XF-100 settings

M

mcrein

New member
hi there
i am new to this forum and hoping for a little setup advice. i just recently purchased the XF-100 after testing the XA-10 (great images, hated the ergonomics and the menu access) . i have been working with a GL-2 for the last 8/9 years. (finally made the move to HD) i do corporate and journalist style shooting for an NGO i work with. the last few years i have been working a lot in africa. (DRC among many places. so as you can imagine i wanted a camera that is not conspicuous or obviously labels you as a journalist...which is the last thing you want to be known as in DRC)

in any case, many of the places i go to are very much in the bush (recently the kivu region from sudan to zambian borders) i am working on a project on health and hygiene for africa. i am not a trained videographer. just kind of picked up what i needed. wish i had more knowledge. but i do understand the basics, white balance, manual focus, etc. ( my background is as a writer and musician. but since budgets are non-existent for this kind of work i am forced often to do everything) i work in FCP 7. so i basically need a camera that is idiot proof and easy to just point and shoot. l finally chose the XF-100 because it was not a big step up from the GL-2 in terms of use and seems familiar to me. and i LOVE the image quality.

i was wondering if anyone, (especially documentary or run/gun types) could share their image and shooting settings for the XF. the default ones that came with the camera produce a very uninspiring picture. any suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. i've been playing around but would like to set the camera up so basically i can point and grab what i need with a few buttons. ( often i have to do it surreptitiously and very quickly. )

sorry for the long posting but i felt i needed to explain my needs which are very specific.

thanks
michael
 
Hey, Michael - congrats on the XF100! It's a great camera. You can find a lot of helpful information on the Vimeo XF Group page, where we'd love for you to be a member and contribute. Here's a link:

http://vimeo.com/groups/canonxf

I've designed a few CP's for the XF300 series cameras, but they are not compatible with the 100's due to 1 additional setting within the CP menu. I am getting my hands on an XF100 tonight, and will port my XF300 series CP settings over to the XF100 series and post those on the Vimeo forum. They should be a good upgrade from the stock picture settings.
 
This forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xf-series-hd-camcorders/

...has a lot of posts with XF100 Custom Picture settings. Just use Search. And, a guy named Lou Bruno has posted a lot over there, so if you want you could just search on his name.

The short version is that out of the box the XF100 shoots very flat on color, blacks, sharpness, contrast. If you want more punch, contrast, and saturation, then bump up the color and sharpness and crush the blacks.
 
hey cp52...
thanks for the invite and i would love to be a member but i'm afraid i am nowhere close to a pro level. as i said,i shoot strictly for content sake. that is to get my point across, whether it be a documentary or a how to video on washing hands and purifying water. i will definitely look for your CP's over there...
thanks also ddixon for the link.
 
The vimeo group is not just for pro's. Lots of people are shooting with the cam for their own enjoyment. It's a good place to share and learn with people that are using the same or similar equipment! I'm sure a lot of members would learn a thing or two from your experiences and videos.
 
cowpunk52 said:
The vimeo group is not just for pro's. Lots of people are shooting with the cam for their own enjoyment. It's a good place to share and learn with people that are using the same or similar equipment! I'm sure a lot of members would learn a thing or two from your experiences and videos.
Click to expand...

well that's kind. experience maybe. (sure that not many of the people on that or any forum for that matter have been held for ransom by mai-mai...but that's another story entirely)
looking forward to showing something i shot with the camera. just got it so pretty new and won;t be back in africa till the hew year. got a lot of GL-2 footage though....

m
 
I just made 3 new CP's for the XF100 series camcorders:

mediafire.com/?nd2422e8k6r8b55

The CP's have been customized for the XF100 series and they are Tru Vid2, XF1Mojo & HiGain.

Tru Vid2 and XF1Mojo are very similar to their 300 series counterparts, but HiGain is unique to the 100 series cameras. I noticed that while the gain sensitivity of the cameras is very close, the noise grain of the 100 cameras is more pronounced and not as fine or "tight" as the 300 series, especially as the gain is increased in low-light situations. I also noticed a lot of black "specs" dancing around the screen at high gain settings. The HiGain CP was created to minimize digital noise and erase those dancing black specs as much as possible while giving a crisp HD image.

