Running and gunning with the A1

[SamKam]

It's been great to see all of the footage posted so far by everyone. Nearly all of it appears to be set-up, though - lights, and/or tripod. Was wondering if anyone has had experience truly running and gunning with the A1? I do mostly hand held, manual control, verite doc stuff. Have to use available light (BIG plus of this camera), grab focus on the fly and stay in the flow. From everything I've read and seen the A1 should be great for this. Anyone want to weigh in?

[Jay Rodriguez]

I don't know, I tried chaing my kids around with the camera and it was hard trying to get a focus on them while moving and looking at the small screen on the camera.

I'd love to hear what other people are doing.

[Elton]

For this purpose, it's astoundingly good. It's very flexible in all sorts of conditions.

Instant AF can be useful when focus is difficult.

[rawfa]

Check out this footage: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=80298
It's all hand held. I was really thinking about getting a glidecam or a vz-ultralite, but I've read so many people complaining about the excruciating arm pain that I decided not to buy it.

[Jay Rodriguez]

hey i finally got to dl your clip and watch it.

the footage looks amazing!!!!!! any special settings? the last clip, the way it ends, is great! lol

[rawfa]

Coffe, this was the camera right out of the box. I was SO excited to simply point her (YES, it's a HER!) at something and shoot that I didn't even took the time to go deep into the settings. I think I used cinegama2, knee was low, black strech. But I might be mistaken. Bro, download the presets they posted over at dvinfo. They're freaking amazing! This camera is amazing!

P.S - Did I mention I love this camera today?

[Radams]

Re run and gun here's my 2c worth:

1. Stabilizer seems really good.

2. Wide on the lens is wide enough that I haven't felt the need for a wide angle adaptor, which is just as well because the instant AF would not work with an adaptor as I understand it.

3. Lcd. I like it for framing purposes. Like the position, like that it is bright. Fact that it is smallish hasn't bothered me so far. Can set to black and white also.

4. Viewfinder/lcd are too low res to focus accurately without messing around. It is no problem to get spot on manual focus if you magnify and peak, and also temporarily zoom in. Then focus works well. But hand held I find it hard to perform these operations because the buttons are in different and awkward places. Also, peaking and zebras don't work at the same time, and magnify doesn't work while recording. They could have done this stuff better I think.

5. Instant Auto Focus. This is a button that you can press in manual focus mode that activates the autofocus while pressed. It works well for me so far. Subject must be in the middle of the frame of course.

6. Iris control. In A mode, you press Exposure Lock, and then the Iris and Shutter speed are locked at the camera's current setting and you can adjust them easily.

I tend to use Instant AF for hand held. Basically press it whenever I judge the subject has moved. So far it has worked well. But it is based on trust because I can't tell from the lcd if it is really in focus or not. Maybe with practice leaving it peaking wouldl help, not sure, but anyway then you would lose the zebras.

Another problem I have hand held is that I like to use a Fig Rig. Works well for me with this camera in terms of stability etc, but you have to use a lanc control because you cannot reach the camera while shooting. From my research only lanc that will operate on focus (including Instant AF) is canon's own vr-2000, which is expensve ($400) but feels cheaper then the $20 one I used to use with my Sony. So thus far I didn't get it.

Apart from some focus gripes though I think it works well hand held in practice. I always shoot hand-held nearly full wide, (zoomed in would be too shaky) so the depth of field is very deep, and for this situation the Instant AF works totally well enough for me. I just wish I there were better Lanc Control options.

Hope this helps. Nothing is perfect and I'm generally happy with the camera hand held. I think it would be good to check out the Sony though. Might turn out a bit more ergonmic for hand held work, and it is lighter.

[Noel Evans]

Ive used the OIS with a shoulder mount, and seriously at points it was scarily unlike handheld.

[thoughtsauce]

ncje,

which shoulder mount do you use? i've heard the camera's a bit front-heavy...

[Drew Ott]

Pretty much everything that I've shot has been run-and-gun thus far. Don't have a place to upload it, but its very easy to use in full-manual control run-and-gun. I've had some trouble keeping it still hand-held when I was zoomed in significantly (10x-20x), but that is expected.

Hooked up the camera to an HDTV the other day at my friend's house and was blown away. Some 24f nature footage looked shockingly similar to 16mm film, and some 60i I recorded of a highschool basketball team looked better than ESPN HD, imo.

[rawfa]

Did anyone ever try this shoulder support?:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Shoulder-support...QQcmdZViewItem

I have a video innovators s-800 and I feel it's kind of small and awkward to use. The shoulder rest is too small and the cameras ends up way too close to my face. Some month ago I was shooting an interview and after 2 hours of shooting, the s-800 was really bugging me. The shoulder support displayed on this ebay ad actually looks better and it's quite affordable. Anyone?

[Noel Evans]

ncje,

which shoulder mount do you use? i've heard the camera's a bit front-heavy...

Yeah the lense end is a little heavier. Im using Cavision pistol grips and shoulder mount. Work well.

[SamKam]

Yeah the lense end is a little heavier. Im using Cavision pistol grips and shoulder mount. Work well.


Does your shoulder mount have remotes that work with the A1?