Dean Sensui
Forum Replies Created
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The HVX has Clear scan and the Canon XL1s has it, too.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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Some of the first things I shot with the EX1 was in the kitchen under fluorescent lights. No problems.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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[Jan Crittenden Livingston] “And then there is the wierd issue that it won’t allow you to go into record from the playback mode. You have to switch the camera off and have it reboot to get to the recording side. This will take over 10 seconds.”
Sorry Jan. That’s not correct.
… it takes 13 seconds. 🙂
And another 10 to switch back. So flipping from shooting to review and back to shooting will eat up 23 seconds unless you use the “last clip” review button on the handle.
Another drawback is that you can’t go immediately from any of the review modes to record mode. If you hit the clip review button you have to wait until the clip finishes the playback before you can continue shooting. So if the clip review is programmed for 10 seconds of playback, you’re stuck for 10 seconds.
The EX1 has a lot of pros and cons. Anyone interested in it really should give it a try and see if it fits their workflow and shooting style.
That said, I have both cameras. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Both can do some very nice work in the right hands.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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[Rennie Klymyk] “The main thing that keeps coming back to me is the lighting. The back wall is the brightest thing and the subject should be.”
Rennie…
Actually you might be able to knock down the brightness in post. I do that fairly often by creating a vignetted solid, and adjusting the feather value of the edge as well as the opacity. It will look like you flagged it for all intents and purposes.
In fact, that technique is used quite often in the grading process. So don’t feel too badly about it. 🙂
Learning from mistakes is a powerful teacher. The reason why I know what I do is because I’ve made a LOT of them. Including once — and just once — shooting photos without film in the camera.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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Your lights are mismatched. Some shadows are green and some are magenta. They should all be the same. There could also be something wrong with the imaging chip. I’ve seen that happen with at least two XL1’s before. In one particular camera the lower left and right corners of the video it shot were cyan on one side and magenta on the other.
Making certain the shot is properly focused is an absolute essential in a commercial product. Imagine what the viewer’s reaction would be when they find out they paid for something that was poorly produced. It can permanently harm the instructor’s reputation.
A more dramatic lighting setup would also help. That light colored wall is distracting. Flag your lights to knock them down a bit.
You’re getting some sort of chromatic aberration, and that’s a camera problem. Could be the lens or something else in the optical chain. That camera might have to go in for some serious maintenance.
The dropouts could be a tape problem. Either the heads need to be cleaned or the transport system has dust floating around in it.Hope you will be able to sort all this out. Good luck…!
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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[Rennie Klymyk] “You can get great shots in shallow water this way and if you leave it stationary the fish won’t be scared.”
Shouldn’t you take the fish out of the aquarium first? 🙂
What’s nice about this technique is that you can get an interesting above/below POV with the surface of the water bisecting the image. That’s sometimes harder to do with a housing.
You’d have to back the camera away from the glass a bit and you also have to make sure the space between the lens and the glass is hooded to prevent unwanted reflections.
Also, it helps to carefully add weights in the aquarium to get the right amount of buoyancy so you’re not fighting to keep it at a certain depth. Gaffer tape the weights so they don’t shift.
An easy way to figure out how much weight you’d need is to determine how deep you want to sink the aquarium. Measure the distance from the bottom to the waterline. Then measure the length and width of the aquarium to determine volume in cubic feet.
Water weighs about 62 pounds per cubic foot. So if the volume to the waterline takes up 1.5 cubic feet, you’ll have to add enough mass to make entire aquarium and camera setup weigh 93 pounds.
This exercise will also highlight the need to use the smallest possible aquarium so that you’re not having to haul a lot of weight. The greater the volume the more weight will be needed to make the whole thing sink to the desired depth.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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Ralf…
Unfortunately the HVX doesn’t work as a P2 recorder for HD. It can only record SD to tape via the composite or Y/C inputs.
You might want to consider a smaller housing with some other HD camera.
Or use the HVX in a Gates housing (or similar) and have it feed a monitor topside.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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Bill…
Did your clients just need to see the numbers or do they also need to have an LTC SMPTE signal on one of the audio tracks?
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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FCP’s controls are much more cumbersome than AE. I find myself spending a lot of time fiddling with FCP’s motion controls and not getting the desired results.
AE is straightforward and much more precise.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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I’m not sure how AE does its rendering, but if it depends on the graphics card then that might be contributing to the problem.
With Apple’s Color, for example, the user manual specifically states that rendering with different Macs could alter the color since the process is dependent on the graphics card. Different machines with different graphics cards will yield different results.
Thus they recommend that if multiple machines are used in rendering, that one machine be used for a specific shot, and not split up a shot among a variety of machines.
Or use several identical machines.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii