Low Light Footage from HMC40

[Barry_Green]

Okay, folks, read this first: this ain't good. This is handheld, autofocus, auto-exposure, handheld tourist stuff, okay? This is not professional footage. This is -- hey, let's go down to the RiverFest and see what the pirate ship thing is all about, and ... oh, hey, I'll bring along the HMC40 too.

So this is handheld, autofocus, auto-exposure. It was shot at dusk to dark, and the gain was pretty much pegged at +12dB the entire time. Heck, there's plenty of shots where the dang camera's not even level. No tripod, no monopod, no professionalism whatsoever. This is tourist camcorder stuff.

Shot 1080/24p mode. But, everyone's asking what the low light performance is like, so ... I say it's not great, but here's some footage so you can see what you think.

The lights that you see on the boats, is pretty much all the light that there was there.

By the way, the frame glitch on the kids is something that Premiere did to me, and I didn't see it until I rendered and uploaded the whole file, and ... bah, too much work to fix it. But that is NOT in the original footage, it's a premiere glitch. Native editing in Premiere is close, but it's not perfect.

Okay, enough disclaimers: here's some footage from Wilmington North Carolina's "RiverFest 2009" sidewalk fair.

4c96d0b01b1de5c5c3

[Cranky]

No point shooting in full auto. The cam goes into slow shutter mode, which is unusable unless one really wants having it as an effect.

I take it, if it looks so shakycam from you, a pro, then the cam is really too light to hold steady, right? The 150 should have been better?

[Bo Sundvall]

I don't think it's so bad.

Would be nice if someone who has experience of a Canon XH-A1 or a Canon HV20/30/40 could tell how big difference there is between the Canons and the HMC40. I don't mean in figures, I mean in real life.

Regards,

/Bo

[Barry_Green]

No point shooting in full auto. The cam goes into slow shutter mode, which is unusable unless one really wants having it as an effect.
No it doesn't. The HMC40 has no provision for automatic shutter control, it's always at all times manually controlled.


I take it, if it looks so shakycam from you, a pro, then the cam is really too light to hold steady, right? The 150 should have been better?
The 150 would have been better in all ways except sharpness.

And, remember, I wasn't really trying -- I was just consumering.

[David Saraceno]

Barry:

What would you suggest a shoulder mount equivalent for the cam to steady it better and not break the bank and excluding tripods? Monopod?

Because I think this footage is really nice, all things considered, especially is you hold gain to 12.


While you can get some decent handheld footage from the cam, like all light cams, you have to stage the shot a little bit.

[Cranky]

Bitch-slap me with a monkey wrench, you are right. Barry, I am sorry for being so obnoxious. I thought I saw some slow-looking footage, but now when I watched it again, it looks fine. The manual has nothing about auto slow shutter mode. I stand corrected and ashamed.

It does not look bad indeed. Those scenes on the pier, under the trees, did it look darker in real life? Did the camera raise gain a bit too much?

Why is it so pink? Is it autoWB?

I too think that it looks quite good. Would be great to take a look at native clips. Could you upload a couple of short clips somewhere? I shot a wedding with the Sony HC1, at the eveing gain was maxed at 18dB, and it look horribly noisy, but downscaled to standard def it looked ok, the noise was downscaled too :-)

[Barry_Green]

What would you suggest a shoulder mount equivalent for the cam to steady it better and not break the bank and excluding tripods?Jack had something that we used for the GH1, a "spider brace", that really made a huge difference when hand-holding a tiny SLR, I'm sure it'd be equally effective with the HMC40. http://www.spiderbrace.com/

[Barry_Green]

It does not look bad indeed. Those scenes on the pier, under the trees, did it look darker in real life?
The opposite -- everything looked a little darker in the LCD than it did in real life.


Did the camera raise gain a bit too much?
For my taste, yes. I had it limited to 12dB, and I saw some noise that I considered objectionable, especially like on the hulls of the boats. But then again... it would have been really, really dark without the gain.

Overall I love the HMC40 in daylight, I think it's just excellent. And maybe up to 6dB of gain is okay, but I wish I could limit it to six.

(well, of course, I *can* limit it to six, if I just use fully manual exposure... heh.)


