XF300 Low Light Music Video example

Thanks for checking out the vids!

Overall, I've been extremely satisfied with noise performance at high dB gain. Also, the three levels of OIS are the best I've used on any camera, bar none. It definitely takes some dedication to learn how to get the most out of the XF cameras, but the potential is there for some very high high quality footage in almost any situation.
 
cowpunk52-

3-4 locations all in one nite? assembled crowd of "extras" just in case and have them do what is needed all in one nite? heck, u got yourself a nice burning tire shot and all in one nite. forget talking about the xf300, u got alot done in just one nite! thumbs up.

the camera is very clean at 14db. that is an odd number to use. can u "dial in" a db on the xf300? how did u arrive at 14db? u saw standard 12db and wished for just a wee bit more? (if so, it worked just fine)

focus was quite sharp. manual focus w/an occasional push of af? how about use of auto iris, wide open 1.8 on wide side/2.8 on the tele end and then occasional push of auto iris to see what camera needs?

lastly, care to share your use of levels of image stabilization? i know there are 3 flavors. did u employ various flavors in the video? care to eye-dee which flavor in what shot?

sorry for the detailed inquiries. on this board u have been one of the leading proponents of the xf300 and its great to hear from someone who knows what they are doing with a new tool in the tool box.

i forgot to mention, wonderful use of the locations in the video. the up angle worked well and the camera in the tunnel allowing the lites to arc in the background was lovely. u have a very nice eye. again, thumbs up.

thanks in advance for any real-world experience u care to share.

be well

rob
 
Hey, Rob - yeah, it was a full night. But we moved really fast, and most of that was due to having no lights and no real camera setup. We only used a tripod on one shot.

To answer your questions:

Yes, you can dial in the gain in 0.5dB increments on the XF. I wanted a little more punch than what +12 was giving me at the first location, so I popped it up to +14, and just shot there for the remainder for consistency. Having the in-camera NR set to 8 did result in a softening of the image, but it still looked great to my eye.

Everything was shot completely manual. I never used the AF or auto iris. I kept the lens as wide as it would go at all focal lengths. Shutter was kept mostly at 1/90 for aesthetic reasons, except in the fire scene where it was at 1/48.

My favorite mode of OIS is dynamic, which is what I used the entire time on this shoot (minus the one shot on sticks). It really shines when you're moving around with the camera at it's widest focal length. It really functions beautifully, and with careful practice & use, can give steadicam-like results. However, I don't recommend using that mode when zoomed in and walking at the same time - I got a little bit of floating vignette when i tried that. Standard OIS would probably be better in that situation. Powered OIS works great when standing still and zooming in, but I didn't need that on this shoot.

Having such a feature-rich tool like the XF300 is the only thing that made it possible to shoot the video on our time & budget - we had no lights, no permits, one night and 3 crew (director, camera op & PA). The final picture actually went through quite a bit of grading to suppress a little shadow noise and even out the multiple light source types, and the XF codec held up very well.

Thanks for your compliments on the piece, and let me know if you have any other questions.
 
great looking vid - so clean for that high of gain. the OIS is pretty solid too - a lot of those shots look far smoother than almost any other handheld stuff out there. great work :)
 
Dude this video looks great man. I've been researching the XF cameras since they came out I've liked what I seen. I may not have the money to purchase the XF300 but when the XF100 come out hopefully they will deliver just the 300's. Any quirks or advantages to using this camera over a DSLR?
 
mmka1985 said:
Dude this video looks great man. I've been researching the XF cameras since they came out I've liked what I seen. I may not have the money to purchase the XF300 but when the XF100 come out hopefully they will deliver just the 300's. Any quirks or advantages to using this camera over a DSLR?
Click to expand...

Well, the overall handling, ergonomics & feature set is miles ahead of any DSLR. I mean, really, there is absolutely no way we could have gotten as many shots, and the type of shots, that we did had we been shooting on a DSLR. The biggest advantage of the XF300 had over a DSLR for this shoot was the lens & the LCD features (swivel, waveform, peaking, etc). To have a powered zoom & incredible image stabilization allowed us to move very fast and get shots that would not have been possible with a DSLR.

Really, the only thing I missed was shallow DOF, which would have been nice. But sacrifices have to be made when you're on an extreme low-budget shoot.
 
One advantage over DSLR- you were able to move the camera without losing focus.
And you also had a few rack focus shots in there- good work.
 
Depth of field is great but it seems that ppl place too much emphasis on that when it comes to talking about DSLRs. I don't hate them I just don't want to spend more on accessories than on the actual camera. DOF is good when it used in the right way. Thanks for the assessment. I look forward to seeing more XF videos from you.
 
cowpunk,
Solid work. Helped convince me to purchase the XF300 and less importantly, the XF group on Vimeo.
Thanks,
-CK
 
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