Afew questions noones been able to answer for me.. maybe you can..

P

Padre

Member
A1s in particualr here.. despite the fact that i sell this stuff, our rep hasnt been able to answer these questions and teh fact these are going out faster than i can use them doesnt give me an opportunity to test these questions for myself.. ..

1) Can the shutter dial be switched to control iris instead?

2) With instant AF, does it behave like the canon EF lenses?

3) Focus Peaking. Does it use expansion(zoom) or outline? Can these be activated whilst recording?

4) zoom and focus readouts by numbers on the LCD- Does the A1 do this?

5) Position preset - How does this actually work with the A1? Is it like shot transition on the Z1? or must you physically switch it to get it working?
Do you set point a, then set point B, switch it to "set"
How then would u use those in lets say a tracking shot? or a moving rack focus

6) ND filter - Im used to 1/64 of the DVX, is 1/32 workable? Does the camera offer a flashing readout when it believes the ND's should be used (The DVX flashes ND 1/8 or 1/64 in overexposed or underexposed shots)
Oops just found it, it does indeed flash.. but in the harshest of environments is 32 enough?

7) AGC button - is this refereing to audio, or video gain? Or is this the Auto Gain button? From the sounds of the manual its an auto gain switch..
With 3+ 6+ 12+ what is the difference in noise? Does anyone have any stills they can show to compare? I know the DVX 12+ looks like rubbish, 9 is perfectly suitable.. basically im trying to work pout if i need to set it to 6+ and 12+ considering the drop in sensitivity.. im just worried if 12+ softens and pukes the image.. what abotu 18+ ? thoughts? I wouldnt consider this normally, but ive never taken this cam out on a run so i ahve to ask...

8) Is there a 9+ db gain up? I could only find references to 6 and 12

9) Audio, can i set a db threshold? is there an ALC for the audio?

10) I noticed there are 2 WB preset switches.. one on the side, one up the top of body under the handle.. whats the deal with this? the top ones are presets? strange place to put these switches cosnidering their all int eh same dept..

11) Metering mode... is this refering to spot, evaluative average??

12) what woudl be the optimal LCD/EVF setup config for an accurate representation of colour and brightness wto what is really being shot? Or is the LCD "what u see is what u get" like the HVX?

13) Does the canon WA lens mess with focusing or does it revel a short shotgun like a K6 ME64 combo or NTG1?
Also, i noticed that Instant AF doesnt work with the WA (accoridng to the manual.. if however i was to mount a Canon 580EX on there, would this assist the camera in any way shape or form, consideirng the A1 works with the 580?

14) Can the camera operate with the battery compartment open? (ie switch SD cards on the fly whilst recording?)

15) Action safe guides - the manual mentions framing 80 or 90 percentile frame for safety.. is the LCD showing the actual overscanned area?

16) It seems i cannot use the internal mics along with an external shotgun...are all the audio switches through the menu? Can i access these whilst recording live?

17) Attenuator.. ive never really bothered with this, but how imperitive is it to turn this on or off with the A1? I know some cams it doesnt make much of a difference, but with others it can either make or break a recording..
I also noticed there is a 3.5mm ext mic socket... will this then behave the same way as an XLR would? I have a couple of stereo mics which would probably do well here...

18) Iris exposure settings - are these smooth or is there obvious stepping?

19) Zebras - can these only be turned on and off through the menu?

20) Gamma Curves - whats the closest gamma curve to a DVX CineD and CineV? Im specifically going to set these cameras up to give me close to Panasonic DVX100 looks, however the "Panalook" prset already available IMO looks nothign like a tweaked out DVX100, so instead, ill be running both cameras side by side and tweaking it myself.
Thoughts?

21) I read that setting the NR1 to middle was ok with no trails.. but in teh manual it says that there will be trails..
NR2, however has been noted to leave trails and in the manual it says there wotn be any trails?
What are your thoughts on the NR ???

22) Scene file names.. are these viewable in the LCD? ie, is it easy to look up and see which file is currently in use? I usually use 4 to 5 settings for a wedding shoot, indoor with window daylight, indoor with artificial light, outdoor harsh natural light, indoor with ambient and natural light and indoor with video light. Each scene file i use is to corespond to each environment i shoot in, so seeing these names will help in knowing which camera is set to which environmnet

23) Custom functions - I noticed these are taken straight out of canons DSLR book
I like the idea of the fact that they tell you what does what..
a) With manual focus and zoom, ive heard that the camera is indeed very fast... i want a more natural feel when shooting manual, so what would be the best speed to set these to?

I thnk thats it.. hopefully some other people will find these questions and answers to them useful
cheers
P
 
1) No.. There's a nice Iris ring right on the lens though.

3) Peaking works while recording (though not in conjunction with zebras). No magnification while recording.

4) Focus readouts available in feet or meters. Zoom... don't remember what it has.

7) 3 position switch for video gain. 6db isn't bad, 12 gets fairly grainy but you can shoot in some DARK situations.

8) Nope.

13) Wide angle requires disabling of the fast auto focus system, normal autofocus works fine.

