Pushing the limits of the HD1000u

[Kren Barnes]

For our latest project (14 hour wedding shoot), we tried to push the limits of what this camera can do in terms of its settings, portability amongst other things. With a little help from its little brother the SR1, this is what we came up with ... enjoy !

Elizabeth + Roger on Vimeo

[Noel Lising]

Nice work Kren. I assume you are using a Sungun for the reception? Ceremony is available light? Hope you can share a reception footage without MB looks or tweaking.

[Bryan Daugherty]

Noel - Interesting point. In most "show your work" threads you would rarely see someone comment ..."no MBL or tweaking." I am guessing that is because the thread subject is pushing the limits of the 1000U. This raises two thoughts to me...

1) if the end result (edited piece) is as good as people shooting with other more expensive cams does this validate the 1000u as quality piece of kit.

2) if you are posting edited finished work is the quality in the camera or the editing suite and the skills of the person editing...is the edit hiding the flaws of the camera..

Interesting things to consider. If I am off on my interpretation of your posting please elaborate. Thanks...

Kren- While I am not big into a lot of the styles you used I think this is a high quality example of what you can do with this camera in the right hands. Good work and thanks for sharing.

[Noel Lising]

Hi Bryan,

That is exactly my point of view, without the tweak, I want to see what the HD1000U is capable of delivering. The outdoor shots are stunning, I want to see what the indoor shot looks like, available light or the use of a sun gun without the "tweak"

[Kren Barnes]

Hi Bryan,

To me its validated not because i'm biased coz i own one (we are moving to FX1000 next year) for the $2000 we spent, we can produce high quality footages closely resembling that of a $6000 camera. ultimately though, the variable difference (and limitation) is the 1000u only has one CMOS chip which really puts the burden of properly lighting a shoot. But saving $4000, i'll gladly spend some of it on lighting equipment.

@Noel - No sungun for us, we use the high end sony on camera HVL light. Actually we just received our 10 ft Amnova lights which we will use moving forward...the reception shots in the video are pretty much barebones. that was shot in the dark with just the oncamera light. i only adjusted the contrast level from 0 to 5. You can watch the 7th birthday sample in our website..that is plain barebones..only lights and no tweaks whatsoever...

[Bryan Daugherty]

Kren, i was playing a little devil's advocate on that one. I have always been and will continue to be, one of the most outspoken advocates of the HD1000U because as a user, like you, I have seen what this camera can do.

[Adam Gold]

I, for one, am really glad to see people discussing what this cam can do rather than what it can't. For a while there all you saw was people bashing the cam for not performing like cams five times its price.

I don't use mine every day but I think for what it does and what it costs, it's one of the best values out there.

[Kren Barnes]

Hahahaha!! i know you were Bryan ! but really, some of the wedding videographers i know, after watching our latest highlight, cannot believe that you can do this with what they call a "cheaply amateur" camera. (they carry the FX1's, Canons XL's)mind you i will not back down comparing our most recent work to their own in terms of the quality of the footage...

cheers,

[Chris Harding]

Excellent and professional footage.

That comes from someone who turned down HD1000's in favor of Panasonics!!

I don't agree with your classification of "amateur"..the HD1000 LOOKS professional and would have the respect of the client. Take in an HD domestic camcorder and yes, that's amateur, regardless of the outcome!!

Admittedly I was looking hard for rolling shutter issues and spotted maybe two at the most but really, I don't think that anyone would notice them unless they knew what to look for!!

Your pans are clean and there is no evidence of any image breakup that is sometimes associated with CMOS imaging. Slip on an LED video light and the low light issue disappears!!

We sometimes forget that wedding videography is a business and go out and buy a trio of Sony EX3's and then wonder why we didn't make any money last season!!!

A great ad for the Sony and let's face it it's an awful lot of camera for a very small investment!!!!

Chris

[Marc S. Brown]

I too have one of these HVR-1000U's. My last wedding I shot was so grainy I swore I'd never use it again. Seeing your piece really reminds me of the truth of "skill of handler trumping limitations of equipment."

Is there any extras (of any kind) that you add on to your camera to really expand it's capabilities?

[Bryan Daugherty]

Marc can you post a screen grab? What editor are you using?

[Marc S. Brown]

O.k. - I feel really silly - but I have the screen shot - how do I post it??

I use Final Cut Pro to edit.

[Marc S. Brown]

o.k. - Apparently I can't post attachments yet - I can e-mail a JPEG if you'd like... You'd be welcome to post it if it's beneficial to the group...

[Bryan Daugherty]

Marc - It could be a mute point. I was hoping I might be able to offer you some advice on cleaning it up having battled with noise on this camera before but I edit on PC, so I don't know if my advice would help at all.

In response to your original query. Supplemental lighting (when practical) if you are operating in low light is essential. I also find moving the exposure control to menu one of the touchscreen and controlling it manually is very helpful in preventing the gain noise. A proper portable HD monitor (I like the Ikan V8000HD) is a huge benefit as weel but is not practical when you are run and gunning...

[Kren Barnes]

Thanks Marc..much appreciated..my advice is to know your camera inside out and you'll be surprised at what you can create.. when we first began filming weddings,we've had our setbacks similar to what you experienced but that is partly our fault for not learning how to shoot and edit properly.

Aside from meticulously playing around with the settings and using lights and PC editing tools, we don't really use any extras to expand the capabilities of the HD1000u...although im planning to experiment with 35mm adapters (Brevis) to see if they will help us with the camera in terms of DOF shots and such...

regards,