Why is it so pink? Is it autoWB?
Yep, all auto-everything, including WB.


I too think that it looks quite good. Would be great to take a look at native clips. Could you upload a couple of short clips somewhere? I shot a wedding with the Sony HC1, at the eveing gain was maxed at 18dB, and it look horribly noisy, but downscaled to standard def it looked ok, the noise was downscaled too :-)
Point out which clip you want and I'll see if I can post it somewhere. Some of the clips are pretty long so the native clips would be too huge to post, but some of 'em might be short enough that it's not a problem to upload 'em somewhere.

[Cranky]

The opposite -- everything looked a little darker in the LCD than it did in real life.
No, not on the LCD. I meant, did the real scene look darker in the real life than we see it in the video?


I had it limited to 12dB, and I saw some noise that I considered objectionable, especially like on the hulls of the boats.
I meant, did that the camera try to brighten up the scene too much? This is basically the same question as above.

Point out which clip you want and I'll see if I can post it somewhere. Some of the clips are pretty long so the native clips would be too huge to post, but some of 'em might be short enough that it's not a problem to upload 'em somewhere.
0:29-0:36 (on the pier, under the trees)
0:44-0:47 (spectators watching the ship)
0:54-1:03 (pirates)

Thanks!

[Barry_Green]

No, not on the LCD. I meant, did the real scene look darker in the real life than we see it in the video?
Things like the trees with the lights on them, etc., looked brighter in real life.

[shphotovideo]

Looks pretty good. Barry, if you had switch to full Manual control do you think you could have improved it?

[rich_r]

The HMC40 has no provision for automatic shutter control, it's always at all times manually controlled.
Hmmm.... I don't think that is true.

When the switch is in Auto -- the shutter cannot be controlled manually -- it does not even show up on the Func Navi menu (only AF shows). That is confirmed on page 34 of the manual in the "Shooting in Auto Mode" section.

While in Auto Mode the shutter speed disappears from the display so its not clear what the shutter speed is. When you switch back into manual then the shutter shows (I assume that the shutter it shows is what it was using in Auto mode, but I am not sure there is anyway to confirm that).

[Barry_Green]

Er, yep -- sorry, I'm referring to when the switch is in manual. Pretty much forgot that the auto/manual switch is even there. I was in manual mode, but with all the functions on auto.

Could it be improved? Certainly -- my "techniques" here were as bargain-basement as it gets. :)

[Cranky]

Er, yep -- sorry, I'm referring to when the switch is in manual. Pretty much forgot that the auto/manual switch is even there. I was in manual mode, but with all the functions on auto.
So, the cam stayed at 1/48 shutter all the time?

[TomGruber]

By the way, the frame glitch on the kids is something that Premiere did to me, and I didn't see it until I rendered and uploaded the whole file, and ... bah, too much work to fix it.

Even if it's too much work, I'd love to know how to get rid of this random glitching that Premiere causes sometimes with my rendered HMC150 projects. Do you know of a solution?

[Barry_Green]

0:29-0:36 (on the pier, under the trees)
http://www.mediafire.com/?mjibljwm5jr




0:44-0:47 (spectators watching the ship)
http://www.mediafire.com/?gjovzy0jzt0


0:54-1:03 (pirates)
Can't upload that one, it's bigger than 100 megabytes. MediaFire won't take it.

[Cranky]

Can't upload that one, it's bigger than 100 megabytes. MediaFire won't take it.
What about 1:28-1:34 (pirates on the front deck)?

Thanks a lot!

[Barry_Green]

130 megabytes. Won't fit.

[Cranky]

Ok.

[sewolla]

Compared with what my HFS-10 produces....your footage looked pretty good. Make no mistake, the HFS-10 is a very sharp cam in decent light, but not quite as nice as the '40 in low light. I shot some similar footage while in China on a river boat cruise, and used the Canon for that. Wish the HMC40 had been out in July, but it wasn't so I got the HFS-10.

I still think that from what I have seen, the HMC40 is the champ in its class/price range.

[ullanta]

Not too shabby, I'd say...

...but I have to say I didn't really find the swordplay convincing. Couldn't you have coached 'em a little, Barry?

-Barry

[jeff9329]

I agree that that footage looks pretty good.

