Guy Mcloughlin
Forum Replies Created
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This sounds like you are using the auto-focus feature and NOT manually focusing the shot yourself.
I NEVER use the auto-focus because it’s way too slow to keep up. Everything I shoot is manually focused.
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…I shoot everything in HD, and then down res it to SD format because almost all of my corporate clients have no way of playing HD video.
The final delivery platform for almost everything I shoot is still a SD resolution DVD player. ( Some day I hope to be able to deliver HD on Blu-ray discs, but so far none of my corporate clients are set up for Blu-ray playback )
And most of the wedding videographers I know are also delivering standard SD DVD discs because that is what their clients want.
HD is great to work with, but the non-broadcast market is still playing catch-up.
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Premiere CS5 is the current version, and upgrading to it should solve your import problem.
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My advice is to buy a used DVX100B with no more than 200 hours on the heads. You can buy these quite cheap used, sometimes as little as $1,200 with batteries and accessories.
If you are buying new, then I would wait until you can afford a HMC-150, or try and find one used if you can. ( very hard to find used )
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Q1: how do I get Adobe Primere to recognize the .MTS files from the camcorder ?
Hmmm… Is this the latest version of Premiere ?
I haven’t used Premiere in a very long time, but I had thought that the latest version of Premiere had no problems with AVCHD files, including those from the HMC-150.
I edit with Sony Vegas Pro 9.0e, which has absolutely no problems with the files my HMC-150 creates.
Q2: This morning, I had to shoot video of students giving a presentation in a conference room. The lights were out and the presenters used a LCD projector. The problem I had was that the display from the projector was bright but the student talking was fairly dark (Illuminated by only sunlight coming into the room and the projector lighting). I was able to open the iris up until I could see both but the projector screen was way overexposed – kinda readable but still overexposed.
There is nothing you can do. When I shoot in these situations, I do not allow the presenter to turn off all the lights in the room, so that I am able to still get a good exposure on the presenter. Otherwise, I have to bring a small fresnel light like the 250 watt Lowel Pro Light, which I aim at the presenter, and then dim it down to balance with the projector light.
Q3: when I move the camera slightly, or the student moves from side to side, I get slight noise on the edges of the person. Anyone know what could be causing this and if there is a setting that will prevent this ?
Are you shooting in 24P, 30P, 60P progressive mode, or are you shooting in 60i interlaced mode ? Progressive should look great, but interlaced my give you motion “combing” if the footage is viewed on a computer and has not been de-interlaced first.
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This sounds like 24P progressive footage that has been telecined into a 60i interlaced video stream. To obtain true 24P footage from this video stream you need to use software that can reverse the telecine process to obtain true 24P footage from the interlaced video file.
I use Cineform’s NEO SCENE software ( available for both Mac and PC ) to obtain proper 24P video video from a telecined video stream. You can download a trial version from the Cineform website, and the cheapest place to buy NEO SCENE is from the VideoGuys website. ( it’s $100 from VideoGuys )
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With my own clients I usually just buy ( or lend them ) a portable 2.5 inch external hard drive, which can hold up to 250 GB of data ( or more ), and can connect either through a USB or eSATA connection. These can be bought for as little as $60, and are often appreciated by your client for their conveinence.
Seagate FreeAgent Go 250GB External HD : $60
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Likely the fastest conversion to MPEG-1 format would be a hardware based solution that can convert AVCHD video much faster than realtime. I wonder if any of the Matrox devices can do this?
Also, for software conversion, the mid-priced Cineform software does very good HD to SD conversion, though I don’t know how fast it is.
One last thing, why are you going with MPEG-1 ( 352×240 pixel resolution ) and not MPEG-2 which would produce a much higher quality SD image ?
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I’ve gone through about 6 video tripods trying to find one with a good ( smooth ) panning head, and have found all of the cheaper gear to be junk compared to a real fluid-head.
Manfrotto video legs are great ( especially the carbon fiber ones ), but their low-cost ( under $500 ) video heads are terrible. ( not smooth, have backlash, do not adapt well to different weight cameras )
The Libec video heads are a pretty good compromise, well made, much more affordable than the Sachtler heads, yet still very smooth over a wide range of camera weights. The camera weight issue is a big one, because sometimes you might be shooting with more gear on your camera ( UHF mic receivers, LCD monitor, etc… ) and sometimes it’s just the bare camera. A good tripod will last 10 years if you take care of it.
As for audio gear, I also recommend the Sound Devices MixPre mixer, which has great sound and will run all day on just 2 AA batteries. For shotgun mics, I would look at the new Rode NTG-3, which has great sound and can be used in all kinds of conditions. For an indoor boomable mic I would check out the Audio-Technica 4053B hypercardioid pencil mic, great sound with very good off axis sound rejection, so you won’t be picking up much reflected sound from small rooms.
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I would highly recommend buying Race-Dezert aluminum base plate for your HMC-150 camera. Adding this plate greatly strengthens the camera-tripod connection, protects the bottom of the camera, and corrects the tripod screw alignment. ( both the HPX-170 and the HMC-150 cameras have an offset tripod screw ) It’s a beautifully made piece of equipment, and takes only a few minutes to install.
CNC Machined aluminum base plate for the Panasonic HMC150 : $125
As for extra batteries, ONLY buy the branded Panasonic VW-VBG6PPK 5800mAh batteries, which will give you about 4 hours of shooting per battery. The Panasonic batteries contain an electronic chip which will accurately calculate the number of minutes of shooting time left on the battery. Other brands of batteries do not have this chip, so you only get a rough indication of how much time is left on the battery.
Panasonic VW-VBG6PPK (7.2V, 5800mAh) : $170
Dolgin Engineering make great battery chargers, that charge either 2 or 4 of the large 5800mAh batteries, and will fully charge them in 4 hours.
Dolgin Engineering TC200-HMC150 Battery Charger : $220
The Century Precision Optics 0.6x wide angle adapter will turn your HMC-150 lens in to an 18mm Full-Frame 35mm equivalent, which is super wide, with not too much distortion. Great when you need to film in tight spaces.
Century Precision Optics 0.6x Wide Angle Adapter Lens : $295
Great Pelican water-resistant case to store up to 24 hours worth SDHC memory cards.
Pelican 0910 Memory Card Case – for Eight SDHC Memory Cards : $21
The industry standard in field monitoring headphones: Sony 7506
Sony MDR-7506 Circumaural Closed-Back Professional Monitor Headphone : $90
Great on camera microphone for quick in the field interview recordings:
Panasonic AG-MC200G Super-Directional Camera Mountable Shotgun Microphone : $330
Great Sennheiser UHF wireless microphone starter kit. You will likely want to add better lav mics and boom-able hyper-cardioid / shotgun mics down the road, but even just this kit is a good place to start.
Sennheiser UHF Camera Mount Wireless Microphone System with ME2 Lavalier Mic : $600
Yes, it’s not cheap, but it’s one of the cheapest good video tripods around, with a strong and very smooth video panning head.
Libec RS-250M 75mm 2-Stage Aluminum Tripod System : $975
Hopefully this list should keep you busy for a while… 🙂
– Guy