Short Handheld Video with HPX371e

G

Garion

Well-known member
I hope this works as my free vimeo account isnt back yet.

Today i took advantage of the unusually good UK weather to sneak the 371 into work and shoot a little footage in my dinner break.

Im afraid i couldn't use a tripod as theres no way im carting all that kit on the bus,the camera and bag was enough :)

All shot 1080-50i 25pn at either 120 or 50th second using modded bbc vid & film scene files.

I know ive blown the exposure a few times but hopefully its a taster until i can set something decent up later.
(I've Just watched it and i now see why you guys use vimeo,its way better quality than youtube but for now its all i have)

hopefully this will link to 720p youtube video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niJTRmXwrzg

Here's a better version,this one uses H264 instead of the previous file which was wmv.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzr3HJKqPyQ




cheers

Andy
 
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It's working and thanks for posting. Looks good, love that BBC Film setting. Waiting for 720p to play back full-screen. You need a grad ND over there - constantly overcast skies!
 
Looks good Andy and very much like my 301 with the same BBC settings, would like to see some low light footage if you get time to see if those extra two stops make a difference!

Don't know if you have seen it but this was one of my first 301 tests about 11 month's ago: http://vimeo.com/5014764
 
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GaryNattrass said:
Looks good Andy and very much like my 301 with the same BBC settings, would like to see some low light footage if you get time to see if those extra two stops make a difference!
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Andy,

This is a very interesting question by Gary...

May we hear your comments on this subject?

Would be wonderful to see a low light test... some sort of exteriors at night with street lights maybe..?

Cheers!

Henry
 
Im tied up for a few evening but ill try to film a night shot towards the end of the week for you all.

Must say there is one downside to the camera being more sensitive, the other day when i filmed this video in the UK midday sun. I had ND4 on, shutter at 120 and i was struggling to get the aperture to under F8 for several shots!

I normally keep the aperture between f2.8 - f5.6 if i can, i believe 1/3 inch cams start to go a little soft at f8 and above.

Mind you it is rare for us here in the UK to get this sort of good weather, i hate to think how our cousins over in the USA struggle with all that glorious weather you get .... Lucky beggars :p
 
Thats the crazt thing that panny are quoting f10 performance but if you go above f5.6 you can get problems, it may be a bit misleading for people who ar new to the camera and keep it stopped down all the time.

I will do some low light tests too so that there is a clip from the 301 in very low light, I won't go above +6db gain though as that is as far as the BBC spec will go.
 
I've just realised that over here in PAL land the 371 is actually F11. I re-checked the brochure and most manufacturers do their tests in 1080 60i but at 50i we gain another stop.

Silly question this but which mode should we do the test in ? 1080-50i 50i or 1080-50i 25p.

If 25p then i would guess shutter off for best performance.
 
Yes I saw that too and forgot we gain an extra stop, it also makes me think more that the noise problems were more related to NTSC than PAL and in the BBC report Alan says the 301 camera is no more noisy than any other HD camera and acceptable.

As for testing Its a difficult one as there are too many variables, that is why I wanted to see if we could meet up and test them side by side. It may also be that uploading to vimeo is not the best test situation either but lets see.

If we both shoot 1920x1080i 25np AVC intra 100 with a shutter of 1/50.0 with the BBC film settings it will be sort of a constant.

Or if you like 1920x1080i 50i AVC intra 100 with no shutter and the BBC video settings but the upload may be affected more by vimeo's conversion.
 
Yes it will be tricky this lol.

How about a compromise 1080-50i 25pn at frame rate of 25 (shutter off). I figure realistically this is the minimum either of us would really shoot at if we were after the filmic look at night?

The only mods i have done to the BBC Film file is backed the detail up to -2 instead of -4 . I have left coring at 0 and i have master pedestal at -6 as per Barry's recommendation. I can change it to match your file though if you like.

Ill lock down a shot and shoot at -3db, 0 and +6 if you like. Ill try something in the house in a darkened setting to try to limit outside interferance. Hopefully i can get time friday or saturday for this :)
 
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Does the 371 have a shutter setting of "half" as the Varicam does? If so then I'd just leave it on that always. This is what I've always done with Varicam and all HD cams, then you can always just turn the shutter off at the front switch if you need an extra stop if the light goes. Also turn it off for interlace.
Steve
 
On the 371 the shutter off switch simply puts the shutter rate at the shot speed.

1080-50i 50i shutter off = 50th sec
1080-50i 25pn shutter off= 25th sec

I dont believe i can set shutter off to any other value than the current frame rate, but it does sound cool.

Didnt think shutter off would affect interlace at all as i use 50th anyway for 50i? I normally use 50th sec on 25pn (180 deg shutter) but i do use shutter off when it gets a little dark.

cheers

Andy
 
That's all correct.
On the Varicam, and I assume the 371 too, in the menus there is a page or two of shutter settings, and one of them is "Half". This basically gives a 180 degree shutter, and what's great about it is that when you change frame rates you don't need to worry about changing the shutter speed - so if you shoot 25P then the shutter will go to 1/50th, if you then go to variable frame rate and dial it in to 45fps it'll automatically adjust shutter speed to 1/90th.
Steve
 
On the 301 I have two settings one appears as 1/50.0 at the start of the shutter settings menu and 1/50 the in the middle of the step up for shutter, does anyone know why?
 
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steve phillipps said:
That's all correct.
On the Varicam, and I assume the 371 too, in the menus there is a page or two of shutter settings, and one of them is "Half". This basically gives a 180 degree shutter, and what's great about it is that when you change frame rates you don't need to worry about changing the shutter speed - so if you shoot 25P then the shutter will go to 1/50th, if you then go to variable frame rate and dial it in to 45fps it'll automatically adjust shutter speed to 1/90th.
Steve
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Thanks for that Steve,

i checked the manual and it looks like only the bigger cams can do that. The 371 and 301 can change the shutter using the front switch ok as standard. Theres the syncro scan option but its fiddly and lastly the VFR option in 720p. Altho the under & over cranking options look great its a shame the 371 cannot record audio when doing so. Then again theres always 720 50p for that i guess.
The varicam does sound a sweet camera though :)
 
You can get a 180° shutter on the 300/370 by using Synchro Scan

GaryNattrass said:
On the 301 I have two settings one appears as 1/50.0 at the start of the shutter settings menu and 1/50 the in the middle of the step up for shutter, does anyone know why?
Click to expand...

The 1/50.0 is Synchro Scan. You can use the +/- keys next to the scene file dial to adjust that in .1 increments, or in the menu (DISPLAY SETUP > SYNC SCAN DISP) you can switch that readout to degrees and set it to 180. It will stay at 180° regardless of frame rate.
 
Garion said:
Altho the under & over cranking options look great its a shame the 371 cannot record audio when doing so. Then again theres always 720 50p for that i guess.
The varicam does sound a sweet camera though :)
Click to expand...

The Varicam doesn't record sound in VFR mode either.
The other thing that it doesn't do, which is horrible, is that you can't use the record cache (loop record) in VFR mode! This pre-roll is so useful for wildlife filming, and not being able to use it in VFR is a real pain. Yes you can shoot at 720/50P but you then need to conform to 25P in post.
Steve
 
I don't particularly care for the master pedestal setting on the BBC
settings. .. maybe because I'm running NTSC .. but .. I think it's
up too high.

jeff
 
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