[Roger Van duyn]

Hi Vincent,

I don’t do very many weddings anymore, my work is mostly legal videography with a little corporate thrown in. However, when I started out, I started out like most videographers concentrating on weddings. Did some, went to workshops, had a lot of meetings and social functions with other wedding videographers and other wedding vendors. And I finally decided I needed to define the thrust of my company. It had to mesh with my personality.

So I realized I needed to decide, whether my goal was to create art, or whether I wanted to provide a service. One option appealed to me personally. Another was more client or customer focused. A lot of people try to straddle the fence. That hardly ever works.

I decided I was mostly a service provider type. And examining my strong points and weak points, my business got better by going after the boring stuff that hardly anyone watches, but is crucial to be done right. Not surprising, I worked thirty years in medical laboratories where getting the wrong answer could have severe consequences for the patient. My clients (lawyers, court reporting agencies, and video production companies need accurate, objective audio-visual recordings (documentation).

The rare weddings I do are from special requests. I concentrate on telling the story accurately. A lot of people want that. They don’t want art in the video. They have the photo albums for that. They want the memories recorded.

Which will you target? People wanting to buy art? Or people wanting you to work for them preserving the memory of a very special event?

Just my two cents. Another “old guy” who pays attention to people…

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

I haven’t needed the firewire port replaced on my XH-A1S, but I did need to have the port replaced on my XH-A1 twice. There’s a repair service here in Florida I used:

https://www.avrepair.com/

If I remember correctly, the price has around $250, but it’s been a few years. I also had the camera cleaned and serviced, so that was the total price. But you can probably ask the guy if he can still get parts and for an estimate. He seemed pretty good. His work was good and so was the turnaround time.

Hope this helps.

By the way, I’ve recently upgraded and will be selling my Canon’s soon.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

What’s old is new. For photographs, you have Portrait vs. Landscape. But that existed long before photographs. Most portrait paintings were tall. Most everything else, such as landscapes, were painted wide. Phones are probably still used more for photography than video, mostly selfies…

Wonder how VR devices over the eyes will change things?

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Hey John,

From time to time something similar happens to me with my older H4N. And watching the levels rise and fall doesn’t mean you are recording. And even monitoring through headphones won’t help.

If you neglect to press the RECORD button a second time, the H4N is only in RECORD STANDBY mode, and nothing is saved to the memory card. I looked in the H4N Pro manual online, and it works the same as my older H4N. See page 51 of the H4N Pro manual.

Every time I’ve had audio missing on the card, it’s because the unit was only in standby, and not actually recording.

I’m embarrassed to say, I’ve had this happen to me THREE times now. Guess I’m starting to have more senior moments.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

My wireless kit isn’t the greatest, but it’s been adequate for the type of jobs I do. It has three Azden 35BT UHF transmitters with 310 Receiver and an even older twin (non-diversity) receiver. Like you mentioned, the transmitters all have unbalanced microphone connections.

The receivers have balanced xlr connectors that connect to my mixer, a vintage Shure M-267 I actually repainted a few weeks ago. Then an xlr output from the mixer connects to the camera. So, the sound was probably bleeding through the unbalanced cables themselves? Makes sense. I was about 4 feet away from the doctor. The sound only happened when the watch was a few inches from the mic.

As an aside, I found a funny looking device called a “tripod basket” that Manfrotto used to make years ago when the old video cameras all had separate recorders. It’s the right size for the mixer, and everything mounts on the tripod legs. I have a 4 connection (color coded and number) xlr snake cable coming out the back of the mixer that I connect all the receivers to. Almost all the depositions I’ve filmed have been in small rooms. Once the room was so small that I had to film through the doorway, and I’d just cobbled together the tripod setup the day before.

Here’s how the setup looks:

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

This is might be slightly off topic, but the last post mentioned an unexpected source of rf interference, his camera. A few days ago while filming a deposition, I ran into a new source of rf interference with my setup. It was intermittent, and weak, but I could hear it through the headphones. I had a hunch it was something in the very close by, coming in and out of range. Probably in the same room.

