[Frank Tucker]

One caution. The 16×9 format is very seductive and when shooting with conversion to 4×3 aspect ratio in mind, you must always be aware of the framing. Even centercut and some of the other techniques will not correct for framing outside of the 4×3 aspect ratio. I think the HV20 and the XHA1 provide shooting guides in the view finder to help prevent this. I would strongly advise thier use.

If you use the technique that describes resizing the letterbox to fill the vertical aspect of the 4×3 format (as described in the FCP workflow) you can probably fudge the framing abit at the edges of the 4×3 viewfinder guides.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

One other though is to use all of Todd’s explanation and also move your subject as far away from the background objects that might be in focus as possible. I have discovered that when shooting outdoors where distance is more easily adjusted, I can achive the effect with a tight zoom and a background separation of about 30 feet or more.

If possible place your subject at least 25-30 feet from the nearest object that will be in the shot. Move as far back as possible and frame with the extended zoom. Use Todd’s methods to achive the rest and the results can be quit good. This is much harder to achive indoors in most shooting situation unless you are shooting in a large building where you can achive these distances.

Hope this helps.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

Since this is the Canon list, I would recommend you look closely at the new canon XH-A1. It is the same basic formfactor as the GL2 and only slightly more expensive than the GL2 and about the same as the Sony FX1. Like the Sony, it provides you with the flexibility to shoot in both Standard DV format or HDV. Unlike the Sony it gives you the (IMHO) better lens, stablizer and color controls. This gives you a camera that will meet your current needs and allow you to experiment and shoot HD as needed.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

I have the Firestore drive and would highly recommend it as a significant time saver. Here is the problem with tape. Shoot three hours and capture three hours before you can edit. When capturing to the firestore hard drive unit you can shoot three hours and transfer files in 10-5 minutes and be editing.

The firestore drive can also be connected through firewire to your computer or laptop and the files can be viewed and used just like any other drive attached to your computer. A tremendous time saver if this is your issue. You can record to tape and harddrive simultaniously and have the tape as your backup and raw footage archive.

There are other hard drive recorders available so shop around and see what will best suit your needs. I recomend the Forestore but I have not used any other type of attachable drives so I can’t provide a price/performance comparison.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

This functionality has been available in the now “Avid Liquid” (formerly Pinacle Liquid Edition) for years.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

I shoot with a Canon XLH1 and am very pleased with the quality of the video. Since the XHA1 is based on the same core technology as the XLH1, I would guess the quality is comparable.

One of the benefits of the Canon XLH1 and the XHG1 is the inclusion of the HD-SDI output jack-pack. This allows for the capture and output of true uncompressed HD 4:2:2 in stunning clarity. This is a rather expensive option but will provide this capability if your needs grow to a true HD product. The jack-packs also provide a professional means of connecting multiple cameras together for multi-camera shoots.

The advantage to taking the Jump to HDV now (based on my experience with the Canon cameras) is that you can shoot in HD 16×9 format and output in either SD 16×9 or HD 16×9 as clients requirements change. You will also be able to re-release your SD (captured initially as HDV) footage later as HD if needed.

The real issue is taking advantage of the 16×9 format as widescreen is

[Frank Tucker]

I’ve had this hapen when shooting a Canon XL1. It occured when white balancing insude in low light. I set the white balance manually and the balance changed ok but the “White Balance Icon” still flashed slowly indicating that it did not have a solid lock on white balance (I now surmise …(;->). I shot anyway and got the effects you described.

Hope this helps.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

I think Canon has had the 4 channel audio since it releases the XL1 and this goes back many years now. NLE software bendor have had lots of time to assimilate these capabilities into thier software and I’m supprised that Sony Vegas does not have this capability as the Canon XL1 was for a long time the premiere video camera non the market (my opinion).

It might just be a typical Sony position that they are more interested in thier hardware and suppoting it than developing software that supports a broad range of cameras. In any event, Pinnacle’s Edition, Liquid Edition and Avid Liquid has supported this for some time.

[Frank Tucker]

I regularly capture 4 channels of audio in my Avid Liquid NLE software with no problems at all from my canon XL1 and my Canon XLH1 using the standard firewire interface. The only difference between the audio is that the 2 channel audio can be captured at 16 bit but the 4 channel audio is 12 bits (I think). Once in the NLE, you can select what ever channels you want to keep.

Copter Doc
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[Frank Tucker]

Hi Don,

I haver a Firestore FS4ProHD and it is not robust enough for some of the situations I shoot in. You can see a discussion of this in the Firestore forum with regards to shooting from helicopters. I like my Forestore very much but the fact that it records to hard disk is a limitation in some environments so I have a need to explore the solid state recorder option.

———- From Firestore forum …
I just finished reviewing the tape from my XLH1 and the skips are not evident. The gust vertical motion is recorded at the point that the skipped frames occurs in the Firestor recorded files. This tells me that the issue is not EMI related (electrical transsmision – at least in my helicopter, MD Explorer) or vibration related but due to turbulence when the G loading was evident in gusty conditions. If the skipping was vibration related, such as a two per rev or five per rev (based on blade configuration of the helicopter, or a lateral rotor imbalance, I suspect that none of the files recorded on the Firestore would be usable. This is definately the disk drive heads being misaligned by the vertical G forces in the wind gusts. I don’t know if this would be different if the drive were mounted more in a level plane rather than vertical. Depending on the drive design, the heads might crash into the disk in a horizontal plane mounting configuration.

The tape is more robust in these conditions as I would have guessed. The best solution will be to record directly to solid state memory (e.g. the P2 Cards, etc.). I have not yet found a solid state recorder that will work with the XLH1 but am very interested in finding one. Any help would be apreciated.

After this experience I would rule out the Firestore for any extreme type shooting environment that is not shot from a tripod or a steady cam type device or hand held at more than a walk. It might work better in a good gyro stabilized mount but even if the mount keeps the camera pointed at the subject, the drive can still experience G loading. The drive is just not up to the shocks of these environments in my short experience. The drive might be improved by adding some sort of solid state memory buffer that would work in conjunction with a drive that could rapidly recover from shocks and write from this buffer (ala, the Sony shock buffer used on thier CD Walkman disk players). Otherwise the chance of messing up a good shot is high.

Maybe some day we will have someone build a recorder that will mount on other camera and utilize the P2 type cards (;->)

Copter Doc
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