XA-20 is a fine camera

[Bryce Comer]

I also think you will find the run time will vary with the settings you have. Eg. using IS & AF along with a 35mbps setting will result in a shorter run time than no IS, Manual focus, & say 24mbps encoding will be a little longer. At least that was my experience while playing around.
Regards,
Bryce

[Bob Ohlemann]

I was curious about battery consumption with the camera on but not being used since there is no standby. With the camera on and a full charge, reading 237min, I closed the display and set a timer for one hour. When the timer went off, I checked the battery and it read 187min remaining. So, though it didn't consume a full hours worth, it does use a lot of juice just sitting there idle.

Bob

[Bryce Comer]

It is also interesting that there is no longer an auto power off function. Unless that was the case with the XA10, they have certainly dropped it from the HF G10. One of only a couple of dislikes I have with my EX-3 is the lack of that auto power off & draining batteries when I forget to slide that little switch over. When you are miles from anywhere & you run out of batteries, it is a hard pill to swallow!
Bryce

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks Don. You have explained the phenomenon. This accounts why the XA-20 will not run with legacy batteries. The design of the camera apparently called for more than the older batteries could provide.

[Derek Craig]

The big brown truck just dropped my XA-20 off a few minutes ago. I'm like a kid on Christmas morning right now!

[Bob Ohlemann]

Ok, you guys tell me if I'm being too picky here. I'm still getting to know this camera and some of the things that have been omitted are really annoying considering the level that this camera is designed for. I just realized that there are no zoom power numbers, just a bar with an indicator. I looked through the manual and couldn't find any reference to how to get the actual zoom magnification to show up. This is something I use quite a bit on my little Panasonic HDC-TM90. I shoot mostly horses and I often setup a baseline where I'll be most of the time, then if I zoom in or out, I know what number to go back to. Seems like most of the things people are finding need improvement are things that could easily be fixed with a firmware upgrade. It almost feels like they did it on purpose just to be able to say later, "Look at all the stuff we gave you in the new firmware."

I did edit some stuff from the camera in Premiere Pro CC last night. I was really happy with it. Much better dynamic range that the little Panasonic.

Bob

[Don Palomaki]

Auto power off was needed with tape camcorders for three reasons: head wear in pause, tape wear in pause, and the increased use of power by motors when they are running. These issues are gone with tapeless systems. Auto focus, stabilization, and zoom notors use power when acutally in use. There is some increased use of power during recording due to increased DSP and write loads (as is the case with any computer).

I suspect that for most people the savings with a sleep mode would be probably be small compared to the convenience of having near instant on recording. More people complained about the auto shut off with tape camcorders than have complained about it being missing on tapeless machines.

[Derek Craig]

I got to play with the XA20 today. Sweet camera. I'm going to like this over my HV30 and XH-A1.

[Jeff Harper]

Congrats Derek!

[Ronnie Martin]

I totally agree the XA-20 is a fine camera. Right out of the box we were able to obtain an outstanding quality clean clear image.
.
Our camera arsenal here at Kato Video Production includes the following Ex-1-R Ex-3 and PMW 320.
We had never compared any other cameras to our Xdcam cameras until now.

Wow! I was really taken back after looking at the initial clips before we did any tinkering. My
Ex-1R looked sick up beside the XA 20. The canon was much warmer, had more contrast and much cleaner image than the EX-cameras. The image quality or "look" of a camera is very subjective and what might look good to me might not to another person. However, the "look" of this little camera was very pleasing. So Pleasing that we are now tinkering with the XDCAM cameras trying to find profiles that would give us more contrast and a warmer cleaner image as the XA20. We are currently using Doug Jensen's Doug 1 profile and have been pleased with the results.

Here is the set up that we are using at the present after our initial tests.

Shutter -Pri- 60 AE
White balance auto

focus manual peaking on I will probably turn this off it gives the view finder a red tint.

Image effects: sharpness -1, Brightness 0,contrast -1, color depth +1

auto gain limit 9 db actually running in the auto position.

iris auto

image stabilizer dynamic

focus manual: actually I toggle the auto on first then change to manual with peaking and focus assist then leave it at manual.

face tracking off

auto backlight correction on

ND filter on auto

movie format AVCHD
Recording mode 24 Mbps LPCM

Relay recording However, I may change this because
the 64 gig cards will run much longer than the batteries. I may change to dual recording.

frame rate 59.94i

DF/NDF DF setting

ND filter automatic

user output mode fixed

OLED color balance 0
OLED brightness bright.

auto white balance

We are more accustomed to cameras that have the major settings on the outside of the camera. However, the menu is easily accessible and there are buttons that can be programed to helpo some of the settings like white balance, iris, shutter speed and so on. We plan to use this camera in a run and gun method when setup is not an option. The OLED screen is outstanding and the menus are logically arranged to make going total manual easier than other small cameras we have used.

A couple other of findings is that the Hoodman Viewfinder hood that I have been using on the Ex1-r fits fine on the XA20 and makes manual focus much easier and helps in bright light.

Instead of trying to match the XA20 to the XDCAM cameras as we initially thought we are now looking for Picture profiles to match the XDCAM cameras to the XA20.

Don't get me wrong. We are not ready to ditch our Sony cameras. They have been workhorses and have never let us down with hundreds of hours of use in some very difficult shooting conditions.

We just discovered a little small camera that gives a look that we like.

We have looked high and low for picture profiles for the XDCAM cameras to give a more warm look and and more contrast to mimic the XA20 but have been unsuccessful.

If you know of a site that might help please send me the link

Thanks guys and gals for all the posts I have read on the forum. I have learned so much from your questions and answers.

Take care

Ronnie Martin
ronnievideo@aol.com

[Al Gardner]

If I were to go this route I would have to op for the XA-25. Lots of gigs I go on want a SDI out. Even in live streaming.
What does the Standard def look like out of this camera, anybody know? That would be important to me as well.

[Ronnie Martin]

In all of the 20 years or so of video production we have never had a request for SDI. I am sure that your
"gigs" are more technical more demanding and on a higher plane than ours. I really think the D 30 is a better buy price wise if you are looking for a small prosumer camera with a terrific image. All three cameras XA25/20 and G30 all have the same lens and sensor. The 20 and 25 both have the XLR imputs (which are removable)and the 25 has SDI out. All three have wifi function. I can see where for run and gun news gathering the 25 might be a a great buy when you consider the image quality and the price.

Thanks for your reply

Ronnie
Kato Video Priductions

[Al Gardner]

I hear you Ronnie. but it's not the past 20 years I'm looking at.
SDI is the only way to feed HD signals long distances.

if you need it once that's. it.:: Why does an output cost more?

[Don Palomaki]

Why does an output cost more?

Can be drive by a number of factors, not the least of which are number of units they expect to sell with the added feature (different case, added jack, and circuit board perhaps) compared to the cost to implement it, the expected lifecycle maintenance/support cost of the unit with the added feature, and what the market is willing to pay.

On the average, units with SDI may be subject to more field use under rough conditions resulting in a higher warranty repair rate, which translates to higher warranty/support cost component in setting the final price.

SDI allows use of existing 75 ohm/BNC connector analog video cabling.

[Ronnie Martin]

Originally Posted by Al Gardner

I hear you Ronnie. but it's not the past 20 years I'm looking at.
SDI is the only way to feed HD signals long distances.

if you need it once that's. it.:: Why does an output cost more?

I forgot to say that I already have the ATOMOS HDMI-HD-SDI converter .....still in the box. .

I assume it will do the same thing and work with all our cameras. We have not used it yet. It was won in a drawing at NAB.

Ronnie