So I started trying to figure out where it was coming from. All of us had turned off our cell phones. And there was nothing else in the room but me and my gear, the court reporter and her “typing thing” connected to a laptop. The two attorneys, the doctor giving the deposition, and four chairs. Then I heard the faint buzz again, when the doctor’s wrist moved next to the lavalier microphone. Then the next time his wrist got near the mic, it happened again. He was wearing an Apple Watch. I think the watch was trying to connect to his I-phone or something.

When I started working on the footage, the interference wasn’t audible. But it was audible in my headphones.

Lots of new challenges out there.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

I never use A on the camera, always M, but I do use auto focus a lot on M. With M, the exposure stays constant unless I change it with the iris ring or the shutter speed wheel. Gain stays set at -3, 0, or my maximum of 6. Any more gain gives grainy footage. The shutter speed stays set at 1/60, but occasionally indoors I’ll go to 1/30 if there isn’t a lot of motion in what I’m filming. That brightens things up without having to set up lights. But I do set up lights at times.

I also use the light temperature presets on the top of the camera most of the time. In really weird light, I’ll do a manual white balance.

Motion blur can come from too slow a shutter speed, or panning the camera too quickly. Pans need to be really SLOWWW, if at all. I often do pan and scan (Ken Burns effect) in post on video footage like on stills instead of panning while shooting. A lot of the camera moves in videos I make aren’t really camera moves at all, but done in post.

Now, when you freeze a frame, it’s not really abnormal to see a little motion blur in well shot footage. The fast shutter speeds have traditionally been used when wanting to be able to do slow motion, like shooting sports. But if you use a fast shutter speed for everyday shooting your videos won’t look natural, but too stacatto, or too crisp, too sharp and artificial looking.

By the way, I suspect a couple of the posters in the other threads were confusing frame rate with shutter speed. 30P, 60P are frame rates. Shutter speed is different. You’ve probably heard of the 180 degree rule, why traditionally the shutter speed has been 1/60 sec for 30 fps playback. The 30fps can be either 30p or 60i.

Don’t want to talk down to you, but didn’t want to leave an important basic concept out of my explanation just in case. I still have gaps in my knowledge to fill. Lots of them.

Hope this helps. I still like my XH-A1 and A1S. I’ve been on shoots with guys using the XF-300 and 305. The big difference was tape less workflow. The recorders solved that. Footage was nearly identical, to my eyes at least. That’s why I just bought the recorders instead of new cameras. 90% of the benefit for about 20% of the cost.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

By the way, I normally encode my final output from the 1080 60i at 1080 30p. I checked your other threads in the Premiere and FCPX forums and saw you were trying 60 fps progressive. Whatever software you use, it’s going to be interpolating like crazy, creating frames you didn’t actually shoot.

I have once or twice created 60p videos, but I shot on a different camera in 60p to start with.

I’m afraid you won’t achieve good looking 60p video using 60i footage from an XH-A1. But you CAN create great looking 30p video.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

The first step would be to determine how the native footage actually looks. If you have an HDTV with component inputs, or perhaps a friend has one, attach your DTC-1000 component video cable that came with the camera and play back the tape directly from the camera.

Then you’ll know if the footage is actually bad, or if the problem is with the settings in Premiere or Final Cut X.

I have an XH-A1, and an XH-A1s. Both give beautiful footage in good light. Can’t advise on the settings in Premiere or FCX. I use Avid Media Composer and Lightworks. Footage from the Canons work well in both programs, as it did in older programs from years ago I’ve used, Liquid, Pinnacle Studio, even Windows Movie Maker, as long as I chose the correct settings.

I never de-interlace before starting editing. I save it for one of the last steps before final encoding. Usually in Squeeze.

Again, first find out how the footage really looks on an HDTV.

Hope this helps.

Roger

By the way, I still use both cameras, but have gone tapeless. Both cameras have a DataVideo DN-60 recorder saving to CF cards. Really speeds up the workflow.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Thanks for the tip about the control and alt keys. Didn’t know that one.

Roger