a couple questions.

[JWitsen]

sorry if this is a dumb simple question, but.. what's the best way to get a timelapse?
can i just set it to record like normal and then sorta.. compress the file later in editing?
or do i need to record it originally in a special mode/settings?
any tips or info would be much appreciated. ty.

I'm not sure when involving HD, but if the HMC150 has interval recording that is what i use on my VX2100 for 1 hour+ lengths.

It can be set to record .5seconds per every 30 seconds, by defaullt, but can be changed to fit your needs. Saves loads of space time and for something that doesnt require every motion to be caught on tape(edit: or card), it works perfect.

It works best for the sun or rolling clouds or city life. At least, in my opinion.


Perhaps a 24p tripod shot (steadyshot off, of course) with a low shutter speed, set it int. recording would work well? Again, im not even sure that the HMC150 has int recording, though.

 

[Allen Ellis]

Sadly the HMC150 does not offer init recording. It's sister-cams, the HPX170 and HVX200 both offer it, so I can only assume it is some restriction related to the AVCHD codec the 150 uses.

The best you can do is to set your record mode to the highest quality and put in a big SDHC card. You can get 5-8 hours out of that if I remember right. Then just speed up the footage in any NLE and delete your original if you like.

 

[AdrenalineSleep]

Sadly the HMC150 does not offer init recording. It's sister-cams, the HPX170 and HVX200 both offer it, so I can only assume it is some restriction related to the AVCHD codec the 150 uses.

The best you can do is to set your record mode to the highest quality and put in a big SDHC card. You can get 5-8 hours out of that if I remember right. Then just speed up the footage in any NLE and delete your original if you like.

It's actually a little sad that the camera doesnt allow this. I do wonder what it is. Would it be possible to add this sort of capability with a firmwear update? I realistically cant think of a reason for this to not be possible with this camera, particularly since it writes to a digital medium. Perhaps it is an AVCHD limitation...

 

[irvineimages]

thanks for the timelapse info.

the next most important question i have is about hotspots.
in a number of clips i've noticed certain areas, mainly in white clouds that are too hot/bright.

what other settings can i change besides shutter speed to work on shadow/highlight areas?

so far the project is coming along nicely, i really appreciate the help, i've been so busy i couldn't have learned all this without your help in the timeframe i've had.
this forum and you guys are a life saver.

 

[Barry_Green]

You shouldn't normally be changing the shutter speed. Use the iris and/or the neutral density filters.

For settings, you can experiment with putting the KNEE on LOW to reign in the hotspots a little, but you'll usually find irising down is a lot more effective.

You can also experiment with putting on the DRS function, that will frequently rein in hotspots, at the potential expense of introducing noise into the darker areas of the image.

 

[irvineimages]

thanks barry, that helped a bunch.

i found a tutorial on the waveform function and i'm going to eventually read it all, can anyone give me some basic tips or explain it a lil?

i haven't noticed this problem when i'm shooting but on some stuff my dad took there was some strobe like flashing in the darker areas of the foreground, anyone else notice artifacts like that? i'm close to being able to upload video so i could try to isolate it for better troubleshooting.
i burned my first dvd yesterday and it looks pretty good on regular non hd screens, needless to say i'm very happy with my purchase.

i've got a couple stills here i encoded to tiffs and then saved as jpgs.
i'd appreciate any comments and especially constructive criticism.
i'll try not to overload the page and just post a couple.
the first 2 sets are unedited with photoshopped ones for comparison purposes.

no photoshop

photoshopped

no photoshop

photoshopped

i basicly spent less than a min on each of these so it's kinda sloppy, was just testing.
i did a simple shadow/highlight, a levels, a curves and plus 10 to each of the neutrals in selective color.

the rest of these are untouched, cept i brightened the indian rock art one a hair.

 

[Bassman2003]

Sedona is nice. A lot of good images to be had.

 

[irvineimages]

Sedona is nice. A lot of good images to be had.

indeed, and there's only 1 hd tourist video, we are in a good position if our project works.

i have a tough question, not sure if anyone can help with this one.
i have encoded single frames i pulled off video clips to tiff format and had them printed up at the photo lab, they look great everything worked fine no problems.
but when i tried to load them onto our colorspan mach 12 printer at home it messed up.

the files are fine before entering the rip station, but after they get loaded they go from around 30mb files to 500k files with no picture, just all black.
i've never had a problem like this before, i tried changing resolution, size, canvas color.
the only other thing i can think of is trying them as jpg or bmp.... but i don't understand why tif works at the lab printer and not this one when we regularly always use tif files on this printer with no problem.

any ideas?

 

[David Saraceno]

My guess is that there is an alpha channel in those tiffs.

Open them in PS, and look at the channels.

 

[irvineimages]

you were right. thanks a ton, you're a lifesaver.
i've used photoshop for years and never even knew what an alpha channel is, hah.

 

[irvineimages]

there's a meteor shower tonight and the next couple nights, i've only shot at night once during a lightning storm and it didn't come out very good, what's the best way to shoot at night/meteors? does anyone have a formula, or any links to videos of meteors shot on the 150?
i'm assuming wide open with a high gain.
i'm shooting at 1080p but what about 720p? would that work better?
i was trying to keep the whole dvd project at the same resolution, but maybe i could use a couple 720p clips in it?

 

[JJ_HomeFri]

TV systems (in the U.S.) are in general 60i or 60p. If you put 24p material on a DVD, the DVD player will automatically add "pulldown", which means it INTRODUCES interlacing artifacts to get 24 fps material to fit a 60i stream. Some very recent TVs are then able to reverse this process (losing a bit of quality on the way), but the vast majority cannot. Sadly, recent native-progressive TVs often seem to emphasize interlacing artifacts when fed an analog signal (just like computer playback of interlaced material emphasizes jaggies), making even 24p DVDs quite artifacty.

This may be a dumb question, but I'm a newb and haven't seen it discussed. If you shoot and edit in 24p, then convert the material into 60i in your NLE or some other program, will you get around this issue or will it basically look the same either way?

 

[Mike Harvey]

ullanta isn't entirely correct... NTSC video (which is what all standard definition video in the US is) is 60i only. So any DVD is only going to be 60i in order for it to play on a standard DVD player. Which means that whether you edit it 24p native or in a 60i timeline, you're still going to have to end up with 60i for DVD. Either way, pulldown has to be added to get it to work with an NTSC TV.

HDTV is whole different ballgame, as is Blu-Ray. Most HDTV's are only 60i or 60p, but since DVD's are NTSC 60i, it's kinda moot. Blu-Ray has a lot more options for framerate, but will add pulldown to match the framerate of the HDTV.