Canon HV series -- various sample clips

Steve Szudzik · April 14th, 2007, 12:44 PM

Thanks Elmer and Joey. I'm still getting used to shooting video, been doing stills for so long, I'm used to setting up for one shot, not re-adjusting on the fly as the lighting is changing. Still a lot to get used to. My old cam I would just set on auto, but this one offers so many options, I just can't help myself and keep fiddling with them.

Elmer, for the audio, I have the Canon DM-50 mounted and was shooting in shotgun mode. So far that has done a really good job with this camera. I haven't tried shooting with the 2 stereo modes yet.

We had another game today, so I shot about an hour and 10 minutes with the BPL14 battery and did about ~35 minutes of capture. That left the battery with about 10% charge left. Not too bad I suppose.

Steve

Elmer Lang · April 14th, 2007, 01:20 PM

Thanks for the info, Steve.

I take it those modes, shotgun and stereo, are modes on the DM-50. I didn't know it had that flexibility. I also really like that it's not so big.

best,
elmer

Steve Szudzik · April 14th, 2007, 01:37 PM

Yes, the DM-50 has three audio modes. Per the manual:

1- Shotgun: Clearly picks up sound arriving from the front of the microphone (monaural).
2- Stereo 1: Picks up sound arriving from the front of, as well as sound surrounding the microphone.
3- Stereo 2: Picks up sound surrounding the microphone in a wider range than Stereo 1.

I've been using shotgun at the games to try to reduce the "crowd noise" and pickup more from each of the kids, or the ball being hit. We're all packed pretty closely together there, so it still picks up a fair amount of the folks around me though. For a reasonably inexpensive mic, it does a good job.

Steve

Ian Albinson · April 17th, 2007, 02:01 PM

Due to a slow certification process for this forum, my buddy Keegan asked that I direct your eyeballs to his growing collection of HV20 material at:

http://zaps21.com/HV20/video_clips/

Of particular note is his recent Redsox footage and pigeon01.

All clips are encoded as H.264, using a Mac, and are fully compatible with both Windows and Mac versions of Apple's QuickTime Player.

Robert Hicks · April 17th, 2007, 03:14 PM

Most awesome! Buzz is getting his game on. :)

Very nice footage... very nice. Thanks for sharing and thanks to Keegan for posting the footage.

Jay Stebbins · April 17th, 2007, 04:34 PM

Cool footage. I like the scene mode comparisons. It custom color settings look so much better than the cine mode on my display. Did you notice the clips getting washed out in color when you compressed to quicktime?

Jay

Ben Troxell · April 17th, 2007, 06:20 PM

Awesome footage. Now I'm going to finish watching all of it.

Ian Albinson · April 17th, 2007, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay Stebbins

Did you notice the clips getting washed out in color when you compressed to quicktime?Jay

The washed out look you speak of is actually a bug in the way QuickTime player uses Core Video to display the H.264. I hoping this will be fixed in Leopard as it's VERY annoying.

One solution I've found, and it's what I'm using for my HV20 footage (coming soon!) is to use Visual Hub (http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/) for the compression. This uses ffmpeg to encode the H.264, and it does not suffer from the washed out look.

Fergus Anderson · April 26th, 2007, 11:43 AM

Hi All

thought I would share some recent tests results with you regarding sharpening cine mode in post.

I took some 25p cine mode footage and brought it into Vegas. Then using sharpen I applied both medium and strong amounts and rendered seperately. This I then compared with the same scene in fully auto (still 25p).

My conclusion is that cine footage looks better with a medium amount of sharpening but with the strong preset its too much. Medium looks as sharp as the normal 25p footage without the cine mode on.

Also its amazing how much more is lost in auto mode. The branches of the trees in the top middle of the picture cannot be seen properly in auto and the tv aerial on the top left is completely gone!!

Here is the original cine scene:

With medium sharpen:

With strong sharpen:

Auto for comparison:

Robert Ducon · April 26th, 2007, 01:26 PM

I own an HV20 and have yet to play with the manual sharpen feature - I can capture uncompressed via component, so when I *do* try this, I'll keep a close eye on the results (and post? ;) )

Auto looks horrible! It makes me think: was the focus on manual or auto? Did the focus change at any time? Auto looks nothing like Cine with the sharpen on normal.

The question is: should we HV20 owners be shooting with Cine all the time?

Tim Homola · April 26th, 2007, 01:56 PM

Very Interesting! Going to do some of my own testing.

Fergus Anderson · April 26th, 2007, 03:45 PM

In fairness I might not have chosen the best frame grabs - especially the auto shot (in terms of sharpness) but the blown highlights are an issue full stop. I think cine just provides more latitude and is a good starting point.

Hal Snook · April 29th, 2007, 12:20 PM

http://www.savefile.com/files/678224

720p, 58mb, 2:49. A little more compressed than is the norm around here, but it looks pretty good once you get past the complicated, choppy waters of Central Park.

I'm really impressed with this camera. I've been shooting entirely on Auto in 24p, and everything comes out fantastic (aside from a few shades of red I have mentioned). Also impressive to me is the image stabilization; I'm a very shaky shooter (can't take a 1/2 second still photo to save my life), but I'm able to get some very steady handheld shots, even at max zoom (see the boaters in the video).

Anyway, enjoy!

Paul Chiappini · April 30th, 2007, 10:48 AM

I did not shoot this. Link was posted on the IMUG list.

http://web.mac.com/chupap/iWeb/Films/Boom.html

Besides being shot on the HV20, it's pretty cool.

Ben Troxell · April 30th, 2007, 05:10 PM

... Just... why?

