Newbie ? on sound and lighting

R

R.J.

Member
I am thinking of getting the HMC40, because it fits my budget, I want to do a small film. My questions.
Lighting I hear that the 40 isn't that good in low light but if I'm setting up my lighting what would it matter?
Sound wise would it be better to use a boom mic using the XLR adapter reather then say plug in a mic jack on the camera?
Thanks
Robert
 
Well as long as you have control of the lighting the HMC40 does a great job for its price point. For a film with set and lighting you will likely get near unanimous support of a boom mic. In that case you will definitely want the XLR adapter to avoid noise in the wiring. For an on camera mic, with its short run the XLR adapter is not required; although, it will give you a bit better control of the levels without going into a slightly cumbersome menu.
 
Thanks for the info. Just looked at some test footage on Vimeo of the hmc40 very cool looking stuff.
 
Vimeo can't really do an HMC40 justice. You could sit an HMC40 and XH-A1 right next to each other, shoot the same thing (a well lit scene, with both cameras properly adjusted), and wind up with footage that looks almost exactly the same on Vimeo, but burned to Blu-Ray and played back on a good HDTV in the living room, see a notably more detailed image coming from the HMC40 footage.
 
It's within my budget and most of the stuff I've heard and seen posted has been very positive to this camera.
 
Most of the negative comments seem to come from folks who think anything caught in the same neighborhood as a CMOS camcorder instantly turns to jello, or those who perhaps spend just way to much time looking at video frame-by-frame, in the digital darkroom, probably jacked up on gallons of coffee (rather than in real time - as a motion picture, while sipping a cold one, relaxed in an easy chair in the living room) and absolutely freak out when they see banding in a single frame, where a still camera flash went off as the video was being shot.
 
Robert M Wright said:
Most of the negative comments seem to come from folks who think anything caught in the same neighborhood as a CMOS camcorder instantly turns to jello, or those who perhaps spend just way to much time looking at video frame-by-frame, in the digital darkroom, probably jacked up on gallons of coffee (rather than in real time - as a motion picture, while sipping a cold one, relaxed in an easy chair in the living room) and absolutely freak out when they see banding in a single frame, where a still camera flash went off as the video was being shot.
Click to expand...


We are jacked up on Mountain Dew! Don't make me come at you like a spider monkey.

lol - Sorry reminded me of a movie excerpt...

Its jello man, jello any way you look at it. Some don't mind, some keep it on a tripod and never worry about it. Shooting with my t1i tonight I am on a jello rant, wasnt happy with it free hand and a 250mm lens... but thats tuff anyway.
 
I'm old school. Black coffee (with a couple Splendas) out of a quart mug - grows hair on your chest, to compliment bloodshot eyes after staring at a monitor well into the wee hours.

I've been shooting with CMOS cams for awhile, mostly hand-held, and never seen anything remotely akin to a serious problem from jello effect in the footage. I don't drive down the highway, with the cam hanging out the window, shooting picket fences though.
 
Get the XLR adapter, if for no other reason, so you can have some flexibility as to how you want to mic a situation. With an XLR adapter, you will have access to a wide array of mics, mic set ups (boom, tripod/stand, wireless, long cord set ups, etc.), all with low noise and controllable input.

If you have adequate lighting and are controlling it well, you will get generally the images you are striving to obtain (that should go with any good camera and this is certainly a good one). The best thing do, in any case, is to practice with the camera and understand how it responds to various lighting environments and also, how it responds to changes in lighting. I have found that this camera responds very well to adequate lighting.
 
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