Canon XH series -- various sample clips

[Miguel Torres]

Thanks for your reply...Uhmmm I cant really tell you what setting I had But...i CAN TELL YOU I used 2 lights about 500 watts the Photography type with umbrellas (ooops) and I used the Low light preset I found here on this site with the Aperture wide open and Manual focus in Av Mode...

Miguel

[Nathan Quattrini]

the weights are all different sizes so the number isn`t important...its the fact they are about equal to the camera weight. Honestly this was a long time ago so I don`t quite remember. Same answer for the music heh, it was just something I threw together for those looking for sample footage.

[Nathan Quattrini]

I took this picture totally at a whim with the actor the last day we were filming. I wanted to test out the A1's picture taking, and loved how it came out. I thought it sucked when I took it, looked all dark and washed out on the viewfinder....almost erased it. But I forgot to and when I got home found it on the card....I love the detail and the light and shadow, captured beautifully. I used VIVIDRGB version 3 i think with black to press maybe? I forget exactly...but yea, my favorite picture so far

http://www.kiukle.com/temp/zarrius_woods.jpg

After looking again and realizing the pic was taken in jpg format, I was curious...can the camera take a higher quality picture? At %100 you can see artifacts from the jpg compression and I`d think they`d do better with such a nice camera

[Eric Weiss]

I've been deleting pix for that reason too. They look horrible when you take them in the cam. This is good to know.

For a video camera, that pic is pretty damn nice. For a production still on a website or a thumbnail on a cover, it’s totally useable.

If you do use it, you may want to brush out those waterfront condos.
They aren't vibing too well with the ye olde barbarian swordsman..unless of course your project is entitled "Barbarian Timeshare"...which would be awesome. The possibilities are endless.

[Bo Sundvall]

Hi

I've been lurking around this forum for a long period before I sold my Panasonic DVC30, saved money and bought a Canon XH-A1 two weeks ago. The DVC30 was a really good camcorder and as an entry level prosumer cam it has helped me a lot to understand all parameters possible to tweak on the XH-A1. When blowing up the DVC30:s picture on a 42" plasma, it was no discussion, the DVC was not made for big screens. After experimenting with the XH-A1 for two weeks, I must say that the 'upgrade' was worth the price. The picture from the camera is absolutely outstanding with details picked up at an incredible level. The limitations on the DV format regarding details is history.

I've made a short film with clips from my first day with the cam. Learning the cam will probably result in better clips. The video is a divx file, 1280x720, 1080/50i deinterlaced for divx. As custom preset i used Steven Dempseys VIVIDRGB. I really am a fan of that man, his knowledge and his films, and I also understand the effort of creating this preset. It really makes colours pop out.

A link to the film:


https://lagring.storegate.se/user/sh...6-1c8726b99382


Kind regards,

/Bo

[Roland Oeller]

Wow, beautiful!
Makes me want to go out and shoot something with my A1.

I guess the vividrgb is just right for this sort of thing. I will try it out next chance I get.

The HDV codec is really getting overwhelmed by all the little details in these shots, especially the water. But I always tell myself, that 95% of the "normal" people out there don´t really recognize that. You can not beat the A1´s image quality at that price!

I also find it interesting how forgiving 720p televisions are in comparison to 1080p displays. What looks compressed on my 24" 1080p monitor looks great on my brother´s 32" HD-TV. :)

Any way, thanks, I didn´t expect such a nice film when I downloaded it.

[Ernest Freeman]

That was nice, thank you for the chance to view your work.

[Jerome Cloninger]

That was shot really well!

I believe that is the best DIVX encode I've ever seen...

[Mark Rook]

Hi guy's. Sorry I've got nothing to view as far as footage is concerned, but I'd like to know what the best format is for saving vids, Quicktime or WMV. Whats the pro's and cons.

Thanks,

Mark.

[Eric Weiss]

"Saving" them for what?

Archive, online, broadcast, DVD, home use on HDTV?

[Mark Rook]

Saving them for Archive and the internet.

I notice a lot of the footage on this forum is in Quicktime. Is there a reason for this over WMV.

Mark

[Eric Weiss]

to archive i would save them as m2t or cineform avi to disc or hd storage.
for online, i like 720p wmv.

[Roger Lee]

As a last minute decision, I recorded a concert at our church this past weekend.

The conditions were: dark sanctuary, well lit stage(front of sanctuary). No movement of folks on stage singing into mikes and not much contrast. I'm new to the A-1(couple of weeks now) and since this was a last minute decision to record, I didn't do any research on shooting in these conditions ahead of time.

My camera setting: auto, vividRGB preset, auto white balance...everything pretty much auto.

For those of you who shot in these conditions, as you might expect, my results were severely blown highlights. This was my first experience shooting in these conditions.

Since this weekend, I have read everything I could find on this forum and in magazines about filming in such conditions....tricky at best I understand.

After wading through the information, here's what I'm coming up with pertenent to the A-1 and dark room, well lit stage. I'm trying to simplify as best I can here.

1. Full manual

2. Ride the iris

3. No presets

4. No gain

5. Use contrast boost to help focus.

6. White balance - tungsten.

Does this look right for a starting point for a set up in these conditions?

Any other suggestions?

Many thanks.

Rog Lee

oops, I meant for this to be in the normal threads. Sorry.

[Brandon Freeman]

I haven't used the VividRGB preset much, haven't really cared for it myself.

I would recommend utilizing a preset which consists of low knees and stretched blacks. Depending on what you want, you might also consider going to one of the gamma levels (I use Gamma2) as it lowers the contrast between brights and darks. Maybe play with the master pedestal and setup levels, too.

The result I'm suggesting will come in very low contrast, but you will then have both muted highlights and detailed shadows, and in post you can tweak the picture to the level of contrast you need.

EDIT:
The reason I'm suggesting this is due to the fact that event shooting is very unpredictable -- for narrative or interview type work you are in charge of what's happening, thus you have control of lighting and can afford to crunch the blacks you don't need and push the contrast exactly where you want it. But in an environment where the video serves the action, my opinion is that you need to be as accommodating as possible and capture as much visual information as you can. Then, in post, crunch and tweak until you get the right contrast that doesn't blow any highlights and doesn't lose any needed shadow information.

Also, to avoid excessive blowouts, I would recommend using zebras between 85-100 -- these are basically indicators in the form of black and white lines (they won't record onto your footage) that show what is overexposed according to the current percentage. I personally shoot with zebras at 100 at all times as I detest blowouts. A little bit of zebra is okay at 100 (in fact you'll most likely want to see a bit, otherwise the image will be underexposed, which is also nasty).

As far as manual vs. auto, the more you can keep manual the better, especially when it comes to gain.

My two cents. :)

[Roger Lee]

Brandon,

Thanks for the help. It's appreciated.

Rog Lee