However, when you shoot the 40 and 150 together in low light, it's a night and day difference. That's why I sent my 40 back.

Barry, you would do everyone a great service by doing a similar shoot with the 150 & 40. That will put the questions to rest quickly on the differences.

[Barry_Green]

The difference between the two really is night and day. The 40 needs 8x as much light to deliver the same brightness as the 150 can do. Or, put the opposite way, the 150 needs only 1/8 as much light to deliver the same brightness as what the 40 requires.

[BobDiaz]

One interesting thing I noticed is that on my iMAC, the image noise jumps out, but on my 37" HDTV, it isn't too bad. At first I thought it was because I was sitting 8 feet back from my HDTV, but I tried sitting about 4 - 5 feet from the HDTV and the image noise seems softer than my iMAC.

Those who can, try looking at the video on your monitor and look at it again on an HDTV and see if it looks different.


Bob Diaz

[matt s.]

One interesting thing I noticed is that on my iMAC, the image noise jumps out, but on my 37" HDTV, it isn't too bad. At first I thought it was because I was sitting 8 feet back from my HDTV, but I tried sitting about 4 - 5 feet from the HDTV and the image noise seems softer than my iMAC.

Those who can, try looking at the video on your monitor and look at it again on an HDTV and see if it looks different.


Bob Diaz

Others have stated that their iMac LCD's display tons of noise also. I know my Dell LCD is nothing but noise when it comes to video.

[BobDiaz]

My guess is that the computer display is really 6 bits per color. Thus, even a slight shift in brightness is increased if it falls between each level and the noise is magnified.


Bob Diaz

[Cranky]

My guess is that the computer display is really 6 bits per color. Thus, even a slight shift in brightness is increased if it falls between each level and the noise is magnified.
Cheap TN-Film panels -- which constitute the bulk of monitors sold -- have 6 gradations per color. These monitors are unusable for photo and video editing. IPS, MVA and PVA are usually 8 gradations per color.

[EEG]

Barry,

I like your "automatic" footage very much.

I wonder how you managed not to shake the nice closeup of a little girl on her fathers arm at 0:24 to 0:28? Did you use your head as a stabilizer looking through the EVF?

I am afraid the EVF with 113.000 Px @ 0.26" chip prevents any manual adjustments in manual mode. Compare to the SD100 with 183.000 Px @ 0.44" chip, which even is hardly usable for manual focussing. Also, the 300.000 Px Display @2.7" of the SD100 - without touchscreen functionality - is superior to the 230.000 Px @ 2.7" of the 300 series and the HMC41. What do you think?

Erich

on SD100 - still looking out for better

[Barry_Green]

I wonder how you managed not to shake the nice closeup of a little girl on her fathers arm at 0:24 to 0:28? Did you use your head as a stabilizer looking through the EVF?
No, that was 100% zoom, just handheld looking at the flip-out LCD, with the optical image stabilizer on. Pretty impressive stabilization...


Also, the 300.000 Px Display @2.7" of the SD100 - without touchscreen functionality - is superior to the 230.000 Px @ 2.7" of the 300 series and the HMC41. What do you think?
I don't like touchscreen at all; the HMC40's appears to work okay but I'd rather have proper manual controls and buttons and switches. For sharpness, I find the screen adequate when the EVF DTL function is used; the combination of EVF DTL and the magnified focus assist is very usable. Without EVF DTL, I'm not thrilled with it, but with the EVF DTL I don't have any complaints.

[EEG]

Many thanks Barry,

it took me some time to find out what EVF-DTL means: Contrast enhancement in the center to help focusing. -DTL seems to stand for DETAILED, right? The SD100 does not have it.

How do you estimate the focus bar?

thanks again

Erich

on HD100 - still looking out for better

[jeff9329]

One interesting thing I noticed is that on my iMAC, the image noise jumps out, but on my 37" HDTV, it isn't too bad. At first I thought it was because I was sitting 8 feet back from my HDTV, but I tried sitting about 4 - 5 feet from the HDTV and the image noise seems softer than my iMAC.

Those who can, try looking at the video on your monitor and look at it again on an HDTV and see if it looks different.


