XH-A1/XL-H1 Multicam Test Shoot

Elton

Elton

Veteran
Hey guys,

This is something from a shoot last Sunday where I was testing the intercut-ability of the H1 and A1 with similar scene settings. George D and I got a few friends together, including a couple of local actors, and the whole thing was improvised. This take I've posted was OTS shots of both actors with the A1 framed on the female lead and the H1 framed on the male lead. We simply setup both cameras and let the actors improvise a scenario of a couple squabbling at a coffeeshop. The clip is a realtime take letting both cameras roll. I performed a simple A/B switch edit of the footage in FCP.

At the end they couldn't help but crack up a little, as you'll see.

It's obvious cheesy melodrama, but I thought it might be of interest technically, anyway.

Compressed with DivX converter for the Mac. You'll need a free DivX player on Mac or PC to watch it. http://www.divx.com I chose this codec because so far it is the highest quality and fastest encoding of everything I've tried. I can get very good 720p encoding in much shorter time than h.264 takes to encode.

Here are a few grabs:

A1:
Sydney.jpg

H1:
Will.jpg


The clip is posted here. :) http://www.xlcinema.com/look/showthread.php?t=1511(209 MB DivX 720p) Since it's a huge file I'm only going to leave it up for a few days.
 
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i havent yet downloaded the clip, but just from looking at those grabs, intercutability of the H1 and A1 looks great. I am so stoked to watch this ! :D
 
I haven't watched it yet either because I'm on my friend's terribly slow computer. From the grabs, the A1 looks somewhat cleaner...
 
It might be slightly, but the A1's background had a little bit more pop to it. Their performance is actually very similar.
 
Is it just me or does the A1 image look better?

DL'ing the vid now.

EDIT: wow, the image on both of these cameras is very, VERY impressive! Thanks for posting this Barlow!
 
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Barlow -

Thank you for posting another example for us. A1 is more than just H1's small brother. It is H1 in smaller package.
Color tone was slightly different in both cams, but I'm sure it could be fine-tuned in the cameras or in post. Maybe it's because girl's side was lit differently. Sure it would be interesting to see such scene shot in bright daylight.
 
Barlow, I add my voice to Bogdan (and this A1 grab is still better than that one from the big sister). Is it possible to leave more than a few days? -- I'll be out of the broadband in a couple of days. :dankk2:
 
Hey Elton,

I'm really liking this camera. The native DOF is great. What was the distance of the camera to the chess set and the actors to get that great DOF?

-Kevin
 
Distance...hmm...less than 5 feet on all shots, some zoom (maybe 5-7x) and F2.8. Of course the opening shot was fully wide and unfortunately a bit underexposed. I only put it in there for a simple establishing shot.

The entire thing was shot in a very small room in a historic home on Main St. which is the Cool Beans coffeehouse.
 
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So, in my mind if you can get good DOF in a pretty small space, is their really a need for a DOF adaptor? This camera is gonna sell like hotcakes...
 
Great shots, Barlow. In your hands this cam is rocking.

Elton said:
Just shoot me a PM at xlcinema and I'll send you a private link.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I'm not @xlcinema.com yet. Although I had received a nice invitation from Shane. Anyway, I lost your contact. Can you re-send me again?

When do you think to close the link? :dankk2: for your care my friend.

Cheers as usual :beer:
Emanuel
 
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Kevin Briggs said:
So, in my mind if you can get good DOF in a pretty small space, is their really a need for a DOF adaptor? This camera is gonna sell like hotcakes...
Click to expand...

It works with fairly tight framing, (CU's in this case) but a more open shot with shallow DOF would be tougher to pull off. (In tight spaces) In general, I think the A1's native DOF is more than adequate for narrative work. It's just that extra nice bokeh of 35mm with less optically compressed shots that's tough to pull off with 1/3" cameras.

All in all, it's certainly not necessary to use a 35mm adapter to get decent subject isolation.

One thing's for sure though, you will never get quite as sharp an image with a 35 adapter.
 
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Elton said:
It works with fairly tight framing, (CU's in this case) but a more open shot with shallow DOF would be tougher to pull off. In general, I think the A1's native DOF is more than adequate for narrative work. It's just that extra nice bokeh of 35mm with less optically compressed shots that's tough to pull off with 1/3" cameras.

All in all, it's certainly not necessary to use a 35mm adapter to get decent subject isolation.

One thing's for sure though, you will never get quite as sharp an image with a 35 adapter.
Click to expand...

What about with the addition of the wide-angle to get this kinda DOF you're speaking of when adding a 35mm adapter? It's REALLY looking like the A1's 20x lens is killer, man. The Wide-angle should be adequate for these same kinda DOF shots but at a distance? Or is that incorrect?
 
the H1 looks a tiny bit better. the gamma looks subtler. is there a different settting?

Althoug hthe A1'a light was much better.


EDIT:
Sorry couldnt help it....

1166341047.jpg

Raw
1166341109.jpg
 
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Just look a those darks. The hair color. I can tell you that anything dark like that in the HVX is crawling with noise. Especially the part where we see the back of her head almost entirely. I also like the fact that it can still be pushed, even though the subtle gamma works a lot better than pure saturation.

Great footage, Elton.
 
whats the a1 and whats the h1 on those images? if that top image is straight out of cam im very impressed. it looks like it has been color corrected.
 
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