filming motorsport advice

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yorkshireram

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Hi

I'm about to purchase the XH-A1. I've been swaying between this or an XL2 and I may still change my mind pending the answers to this question. I'm going to be filming a motorsport series and burning to SD DVD (initially). I will probably film in HDV and downsample at the end of editing but I'm worried that I'll get motion stutter with some of the faster panning that is required. Will the XH-A1 cope ok and what setting should I be filming this type of action with? I'm assuming I need a fast shutter speed and 60i? Can this action be filmed in HD or will it look better in SD?

I'm also shooting some weddings and a few have requested HD otherwise I may have gone for the XL2, assuming that the SD performance on the XL is better than the XH (the XH is cheaper so something must be compromised I suppose, that's my thinking..)

I'm just starting out with proper filming so please forgive my ignorance! I've had a bit of a search but found conflicting info. thanks :thumbsup:
 
I would go with the XHA1.
I think you will be much happier with the HD down converted to SD rather then shooting SD.
I did some tests and SD looks a lot better down converted to from HD compared to straight SD.
But with whatever camera you get, do some testing before the actual day of the shoot.
I think you should increase the shutter a little.

Hope this helps.
 
I've done a little motorsport shooting with a small 3 chip Pana SD cam and I'd first recommend a fast shutter speed. That maybe just a personal preference, but it will can help with DOF.

I haven't yet shot motorsport with the A1 but I have done some wicked fast moves to see if it hurts the image. It hasn't. To be sure you're getting what you want in a cam, you might want to rent both the XL2 and A1 and tape an event. Compare the SD footage and see what you think. A minor investment will help you feel more confident in your ultimate purchase.

From what I've read in others' posts, you'll get better SD footage if you shoot in HD and downconvert. I won't know that personally until I downconvert some of the footage I've shot. I love the way the HD footage looks so I haven't converted any to SD yet.

Hope that helps.
 
Nice work travisl! How much did it cost to get the rights to the metallica song?

Yorkshireram, I use the A-1 for a variety of fast action sports and have no motion stutter at all. The motion blur with HDV has been no different for me than it was with SD. Of course I use 60i for sports as 24f or p look bad if you even pan too fast so I wouldn't consider using that. I also down convert but thus far have done in it camera rather than in the NLE and so far have had great results.

Ed
 
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Thanks Atwintator, which song are you refering to??? Metallica i dont think was on there....pretty sure....but for the guy that started this post..get a mono pod...trust me, it makes your shots smooter and helps out your elbows. tha A1 get HEAVY after awhile :) some of the other clips are on www.myspace.com/830ent the quality sucks, i didnt know then what i know now about encoding.
 
Hey travisl,

In the FTP 5 trailer. "Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire"....can't remember the name of the song. Was yours the other video there?

Ed
 
i didnt do FTP 5 just stuntfest 2007. as for the talent, what are you reference to??? the riding skills or camera work?? both are still here:) i ride a gsxr 1K 06 but i leave all that fancy stuff to those guys..i'd rather film n edit...with an occasional wheelie here n there:)
 
Definetly go A1. I just filmed the Driftfest 2007 and found that the HDV codec actually held up very well, the only thing it had very slight issue with is heat haze (only after analyising in detail I noticed) since its summer here and the Australian sun is very harsh but with a UV and Polarizer filter should help which I didn't have.

But the thing is if you anticapate that you may be shooting way too much action ie rain,smoke,dirt everywhere plus panning with car all in the same shot the hdv codec might have issues with it and thats where you can choose to switch down to DV and the image still would be easly as good as the XL and sharper (there is endless discussion whether shoot HD then down or Shoot DV but just think DV is same 25mb rate as HDV so lot less compression). Motion stutter would come from shooting at progressive and bad pans, shoot 60i for sure (or 50i in my case) and a good tripod will help too.
 
Bishaway said:
Definetly go A1. I just filmed the Driftfest 2007 and found that the HDV codec actually held up very well, the only thing it had very slight issue with is heat haze (only after analyising in detail I noticed) since its summer here and the Australian sun is very harsh but with a UV and Polarizer filter should help which I didn't have.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate. What a coincidence! I'm filming drifting too :)

I've ordered the XH, so looking forward to using it. I think I'll be shooting in SD on camera for the moment at 50i (PAL) as I have a Panasonic GS series camera which will be used aswell - and footage from in-car cameras which will be all SD.

As a sidenote, if I'm editing in HD workspace, can I still import SD footage? (using the footage scaled down in the corner of the screen for example)
 
Yeah you shouldn't have any issues importing SD to HD workspace. I am an AVID user and I have no issues with mixing Resolutions. but I would assume other current version NLEs should work fine. Someone correct me if I am wrong though.
 
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