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Skin Detail setting on XL H1
Anyone have any issues with the Skin Detail setting on the XL H1? I’ve shot about four projects now using the factory defaults. With each one the majority of the footage looks great except when it comes to skin tone and detail. The ironic thing is that the latest project was just a simple indoor talking head.
With the camera skin detail set to high – from a long wide shot (12-15 ft) his face looks soft. It’s as if I’m out of focus. And when I zoom in you see tremendous aliasing on detail areas like his tie and the black countertop directly behind him. They jump and flitter. Enough so, that I had to add the maximum flicker filter in FCP 5 to make it acceptable.
I’ve not shot anything yet, but for sure I’ll try the medium to low skin detail. Anyone else have an thoughts or experience to share?
Project – talking head indoors good lighting. SD 4×3 camera in default setting with skin detail high (I assume that was default as I never changed it until now)
PS: I’ve shot for years and have extensive experience with the Canon XL1 with no such issues.
The Visual Rabbi
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2 Replies
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Here’s a follow up from another XL H1 user from dvinfo.net
I’m totally blown away. Has anyone else been experiencing this?“Brian…I’ve has similar problems. Small vertical and horizontal lines are “aliased”. I thought it was a skin detail also.
Heres what I’ve found…and anyone can chime in…but this is from Canon directly.
I spoke with one of the reps about this same problem.
1. It only occurs in SD.
2. Vertical and Horizontal lines are aliased.
3. Video just looks….well “bad”.Canon basically told me the chips are designed as 16×9 chips..and HD. He also agreed that this is a bit of an issue because the imaging chips must “res-down” to SD and there is probably too much info there for SD to handle. Therefore the aliasing occuring with small lines.
The camera was really made as a HD camera…and SD is just a “courtesy”.
He suggested trying shooting the footage in 16×9 mode in SD…then centerpunching the footage in post. I haven’t tried this…but his idea was that at least the native 16×9 chips would be giving full information and that might help.
Again…this is my 2 cents worth. I have NEVER shot any SD with this camera after this problem…I couldn’t beat it.
HD…on the otherhand doesn’t get any better unless you shooting with a Cine Alta. 60i or 24f…the image is fabulous.”
The Visual Rabbi
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I’m having a hard time buying what the Canon rep told you. I’ve tried shooting with my Canon Xl-H1 in HD to reduce or eliminate the aliasing problem, but to no avail whatsoever. The aliasing is still painfully noticeable.
I’m going to try lowering the sharpness setting to see if that helps. Also, as aliasing is a function of interlaced video, I’m also going to try shooting in 24F (records in progressive mode), though I suspect that won’t help much since during playback the signals are down-coverted to 60 fps interlaced. We’ll see what happens.
Any thoughts?
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