[Martin Gleeson]

Thanks guys. Now that you mention it, I have also noticed black suits with a reddish tint to them. I found some videos on that Tiffen T1 IR filter and will look into trying that if I can get one.

Thanks lot,
Martin

[Martin Gleeson]

Thank you so much for you’re very helpful reply Neil. I’ll keep an eye on the exposure. As for focus, I agree with you. I never use auto focus on my EX1’s either. But focusing on these DSLR’s is a whole different ball game to the EX1! I think I need to learn some new techniques! I was actually using the touch focus system on those wedding clips. I also had to set not to try and track the focus subject, but it still seems to hunt. I think I may try establishing focus using this method and then immediately disable the focus servo to ensure it doesn’t hunt. There is a handy toggle control on the screen to disable and enable focus servo quickly. Hopefully I can get the hang of that without having to go down the route of follow focus.

I got this camera as a cheapish way to get into and learn about DSLR video, and I really appreciate the great help from you guys here to get me started – yet again!

Cheers
Martin

[Martin Gleeson]

Thank you Jonathan and Blaise. I’m actually delighted to know this us not an issue with the camera.

Jonathan, pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by “The focus seems to be pulling slowly from back to foreground”? Am I losing focus?

Blaise, sorry, my bad. When I said 50fps in all those clips, I meant that it was shot at 25p with shutter speed set to 50. I was trying to keep the shutter at multiples of 25 (as you suggest).

I’ll also try those ISO multiples of 160, although I must admit, I thought that was a bit of a myth.

In any case, I’ll try renting some lenses and see how I get on. Hopefully that will improve the footage. I’ll also try sharpening in post. But the lens is most likely the main culprit.

Really appreciate your great advice.

[Martin Gleeson]

I’ve uploaded some examples:

Example 1:

https://vimeo.com/130013717
https://vimeo.com/130013285

Maybe my focus is off on the above two videos, but I thought not (I used the touch-screen focus), but those videos look very soft to me for 1080p. Footage from my EX1’s shot at 1440 at 50i looks much sharper than those videos.

Settings:
1920 25p IPB
50fps with F-Stop set to 5.6
ISO2500

Example 2:

https://vimeo.com/130013802
https://vimeo.com/130013904

In terms of 25p stutter, the video of the guys walking away from the camera doesn’t look too bad, but they aren’t moving very fast (if they were heading for the bar, the motion would have been MUCH faster!). The waiter walking across camera in the second one looks much worse. But I guess I’ll have to live with this. Such a same the 50p footage is unusable!

Settings
1920 25p IPB
50fps with F-Stop set to 5.6
ISO2500

Example 3:

https://vimeo.com/130014267

This looks pretty terrible to me! There is a lot of aliasing and noise. I don’t see why there should be noise, it was shot in daylight at low ISO. At lower light and higher ISO (up to 1600) the noise and aliasing is much worse than even this.

Settings:
1920x20p at All-I
50fps with F-Stop set to 5.6
ISO500

[Martin Gleeson]

Thanks for the responses. I actually spoke to my partner since and he explained that he actually had to couple so close to the right because the photographer was just to their right and he was trying to get him out of the shot. But my partner still likes those shots with the couple at the extreme right of the frame “looking out”, which I don’t like.

Graham, agree about the emphasis and empty pews and yes, I’d prefer too if the candle holder was at the very left of the frame. That would have been a nicer shot.

Mark, absolutely. And to be fair to him, he did “mix it up” and does that a lot. He will zoom in to get shots of guests and also close ups of the couple. It’s a two camera shoot, so I (on the other camera) am filming the altar and celebrant. We mix it up in the edit.

Really appreciate the feedback. I shall pass it on!

Cheers
Martin

[Martin Gleeson]

Yes, I’m starting to see that I may very well be nuts alright. I’m quite relieved! My softest footage seems to be when I’m at F11 or higher. I am reading that the EX1 can get a big “soggy” around this F-Stop. I am just looking at footage which was at around F5 or so (with ND filter on) and that is much better. But the footage at F11 is really bad!

Thanks for your response, Craig.

Martin

[Martin Gleeson]

Hi Todd,

I would strongly advise against using auto-gain with this camera. You are correct, that when auto-gain is set, it will set the gain as high as it thinks it needs. This introduces terrible grain and noise to the picture.

I would switch off auto-gain and set the H-M-L gain buttons to

L = +0db gain
M = +3db gain
H = +6db gain.

Even at +6db there will be grain. The next setting up (+12db) introduces a lot of grain). For +6db I have a smooth filter switched to low. Yes, it blurs the picture slightly, but it removes the grain too.

The camera will never be as good as your old on in low light.

Martin