XH-A1 Shootout in Berlin? at DVinfo.net

Salar Ghazi · May 13th, 2007, 04:15 AM

Hello,
is the someone out there in the Berlin area, who wants to compare his XH-A1 (or G1) to my recently bought A1?
I want to check, wether the batches differ (Chromatic aberrations, noise in dark areas, noise level of the transport, sharpnes etc...).
I have no HD-monitor, so it would be nice somebody could provide one...
I assume, this in depht comparison will take about 2 hours...
All the best, Salar

Jan Luethje · May 14th, 2007, 10:47 PM

Hi Salar,

good idea, but I don't have a HD Monitor. Just contact me under: beniexom(AT)aol.com

Rene Roslev · May 15th, 2007, 11:29 PM

Please publish your findings if you manage to do a comparison.
I have owned several Canon "L" lenses for my DSLR and found the sample variation to be disturbing at times. It would be nice to have an indication of whether the QC for their prosumer camcorder lenses is as bad.

Salar Ghazi · May 17th, 2007, 01:29 PM

Hi guys,
well, I borrowed an A1 yesterday and tried a shootout today- but the cameras differ slightly even with the custom presets switched off! Same with the default custom preset #1 switched on, the A1 I borrowed seems always to be a tad brighter, with lesser contrast - lets say half a stop? (Of course I did cross-check all setups, but did not find any differences. Also, everything was of course set to manual)
I first thought, the reason of the difference in brightness was the protective filter in front of my camera´s lens, which I forgot to unscrew at the beginning of the test. But after doing so I found out that it did not influence the image very much.
Because of this, as one example, chromatic aberrations are not easy to judge, because of the different contrast and brightness of the cameras.

The linewith of the aberrations on both cameras seem to be the same, but the aberratons of my camera look more saturated - which can be a result of the difference in brightness and contrast between both A1.
Noise of the image from gains -3/0/+3 seems to be the same on both cameras - (didn´t try higher settings) I simply recorded with the protective cap on first and pumped up the brightness in my NLE later. I then filmed my room with 1/32 ND filter on (Aperture 1.6/ shuter1/50) to look for noise in dark areas but because my camera was much darker with ND on, noise was not easy to judge. BTW, all tests were done wit 25f.
So, for everyone still interested in a shootout, we really need pro equipment - color chart, a HD monitor and HD waveform monitor.
But I think the differences I found -with my non-pro equipment- are nothing to worry about... but I am still interested in a shootout with pro equipment!
Greetings,
Salar

May 13th, 2007, 04:15 AM	#1
Salar Ghazi New Boot Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 20	XH-A1 Shootout in Berlin? Hello, is the someone out there in the Berlin area, who wants to compare his XH-A1 (or G1) to my recently bought A1? I want to check, wether the batches differ (Chromatic aberrations, noise in dark areas, noise level of the transport, sharpnes etc...). I have no HD-monitor, so it would be nice somebody could provide one... I assume, this in depht comparison will take about 2 hours... All the best, Salar

May 14th, 2007, 10:47 PM	#2
Jan Luethje Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Berlin, Germany Posts: 89	Hi Salar, good idea, but I don't have a HD Monitor. Just contact me under: beniexom(AT)aol.com

May 15th, 2007, 11:29 PM	#3
Rene Roslev Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Posts: 49	Please publish your findings if you manage to do a comparison. I have owned several Canon "L" lenses for my DSLR and found the sample variation to be disturbing at times. It would be nice to have an indication of whether the QC for their prosumer camcorder lenses is as bad.

May 17th, 2007, 01:29 PM	#4
Salar Ghazi New Boot Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 20	Hi guys, well, I borrowed an A1 yesterday and tried a shootout today- but the cameras differ slightly even with the custom presets switched off! Same with the default custom preset #1 switched on, the A1 I borrowed seems always to be a tad brighter, with lesser contrast - lets say half a stop? (Of course I did cross-check all setups, but did not find any differences. Also, everything was of course set to manual) I first thought, the reason of the difference in brightness was the protective filter in front of my camera´s lens, which I forgot to unscrew at the beginning of the test. But after doing so I found out that it did not influence the image very much. Because of this, as one example, chromatic aberrations are not easy to judge, because of the different contrast and brightness of the cameras. The linewith of the aberrations on both cameras seem to be the same, but the aberratons of my camera look more saturated - which can be a result of the difference in brightness and contrast between both A1. Noise of the image from gains -3/0/+3 seems to be the same on both cameras - (didn´t try higher settings) I simply recorded with the protective cap on first and pumped up the brightness in my NLE later. I then filmed my room with 1/32 ND filter on (Aperture 1.6/ shuter1/50) to look for noise in dark areas but because my camera was much darker with ND on, noise was not easy to judge. BTW, all tests were done wit 25f. So, for everyone still interested in a shootout, we really need pro equipment - color chart, a HD monitor and HD waveform monitor. But I think the differences I found -with my non-pro equipment- are nothing to worry about... but I am still interested in a shootout with pro equipment! Greetings, Salar