Bob Diaz

Bob:

The significant variation in apparent image quality between computer and LCD and Plasma tvs drives me nuts. The only redeeming factor is that I know the image on a recent production HDTV will most always be better than the computer monitor.

In my case I think the computer monitor (NEC2490WUXi 12bit LUT-8bit H-IPS) shows the real image and the HDTVs are showing a processed image even when all the auto stuff is turned to off on the HDTV.

So, just sit back and enjoy that HDTV magic.

[Cranky]

How do you estimate the focus bar?
I think that focus bar works well for a shallow DOF image, where you can have clearly defined focal planes for your subjects. In this case you would know which subject the bar corresponds to. I think it is useless for a long-DOF image where it hard to separate focal planes and pretty much everything in focus. How about shooting through a tree or a fence?

[DavidH977]

First, clearly I'm blind and not saavy b/c for the life of me I can't figre out how to start a forum thread. If I knew how, I would have asked this question in my own thread. Question is bout low light and I figure Barry and others in this thread could help.

I'm having issues with low light on my HMC150. Just got the HMC 150. Love it thus far, but have some issues. Low light shots are a problem. I shoot events at night clubs. Prior to my HMC 150, I was using a small Sony Handcam I got from Best Buy. At night clubs I use a small Sima light. The Sony and Sima combo was great in terms of lighting an area, but footage was grainy due to overall quality of camera. See example:

vimeo.com/6860920 (http://vimeo.com/6860920)

Fast forward to the HMC 150. I have used the HMC in a few clubs with the same light and the result are very different. In the same club while shooting on the HMC and sima light my footage is even darker than with my old set up. That small Sima light with the SONY casted a decent area of light, but the HMC and light doesn't seem to pick up the same area of light.

I'm thinking I have the HMC set to the wrong setting. I will post example soon. But clearly the HMC has better low light than my old Sony. PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Allen Ellis]

Have you set:
Shutter: 1/60 or 1/30 or 1/24
Gain: 12db or 18db
Iris to 'open'
ND filters off
Not using a crazy custom dark scene file?

That's all that that should darken your picture.

By the way, the new topic button is on the forum view area in the top-left. Looks like this: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/images/buttons/newthread.gif

[Bo Sundvall]

Hi

Comparing the specs for HMC40 and Panasonics TM300 seems to be about the same result for the image sensor size and the number of pixels on the CMOS chips. There seems to be a different lens system though as the HMC40 is wider. The TM300 have scored good light sensitivity numbers on camcorderinfo. Is it likely that the HMC40 and TM300 are comparable in low light performance with regard to the imager? If the HMC40 is worse in low light than TM300, what factors will that depend on?

I hope camcorderinfo soon will have a review of the HMC40 so it will be easier to compare the jungle of different models showing up now....


Regards,

/Bo

[ravencr]

I'm posting a lot of little test videos here on the HMC40: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=180937&page=8

There's a lot more to come, but the whether is helping me to get the low light, raining, fog footage done all upfront. :) Mainly, zooming, panning, tripod, handheld, different resolutions, shutter speed testing so far. Right now I'm uploading some daylight raining footage of more cars and will be uploading regular speed, 75%, 50% and 25% slow motion all shot in PH720-60p.

Chris

[ATL Media Group]

Thanks man!

[ravencr]

No problem...I'm pretty impressed with the result so far. I'm uploading today's videos now, and I think the slow motion stuff really shows how well it does.

Chris

[ravencr]

Does anyone know how to reduce the level of gain from the selections of 12db or 24db on this camera while in Auto mode? Is it possible?

Chris

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

One interesting thing I noticed is that on my iMAC, the image noise jumps out, but on my 37" HDTV, it isn't too bad. At first I thought it was because I was sitting 8 feet back from my HDTV, but I tried sitting about 4 - 5 feet from the HDTV and the image noise seems softer than my iMAC.

Those who can, try looking at the video on your monitor and look at it again on an HDTV and see if it looks different.


Bob Diaz


My guess is that the computer display is really 6 bits per color. Thus, even a slight shift in brightness is increased if it falls between each level and the noise is magnified.


Bob Diaz


Others have stated that their iMac LCD's display tons of noise also. I know my Dell LCD is nothing but noise when it comes to video.