As always, set your black levels to taste, but I prefer not going lower than -1 or -2 in order to keep as much shadow detail as possible. Enjoy!​
 
thanks
will definitely use use these presets as starting points. very helpful!
which one of these would be best for outside shooting? (pretty intense african sun, shadows, though african light can be quite warm and diffused depending on the humidity levels)
m
 
mcrein said:
thankswill definitely use use these presets as starting points. very helpful! which one of these would be best for outside shooting? (pretty intense african sun, shadows, though african light can be quite warm and diffused depending on the humidity levels) m
Click to expand...
I would recommend XF1Mojo, it will give you the greatest shadow detail and has the most pleasing gamma, imo.
 
cowpunk52 said:
I just made 3 new CP's for the XF100 series camcorders:

mediafire.com/?nd2422e8k6r8b55

The CP's have been customized for the XF100 series and they are Tru Vid2, XF1Mojo & HiGain.

Tru Vid2 and XF1Mojo are very similar to their 300 series counterparts, but HiGain is unique to the 100 series cameras. I noticed that while the gain sensitivity of the cameras is very close, the noise grain of the 100 cameras is more pronounced and not as fine or "tight" as the 300 series, especially as the gain is increased in low-light situations. I also noticed a lot of black "specs" dancing around the screen at high gain settings. The HiGain CP was created to minimize digital noise and erase those dancing black specs as much as possible while giving a crisp HD image.

As always, set your black levels to taste, but I prefer not going lower than -1 or -2 in order to keep as much shadow detail as possible. Enjoy!​
Click to expand...
Im going to give this a try, Thanks
 
Phill, I mentioned white balance elsewhere - set your white balance to Kelvin, boost it up (try 6700 degrees for daylight), and let us know what you think.
 
@cowpunk52 I've been using your profiles and think they work nicely. Thanks. But I noticed that you upgraded your TruVid and XF1Mojo profiles to TruVid2 and XF1Mojo2. But on my camera, it only shows XF1Mojo and not XF1Mojo2 when I upgraded. Should it replace XF1Mojo or does it just write over that profile with the same name?
 
DNN said:
@cowpunk52 I've been using your profiles and think they work nicely. Thanks. But I noticed that you upgraded your TruVid and XF1Mojo profiles to TruVid2 and XF1Mojo2. But on my camera, it only shows XF1Mojo and not XF1Mojo2 when I upgraded. Should it replace XF1Mojo or does it just write over that profile with the same name?
Click to expand...
In for answer
 
Thx for that. I'm a Facebook holdout. Any chance of getting those CP's uploaded here? Much appreciated.
 
cowpunk52 said:
I just made 3 new CP's for the XF100 series camcorders:

mediafire.com/?nd2422e8k6r8b55

The CP's have been customized for the XF100 series and they are Tru Vid2, XF1Mojo & HiGain. Tru Vid2 and XF1Mojo are very similar to their 300 series counterparts, but HiGain is unique to the 100 series cameras. I noticed that while the gain sensitivity of the cameras is very close, the noise grain of the 100 cameras is more pronounced and not as fine or "tight" as the 300 series, especially as the gain is increased in low-light situations. I also noticed a lot of black "specs" dancing around the screen at high gain settings. The HiGain CP was created to minimize digital noise and erase those dancing black specs as much as possible while giving a crisp HD image.As always, set your black levels to taste, but I prefer not going lower than -1 or -2 in order to keep as much shadow detail as possible. Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Sorry, but what is a "CP," what is a "Vid2," and what is an "XF1Mojo?" Do these things stand in for anything in the common usage English language? Could sort of figure out what a "HiGain" could be. Thanks!
 
CP is the abbreviation for Custom Picture files - the settings files on Canon XF100 and XF300 series cameras that change the "look" of the video captured. You can create custom CP files, and you can give them any name you wish. The names are limited to (I think) 8 characters only, thus the short names.

Vid2 is what he named one of his CP files that has a more "video-ish" look. XF1Mojo means it's for the XF100 series and Mojo in this case means a bolder look. HiGain is a special CP created to minimize the video noise that is a side effect of using higher levels of gain (exposure gain, not audio gain). The HiGain CP smooths out fine noise, but at the expense of a slightly softer, less contrasty picture. So, it actually does all have some meaning behind it :-)
 
thanks for that ddixon. any chance of getting those CP files posted here for DL? shocking as it may seem, i'm a facebook holdout so can;t access that group.
thanks
 
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