ncje's A1 Thread

hey Elton, Njce, you guys work with Intermidary codecs right? like cineform Etc.

How long is the trandscode time? does it do it realtime while you capture the tape? I know the CAnon Artifacting is nearly nil, except in Very demanding circumstances. (dont tell me about SDI i cant afford it.... haha) have you ever come across any in any situations? thakn guys.


I am looking ot invest in a HD camera, and im seriously considering the XLG1, HVX and maybe even a used XLH1.... WHo knows maybe i'll go crazy! lol.
 
henry cho said:
hi ncje. the footage looks great. i noticed you mentioned using a spacer with the a1/m2. if you find you need a spacer, i think that either your m2 hasn't been tweaked, or your a1 is zoomed in too far. i found that once i moved the m2 motor (just a few hairs above it's minimal position), i could zoom in to just where the motor and ground glass edges leave the screen together, and achieve focus on the ground glass even with the a1 pushed completely against the m2 (without even having to extend the rubber lip). spacers work fine, but less distance between the lens and ground glass is ideal.
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I agree with you on not wanting to use a spacer. Heres my issue. I can get focus on the gg. When I focus with my FD lens I cant get focus. When I push the m2 out then refocus on the gg I can get focus from the FD. Not sure what I am doing wrong then :S

EDIT

Strange issue going on here. I backfocus on the GG no problem. I then attach the FD lens. Without zooming from the position the backfocus has been set from I can achieve perfect focus on anything. Its when I zoom in a little further so the motor is no longer visible, then the FD can not achieve focus on anything,
 
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the noise is so low in the Full res teddy bear screenshot how come there is noise in the Outdoor stuff at standard Def.... thats puzzling. somethings off.
 
could be compression from the QT conversion.. thats why I will do m2ts from all clips today. Also did you read notes on my first? Shot with +12db gain (mistake of course).
 
It's probably quicktime compression. .m2t should be the format it's delivered in since it'll take so long to compress a good quicktime file.

Bring on those .m2t's NC and congrats on your camera!

Mmmmmmm yummy.
 
ncje said:
Its when I zoom in a little further so the motor is no longer visible, then the FD can not achieve focus on anything,
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hmmm... my first step would be remove the fd lens and make sure the peaking and magnify options are off (i left magnify on accidently the first time i set backfocus). then point the camera a few degrees off of a bright light. it's in the darker areas that grain of the ground glass will be easier to see. kicking on the nd filter helps as well. i'd start with the achromat/camera positioned about an inch away from the m2 and extend the m2's rubber lip over the edge of the achromat . this will give you a little breathing room to play with positioning as you proceed. i was ultimately able to get the a1/achromat flush against the m2.

as you set backfocus, the grain in the gg might be hard to see on the lcd, so connecting to a full size monitor will help. zoom in until you just get past the edge of the ground glass and motor. i find zooming in small increments and focusing on the gg each time i zoom in a little further helps me stay oriented. if the motor leaves the frame before the ground glass, or vice versa, you will want to tweak the positioning of the motor in the m2. if all is good, you should be able to focus on the ground glass without seeing the gg edges or the motor. once the grain of the gg is clearly visible in the center and all four corners of the frame, tape down your zoom and focus rings with some gaffers tape (be careful not to tape down the iris ring). the rings are sensitive, and this will prevent accidental knocks. your backfocus is now set. then put your fd lens on.

at this point, you should be good to go. this can clearly be a pain the ass as you may have to disassemble and reassemble your m2 several times, but once it's set, you won't have to change it again, at least until you change cameras.
 
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mikkowilson said:
Great stuff NCJE, Thanks!


- Mikko ... looking forward to your Merlin reports.
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Thanks Mikko - Merlin coming soon.

Thanks for the info Henry. I should have thought about the issue a bit more but your tips were helpful. The increments worked plus hooking to a monitor of course made it easier. I also found turning the unit on and off helped give a better visual on the gg. I can focus on the gg with the motor out of the shot. Its one of those once youve done it you never forget things. OK cool so some shots from that later - thanks to Henry. The m2 certainly is a different look to say a Letus which I have used. The light loss seems less but seems a bit more grain, initial thought only.
 
