Canon XHA1
by wayne dupuis
on
Sep 16, 2008 at 2:01:13 pm
I've shot and edited together two docs now with the XHA1; both using Wolfgang's -3db custom preset.
Subjects lit with Photoflex and sidelight have natural looking colour to their skin tones and bokeh easy enough to find when needed. Colour is bang on without having to do too much in FCP, other than to tweak to taste. That said the camera is still a bit forgiving in the highlights if lit well.
HDV timeline to Prores to Compressor to DVDSP works beautifully as does Prores to Cleaner for SD 16:9 Wmv files.
HDV has few quirks but more than makes up for itself in colour/clarity.
There machine is also very intuitive to work with.
Using all updates (fcp) on a quad core with 6 gigs of memory.
One piece mentioned above is 2 hours in length, and my machine is chugging them out with no issues.
Quicktime 7.5
Re: Canon XHA1 by wayne dupuis on Sep 28, 2008 at 1:34:45 pm
I am finishing up a piece called "Impact" for Northern Health. It is a about the ripple effects an accident has on friends and family. How one wrong decision can cause a community to change because of it.
The piece should be complete soon, and if the client posts it out somewhere; will provide a link.
Re: Canon XHA1 by Todd Terry on Sep 28, 2008 at 2:30:53 pm
Butting in here a bit... I don't use the XHA1, but can show some samples from the XLH1 which is fundamentally the same camera except for the lens.
We shoot lots of television commercials, and those that we do not shoot on 35mm film are shot exclusively with the XLH1, which I have been more happy with than just about any camera we've ever used.
If you go to here and click on the "Portfolo" button at the top center, you can watch some of the spots. Spots 3,4,7, and 8 were shot with the Canon. All of the rest (except for a couple of 16mm spots) were shot on 35mm film, so that should give you a good comparison of what the Canon can do.
As I said, it's fundamentally the same camera as the XHA1 except for the lens... and we don't use the stock Canon lens anyway.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Re: Canon XHA1 by wayne dupuis on Sep 28, 2008 at 6:24:10 pm
and to butt butt in, the stock lens is beautiful.
30 something wide all the way (optical not digital) to 650 something. It has a wicked reach, and will open up to 1.6.
Re: Canon XHA1 by Brian Findlay on Oct 12, 2008 at 3:41:37 pm
Hi All,
I have an XL-H1, XH-A1, and HV-30 (basically to use as a deck). If I'm shooting on a tripod, I favor the XL-H1 as I have the wide angle lens. But to use this well, it really takes some learning, it's not a run and gun camera, the autofocus is a joke so while moving it takes alot of practice as there is alot to take care of. The XH-A1 is a great camera as the autofocus really works most of the time. Unlike the current trend of solid state (which has uses), I still favor tapes as where else are you going to get 14GB of storage for $2? I do docs so the issue of capture time isn't an issue, but archival storage is. I have only a short list of complaints about the XH-A1. I have never found the format a problem, I hear lots of people complain about HDV but a huge amount of great docs that went to the big screen were shot on DV so IMO, in most cases the argument against is crap. For the money, I think there is nothing better, for $4K you can get a the camera, case and a decent shotgun, its tough to beat the amazing quality you get for that. Having said all that, my complaints are few, but always worth listing:
(1) The wide angle Lens for XH-A1 cannot use autofocus, it covers the autofocus sensors so you have to focus manually. Wide angle lens are pretty forgiving so it's usually not much of an issue.
(2) I would like to break the audio for the shotgun apart so that I can crank the gain down about 10db, but you can't do it, they are tied with one gain control. You could put it into a splitter and do it, but having a box and extra cables hanging off the side would suck (I've done this with a pre-amp on my XL-H1 on a tripod). It would suck for having to try to go around with this handheld unless you are using a fig rig where you had a place to mount it (I love fig rigs). Most of the time I use a wireless in one channel and shotgun to the other. No problem on XH-A1, the wireless works well hanging on the handstrap.
(3) NEVER EVER use auto gain on either camera, -3 (90%), occasionally in low light 0 or +3, after that it falls apart. Consider AUTOGAIN setting as AUTOSCREW, it will, it sometimes gets into a mode where even with sufficient lighting it goes into high gain and the output is grainy and not crisp. Never had a problem when the gains are fixed.
(4) It would be nice to have different modes 60fps, etc but then you couldn't use tape. I have on several occasions now had HDV files disappear or corrupt on my MAC, having this cheap archive is a wonderful gift. If you need fast offloads, then buy one of the firewire to HD storage solutions. I don't, for me it is a waste of money.
(5) Personal.. I prefer a manual lens without servos, having said that, there is a feature where you can set presets for setting focus and zoom.. you can use for doing convincing follow focus and zoom effects. Very nice, I just wish the button was on the same side as the start/stop so I didn't always have to blindly look for it while filming. On a tripod, no problems. With a figrig, you can get close to the steadiness of a tripod on zooms, here it is a problem.
(6) Related to 5, as the lens has only one servo, you can't zoom and focus simultaneously. I think rarely do people use this, but with a little practice you can do some really nice things, but you can't with this. Also, just turning the zoom on the barrel of the lens is a little sloppy, you just won't get that with a manual lens. I prefer to zoom from the barrel as you get the highest precision for framing your shot quickly; zoom in, focus, pullback just doesn't happen as quickly or precisely as with a manual lens, or one with two servos.
I still think it's a great camera, and still the best bang for the buck, but know that if you are trying to get to some higher cinematic plane, it has some limitations. I hope in the next spin, they keep the tape (they won't I am sure), and fix some of the limitations of the lenses (though I am sure most of this was done to keep the price down). To be totally honest, I almost doubt there is a camera out there in the prosumer space you could go wrong with, it's really more what you intend to do with it. If you are like me, what you start out wanting to do evolves as you push yourself to bring your own game up, but there is also cost considerations.. still huge expenses in solid state, lens limitations, etc.
Re: Canon XHA1 by wayne dupuis on Oct 12, 2008 at 6:38:10 pm
Brian you don't have to run a shotgun up the middle. Run it on one channel and control the gain with the pot on the camera.
To pipe in on wishes...
Only one. That Canon would put map image stabilizer to a button.
Re: Canon XHA1 by Brian Findlay on Oct 12, 2008 at 3:48:06 pm
Hi Terry,
What other lens options are there for the XL-H1? The non-manual lenses (single servo) and sloppiness of the lenses have always been one of my biggest complaints. But I am pretty ignorant on the alternatives. Are there any (cheap on a relative scale) options? My only real experience with manual lenses were with JVC HDV, but they never were never up to par with the camera itself so I went with a canon XLH1. Cheap or expensive, I'd still like to know the options as there is always rentals if I need it.
