XLH1 watchmaker clip available online!

[Per Johan Naesje]

Found an interesting link over in the A1 forum, both A1 and H1 footage is available for download here:
http://usa.canon.com/app/html/See_Th.../hd_3ccd.shtml

Very interesting to view!

[Ken Diewert]

Very Cool!

Thanks Per.

[Marty Hudzik]

I am gald to finally see this and it does look great. However I note that Canon chose to leave the footage with a more "video looking" color balance....on my LCD monitor at least. I thought it could have been improved with a little color correction and contrast to make it really look like film.

However I understand the motivation. This footage represents what comes straight off the camera. If it is color corrected then I am surprised as it looks a bit "flat" to me. A good place to begin color grading and you can take it anywhere you want to go from here. IMHO.

[Barlow Elton]

Too bad it was edited in 60i as the cadence looks messed up with the way it's been rendered.

Honestly, I wish they'd have considered the issue before posting this piece. If they would've taken the time to do an inverse telecine it would be much better, because I can imagine all the comments about the messed up look of the frame rate that are about to happen. It doesn't look like proper 24p, which is what people want to see, in addition to the nice visuals.

[Marty Hudzik]

I thought that it was just choppy on my PC at work today. That's how it is rendered? Ouch!

Originally Posted by Barlow Elton

Too bad it was edited in 60i as the cadence looks messed up with the way it's been rendered.

[Barlow Elton]

Funny, at 00:05:03 you can see the Panasonic DVCPRO HD deck http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...odel=AJ-HD1400 that they used for SDI recording on the Watchmaker set.

[Johan Forssblad]

Nice to see it finally. But I wonder why it is 1888x1062 pixels only and not the full 1920x1080?
Also the motion stutters like Barlow said. If you step frame by frame you will see 4 frames with motion, then a copy of the last frame, then 4 more moving frames and a copy of the last frame ...

I'm glad to live here in the PAL region and be able to use 25F instead of your terrible 29.96996596191406... FPS.

[Brent Ethington]

It may have been a concious decision, but any guesses as to why they went with the blown exposure for (all) the outside shots? Seems like using an ND would at least diminish it. the take away from these shots is that the camera has minimal dynamic range - probably not the impression Canon wants to impart... :-) on the other hand, there are some scenes that show an incredible amount of detail. maybe I'm just being overly critical

(looking at the A1/G1 demo in contrast to the H1, the A1/G1 comes across much better - lots of vibrant colors & detail)

[Oleg Kalyan]

I wanted to share some thoughts, IMHO:
1. why to show overexposed shots, in a final promo piece,
2. why not to use 4by4 graduated filters, having a matte box and such a high budget production?
All magenta coloring and overexposure, till 1 min 13 sec really throws me off, (was it a no-preset?).
It looks really good inside the shop and my favs are the the shots of Joe Caruso interviews, perfect exposure there. All street docu shots look terrible.
Really liked extreme close-ups.
3.17-4.33 and further "shop shots" look gorgeous
The result - the camera excels, yet it needs perfect exposure, more so than film.

[Daniel Patton]

Ha, I thought I was just being too critical of the over exposed outdoor shots, glad to read that I was not alone. ;)

Still a nice little camera, we may be trying it out soon, I'll be sure to watch the exposure (as the case with any HDV camera).

As for filters I personally think it's better that none are used, I would rather see the camera as it is, without third party assistance. Otherwise it would be deceiving. A better preset however is fair game, since it's all in camera.

[Johan Forssblad]

Originally Posted by Oleg Kalyan

I wanted to share some thoughts, IMHO:
...
2. why not to use 4by4 graduated filters, having a matte box and such a high budget production?

Hi Oleg, Why do you complain about no matte box? At 00:03:03 it is clearly visible they are using a matte box with some kind of filter.

Could the reason for cropping to 1888x1062 pixels be they got unexpected things outside of the (limited) view of the viewfinder? But they had all those monitors connected ... Or does the the picture quality look better if you crop the corners? /Johan

[Oleg Kalyan]

I mean that, yes, the camera had a matte box, yet all the sky shots outdors, have whites blown out of proportion, no detail whatsoever, I think they used warm filter indors though.

[Johan Forssblad]

Yes Oleg, I'm also surprised by the blownouts. I guess they did not have enough time to learn the camera well enough before the production. My first experience with this camera was also blown out highlights until I dared to adjust the presets and tested all the different presets available here and did my own favorite. But they had all those expensive monitors connected and couldn't get it right in our opinion. Strange they are talking they love the high dynamic range of the camera. And what you see is what you get. Maybe the taste is different.

[Andy Lunn]

Would using a filter reduce the burnout skys at the beggining? I dont have any knowledge of using filters so sorry if that stupid question. I have an xl h1 and a dv vocas mattebox, what filters should be in my kit and when would i use them? I thought it was better to do all cc in post?

cheers.

[Oleg Kalyan]

You'd use graduated ND filter, generaly it works nice in landscape shots, you'd get more detail in overexposed parts of the shot such as sky, clouds..