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TimurCivan said:
hey Elton, Njce, you guys work with Intermidary codecs right? like cineform Etc.
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I used to work in intermediate codecs until FCP 5.1.2--native HDV works very well now. I edit in HDV timelines (unless I've shot raw SDI to Sheer) and output to tape, and then I also drop HDV edits into Sheer codec timelines and do some finesseing in a lossless environment, and then encode h.264 from a Sheer HD timeline.

So, a bit of both depending on what my needs are. Most of the time native HDV is more than adequate.

btw, that rafting clip I posted some time ago is about the worst artifacting I've ever encountered from 24F mode...and it just didn't matter at all.

I wouldn't worry about it Timur--it just works. You'll probably have people complaining about much more bothersome things in your footage if you happened to induce the blockies.
 
ncje--I saw the Pooh clip in m2t...what were your settings? Did you have black stretch on? It seems like the shadows could be a little less noisy. Nice looking overall, but I bet you can get the shadows to dance less and still have detail.
 
Elton said:
ncje--I saw the Pooh clip in m2t...what were your settings? Did you have black stretch on? It seems like the shadows could be a little less noisy. Nice looking overall, but I bet you can get the shadows to dance less and still have detail.
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Blacks were on middle in that shot. Master pedestal was at -4. Just gaging how things interact.
 
for the love of god tell me the XLH1/G1/A1 has numeric readout for image settings. dont tell me its got thet garbage XL2 bar graph thing.........
 
Lol Tim the black has 3 settings : stretch / middle / press.

On the image adjustment functions there is a bar and a number.
 
You may see some interesting images come up on this thread - due to the fact that I am learning the cam upside down. I hate to be out shooting and think how do I do that again? So, I have to know everything.

First post updated.
 
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ncje, i'm glad you got your a1/m2 in order, and everything looks super. i thought the merlin stuff in particular looked great. looking forward to future updates.
 
ncje said:
So heres total settings I used:

Gamma - Normal
Knee - Auto
Black - Press
Pedestal - -3
Setup Level - 0
Sharpness - 0
H Detail Freq - High
DHV - 0
Coring - 0
Nr1 - 0
Nr2 - 0
Colour Matrix - Cine2
Colour Gain - 0
Red Gain - 0
Green gain - 0
Blue Gain - 0
Rest also - 0
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Gotta love that tweakability...

Ok, here's where I think you might change a few settings:

--Gamma: Cine2: it might be different in the A1 but probably very similar to the H1's. It's my favorite gamma curve.

--Knee Low--I don't like the look of the camera changing knee settings in the middle of a shot. Low knee helps to smooth highlight rolloffs no matter what, and I think it's a gentle enough highlight compression so I leave mine on by default.

--Black Middle: If you want to play with shadow rendition in post you might want to leave it on middle. Black stretch will give you a bit more shadow detail, but a bit more noise too.

--H Detail Freq: Middle (see if you notice a difference in noise)

--What are the increments of the sharpness parameters now? On the XL-H1 you can go from +9 to -9. Maybe the default sharpness on the A1 is less edge enhance than the H1's, but I would try dialing it up and down and look at the results in HD and see if it looks a bit more natural with the sharpness taken down a bit.

Keep 'em comin'!
 
Thanks for the tips. And yes the teakability of this cam has to come into play when people are considering their purchases. I kept my DVX and one thing I did try to do was match footage in SD mode. I got them so close you just couldnt tell one from the other if all you saw was side by side image.

The sharpness increments are same as XL-H1. On the m2 shots I did put sharpness on 0 others -3.

One thing I love is this cam comes standard with a lense that is wide angle enough for 98% of anything I would want to do at the moment, its got great width, when I get some daylight time next I will be sure to hit the mountain close by to try and get some of those spectacular wide shots.

Elton should I copy my original message here over into the XLCinema forum also?
 
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ncje, those merlin shots were freaking sweet, my friend! Is this the one you are using: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=382099&is=REG&addedTroughType=search
Because it says there it can only take 5pounds/2kg and I'm thinking the A1+M2 is heavier than that (actualy I'm pretty sure the A1 by it self is heavier than 5 pounds).
As for the M2 shots I think they could have been better. But you just got the M2 and it's time to make it shine it's best. I'm sure soon you'll have us all dropping our jaws on the floor in amazement.

Elton and Barry, I think you guys will have some serious blim blim heading your way as soon as the A1/G1 book/DVD is released. :D
 
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