Newbie help prior to production shoot

[Steve Graham]

I purchased the XLH1 body kit and the 6X lens to replace my XL1s. I

shot for three years with that camera and made 180 commercial films.

I have a production shoot in a couple of days and have done some

sample shooting with the XLH1 to get familiar, plus I have been

reading posts for several weeks.

I shot with the XL1s always at a 1/60th shutter and -3 gain and

worked aperature as I moved. I relied heavily on my zebra. My

shooting environment is always controlled, indoors with 1,000 - 1,500

watts of softbox lighting in rooms typically 20' x 15'. I run a

VIDLED LED light as portable light. I move about the room constantly

to get different angles.

I still have some ambiguity on several points and was hoping to get

clarification;

1. Shoot mode: I am leaning toward 30p as I have discerned from other

posts it is interlaced and doesn't present as much sensitivity to

generating artifacts on camera swings. The 60i mode (is this 1080i??)

seems solid but I don't want a video look. A tech at Canon advised 60i based on my environment.

2. Sharpness: I am reading people are turning the sharpness down (!)

to get sharper effect. I had my XL1s on sharpness 3 and need sharp

picture.

3. Shutter: I see the new LED lights thru the viewfinder complain

about shutter (and gain) if not right range. I shoot in 'V' mode and

am used to controlling aperture but never changed shutter due to my

controlled lighting conditions. My question here is footage is

dumping dark is it ok to shoot at 1/30th vs. adjusting the gain

upwards?

4. Color Gain: I am reading people are pushing to 10-40 (!) in their

preset but my settings don't go that high.

5. Zebra mode: I rely on this a lot. I have it set at 75% and the

knee set on auto. Does anyone know what the relation to my old XL1s

and the XLH1 is for zebra (same? I read EVF looks brighter than

actual capture).

Any help appreciated for newbie here. I have anxiety about first shoot this weekend. Thanks everyone and happy new year..

[John Reilly]

Hi, Steve:

I don't have any of the professional experience you have....

...But I just wanted to make the remark that from what I also have been reading here, if you move to 1/30th as opposed to 1/60th on your shutter....and since you say you move around constantly to get different angles, you could be risking a more juddery, strobe-like image.....

But stay tuned for the better-informed, more high-tech responses I trust you will soon receive...

Best of Luck,

John Reilly

[Steve Graham]

Thanks John. I do plan on sticking with 1/60th and studio lighting permits. I am going over there tomorrow to shoot with those lights. I was just monkeying around at home shooting the dog and the camera kept prompting me to change shutter.

I wanted to make sure I would output to Ulead VisualStudio 11 (which is part of my old workflow). Had problems seeing the Canon XLH1 finally found fix. Installling Directx 9.0C november (latest)version fixed. Seems like this is general cure for other NLE issues.

[Kevin Martorana]

Steve,

It seems to me you have TONs of experience. Why even shoot in V mode ?
You should be shooting in Manual (M) mode all the time. IMHO...the other modes of the camera are left over from Canon's 35mm still and consumer camcorders...designed to make it easy to get good results when an AMATEUR is using the camera.

As for some of your questions...60i is 1080i resolution.

When shooting in Manual mode...ALWAYS ALWAYS check your shutter speed. It's easy to bump those buttons....


When shooting 1080i...I tend to use the 1/60th shutter...I have not tried going to a 1/30th

[Steve Graham]

I've become creature of habit from the way I shot with the XL1s so I just went for V mode. Will look at full manual. Don't recall why I shot in V. Once I have the shutter locked to 1/60th (incidentally it was easier to bump shutter in XL1s, XLH1 has rims riding above buttons now to help prevent) and I have whitebalanced against a grey card, I just controlled aperture during shoot and leaned on zebra to make sure no blow outs of what I was concentrating on.

[Dan Keaton]

I recommend that you experiment with Custom Presets. Please refer to the "Stickies" at the top of this section.

I prefer the PRESET01.CPF: AC PREF1 -- Alister's prefered general setup.

I have made some slight changes to it, but it is a good preset in my opinion.

Please be advised that the preset control buttons, under the top handle are easy to bump. If you are going to use a preset, and I feel that you should, be sure that you do not bump these control buttons.

So, as you record each shot, ensure that you are on your desired preset.

"Color Gain: I am reading people are pushing to 10-40 (!) in their
preset but my settings don't go that high."

Any preset setting over 9 indicates that the preset value would apply to the Canon XH A1 or XH G1 and not the XL H1. The preset ranges are different between these cameras.

"Sharpness: I am reading people are turning the sharpness down (!)
to get sharper effect. I had my XL1s on sharpness 3 and need sharp
picture."

The above does not make sense to me. I recomment that you experiment.


I agree with Canon, I would use 1080i60, unless there is an overridding reason not to. I suggest that your experiment.


Going from an XL1s to the XL H1 requires you to pay very close attention to focus.

I recommend that you monitor your video with a good HD monitor. Also, you will need to calibrate your viewfinder, as it will be too bright and the colors may be slightly off out of the box.

Use -3 gain whenever you can.

I would use 1/60th shutter with 1080i60 unless you have a special reason.

"Shutter: I see the new LED lights thru the viewfinder complain
about shutter (and gain) if not right range."

By this, I assume you mean the three LEDs in the viewfinder. If the gain is on anything other than 0, then the gain Led will be lit.

[Steve Graham]

That was some good info. I am trying to create an optimal preset. What do you recommend for color gain? If you do lookup on posts for sharpeness some say they turn down but this to you (as to me) does not make any sense.

The biggest item in the preset you mention is that it is set to Cine2. That is only to go to film from my research and seriously darkens the pic down. I was leaning toward Cine1. Also, Color Gain is -1 in AC PREF1, don't get that. Plus a lot of posts by Tom Roper and others have their Setup Level at 0, not -2.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Steve,

Yes, I agree. Changing the preset from Cine2 to Cine1 is the change that I made.

I believe that is the only change that I made to "PRESET01.CPF: AC PREF1 -- Alister's prefered general setup".

Feel free to experiment with the custom setup. That is how we make progress.