Canon XH series -- various sample clips

[Doug Davis]

That was pretty impressive man... Great job... Great flow... Please post the final version...

What frame rate were you shooting? Any particular presets?

[Bill Busby]

Well done.

The male voiceover at the beginning introducing "himself" as Jane Velez-Mitchell threw me though :)

[James Hooey]

Here is an early edit exerpt from the video Indian Falls - A Guided Tour.

http://www.vimeo.com/967979

Essentially a travel/tourism on spec video about the conservation area and the hiking trail that takes people from the parking to the falls themselves.

This was shot over three days with a few clips from last fall as well.

Equipment used was the XHA1, Letus Extreme, Nikon 28, 50, 135mm lenses, Manfrotto 503/525 tripod. Edited in Vegas Pro 8. The video is shot in 24f (which had some issues getting to work in Pro 8) and uses the default camera setting with color correction done in post.

There is still about 3 minutes to complete and then to finalize the edits/colors/effects/narration/bed sounds. Many of these will be entirely re-recorded or replaced with separate audio recordings. You can hear the Letus vibrating in several of the shots as currently the video is playing the audio from the camera mic.

Hope people find this enjoyable and informative. This is a particular format and style of video that I want to base my business around, so I'm hoping it catches peoples interest.

Comments and critiques are most welcome!

James

[Jim Miller]

James. You asked for comments so here is my .02 cents - just my opinion though.
My first impression is that the video did not make me want to go to this place. The time of day, shot selection, color etc. were boring to me - and I'm a nature lover. I would also loose the graphics since they really didn't give me much useful information. In addition, the DOF was not put to good use except for a few shots of the crumpled leaves and twigs.

I also found the opening shot of the falls with the dutch angle distracting. Wow, what a grouch I am. Sorry - no disrespect.

Suggestions.
Re-shoot when you have better lighting -i.e. early morning or late afternoon when the sun is golden. It will also give more depth to the shots.

Feature the falls more prominently and from a variety of angles. Shoot more angles of the stream - maybe some very low at the waters edge. You could also ad a few hikers or someone fishing. Show people enjoying the space. Use a wide DOF when shooting the overall environment and save the real shallow DOF for the detail shots like you did on the leaves. A little more enthusiasm in the voiceover would also be a plus.

I don't want to discourage you and hope you will take my comments constructively as intended. I think you want people to watch the promo of the park and say "wow, what a nice place. I want to go there."

[James Hooey]

Thanks kindly for all the advice Jim. I appreciate criticism very much as it helps me identify what others are seeing that I might not be.

A few things I will mention is that you are the second person (other forum) to mention the dutch angle at the start being distracting. I'm still happy with it but I wonder how many people find it to be the wrong choice for the title background? Why?

The only other thing that strikes me is that you mention that I should time for better lighting. Not sure how I can get much better than what I get when I was at the area between 4 - 7 pm in early April for three days of sunny weather.
Did you notice how long the shadows were and the slightly warm cast of many of the shots?
Any later and there would be no sun in the valley of the river. I really wanted to shoot the falls in the morning (east facing falls) but was unable to get the chance to do so. The backlit falls is my greatest frustration with the lighting but much of the other shots I think the light looks great.

As mentioned in my opening post this is an unfinished early edit. I expect for many things to stick out as being rough but comments on it's current state can only help to make the final cut that much more polished.

Thanks kindly for your time Jim and for your comments. Many things to consider!

:)
James

ps: what does 'discouraged" mean?

[Viimar Lindau]

Hello everybody!

I am another A1 newbie here. I’ve been reading this forum for about 6 months and have gained so much new. This forum is the reason I purchased A1. Thank you all who have shared their knowledge and expertise.
I haven’t posted any questions yet because so far I have found answers to my questions by searching and reading this forum.
Switching to A1 is a major jump for me as before that I was using Panasonic consumer camera on A-mode most of the time :) Now A1 has so many complicated features and buttons and it takes time to learn how to use them. But I like it! Thanks to you I’m learning very fast.
As I have been lucky owner of A1 for about a month, I thought it is time to put something together and share it with you the same way as many of you have done already. After playing with my new camera at home for about two weeks, I decided to take it with me to country side and forest for a weekend.
Here is what I did.
I took all sort of different shots about how nature is waking up after winter time. For some shots I used tripod and some are hand-held. Everything is on manual mode. Also I used Panalook preset by Mr. Dempsey – thank you Steven. No any color correction in post, plain and simple straight from the camera.

Here it is:
http://www.vimeo.com/970830

Hope you like it :)
All your advise/comments/criticism welcome!