16) I believe you can change the menu settings while recording.

19) I believe you can assign these to the custom keys for one button operation.
 
20) Gamma Curves - whats the closest gamma curve to a DVX CineD and CineV? Im specifically going to set these cameras up to give me close to Panasonic DVX100 looks, however the "Panalook" prset already available IMO looks nothign like a tweaked out DVX100, so instead, ill be running both cameras side by side and tweaking it myself.
Click to expand...

DVinfo has a section dedicated to presets, including some people tweaking to get the DVX look.
 
thx for teh feedback guys, snowleopard, in regard to this link, i note that theyre refering to DVX "looks" but theyre not specific in regard to "which" looks theyre refering (ie gama and matrix curves)

thoughts?
 
Yes, I hear you. But I have to admit I don't really see the point in finely tweakly the Canon A1 to try to make it look like a tweaked DVX. If one wants the look of a DVX, then rent/buy a DVX, or if you need HD, then rent/buy an HVX, which looks pretty similar. The factory preset on the A1 is blase, but one of the things that makes it so cool is that you have incredible control over the picture.
 
snowleopard said:
Yes, I hear you. But I have to admit I don't really see the point in finely tweakly the Canon A1 to try to make it look like a tweaked DVX. If one wants the look of a DVX, then rent/buy a DVX, or if you need HD, then rent/buy an HVX, which looks pretty similar. The factory preset on the A1 is blase, but one of the things that makes it so cool is that you have incredible control over the picture.
Click to expand...

Ive already got 2 DVX100's and a HVX just wont cut it for my longform work. The idea is to slowly integrate this camera into the basic workflow of the studio then slowly move the DVX's along and replace them with the A1's.. without chanign certain "feels' for some of our work. Obviously alot is done in post, but the predominance is to keep PP to a minimum.

Sadly my budget wont cut it for multiple EX's and the Z1's i used to have here just couldnt cut it for most of the kind of work i do on the outset. Colour was just atrocious.
 
OK, well i just got my first unit, nad had a fiddle..
It wasnt that difficult to match colour shifts with the A1 to match the DVX itself. In turn, the dual colour matrices come in VERY handy and allow one to really REALLY get close to the DVX.
Im yet to have time to test these but Im happy with the fact that my reds are in fact red, brows are brown and not red and skintones carry the correct tone as seen straight out of a DVX.
The issue however is that to match the two for multicam work, the A1 needs to have the WB dialed in manually. Sadly, the canon still carries its inherant heat fom the old XL days, while the DVX still leans a lil to the cooler side of things.
Sadly the DVX isnt as tweakable as the A1, but again, this is why presets work in this matter

Ive gone through my own questions to answer afew that ive discovered. If anyone wants to chime in, feel free to add ur 2c

1) No.. bugger... i also find the iris wheel to be rather sluggish

2) With instant AF, its pretty damn fast.. not as snap fast as a DSLR, but close... Sadly its not as obvious...


3) Focus Peaking - i found it VERY noisy but workable.. i also felt that the excessive sharpness pretty much threw the purpose of this out the window. Its difficult to differentiate whats in focus and whats actually sharpened noise.
The Magnify feature does help though

4) zoom and focus readouts by numbers on the LCD- Does the A1 do this?
The zoom readout as numbers was nice, but i could work out how to get the focal point readout to be presented in the same way. Distance metre worked after 5 to 10seconds which is too slow to judge a rack focus by distance alone

5) Position preset - Works ok for me..

6) ND filter - Seems ok.. Im yet to test it


7) AGC button - Heres a tip, DONT use auto gain.. i set mine to 0, 6+ and 12+
With noise tweaking of the preset, i get very close to a DVX at 9+ with open iris. Im ok with this so far, as colours are still close to the true rendition (Sonys had teh tendency to shift colour at full gain and tele zoom)

8) Is there a 9+ db gain up? I could only find references to 6 and 12

((Nup.. CRAP!!!!!!!))

9) Audio, can i set a db threshold? is there an ALC for the audio?
((Very weak menu driven audio controls sadly.. one cannot turn the XLRs on and off without going into the menu...sadly u cant even customise a custom button for this))

10) I noticed there are 2 WB preset switches.. one on the side, one up the top of body under the handle.. whats the deal with this? the top ones are presets? strange place to put these switches cosnidering their all int eh same dept..
((OK, the top switched are for 5600 and 3200k respectively. I foudn these to be excessively warm in any respect. Further tweaking bought these to acceptable temps. The A1 has excessive saturation of the reds, so its imperitive that you test your BG and RG shift. The other switch allows u to dial in a temperature manually. I found this to be THE most useful element when matching the A1 to a DVX.
Easy to use to.. set teh switch, hit the WB button, the WB temp will flash, dial in the number using teh shutter speed, press teh EB button and ur done.. ))


11) Metering mode... is this refering to spot, evaluative average??

((Never mind.. metering through video only works with spot, not evaluative. which is a shame really.. BUT for stills, there are 3 metering modes.. ))

12) what woudl be the optimal LCD/EVF setup config for an accurate representation of colour and brightness wto what is really being shot? Or is the LCD "what u see is what u get" like the HVX?

