Why isn't my HMC150 footage looking crisper?

O

oxband

Well-known member
I've been doing some shooting with an HMC150 and a Canon XA10. I watched a lot of footage this past week, and the XA10 footage just looks crisper. The colors are a bit more saturated, the blacks a bit more defined. I'm not sure why since the sensor on the HMC150 is supposed to be better.


I'm using preset scene file 6, Cine-D. Any thoughts for what I can do to change this?
 
First, you should look up the Panasonic scene files for the HMC150. You might find one you like better.

Then test and tweak settings until you get the look you want. I'd be willing to bet you can look as good, if not better, than the XA10.
 
try cinelike V, Norm 2, master ped at -2/-3 and chroma level at +1/+2, i use these settings for quick turnaround corporate/news pieces that i dont have time to CC
 
The reality of the HMC-150 camera is that it is a 720 HD camera and won't compare well with full resolution 1080 HD cameras.

This is not a big deal for me, as I can always down grade the 1080 HD camera footage to 720 HD in order to get the footage to match.

Despite being an older camera, I still like my HMC-150 quite a bit. ( if I was to buy a new camera today, it would be a choice between the AC-130/AC-160 and the Sony equivalent cameras )
 
I think Dingo has the right idea with down resing the canon footage, Here's what I feel to be the most important when matching cameras.

contrast
white balance
sharpening (I like unsharp mask more than the basic sharpening function or up res or down res depending)
saturation
I also find it can be helpful to apply a filter to both footage like a slight diffusion, or something that can help blend them together.

I honestly think your better off getting as close to the look your after in cam. The older small chip cams seems to grade better when you shoot with contrast and saturation turned up as opposed to the super flat look we shoot with on DSLR's. Shooting flat works well with cameras that have good dynamic range. Unfortunately the hmc150 doesn't have the latitude, plus the saturation drops in lower light situations.

I did some testing a few years back with an older CCD 1/3rd" camera (xha1). I shot a scene with a flat preset vs one that was output ready, I tried getting the flat scene to match up with the other. It didn't work very well, it added gobs of noise and artifacts, plus it had crappy color, it appeared the ready to use preset held much better than the flat preset did. I'm guessing my editing software had more info to work with. Not to mention I think the codec has a lot to do with it as well.
 
I should say I called B&H yesterday and discussed this question with them. The man there said the XA10 chip is a full 1920x1080 chip while the HMC150 one is not but just scales up the resolution it does have (I realize my language is remarkably imprecise). Which leads to two questions:


1 - Is the chip actually better on the XA10?
2 - If it is, isnt that image always going to have a higher upside? The HMC-150 has many advantages, obvously, over the XA10, but in terms of image quality alone, maybe it's best isnt as good as the best of the XA10.
 
oxband said:
The HMC-150 has many advantages, obvously, over the XA10, but in terms of image quality alone, maybe it's best isn't as good as the best of the XA10.
Click to expand...

I would only agree with this statement when it comes to resolution, otherwise I think the HMC-150 produces a more sophisticated image. ( i.e. better camera image controls )
 
Try the Spark scene file (#3) and dont be afraid to tweak all the settings to your liking. And dont forget the white balance. Also, the HMC150 has much more sensitivity so shooting indoors it should do much better than an XA10.


Keep working with it and keep asking questions.
 
oxband said:
I should say I called B&H yesterday and discussed this question with them. The man there said the XA10 chip is a full 1920x1080 chip while the HMC150 one is not but just scales up the resolution it does have (I realize my language is remarkably imprecise). Which leads to two questions:


1 - Is the chip actually better on the XA10?
2 - If it is, isnt that image always going to have a higher upside? The HMC-150 has many advantages, obvously, over the XA10, but in terms of image quality alone, maybe it's best isnt as good as the best of the XA10.
Click to expand...

The XA10 is a 1/3-inch CMOS. It is not a CCD and it's a single 1/3-inch. And you get a rolling shutter.

You can look at the AC-130a for a full 1920x1080 3 x 1/3-inch CMOS camera. But you'll get rolling shutter.
 
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