[Pete Burger]

AFAIK the A1 is a CCD camcorder which means you won’t have rolling shutter-issues which can be an advantage, if you’re about to use faster pans or if you’re shooting fast-moving objects like … uhm … cars 😉

I personally find that with “real” camcorders you can work faster than with DSLRs, but that’s maybe just me.
Audio – like Steve wrote – will be better than with a DSLR if you plan not to use an external recorder.

Without a tripod (or other stabilizers) you’ll get more stable pictures with a bigger camcorder, which can be an advantage if you want to shoot with a moving camera and don’t have a dolly, a slider or a steadycam.

If you want that DSLR-Look (DOF etc)… well, forget the HDV camcorder…

We shot a commercial for a car dealer (plus repair-shop) last year and we used a 7D, a T2i, a GoPro and a Sony HDV-cam. Used the Sony for the interviews (audio from a lav-mic directly into the camcorder –> no fussing around with sync in post). For the driving-scenes we used the GoPro, for all other scenes the 7D and T2i.

Especially in the repair-shop (which was dark and narrow) the small size of the DSLRs and the speed of the lenses we had were of big advantage. You can shoot things, that with a bigger camcorder would have not been possible.

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

[Teresa Seito] “I know Peter Burger tends to have a lot of this information so I’m writing this mainly to him to see if he has any answers.”

Now I know, why my wife calls me a nerd 😉

But to be honest, I have no real answer. Sorry! It’s a more or less common problem, that synced audio from a Zoom seems to drift after a while.

Paul Kagawa wrote an interesting article on his blog about the issue (compared the Zoom with the Tascam DR40):
https://www.paulkagawa.com/blog/2012/03/14/tascam-dr-40-sync-drift-fcpx-audio-fix-missing/

Strange thing is indeed the “synced in Premiere and AE – unsynced when playing” issue. Never had that problem myself. But when working with synced sound, I have only very small clips of about max. 3min.

Three things spring to my mind.

– Could be the player – so have you tried to play the clips on a different computer or with a different media-player?
– Could be a Premiere issue (What version are you working with?)
– Or it’s indeed a codec-issue…

[Teresa Seito] “Then when I export it as a mp4 or as an AVI, the file appears beautifully synced again, BUT the video looks HORRIBLE with horrible artifacts.”

So the problem here seems to be a bitrate-problem. If you increase the video bitrate, the video should look fine. With FullHD at 24fps, a bitrate of about 25 – 35 (with H.264) should give you very good quality, depending on the footage.

I hope this helps a bit… But I’m perfectly sure, there are guys here who do know much more about those kind of problems than me.

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

The internal camera-mic IMHO is of no use other than reference sound.
An often used and often recommended external mic is the Rode Video Mic which will give you decent sound.

The best quality sound you’ll only get with external solutions. Advantage: you can position your mics as close as possible to really get the cleanest sound. But you’ll have to sync in post.

Very widely used is the Zoom H4N recorder. You can plug in any types of microphones and it has quite good built-in mics as well. I use the Tascam-DR40 which is sort of the direct competitor of the Zoom but a bit less expensive. Sound quality is absolutely comparable.

Found two very informative videos that compare both recorders:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/280/9114

HTH

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

[Peter Burger] “Reducing saturation might sound weird, especially with 422 sampling”

What I meant of course was 4:2:0 sampling…

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

David, sorry for the late reply! I saw your post just at this very moment.

I work with the Tascam for a couple of weeks now, and I’m extremely pleased with it. From a perspective of sound-quality I also didn’t notice any difference between the Zoom and the Tascam, although I must admit I did not do direct side-by-side testing.

The “safety-option” on a lower level of the Tascam, that you described is a blessing, so is the possibility to directly connect to a mixer, which is also a feature that the Zoom does not have.

The only thing I really miss, is the the possibilty to use the DR-40 as a USB device… But… well, you can’t have everything…

Thanks for sharing your experience!

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

[David Rehm] “Do you have any specific recommended settings. I have a Nikon D7000”

Sorry, I’m a Canon guy, so no hands-on experience with Nikons. The general advice is (and I’d say it’s true for almost any digital video camera):
Turn down internal sharpening and contrast completely and reduce saturation a tad. All of these can be re-introduced back in post to your needs.

Reducing saturation might sound weird, especially with 422 sampling and a keying job, but in my experience (not only with DSLRs) it really helps. Clipped colour channels are IMHO one of the worst things that can happen for post-production including keying-jobs.

But maybe a Nikon-shooter can chime in here and give you better (or more precise) info.

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

Problem with sharpness and contrast settings is, they can introduce artifacts into the picture. The very high H.264 compression increases those artifacts even more which can lead to problems when keying.

I personally like to shoot flat (even for greenscreen work) to avoid artifacts and get the cleanest picture possible, since the 4:2:0 colour sampling alone makes keying a tough job and the heavy compression does not make it easier. You can do it (like you can with DV or HDV), but it’s not easy.

Just my two cents

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

Thank you, Curtis! Much appreciated!

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

Thanks, Chris!

MPEGStreamclip didn’t work with MPEG2 files on this computer. I would have to install Quicktime Alternative or buy the MPEG2 component. Can’t do that here…

But thanks a bunch for the hint with the GOP structure! Haven’t thought about it. Could be that! Maybe demuxing, cleaning the video stream (did that at home with videos I recorded with my TV-stick to be able to burn them on DVD) and importing the split streams into Premiere. I’ll give that a try.

Thanks again!

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo

[Pete Burger]

Glad I helped! 🙂

——————————————
“Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.” – Buster Keaton

Me on Twitter (english/german)
https://twitter.com/FastFoodVideo

Posts by FastFoodVideo