[Stephen Crye]

I just sent back my second NX70 for a refund. I really wanted to like that camera!

Active steady-shot does not per-se harm anything, because the sensor on those cams is a high-pixel count 1/2.88″. So, when Active SS is engaged, the electronics uses a portion of the sensor area (still 1920×1080 but smaller than the overall sensor) to allow the image to electronically “float”. When Active SS is engaged, as you move the camera, the image will float around some, but that never bothered me. You still get full 1920×1080 resolution. And, in Sony PMB, if you do a frame-grab, the JPG will be larger than 1920×1080, which is nice.

The NX70 is based on the CX700V engine and optics. Problem is, aside from the 60p and 24p modes (and the soon to be released 30p mode), the camera has inferior steady-shot and optics than the good old CX550V.

Sony has major QC problems with the NX70. It broke my heart.

Some samples of the problems are here:
https://www.huecotanks.com/temp1

I will provide more details later on the Active Steady Shot.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Now that I returned the second NX70 I tried (for problems with lack of sharp focus across the entire image), I have been looking at the NX5. But any amount of back-focus problem would drive me crazy. I had hoped it was a flaw with earlier models.

Surely back-focus can be adjusted at the factory?

How do you stand it?

Thanks,

Steve

PS here are some frame grabs of the NX70 problems. Look at the NX70city1.jpg for the reason I sent back NX70 #2.
https://www.huecotanks.com/temp1

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Thanks, Diane!

I really appreciate taking the time to watch.

Try it at 1080 full-screen (it will take a looongg time to buffer) to fully appreciate the video. Headphones if you don’t have speakers. At 1080 you will be able to see the lack of “real” 1080 clarity.

Regarding fog, the cam was already at the ambient temp of the air. Fog usually happens when you take a cold cam into a hotter, humid environment.

As it was, I built a little “tent” for the camera out of a milk crate and some nylon. I ran down the mountain to the Jeep when the big storm nailed me. I sat in the Jeep fretting about the shot I was missing, then I got the idea to build the “tent”. I sawed off the front of the crate, tied nylon around it, and set the cam on the ground using a little 6″ tripod, then put the crate over the cam and used the LCD in mirror-mode to frame the shot. The last three hours of shooting was under the tent.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi Mike;

I’m confused. If I have already squeezed it by 12x, how can I squeeze it more if I don’t render it to an intermediate? If I grab the edge and try to shorten it, Vegas will not let me.

And, with a bunch of “raw” 12x squeezed clips in the timeline, rendering a long project is suuuuper slow.

I guess I am missing something. Want to learn!

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

[Mike]”The other thing you can do is to save it as a veg file and import it as needed. No render time required :)”

Good point, Mike.

I should have clarified the reason I typically render the clip at that point, is that when I re-use it, I might end up squeezing (or stretching) it again, in order to get it to match up to a transition in a music track. So, if I want to squeeze it again by a factor of four (for a net time-compression of x48), I need a loss-less intermediate clip.

An example here (please excuse the blurriness in the vid, I foolishly had my project set to 1280×720 while rendering the intermediate clips to 1920×1080 – duh. At least I learned what NOT to do!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnD1Ev6kZlM

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

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[Stephen Crye]

I use the Velocity Envelope in conjunction with clip time compression to get the maximum speed up of 12x. First grab the right side of the clip and hold ctrl while you drag left. That will give you the max of 4x. Then add velocity envelope, move the slider up to the top. Go slow and watch for the little “v”s. When done you will have three Vs.

Here’s an important step. Find the left-most V, and expand the view until you can see each frame. As you move the selection point from the left of the v past to the right, the scene will jump from the end to the start! Split the clip and throw away everything to the right. You can now render the clip to a lossless format which you can use later.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

Although it has been while since I used Movie Studio Platinum, I think it has the same capability as Vegas Pro for what you want to do. Below is one way to approach, but there are others. I’m ignoring any of the steps to get the info from your tape into audio/video formats that Vegas can open (I’ve never done anything with tape and Vegas – my cams are all ACVHD). But, I expect that the steps to go from tape to Vegas are simple. I think it has some kind of an import function that will allow the cam to inject directly into Vegas.

The first step is to open each video in a “throwaway” instance of Vegas. You will be able to see the music track separate from the video. There are many ways to grab just the music, but I find the simplest is to have another instance of Vegas open (that instance will be the final project). With both open (two monitors really helps for this), you are ready to copy stuff from one to the other. From the source track, right-click on the music clip anywhere in the track view, and select Group/Remove from. That will “disconnect” the music from the vid portion of the clip. Then highlight the music clip, copy it, switch focus over to the destination instance of Vegas, and paste. You will then see just the audio track in that instance of Vegas.

Repeat, adding new audio tracks to the destination project.

You can use the same method to get the video-only tracks.

Another option is to open everything in one instance of Vegas, and then ungroup and move things around. Lots of variations are possible.

Within any audio track, you can set equalization effects, both for the entire track or just sections of a clip. The EQ function is pretty powerful, with band selection, etc.

You can mute tracks while you slide things around to line up with the video. You can split sections of the audio clips, use those to create new tracks, etc.

One nice thing I just discovered, is to use my camera as a “mic” while I sit in front of the computer. You can narrate as the video plays, and then import the result into the computer, throw away the video of the cam pointing at the wall, and voila! You now have reasonably clean audio (compared to crappy computer mic) to overlay.

Hope this helps.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Don’t know about GoPro, but I’ve had problems with Xvid stuff, which was stupidly compressed. Try using gSpot or some other utility to look at the GoPro vid and see what codec it is using.

Sorry I am not much help. I fear that perhaps because I have been responding, other Cow users with Bigger Brains are not stepping in to help …

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Those render times seem a bit long. On my computer with Vegas 10e, a 15 min vid with medium amounts of FX and 6 tracks will render in about 80 minutes. (BTW if you “own” Vegas 10, you can download and use 10e. Let us know if you can’t find the link).

As far as rendering tutorials, there are many, but most are either not-to-the point or focus on things you already know.

This link has some interesting info, and it can also point you to some posts on the Sony Creative forums:

https://www.jazzythedog.com/testing/DNxHD/HD-Guide.aspx

As far as the “fuzzy” effect after rendering, I was having that problem with rendering in many different containers and codecs (even lossless Huffy .avi) until I realized I was dong something stupid. I had my projects all set to 1280×720, even though I was rendering to 1920×1080. I set the project to 1920×1080 and the “fuzziness” went away completely.

Something else to experiment with is the interlace settings in Project. Your choices are non, blend, or interpolate. Try all three and compare. (just to a few seconds of the vid, obviously).

In my quick review of your YouTube vids, I could not see a big difference in the quality of ,mp4 vs .wmv. However, read that Jazzy the Dog link – it has good info about how YT mangles vids.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

Good to hear the audio has manual gain. AGC is good for most stuff, but for live music you need manual. Does your cam have a mic input? If it does, I recommend the Rode Stereo VideoMic. For the price has unbeatable quality.

My current video project is a 20-minute time-lapse + other epic scenes of El Paso. I’m trying to really, really focus on proper camera work and editing. Trying to break out of my home-movie rut.

Regarding the NX70 – it is not really all that special. Any cam under about $10K will have a lot of flaws. But, as my friend Drew says, “the best camera is the one that gets the shot.” I’m trying to treat the little prosumer NX70 as a “proper” camera, being careful with tripod work, framing, focus, WB, even doing some stuff on improvised tracks. Still have months to go on just the shooting, not counting the editing.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V