Footage always looks better on an HDTV - it's made for moving images and it' circuitry is made to smooth, deinterlace, noise reduce all kinds of image enhancing goodness. Your LCD screen is going for a more straightforward representation. Noise, artifacting, aliasing, interlacing remnants will all look worse on an LCD computer monitor than a HDTV screen.

[Ian Slessor]

How does the 40 compare to the DVX100b in regards to low light performance?

sincerely,


ian

[ravencr]

I'm hoping some of my video footage today will help determining low light type questions for the HMC40. I'd say on a scale of 1-10, 10 being a fully sunny day, today was a 7, cloudy but mostly sunny. I determined that I could easily have it on a shutter speed of 1/1000 with no gain, and 75% of the time on 1/2000 with no gain depending on the cloud coverage. I'll be posting videos here later today and tomorrow under my hmc40videos youtube account.

Chris

[dan.carter]

ravencr,

Thanks for performing these tests. Are you more inpressed or less impressed with its low-light ability than you expected?

Kind Regards,
Dan

[ravencr]

I'm trying something a little bit different with these videos. I've outputted them at full 21 mbps, instead of 6 mbps, so they're taking a lot longer to process and upload. I'm pretty impressed, although low light as everyone has said isn't it's forte. What I didn't realize is that because the camera comes defaulted at 24 db gain as the maximum, all of the stuff I uploaded on the 15th was at 24 db of gain, which I couldn't tell, because on AGC, it doesn't tell you what it is. That's one thing I'd like changed, for sure.

I'm hoping today's footage will help everyone...I watched it on the computer and plugged into a low def tv, and it came out pretty nice. The tests are obviously "tests," so definitely hard to compare to actual footage. I'll comment more on each video as I get them posted.

Chris

[ravencr]

Hey guys,

Here's some more footage from today where we finally had some decent, non-rainy weather with no fog. :)

This was shot using the Panasonic HMC40 on 1/2000 shutter speed at PH720/60P, starting at 0db gain and going up to 12db of gain. And, slow motion, as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQHQZMbRLs

Chris

[13th Judas]

Hey guys,

Here's some more footage from today where we finally had some decent, non-rainy weather with no fog. :)

This was shot using the Panasonic HMC40 on 1/2000 shutter speed at PH720/60P, starting at 0db gain and going up to 12db of gain. And, slow motion, as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQHQZMbRLs

Chris

that is such a weird shutter speed. and why would you want to use gain on a bright sunny outdoor?

[ravencr]

Here's a similar video to above with the only difference being that it's using 1/1000 shutter speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9drbNib8Mg

Chris

[ravencr]

that is such a weird shutter speed. and why would you want to use gain on a bright sunny outdoor?
LOL...I agree somewhat pointless, but the shutter speed isn't weird I don't think. When shooting action, at least.

Chris

[ravencr]

that is such a weird shutter speed. and why would you want to use gain on a bright sunny outdoor?
I guess the point of all this was to show people what each respective shutter speed, f-stop, and gain level looked like, so they could compare to a similarly lighted area to the cameras their already using. I found that I could run as high of 1/2000 shutter speed and still be at no gain, unless the clouds rolled in at which point the auto gain control would move it up to as high as 12 db. Obviously, when I lowered the shutter to 1/1000, that wasn't an issue. I hope that makes sense...

Chris

[ravencr]

I'm also going to upload all the raw, un youtube'd files here available for download. They're not raw .mts files, but full resolution adobe premier outputted files in .mp4 format: http://www.utvreport.com/videos/hmc40tests They're in the process of uploading, so it will be a bit before you can download them...they're big, because I uploaded these at full 21 mbps.

Chris

[ravencr]

Here's the same using 1/500 shutter speed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVZJSWpR_xY It's not fully done uploading, but I'm going to bed! :)

Chris

[Barry_Green]

How does the 40 compare to the DVX100b in regards to low light performance?
The DVX, in progressive mode, is ISO 640. The HMC40 is ISO 64. That means the DVX spanks the HMC40 in low light, handily. You would need about 3.25 stops more light with the HMC40, than you would with the DVX.

Of course, in interlaced mode the DVX's advantage grows by another stop, the DVX is 1280 ISO in 60i mode.

