Soft-looking video, or am I expecting too much?

Hi the settings were changed on the Kangaroo shots... they were my test subjects... I went back and filmed them over a succession of days while I was figuring out the camera...

The final settings which I posted on the clips are the settings I've stuck with ever since...

The flowers use this setting... (although I think the reds are too hot...)

I find the camera at the long end of the lens can produce some nice pic's... when she's wide it tends to fall apart... although having said that it is much better than the 200 or 170 in most cases...

When the camera came out there was allot of buzz with the skew issues in 1080p and since I like mucking around with the crank I keep it at 720pn... sometimes going to 720/50..

I never had a complaint from a client regarding the footage from the 300... although I've seen issues in post that I'd prefer not to be there... but I think that's to do with the CMOS more than anything...

I've shot many times next to EX3 and in almost every case the Panny footage looked more organic and had that extra punch... (just my option)...

I'm mainly shooting with 7D and GH13 as primary cameras but the ease of the 300 on some jobs means it will stay in the kit for a little bit longer...

Cheers

PS... I like the idea of the AF100 but I also like P2...
 
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Hi Lez! Your footage are beautiful. If you shoot at 1080pn on a tripod you will have footage that are much better in terms of results and look, but with much noise and issues. But i've always noticed them in still frames and not in normal playback.Have you ever try the AVCIntra 100 at 1080i? I think that is beautiful! Well for the overkrank you have to use the 720! In my opinion there is no compare between the 171/200's footages. I've edited a lot of 200 timelines, and the grain is terrible. Details are good but not so impressive.Matching the 301 with a 200 is not so easy than match the 301's footages with the 7D or the 5D ones. I have to say that in my experience i've found clients that have confused dvcpro footage with full hd! But they are very happy with the result everytime!
Bests,
Roberto
 
Do you remember the f-stop that you were shooting at?

Because this is a BIG issue with the 300 and the 370. As I pointed out in the HPX500 forum:

Please have in mind that it has only 1/3 inch chips. That introduces a lot of problems. You can't use that camera if you close the iris more than f4 (the red channel starts blurring). Everything is becoming soft and defocused then. On F11 everything is out of focus.

We had a 370 for testing purposes and returned it. You have no control over the focus of your footage unless you shoot with open iris. For me the 300 and the 370 is absolutely NO ENG camera. Maybe you can use them in an enviroment where you have total control about the light and exposure. So keep in mind: Always shoot with open iris!

You can try this anytime: Put your 300/370 on a tripod and focus a scene with fine detail. Shoot with full ND and open iris. Do a second shot with f11 and compare the two shots. You will see a HUGE difference.

Regards

pro
 
Hallo Pro! I think that the iris problem is not a big problem! You have 4 ND filters to use, so you can easly go down to 5.6 and use the ND filters and the shutter speed and have a perfect in focus picture. The 30% of this issue is caused from the 1/3 MOS and the 80% from the lens! If you under expose the picture with ND and shutter speed the light that goes into the MOS is almost the same of the closed iris, but you will not have the out of focus issue. This is tested at 100%! If you try another HD lens better than the 17x ( you can try the 13x and see how much difference you will have in your footage! ) you can go down 5.6 with iris with no problems!
The 301 is different from the 500 and the MOS is different from the CCD. You have only to change your mind and use ND filters and settings to have the right picture.
Bests,
Roberto
 
Sorry - I have to disagree.

We tested the 370 together with our dealer with 2 high end lenses (about 15.000€ each) from Canon and Fujinon but we got similar results. The problem are the small chips. I don't know how this issue is called in English but in Germany it is called "Beugungsunschärfe". That means that is physically impossible to get a sharp picture when you use more than f4 because the light rays are distored at the edges of the iris and the wavelenghth of the light rays is bigger than the single chip pixels. Everything above f4 starts to get blurry. That's why we returned the camera.
Shutter is not an option for us because you get totally different results in terms of the motion. For everyone that can control the lighting to the end the 370 is a great camera but not for ENG use.

Cheers

Pro
 
Thank you for the explaination! I've shoot many times at 5.6 with ND4 filter and shutter speed at 1/50 and 1/250 and i have not noticed the out of focus problem even in wide position. But i've noticed it when i go down to 8 or 11. I've tried the 13x and set the iris at 8 and ND1 and have a little blur in the picture only in wide position. I have a 301 but i have had a 371 for two weeks before the PAP filter update and i've noticed that the picture was much blurry than the 301. Just a strange thing!
Of course i usually work with sunlight or studio lights...
Thanks again for the detailed informations!
Bests,
Roberto
 
Yeah - at 5.6 it is hard to see. But if you look just at the red channel (longest wavelength - issue starts at f4 in the red channel) it starts to get blurry. Then the green and the blue channel follow at f8. The best you can do is to keep the iris as much open as you can. Then you get crystal sharp pictures out of the 301 and the 370.

Cheers

Pro
 
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