Preparing for A1 delivery

[meta4]

So I went ahead and ordered my new Canon A1. I'm really excited as this will be my first 'professional' camcorder ever.

I've downloaded the Canon Xl-H1 owners manual to get myself acquainted with the user settings (knee, core, etc.)

I'm wondering if Disjecta or Elton (masters of canon artistry) would mind presenting this forum with some tips/tricks/ or setup suggestions for different situations.

I know I'm asking a lot, and when I learn this camera I'll be more than happy to share. I'm just hoping to hit the ground running so to speak.

Thanks in advance to all who add...

[Noel Evans]

Welcome to the club!

As posted by Elton:


ncje,

That's good news--it'll be great to see some images from your camera.

As far as the settings...it's very easy to figure out how to tweak the camera. With the XL-H1 my favorite setting is very simple.

--Cinegamma2,

--Color Gain of +1 or +2, (this will increase apparent CA if you have high contrast foreground/background images in the shot...but I like to boost saturation a little when recording HDV)

--Sharpness -2 or -3 (it's true, the H1 is a bit overly edge-enhanced by default. It shows even more in the F modes and can create some noticeable jaggies on thin diagonals so beware and turn sharpness down a bit)

--Knee=Low (smooths highlight rolloffs somewhat)

--Black--middle or press--I happen to like the press mode because it lightly crushes the blacks but makes for very appealing contrast in-camera.

And pretty much every other setting at zero. Try to shoot at -3 dB but don't be afraid to use the gain if needed. The increased noise is fairly mild all the way up to +12 dB.

Lastly, I don't recommend the noise reduction modes (but they maybe improved in the A1) as they tend to soften the picture or make things look a little plastic. That said, NR2 can be helpful in super-lowlight if you don't mind sacrificing a little sharpness.

[Sacksnack]

Meta4, just make sure you start posting footage the day you get the camera. I'm getting antsy. My credit card is on the table near the phone.

-Kevin

[Elton]

I forgot to add one other possible setting:

Master Pedestal--I like to drop it to -3 in most situations but if you want a little more lattitude for cc in post it may be best to keep it neutral.

The above settings ncje posted tend to give me a pleasing image in-camera but dropping the ped and using Black Press will give you slightly less flexibility for pushing the image in post.