The HMC40 does many things absolutely brilliantly, but low light performance is its major weak spot.

[dan.carter]

This HMC40 low-light issue seems like such a relative thing. I'm looking at the HMC40 to replace my Sony SR11 and would be happy with several stops better low-light performance. However, some one using an HMC150 would be disappointed with its several stops less low-light performance.

The Panasonic TM300 camcorder gets great low-light scores when compared to other consumer camcorders, but who know if the HMC40 is comparabile.

So many questions, so few video clips or reviews for the HMC40 yet.

[Bounce]

The DVX, in progressive mode, is ISO 640. The HMC40 is ISO 64. That means the DVX spanks the HMC40 in low light, handily. You would need about 3.25 stops more light with the HMC40, than you would with the DVX.

Of course, in interlaced mode the DVX's advantage grows by another stop, the DVX is 1280 ISO in 60i mode.

The HMC40 does many things absolutely brilliantly, but low light performance is its major weak spot.


wouldn't you be getting more light in progressive mode than inerlaced mode? that's what i found

[Barry_Green]

Chips that can actually scan in interlaced mode gain a 6dB boost in sensitivity by employing row-pair summation. Progressive chips can't do that.

If your chip is progressive-only (and therefore its interlaced footage is made from splitting up progressive frames) then no sensitivity boost is possible. But if the chip can actually scan interlaced and progressive (like the DVX can) then you can gain a full stop when using interlaced mode.

[BobDiaz]

Berry,

What the ISO on the HMC40 in interlaced mode?

Is it 50 --> 64 OR 100 --> 128?


Bob Diaz

[Barry_Green]

50 to 64. It doesn't get better in interlaced, it's a progressive-only sensor.

[Denwa]

Barry, for comparative purposes. What is the ISO of the HMC150?

Actually for both cameras, what are the ISO of 24p, 30p and 60P?

Thanks

[EEG]

50 to 64. It doesn't get better in interlaced, it's a progressive-only sensor.

Barry, sensitivity vs. recording format is an important question. The Handbook of the HMC 40 states (p. 120):

PH Mode:
1080/60i
1080/30p (over 60i)
1080/24p (native recording)
720/60p
720/30p (over 60p)
720/24p (native recording)

HA, HG HE modes (like SD100):
1080/60i

so there may be other factors like pixel size and the overhead in pixel numbers.

Erich

on SD100, still looking oput for better

[ravencr]

Here's a few more videos:

This was shot using 1/250 shutter speed, testing from F11 - 0 db open:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd8J8Oxp0I0

This was shot in auto mode, but manually adjusting the iris dial, which was weird. I believe the dial corrects/adjusts a lot faster than the display is able to tell you what's going on. It was hard to tell if I was adjusting the gain only or the f-stop, as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5zM7RZUV4w

And, this was shot to try to determine up to what shutter speed I could effectively keep the gain at 0 db. I was flipping between agc and mgc to see if the camera would display the level of gain in manual gain control after running it in auto gain control. I'm still not quite sure, but I think it does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-otdIu_L1U

Chris

[ravencr]

Here's another agc vs mgc video using 1/1000 shutter speed instead of the one above at 1/2000 shutter speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B4RiYmJzbs

Chris

[Barry_Green]

Barry, for comparative purposes. What is the ISO of the HMC150?
500.


Actually for both cameras, what are the ISO of 24p, 30p and 60P?
It doesn't change per recording mode. The HMC150 is 500 no matter what you do, and the HMC40 is 64 no matter what you do.

(which isn't strictly true, because none of these video cameras has a "fixed" ISO, it varies by what gamma curve you've selected and by what iris setting you have selected -- which sounds bogus, but it's absolutely true. There is no fixed ISO on any of them. But over the larger part of the exposure curve the HMC150 is ISO 500 in "HD NORM" gamma. I haven't tested the 40 across its entire gamma curve but my initial tests show 50 to 64.)

[Barry_Green]

Barry, sensitivity vs. recording format is an important question.
And the answer is that recording format makes no difference regarding sensitivity. None.

[dan.carter]

This is good to know. I too favor slight oversaturation. Thanks for checking this out.