((Addendum to this, i certainly HOPE the LCD is NOTHING like the final output (save for focus). To my eye, after working with a DVX for4 yrs or so, the A1s monitor has to be THE most incredible piece of crap ive seen in a bloody long time. Yes it works, and yes it will come in handy when focusing and getting ur shots framed (overlays are very useful) BUT the screen is so lucklustre in colour and brightness that you dont know whether to trust it, or whether to go by the numbers displayed on it.
Sadly, alot mroe time wil be requird with this panel to at least calibrate its brightness to what i need to judge, by sight, that i have a close rendition of what im trying to achieve in exposure.
The DVX on the other hand, is VERY accurate.. sharp and clear with accurate colour and brightness.. not s accurate as a 100b or a HVX which is a true representation, but close enough
If anyone knows what optimal LCF EVF settings would come close to the final output, it would be great for you to share this with us. ))

13) Does the canon WA lens mess with focusing or does it revel a short shotgun like a K6 ME64 combo or NTG1?

((The a1 mic mount is wide.. i need to pad it to fit a K6 ME64/66. As for width, i found the A1, to be about a foot wider in a 5metre length test. DVX and A1 were both set to full wide, and i got at least another foot in width. Macro shooting was also closer and much more controllable on the A1 (im talking 2cm here.. hitting the lens hood...) I also found the stabiliser to be at least twice as effective as the DVX.. the floating point was smoother at longer tele ranges as well. I wotn be buying a WA as ive gone this long without one for teh DVX, that this additional width really waont be needed for teh stuff i do))

14) Can the camera operate with the battery compartment open? (ie switch SD cards on the fly whilst recording?)

((Yup... as alrready answered. Thankfully, u can also swap cards as required without powering down. ))

15) Action safe guides - the manual mentions framing 80 or 90 percentile frame for safety.. is the LCD showing the actual overscanned area?

((Im yet to check this, so if anyoen can answer this, that woudl be great))

16) It seems i cannot use the internal mics along with an external shotgun...are all the audio switches through the menu? Can i access these whilst recording live?

((hmm..... im still testing this.. one thing i like about the DVX is that i can switch mics on the fly. from omni directinal onboard catching music, to catchng a spur of the moment vox pop and switvhing back and forth in under 2 seconds... more experiementation needed here methinks. ))

17) Attenuator.. ive never really bothered with this, but how imperitive is it to turn this on or off with the A1? I know some cams it doesnt make much of a difference, but with others it can either make or break a recording..
I also noticed there is a 3.5mm ext mic socket... will this then behave the same way as an XLR would? I have a couple of stereo mics which would probably do well here...

((Im yet to venture here.. anyone have any thoughts? ))

18) Iris exposure settings - are these smooth or is there obvious stepping?
((Never mind, this can be tweaked in custom settings))

19) Zebras - can these only be turned on and off through the menu?

((Good that we can set these thru a custom button))

20) Gamma Curves - whats the closest gamma curve to a DVX CineD and CineV? Im specifically going to set these cameras up to give me close to Panasonic DVX100 looks, however the "Panalook" prset already available IMO looks nothign like a tweaked out DVX100, so instead, ill be running both cameras side by side and tweaking it myself.
Thoughts?

((Ive started with vividrgb preset and tweaked the GB abd RG values to bring down red saturations to come close to a DVX... sadly DR, wont ever be same.. :( ))

21) I read that setting the NR1 to middle was ok with no trails.. but in teh manual it says that there will be trails..
NR2, however has been noted to leave trails and in the manual it says there wotn be any trails?
What are your thoughts on the NR ???

((Im yet to mess with this.. still waiting on other peoples experience with NR... ))

22) Scene file names.. Sadly, these are numbers only..

23) Custom functions - I noticed these are taken straight out of canons DSLR book
I like the idea of the fact that they tell you what does what..
a) With manual focus and zoom, ive heard that the camera is indeed very fast... i want a more natural feel when shooting manual, so what would be the best speed to set these to?
((sadly, the speed of the rings are sluggish.. not jsut sluggish but scary to a point of feeling that your not getting any response from them. Theyre so subtle its not funny..
In additin, the zoom rcker is a series of digial switch.. if ur like me and hold the camera on one hand and allow your fingers to rest on teh rocker while shooting, be VERY careful.. i feel this (zoom rocker) will be one of the first problematic issues i encounter.. IN saying that, the beuaty of the zoom rocker is taht is so smooth is sickening.. so sooth in fact that it makes the DVX respond like a semi trailer. Sadly the rings are sluggish when u use medium or slow speed.. im yet to find a way to tweak these speeds effectively.. ))


Hopeteh above helps, but if anyoen wants to add some more thoughts, that would be great.
Im bringing the unit with me ona coupe of shoots for some test runs, andi still using my DVX100's for all of the work, but i want to see how i can handle this unit in the realworld.. hopefully it holds up without holding me up...
 
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