HMC40 Goes To The Dogs

R

rich_r

Active member
I took my new AG-HMC40 to a dog show to shoot some test footage. There is some indoor, some outdoor, some pretty challenging high contrast scenes, some agility footage (which pretty drastically challenges the ability of the cam to track a quickly moving subject - I can't imagine any sport that would put more stress on skewing).

All the footage was shot 1080/24p with a 1/50 sec shutter. I had a ND4 screw on filter for the agility stuff; it was a very bright afternoon. Inside the iris was normally fully open with between 0 and 3db of gain. I would generally use 720/60p for the agility stuff, but I wanted to see how well the 1080/24p would hold up. I used some manual focus, some auto focus, some auto iris and some manual - just generally testing the camera. It's all handheld and pretty shakey, but the OIS did remarkably well.

Edited (VERY quickly) with Sony Vegas Pro 9 and rendered as a 1280x720/24p mp4 for Vimeo.

Here's the link: http://www.vimeo.com/6564309

Rich
 
I thought this would be a negative post, lol.

Like the video, bunch of cute doggies, but I wish the 40 was a little sharper.
 
Cranky said:
Handheld + rolling shutter + 1/48 shutter speed ==> lots of blur ?
Click to expand...
There is no question that the agility segments would have been much better at 720/60p (or at least 1080/60i). But this was intended to stress 1080/24p as hard as I could. The original is of course much sharper, but the Vimeo version has been downconverted to 720p. I don't think the camera sharpness is in question; Barry Green's First Look tests show pretty clearly that sharpness is not a problem. I was more interested in camera performance given good light - for my purposes I rarely shoot in poorly lit venues.

Overall, I think the HMC40 will suite my needs pretty well. And under normal circumstances I NEVER shoot handheld. I'll try to get something on a tripod that is a bit more controlled next weekend.
 
rich_r said:
The original is of course much sharper, but the Vimeo version has been downconverted to 720p. I don't think the camera sharpness is in question; Barry Green's First Look tests show pretty clearly that sharpness is not a problem.
Click to expand...

Of course its not a problem, I just am not impressed. I have yet to see raw files which may change my opinion.

It could be settings and focus issues, but down converting to 720p generally makes an image look sharper because its a little smaller, unless you compress the crap out of it...
 
I have noticed using the 150 that 24p mode is not that sharp, like you get in 30 or 60p.
 
Hey! we saw you there filming. actually you can see our video trailer in some of your shots. I'm with 4 Legged Flix. what are you using the 40 to shoot mainly? we considered getting the camera but i think the avc codec would be to cumbersome for the quick workflow that we need.
 
Shimobe said:
Hey! we saw you there filming. actually you can see our video trailer in some of your shots. I'm with 4 Legged Flix. what are you using the 40 to shoot mainly? we considered getting the camera but i think the avc codec would be to cumbersome for the quick workflow that we need.
Click to expand...

Small world! I mostly shoot nature and wildlife footage - very occasionally a club get-together.

I use Sony Vegas Pro (9.0b and 8.0c) and it handles AVCHC pretty well. Unless I am doing something with lots of effects and/or tracks I don't both transcoding since Vegas can handle the AVCHD natively; however, if I am doing some complex editing I transcode to either Cineform or Sony MXF. The Cineform transcode (using Neoscene) is quite fast and results in 4:2:2 color space files, but they are REALLY big. I know alot of folks are using the HMC150 for weddings and events and doing same day edits, so I don't think the format is a limiting as it was a couple years ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top