difference at all between the look of the footage from each camera. As is to be expected from CMOS sensors, the images fall apart somewhat as the light wanes. I have read reports that the high data rate settings, 17Mbps and above, there is less artifacting with AVCHD than HDV. I don't really have any "apples to apples" footage from the different cameras that I can use to make a decent comparison.

I think you'll get better footage from AVCHD for your fish catching example because of the flexible and higher data rate and more efficient compression. It's a good choice if you don't have issues opening AVCHD's other can of worms.

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Eric Kueper

I went in and toyed around with one the other day, and in 60i it seemed smooth but as soon as i tried its 24p setting, any motion looked very poor, it looked like it was in 15fps (and 24p is what I am most interested in)

Jerky and poor motion are kind of characteristic of 24fps. 30fps (60i) will generally look smoother because there are more frames to display the motion in the same time frame.

24fps is an archaic holdover from the film days because that frame rate was the best compromise between film consumption and what our persistence of vision could still try to "smooth out" without too much flicker.

So I don't chase that 24p "will 'o the wisp", there are other ways to get a look reminiscent of film and the motion at 30fps (whether 60i or 30p) remains pretty smooth. I use a pair of HF100's at the 17Mbps setting and have no complaints about how motion is displayed.

For the film like look, I use cine mode with brightness, contrast, & sharpness "tweaked" a little. Cine mode by itself looks a tad "flat" to me but with the "tweaks" I get something a little "snappier" but still with that extended dynamic range.

Originally Posted by Eric Kueper

Has anyone seen any example footage of fast moving images? (Still debating hv40 or hfs-100)

Early samples I saw on vimeo of Tokyo street scenes showing vehicles zipping by impressed me. As soon as I get over the "sticker shock" of purchasing the new Canon T1i (Rebel with HD video) I plan to sell off one or both of my HF100's and order an HF S100.