New Canon A1 need some advice

[John Huling]

There were some night shots posted with guitar audio as background.

1) Who played the guitar?
2) How does one do slo-mo on the A1?
3) What tripod and/or panning control would you recommend?
4) Is the A1 camera good enough in "all uze" opinion for a commercial DVD release.

I too bought mine because of this forum. I tend to stay off of them but this group seemed downright polite!

Thanks John

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by John Huling

I too bought mine because of this forum. I tend to stay off of them but this group seemed downright polite!

Welcome aboard, John. We heavily enforce politeness and professional courtesy to each other on this forum. If you ever have a problem, just hit the report bad post button located at the left side of each posting and one of us moderators will quickly act on it.

Sadly, too many people feel that an internet forum enjoys the protections of 'free speech' and this just isn't true. We are in Chris Hurd's house and we have to abide by his rules.

I'm sorry I don't have the answer to your original question but I'm sure someone will jump in here and help you out.

-gb-

[John Huling]

Thanks Greg

I really found an incredible amount of info here. I must say a much better place to find it than the manufacturers.
John

[Chuck Spaulding]

Hi John,

the music was The First Time from Daneil Lanois.

[John Huling]

I knew it was familiar...did some work with him years ago. I am in the process of doing some work with another studio doing some hi-def archive of "artists in the studio". They need some slow stuff shot. That's why I asked about the A1 slow mo capability

[Chuck Spaulding]

I asked the same question in another thread and apparently it does not have any timelapse capability.

[John Huling]

Ooooo... not good! the salesman assured me it did. I let him know that was an important part of what I wanted to do. Does Vegas 7 or some other software like Holly suggested work? I will have to go on the shoot in 2 hours. Just need to know if I can do the slow mo afterwards. Is it any good?

[Chuck Spaulding]

I think all NLE's are capable of speed changes, some better than others. I use PPro2 and most of the time if I'm slowing the footage down to 50% it works well.

There are times however if I'm slowing it down to an odd speed, 39% for example, I'll either change the rate to 40% [or something that's close and acceptable] or if it has to be an exact frame rate for some reason I use After Effects.

I was just hoping for some kind of timelapse capability in the camera.

But if your just concerned about slowing the footage down I don't see any problems with that. Oops, I just thought of a potential problem, I edit using an intermediate codec that converts the HDV m2t stream into individual frames. With that I have no problems but if your editing HDV natively I have no idea if that works as well.

Also, sorry for the scare, I don't know for sure that the camera DOESN'T do slo-mo. That's just what I was told in another thread. Hopefully someone who knos for sure will speak up...

[John Huling]

If you have ever seen any old Windam Hill Nature videos of a slowly falling leaf, brooks, etc. Tha's what I need to be able to do. 50 percent might be ok. Also if you look at David Fortney's stuff it is time lapse...can I do that as well? Thanks

[Simon Dean]

Guys,
It depends what you mean by 'slo mo'. You can't 'overcrank' the camera like the HVX200. If you want progressive frame it has to be 24fps, if interlaced it's 60fps. However, you can change the shutter speed obviously, so a slow shutter speed will give you a blurry effect, which can look quite good sped up loads - effectively giving a 'timelapse' type effect. Vegas 7 does speed ups quite well.

If you want real slow mo, i.e. video it faster and then slow it down, then you culd do a 60i recording, deinterlace to get 'progressive' and then slow down to 24fps - giving reasonable slow mo.

So - for 'timelapse' I would slow the shutter slightly and speed up loads in post (i.e. 400% or so). For slow mo you can try just slowing in the NLE, but the effect won't be great, as you have to 'create' new frames using blending - the 60i and deinterlace root may be better.

As mentioned do be careful with HDV and the long GOP - it's definitely better to use an intermediate like Cineform - I've tried it and it's much better.

Cheers

Simon

[John Huling]

Boy this is great I have to say you guy's (Holly included of course!) are really being a help. So bottom line how should I set the A1 up before I shoot tonight? Any suggestions? I will be shooting some musicians performing and believe it or not they will have to be put into slow motion...like the "million dollar man" tv show. :)

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by John Huling

Boy this is great I have to say you guy's (Holly included of course!) are really being a help. So bottom line how should I set the A1 up before I shoot tonight? Any suggestions? I will be shooting some musicians performing and believe it or not they will have to be put into slow motion...like the "million dollar man" tv show. :)

John, you should shoot in 60i, then de-interlace in post as was suggested. You also need to use a little faster shutter speed which will give crisp time slices. Maybe use around 1/125 or 1/250. This is only useful if you want to be able to stop within slow motion and have a clear frame to view. Otherwise, leaving a little motion blur might be useful.

-gb-

[John Huling]

Yippee! Thanks I am leaving to the job in an hour so if anyone else has any advice let me know. I would be glad to send some music to you just as a thanks. John

[Holly Rognan]

If it is dark only use 1/60th shutter, instead of the gain.

[John Huling]

Thanks Holly! Do you (Holly, Simon or anyone) have some website I could check out to see some of your work? Mine is johnhuling dot com