I need help! HMC40 Quality

P

Prophetmatt

Well-known member
I know people get sick of these..however, I need help.

I've been filming with a T2i for a year now and i love it.

Bought an HMC40 to use as well and I can't get my image to look nearly as good as others.

Here is an example of what I got from today!

http://vimeo.com/22535539

I know a lot of it is out of focus and also the uv filter on the lens was a polaroid which isn't the best (taking it back as I saw a decrease in image quality)..did I just answer my own question?

Anyways help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also not sure if the color settings I had on mattered at all. I used the two settings from BarryGreen if I remember correctly. Used scene 1 today.
 
Was that footage straight out of the camera or did you do anything to it in post?
Also, what mode were you shooting in?

The HMC40 eats light like nobody's business - but since I generally use mine for exterior daytime stuff (like what you showed) I actually wind up using an external ND filter a lot of the time, because the ND in the camera just isn't that strong. It could be diffraction that is causing the lower image quality, which occurs when you're shooting at a high fstop on a small chip camera like this.
Do you happen to remember what stop you were shooting at?

(and just FYI, it's a polarizer - not a polaroid)
 
Thanks Luis. I was shooting at about a 3.5 the whole afternoon. I need to mess more with the camera scene settings as well. The UV filter is made by polaroid which I should've stated haha.

I was shooting in ph 720 as well. I did a little color grading as well which may have messed with the quality a bit as I didn't have the colors dialed in the camera as close as I would've liked.
 
Hahahahaha - that's what I get for assuming you said the wrong thing.... I missed that you wrote "the UV filter was a polaroid" not just "the filter was a polaroid"
:)
Sorry about that.

f3.5 shouldn't give you any problems with diffraction, so that's probably not it.
I'm wondering why you're shooting 720? I've actually never shot 720 on my HMC40, so I don't know what to expect from it - but at 1080 that camera really sings.
You might want to try shooting in PH 1080 and see what you think.

Seeing as you color graded the footage, it's a bit tough to judge too much off it because we can't be certain what caused what.
But I can say that HMC40 footage can look incredibly sharp - honestly, when well shot I feel the HMC40 can knock the HPX170 in the dirt.

I would suggest hooking it up to a monitor if you can and playing around with the settings - so you can get a real sense of what each setting is doing.
Also, make sure to keep an eye on the built in waveform - it can be a life saver.

As far as UV filters, I think mine is made by B+W and I've been happy with it (same with the ND filter I use when needed).
 
UV filters in front of the lens certainly can degrade the image, and frankly, Polaroid (for all its past glories) doesn't have much of a reputation for building quality camera accessories these days. I'd second Luis' recommendation of a B+W filter. Try to get one with a solid brass, black mounting ring that will add minimal flare from reflected light, and screws off and on easily. You might also want to pick up one or two neutral density filters (maybe a 0.6 and/or 0.9) to use on bright days; the HMC40/80 get a little fuzzy in very bright light when the lens stops down all the way and starts adding diffraction to the image. Finally, a circular polarizing (not Polaroid brand) filter is especially valuable when shooting around water, since it can help suppress some of the specular highlights that result in blown exposures, and also has some neutral density effect.

In your images, I saw: (1) frequent focusing errors leading to fuzzy images; (2) too much contrast; (3) an overall brownish/sepia color, and most important of all, (4) severely overexposed highlights on the white water that were yellowish, indicating that one or more of the sensors were completely saturated. The problem in advising you about how to deal with them is that all of these effects except the focus can be completely explained by the color, contrast and exposure correction you did in editing, and consequently, I can't really tell if it was a problem with operating the camera, or was introduced later in the processing.

The HMC40/80 have a whole raft of settings that can change the overall look of the picture. I think you probably need to dial down the contrast a bit so you get more of the dynamic range of your scenes within the camera's capability. Cine-D or B.Press gamma might be a starting point. Reducing the chroma level can help with the color shift on the blown highlights. You should also look at the color matrix, knee and DRS settings to try and achieve the best balance between controlled dynamic range and minimal noise. There's a lot to experiment with on this camera! Also, make sure you do a black balance and careful white balance before each setup, and check your exposure carefully using the waveform monitor. Then look at your ungraded footage carefully to see where you can make improvements next time, before altering it too much in the post process.

Your subject is very exciting and dramatic and the HMC40 is actually a very good choice for shooting this kind of action. 720p60 mode is a good choice for sports because the fast progressive frame rate captures motion effectively. But you probably need some more experience with it, and some time and effort spent learning about and experimenting with camera settings, before you'll be able to get the full potential out of this camera.

- Greg
 
Although 720 isn't quite as sharp as 1080, 720 looks great on the hmc40 and there is no reason not to use it. And it offers 60 frames when you need it.


Grant
 
just spent a bit with the footage and finally found a clip from when I was messing with the settings in the cam that I was actually pleased with. Seems to be that without any of the cheap polaroid filters, good light, no gain, shutter speed of 1/250, focus was good

http://vimeo.com/22584349
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top