[BobDiaz]

Here's an example of what the chroma levels adjustment does from +7 to -7 and back to standard 0.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc_lI8_g1tU

Chris


This video has been removed by the user.

???????????????


Are you changing it?


Bob Diaz

[ravencr]

Yeah, I accidentally uploaded the wrong one...I'll upload the correct one again.

Chris

[ravencr]

Here's the HMC40 just running through the various white balance presets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAFwQi0WNgU

Chris

[ravencr]

Here's the correct Chroma level video I meant to post originally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvd1G7KCeg

Chris

[ravencr]

Here's some examples of using the digital zoom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWnhjmTYxA

Chris

[ravencr]

Hey guys,

I just realized to my surprise that all of these low light videos I posted were shot with the gain set at 24db. To me, from the statements I've read, you don't want to go above 12db, so after reading the manual and figuring out how to change it, the rest of my videos were shot with the max at 12db. But, the following videos were shot in full auto, auto gain control, and because of the low light I'm suspecting all at 24db:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_kLRPGH1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LGeh672W3w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1TvGSxXVac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbapMABkrFg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_Qt2P2tqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrJHP8xu9aU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WRWAbS2YXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfEbt3QInms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoTXk8WFPdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijNA4u7LMaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chRUHPZ4t3s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_x7916_E-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEjkZMyVa_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1C7NrD2D8E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1jm8tYD0ao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7I5KEWRmrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcOS1gM_z5E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VyWb0F9CZo

I don't think the above videos look bad at all at 24db, personally. What do you guys think?

Here's the rest of the videos shot with the gain maxed out at 12db, but these aren't all shot in the dark like the above ones. These you'l notice are tests of the gain, shutter speeds, auto gain control vs. manual gain control, digital zoom, white balance, and chroma levels, as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQHQZMbRLs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9drbNib8Mg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVZJSWpR_xY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd8J8Oxp0I0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRVs6rVE_wg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5zM7RZUV4w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-otdIu_L1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B4RiYmJzbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmEAqGb6hN4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAFwQi0WNgU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWnhjmTYxA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvd1G7KCeg

All of the above videos are being uploaded here: http://www.utvreport.com/videos/hmc40videos for download if you want the uncompressed files to watch on your computer versus YouTube. The dates of 10/12, 10/14, and 10/15 are all shot using 24db gain. And, 10/18 are the ones listed immediately above this text.

All of the videos aren't uploaded to the server yet, but I think all the 10/18 ones are already. The others are uploaded as we speak. You'l also notice that the videos on 10/18 are much larger than the rest. The reason for this is I outputted them from Adobe Premier at full 21mbps, instead of 6 mbps for all the rest. I can't tell much difference...can you guys? I'm not sure it's worth the extra size, download and upload time personally. I've found too that the best way to play these to see issues is at full screen, not the standard YouTube size.

I hope this helps...if anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. These were things I wanted to know before buying the HMC40, but I couldn't find out there, so I bought it. :)

Chris

[thabo]

Here is a link to some low light footage I shot of a Michael Jackson Flash Mob dancing on the Pearl St. Mall in Boulder CO this Halloween. I used the LO Noise setting. Shot in 720p 24 / 24fps shutter speed to get max light - didn't go over 18db of gain either. Not too bad and I boosted some color setting in post but overall I'm happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A5js_CX3SU&&fmt=22

[ravencr]

Hey guys,

Haven't been on here in a while, but here's some videos using the HMC40, some low light and others in bright light. All are shot in either 720/60p or 1080i, and all with the wide angle adapter.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ElectricVehicleForum?feature=mhum

http://www.youtube.com/user/LX450Videos?feature=mhum

http://www.youtube.com/user/UTVReport?feature=mhum

Chris

[Charb]

Jack had something that we used for the GH1, a "spider brace", that really made a huge difference when hand-holding a tiny SLR, I'm sure it'd be equally effective with the HMC40. http://www.spiderbrace.com/

Thanks, Barry, for the suggestion for the SpiderBrace. I used a shoulder stabilizer for a zi8 that had the cover shot and it held it's own while an EXCAM was on a steadycam. But the borrowed shoulder brace is over $200. OUCH! I just purchased an HMC40 and am happy to see a less expensive solution.