Can the XHA1 be matched with a Sony NX5? at DVinfo.net

Kees van Duijvenbode · June 2nd, 2010, 01:47 AM

Does anybody of you use a XHA1 together with a Sony HXR-NX5? I have the opportunity to buy an almost new NX5E for about half the new price and I think that's an opportunity I can't let go. But I wonder if the footage of both camera's can easily be matched. Be it in the presets or in post (I use Sony Vegas 9 Pro).

Jay West · June 2nd, 2010, 08:50 PM

I've been using an XH-A1 with an FX1000 for about 6 months and with an NX5u for about a month and a half now. I have had pretty good luck in matching theater-lit productions in post but I'm still fumbling with camera presets. I mostly work with Premiere (now CS5) rather than Vegas (and haven't yet upgraded to V9 Pro), so my experience might not apply directly to you.

I've had the best luck by starting with a large posterboard white panel before shooting. I use it with the auto white balancing functions on the cameras. (That is, put the posterboard up in front, zoom the cameras in on the board, and go through the auto-white balance function.) Then in post, I've applied color correction tools to the XH-A1 footage --- mainly using RGB color corrector in Adobe to add a bit of red and green across the board (5% in shadows, midtones, and highlights) while pulling down the blues in the midtones and highlights (about -5%), and adding a bit of saturation (maybe 3% to 5%) --- and doing this while displaying the scopes and fiddling with these settings until the graphs look roughly similar. These settings are approximate and may be limited to the particular lighting set-ups that I worked with. I've had no luck with the Adobe's automated color matching tools and am not familiar with the Vegas tools.

For really brightly lit outdoor scenes like outdoor weddings, I had pretty good luck with the XH-A1 true color preset. I was matching the the XH-A1 with an FX1000 which is pretty similar to the NX5. (This was before I added the NX5 to the mix). In post, I had pretty good luck applying Adobe's Auto Color effect followed by the Highlight/Shadow effect. I'm not sure what the Vegas equivalents to these effects are but I suspect that using the various software scopes would really help tune the images closer together.

Kees van Duijvenbode · June 3rd, 2010, 01:05 AM

Thank you so much for your extensive comment. But I decided yesterday to not buy the NX5 since I can buy a hardly used second XHA1.

Philip Younger · June 7th, 2010, 02:10 PM

I just finished reading a review of the NX5 by Nigel Cooper in DV User magazine. He claims the NX5 just has the edge over the A1,

But warns you're going to need a hefty PC to process the editing

June 2nd, 2010, 01:47 AM	#1
Kees van Duijvenbode Major Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands Posts: 246	Can the XHA1 be matched with a Sony NX5? Does anybody of you use a XHA1 together with a Sony HXR-NX5? I have the opportunity to buy an almost new NX5E for about half the new price and I think that's an opportunity I can't let go. But I wonder if the footage of both camera's can easily be matched. Be it in the presets or in post (I use Sony Vegas 9 Pro). __________________ www.cvd-video.nl

June 3rd, 2010, 01:05 AM	#3
Kees van Duijvenbode Major Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands Posts: 246	Thank you so much for your extensive comment. But I decided yesterday to not buy the NX5 since I can buy a hardly used second XHA1. __________________ www.cvd-video.nl

June 2nd, 2010, 08:50 PM	#2
Jay West Major Player Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Red Lodge, Montana Posts: 889	I've been using an XH-A1 with an FX1000 for about 6 months and with an NX5u for about a month and a half now. I have had pretty good luck in matching theater-lit productions in post but I'm still fumbling with camera presets. I mostly work with Premiere (now CS5) rather than Vegas (and haven't yet upgraded to V9 Pro), so my experience might not apply directly to you. I've had the best luck by starting with a large posterboard white panel before shooting. I use it with the auto white balancing functions on the cameras. (That is, put the posterboard up in front, zoom the cameras in on the board, and go through the auto-white balance function.) Then in post, I've applied color correction tools to the XH-A1 footage --- mainly using RGB color corrector in Adobe to add a bit of red and green across the board (5% in shadows, midtones, and highlights) while pulling down the blues in the midtones and highlights (about -5%), and adding a bit of saturation (maybe 3% to 5%) --- and doing this while displaying the scopes and fiddling with these settings until the graphs look roughly similar. These settings are approximate and may be limited to the particular lighting set-ups that I worked with. I've had no luck with the Adobe's automated color matching tools and am not familiar with the Vegas tools. For really brightly lit outdoor scenes like outdoor weddings, I had pretty good luck with the XH-A1 true color preset. I was matching the the XH-A1 with an FX1000 which is pretty similar to the NX5. (This was before I added the NX5 to the mix). In post, I had pretty good luck applying Adobe's Auto Color effect followed by the Highlight/Shadow effect. I'm not sure what the Vegas equivalents to these effects are but I suspect that using the various software scopes would really help tune the images closer together.

June 7th, 2010, 02:10 PM	#4
Philip Younger Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Warwickshire Posts: 207	I just finished reading a review of the NX5 by Nigel Cooper in DV User magazine. He claims the NX5 just has the edge over the A1, But warns you're going to need a hefty PC to process the editing