XH A1 Animation?
 

Hi,

I am an XH A1 newbie... Just bought my cam!

I got it for work but I was wondering if anyone knew about doing single frame shooting for animations. I could have sworn I read in one of the many articles I read about the XH A1 that it could do this but don't see it in the manual. I have never done it on any cam before so don't know where to look or what to do. I was going to try and throw something together as a Christmas gift for a kid I know.

Maybe I was wrong...

Russ

DSLR's are great for animation.

I have to second the notion of a still camera over video. Much bigger bang for your buck.

If you watch the movie Corpse Bride, that was all shot with an SLR.

It is not possible to shoot single frames on tape. Programs like DVRack running on a laptop can capture single frames from the camera at preset intervals and this would play as animations "out of the box".

Better way is to use a digital still camera (on manual settings) and capture on PC. All better video editing programs can turn numbered jpg file sequences into a video file automatically.

I believe some of those Firestore drives are capable of variable frame rate recording... Not 100% sure but I believe that is possible...

Thanks!

Maybe it was the HVX200...I VERY nearly bought that and had a mad session of comparative reading right near the end...nearly went crazy!

Ok...I don't have an SLR right now but I can presumably use the still feature on the camcorder.

I will start playing. I appreciate the direction.

Russ

You don't need an SLR. Inexpensive cameras, like the Canon Powershot, work great.

In fact, I have been told that it is not good to use a DSLR because most have a 100,000 shutter life. The mechanism can be quickly worn out.

I use a Canon Powershot 620 with the Granite Bay software:
http://www.granitebaysoftware.com/

The camera captures into a laptop.

The Canon cameras come with capture software. However, it is limited in the number of shots it will make. The Granite Bay software, though not free, is not expensive, and it allows complete control of the camera and the way the pictures are taken.

Kodak Z812 for single frames
 

Believe it or not, I'd recommend a Kodak Z812, it replaces the
P880 which I own. don't laugh Kodak makes GREAT cameras.

The Z812 has been out only a few months and street price is $249
it does native 16:9 frames they call it "HD".

What you want to do is (i'm a linux geek, but have windows and linux)
is shoot and output JPEGs.... with mjpegtools (free) you can assemble
frame by frame into a motion jpeg avi and import that into whatever.

I made a movie by rendering (with command line tools only) single
frame JPEGs of the satellite position of Sirius. one simple command
line sucked in all the JPEGs and output'd the video its easy.

ALSO... the Z812 does HD video 720p 30 fps and you can manual zoom
while filming. sick i know. Just make sure you have an 8G card in video
mode. its CCD, not cmos, and Kodak's color fidelity is awesome in their
cameras. (i own their top of the line P880)

I'm getting one soon....

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQueri...q-locale=en_US

I won't laugh. Kodak has done a lot of interesting stuff.

I believe they developed the 8mm video format, although it was Sony who brought it to market and popularized it!

The XH A1 has a still shot feature; not too sure about it though.

I'd personally say get yourself a second hand Canon 10d; you should be able to find one for 300-400 US dollars, then get yourself just about any decent canon lens and a canon remote shutterer (you can also buy a nicer one which allows you to do time lapse shots) and you're looking at RAW camera output at 3072 x 2048 which is like double 1080i hidef, you could easily crop images to 16:9 or whatever your output is.

You can also tether most Canon DSLR's to a computer and control the entire camera from the computer (been a while since I've tried this, correct me if I'm wrong) and save directly to your laptop/etc with no need for swapping memory cards etc.

Provided you keep the 10d on 100-200 ISO it will work wonders; the battery on it also lasts for HOURS (with no flash).