April 17th, 2007, 02:01 PM	#109
Ian Albinson Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Springfield, US Posts: 63	HV20 footage depository Due to a slow certification process for this forum, my buddy Keegan asked that I direct your eyeballs to his growing collection of HV20 material at: http://zaps21.com/HV20/video_clips/ Of particular note is his recent Redsox footage and pigeon01. All clips are encoded as H.264, using a Mac, and are fully compatible with both Windows and Mac versions of Apple's QuickTime Player.

April 17th, 2007, 04:34 PM	#111
Jay Stebbins Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Nantucket MA Posts: 82	Cool footage. I like the scene mode comparisons. It custom color settings look so much better than the cine mode on my display. Did you notice the clips getting washed out in color when you compressed to quicktime? Jay __________________ Dual 2.7 G5 HV-20, and vacillating between another A1 or the HVX-200

April 26th, 2007, 11:43 AM	#114
Fergus Anderson Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: London, UK Posts: 321	25p Cine Mode Sharpening test + comparison with auto for sharpness and exposure Hi All thought I would share some recent tests results with you regarding sharpening cine mode in post. I took some 25p cine mode footage and brought it into Vegas. Then using sharpen I applied both medium and strong amounts and rendered seperately. This I then compared with the same scene in fully auto (still 25p). My conclusion is that cine footage looks better with a medium amount of sharpening but with the strong preset its too much. Medium looks as sharp as the normal 25p footage without the cine mode on. Also its amazing how much more is lost in auto mode. The branches of the trees in the top middle of the picture cannot be seen properly in auto and the tv aerial on the top left is completely gone!! Here is the original cine scene: With medium sharpen: With strong sharpen: Auto for comparison: Last edited by Fergus Anderson; April 26th, 2007 at 12:21 PM.

April 26th, 2007, 01:26 PM	#115
Robert Ducon Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Victoria BC Posts: 400	I own an HV20 and have yet to play with the manual sharpen feature - I can capture uncompressed via component, so when I do try this, I'll keep a close eye on the results (and post? ;) ) Auto looks horrible! It makes me think: was the focus on manual or auto? Did the focus change at any time? Auto looks nothing like Cine with the sharpen on normal. The question is: should we HV20 owners be shooting with Cine all the time? __________________ Mac + Canon HV20

April 29th, 2007, 12:20 PM	#118
Hal Snook Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New York, NY Posts: 41	Yet more HV20 NYC footage http://www.savefile.com/files/678224 720p, 58mb, 2:49. A little more compressed than is the norm around here, but it looks pretty good once you get past the complicated, choppy waters of Central Park. I'm really impressed with this camera. I've been shooting entirely on Auto in 24p, and everything comes out fantastic (aside from a few shades of red I have mentioned). Also impressive to me is the image stabilization; I'm a very shaky shooter (can't take a 1/2 second still photo to save my life), but I'm able to get some very steady handheld shots, even at max zoom (see the boaters in the video). Anyway, enjoy!

April 14th, 2007, 12:44 PM	#106
Steve Szudzik Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Sammamish, WA Posts: 103	Thanks Elmer and Joey. I'm still getting used to shooting video, been doing stills for so long, I'm used to setting up for one shot, not re-adjusting on the fly as the lighting is changing. Still a lot to get used to. My old cam I would just set on auto, but this one offers so many options, I just can't help myself and keep fiddling with them. Elmer, for the audio, I have the Canon DM-50 mounted and was shooting in shotgun mode. So far that has done a really good job with this camera. I haven't tried shooting with the 2 stereo modes yet. We had another game today, so I shot about an hour and 10 minutes with the BPL14 battery and did about ~35 minutes of capture. That left the battery with about 10% charge left. Not too bad I suppose. Steve

April 14th, 2007, 01:20 PM	#107
Elmer Lang Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: NY, NY Posts: 319	Thanks for the info, Steve. I take it those modes, shotgun and stereo, are modes on the DM-50. I didn't know it had that flexibility. I also really like that it's not so big. best, elmer

April 14th, 2007, 01:37 PM	#108
Steve Szudzik Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Sammamish, WA Posts: 103	Yes, the DM-50 has three audio modes. Per the manual: 1- Shotgun: Clearly picks up sound arriving from the front of the microphone (monaural). 2- Stereo 1: Picks up sound arriving from the front of, as well as sound surrounding the microphone. 3- Stereo 2: Picks up sound surrounding the microphone in a wider range than Stereo 1. I've been using shotgun at the games to try to reduce the "crowd noise" and pickup more from each of the kids, or the ball being hit. We're all packed pretty closely together there, so it still picks up a fair amount of the folks around me though. For a reasonably inexpensive mic, it does a good job. Steve

April 17th, 2007, 03:14 PM	#110
Robert Hicks New Boot Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Golden, CO Posts: 20	Most awesome! Buzz is getting his game on. :) Very nice footage... very nice. Thanks for sharing and thanks to Keegan for posting the footage.

April 17th, 2007, 06:20 PM	#112
Ben Troxell Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: PA Posts: 31	Awesome footage. Now I'm going to finish watching all of it.

April 26th, 2007, 01:56 PM	#116
Tim Homola Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 30	Very Interesting! Going to do some of my own testing.

April 26th, 2007, 03:45 PM	#117
Fergus Anderson Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: London, UK Posts: 321	In fairness I might not have chosen the best frame grabs - especially the auto shot (in terms of sharpness) but the blown highlights are an issue full stop. I think cine just provides more latitude and is a good starting point.

April 30th, 2007, 10:48 AM	#119
Paul Chiappini Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Idaho Posts: 89	More HV20 Footage... I did not shoot this. Link was posted on the IMUG list. http://web.mac.com/chupap/iWeb/Films/Boom.html Besides being shot on the HV20, it's pretty cool.

April 30th, 2007, 05:10 PM	#120
Ben Troxell Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: PA Posts: 31	... Just... why?