HV20 in very low light outside in the fog test.. u judge

[africanmarty]

It was about 5 degrees celsius outside here on Oz and the fog was very thick, so i thought i'd take the hv20 out for some very low light fog test shots (i would have got more but i was starting to freeze my a** off), i used cine mode @ 25p ( as it gave the least grain ) with all other settings on standard. i was pretty surprized i though it wasnt to bad for a consumer cam, i'm going to upload some screen grabs ( wich dont do the footage any justice ) and the footage for all to see and judge. keep in mind this is not a pro cam, but still i was impressed.

The screen grabs (click thumbnail for bigger picture):

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/6/16509015959.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5692195)
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/6/16509020088.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5692197)
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/6/16509020075.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5692198)
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/6/16509015943.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5692196)
http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/6/16509020064.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5692199)

The footage:
coming soon.. uploading it ATM

EDIT: footage is uploaded ( to my stage6.divx.com account ) just waiting for the site to publish/validate it... once done, will post link.

EDIT: footage published/validated link:
http://stage6.divx.com/user/africanmarty/video/1320867/HV20-HDV-very-low-light-outside-in-fog-test

- Marty.

[jenningsp]

nice. when i was walking home at 6:00 - completely dark - that's what i saw. i thought i should film some of this. but when i got home i wasn't going back outside for anything... damn it's cold :D

i asume you're in melbourne coz that's what Melbourne looks like right now. YAY Melbourne!

[africanmarty]

nice. when i was walking home at 6:00 - completely dark - that's what i saw. i thought i should film some of this. but when i got home i wasn't going back outside for anything... damn it's cold :D

i asume you're in melbourne coz that's what Melbourne looks like right now. YAY Melbourne!

spot on, i'm in melbourne :) good eye jenningsp !

[africanmarty]

Footage published/validated link:

http://stage6.divx.com/user/africanmarty/video/1320867/HV20-HDV-very-low-light-outside-in-fog-test

[africanmarty]

bump, any opinions ?

[dsleep]

appreciate you posting this. i think it looks pretty good, I am actually pleasantly surprised. I am curious what the shutter speed was, and if you experimented with slower shutter speeds. they may work with more static scenes like this. I would love to see a shot just like you did with a slower shutter speed.

it would be cool to see an even higher quality file (maybe a real short one) of this clip just to really be able to check out the grain and the shadow detail.
Looks good from what I can see here.

[Erik Bien]

What dsleep said; the .jpgs and the Divx file both show surprisingly little noise, but at the reduced sizes it's difficult to judge.

Also, am I the only one wondering if you could get away with adding just a little bit of diffuse fill lighting to a shot like this without overpowering the streetlights and headlamps and still keep the moody atmosphere? A couple of rechargeable "sealed beam hand-held flood lights" with 1/2 CTB bounced into some bead board and you might have the perfect setting for the "dumb teenagers run out of gas and thumb a lift with the killer" scene in a no/low budget horror flick.

The picture quality of this little camera is truly remarkable!

[dsleep]

aah, erik, I am thinking along the same lines. What would you recommend for "sealed beam hand-held flood lights" ?
I am curious as to whether you can get away with some minimal lighting to supplement street lights and get a usable image.

[Erik Bien]

Hi, dsleep

I was thinking of something sort of along these lines ... http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93255