[Matthew Ebenezer]

Hey Viimar!

Welcome to the forum!

Some really nice images in your clip. Good use of depth of field as well. Seems like you're getting the hang of manual mode pretty well.

For me, I found the tripod shots to be more appealing - for this type of piece. The handheld shots in this piece made me realise that the camera was there ... rather than me focusing on the images.

Beautiful images straight out of the camera.

Great work - the A1 is such a cool camera and you're off to a good start!

Cheers,

Matthew.

[Nikolai Ozerov]

James:
May I bring a couple of suggestions ... My impression from what I've seen was that the movie is too technical ... I would add something what really impressed me when I've seen the falls on the first time. In my case (I've seen the falls twice) it was a dramatic change after driving through a small and busy downtown of Owen Sound and in 5 minutes later walking on the picturesque trail and listening to the sounds of nature. You probably has your own impressions. Try to highlight them in the movie ...
Although the view of the falls in the early spring is very impressive but there is one big advantage being at the falls later in the season. The creek turns into puddles as you said in the movie and that what makes it possible coming to the falls following the creek bed. This way you can see the water coming down almost upon you and shattering on the rock. Believe me that staying down there you feel quite different comparing to when you are above the falls ... That would definitely could bring some unusual angles and combined with the views you already have could tell more about the subject.
At last, I would drop the detailed description of the memorial park. Instead, if you'd like to give some info on the surroundings there are two more waterfalls in the area (Inglis falls and Eugenia Falls). I also vote against the tilted background - just my opinion).
I wish you best luck,
Nikolai

[James Hooey]

Nikolai,

Thank you very much for your suggestions! It's great to get some feedback from someone who has visited the area before and has some impressions of the area. That's exactly what I was hoping for.

Something you mention regarding the low water levels later in season allowing for creek bed level access gives me some excellent ideas on how to integrate some footage I have from the previous year. Currently I used only one shot (the dry creek with fall colours) but have many other of these low levels that I had wondered how to incorporate them into the whole.

I agree that it is somewhat of a technical style of film. I considered it a "Guided Tour", by this meaning a combination of reference to the area and it's trail system (hence the maps and distances) as well as a bit of a portrait of the place shown in pretty pictures. Still struggling on the balance between these two.

The narration was sort of driving the edit to some degree so now I am going to also be working on rewriting many parts of it to expand and allow for both more information and more scenic imagery.

Thanks for your time and comments, much appreciated!

James

[Jay Hobbs]

Greetings All,

Listen ... I've been waiting to get my camera for over a year now. About six months ago, I came across this forum as I was trying to decide on the right camera for my purposes.

For the longest I didn't even post, I just kinda laid low and soaked up information. A month or so ago, I finally made my first post. After only a short time of looking at sample footage of the XH A1, I knew it was the camera for me! Not only that, however, the rave reviews that users here seemed to be given for the camera.

After saving up and finally getting the camera, I received it last week. I wasn't really worried about was the camera going to live up to the hype or not, nor was I concerned with an HD workflow. I guess the main reason being ... I was already prepped by being on this forum.

For that I'd like to thank everyone here. I couldn't wait to shoot either! So, I literally removed the camera from the box, inserted a tape, walked across the street from my job on my lunch break and began shooting!

So this explains the shaky footage. I used the factory settings, no presets, as I said before ... straight from the box to shooting.

Please to say, that I love the camera (knew I would), and that all of the information I learned on this site really will come in handy (especially that this camera needs some support!).

I'm looking forward to making more video with my new toy. Again thanks to you all, for helping me make the greatest decision for my future career!

http://www.vimeo.com/986574
http://www.vimeo.com/responsiblehd

[Jim Miller]

Congrats on your purchase. The fun has just begun!

[Matthew Ebenezer]

Hi Jay,

Welcome to the A1 club. I had to wait over a year to save up for mine as well so I know the excitement of it finally arriving!

Great camera, hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Matthew.

[Viimar Lindau]

Thanks Matthew for your comments!

I’m agree with you that those handheld shaking shots don’t looks so good.
When I was taking all those shots I had no plan to put anything together at all. Main purpose was just to play around with my camera and learn full manual mode. So I didn’t pay that much of the attention to stability. When going to forest, I was too lazy to carry the tripod with me. Just afterwards when reviewing the material I came up with the idea to put something together and result you already saw.

[Steve Lewis]

Take a look at this short I made with Panalook2 and some minor color correction in Final Cut Express. (All -3db gain)

http://vimeo.com/992284

Tell me what you think!
-Steve

[Philip Williams]

Looks really nice Steve. I haven't downloaded the Panalook presets yet, I really need to try them out.