I finally got an FX1

[Nintembo]

What an excellent camera!

First impression were 'how light'. I'm not a huge fan of "hand cams" with no shoulder mount, so I think I'll be using plenty of tripod assisted shots...

Love the flip out screen - its an a excellent position. Not too sure how true the colours are yet as they differ to the eye piece. I shall be playing back footage on a monitor soon to clarify the "true" colour.

Picture quality is amazing in HDV mode. It can pick up very minute detail. The only thing that worries me slightly is recording in dark areas. I done a practice shot in a fairly dark corner and the cam had big problems!

Slowly getting round to figuring out all the control options. I read in the manual I can store two white ballances (personally I don't know why anybody would need 2?) But I can only seem to find the "B" white balance which is a manual one. Perhaps the other white balance is the auto one??

I checked out the "movie mode" and I was impressed with the quality there also. I wouldn't reccomend it yet though as I have not given it sufficient time. Has anybody tried it out??? If so, what were there findings?

All the best,

Nintembo

[Alan Roberts]

"Movie mode" records only 540-line resolution; it throws away alternate fields, don't use it, it's rubbish.

[Mad_mardy]

two white balances are a very useful feature and are not only limited to this cam. the XL1 And XM1 to name a few (Xl1 has three manual user presets)
one situation for example would have the camera operator walking from the outside through a door to the inside of a building. you can manual white balance for each and store them on a seperate preset then as you walk through the door you can change from the outside preset to the inside one.

[Unicorn]

The only thing that worries me slightly is recording in dark areas.

There's a black stretch option which will help somewhat (or is that only on the Z1?), otherwise the low light performance isn't brilliant but you can use about 12db of gain without the picture degenerating too much.

[Nintembo]

two white balances are a very useful feature and are not only limited to this cam. the XL1 And XM1 to name a few (Xl1 has three manual user presets)
one situation for example would have the camera operator walking from the outside through a door to the inside of a building. you can manual white balance for each and store them on a seperate preset then as you walk through the door you can change from the outside preset to the inside one.

Hmm, I suppose.

I had another seesion with the cam last night.

I really like the expanded focus idea, I'm sure it will come in handy sometime on an actual shoot.

I'm not really a fan of the fact that you can only use the zoom ring or the control zoom - and not both. It can be quite annoying when you reach for the control only to find you are in "handle" mode.

I tried out the movie mode some more - it feels somewhat jerky.

For me, the best "movie look" I can find is going inot "option 1" which os the shooting in HDV mode, then tweaking the settings to allow "cinematone". Has anyboy else tried this out, if so, what were their findings?

Nin

[Alan Roberts]

The "black stretch" expands the tonal range near black, giving about 0.5 stops extra contrast capture. It doesn't wreck noise too much.

The "cinematone" function changes the slope of the gamma curve near white such that it extends the contrast range by a stop, compressing that extra stop into the top 5% or so of the output signal range. It can do this because the ccd dynamic range extends beyond the nominal peak white signal voltage by 100%. That extra range is normally lost in the peak-white clipper, but the "cinematone" function lets you use it, albeit squashed.

Both these functions are cut-down versions of what's available in "proper" cameras. In the extreme, the Sony HDW900 dynamic range is between 600% and 800%, and can be accessed by judicious use of the "knee" but you need lab conditions to set it up right. High-end SD broadcast cameras do much the same but not to the same extent; the BVW790 digibeta dynamic range extends to 250%.

I make a handy supplement to my pension by advising productions on how to get the best from their cameras, in ways appropriate to the production style. It isn't something you can just dive into and get right first time. That's why the FX1/Z1 has highly restricted controls, on or off.

If you want to read more about what all this means and how it works, you could do a lot worse than look at my research paper, http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp034.shtml

[infocus]

I shall be playing back footage on a monitor soon to clarify the "true" colour.

Picture quality is amazing in HDV mode. It can pick up very minute detail.
Forgive me if I'm being dense, but if you've not yet played back the footage on a monitor, how can you be sure the picture quality is amazing? In my experience a small fold out LCD can hide a multitude of sins.....

[Nintembo]

Alan,

That was an interesting read. So would you reccomend using the "cinematone" on the FX1 or does the camera cut too many corners to obtain its result? i.e. would I be better off shooting a film with or without it.

Nin

[Alan Roberts]

Remember that I've detailed experience of every HDTV camera that's ever been made, and quite a few that have existed only in prototype, so my views on cameras are slightly different from the norm.

The FX1 "cinetone" setting will allow you to capture a stop more contrast than without. So, if you want anything resembling a film-look, use it. But don't expect to get anything like as good a result as you'd get with a "proper" HD camera, or even with a digibeta. The issue, as far as I'm concerned, is that the FX1/Z1 captures a maximum dynamic range of only 8.5 stops. To put that into context, a BVW790 (digibeta) does 7.5 in factory setup, 10.5 after I've got at it. The HDW900 does 8 stops native, 11.5 after I've had a go. The Panasonic HDX400 does 7 in factory setup, 12 after my treatment. "Consumer" cameras don't get close.

Film neg stocks will capture, according to Kodak's data sheets, 11 stops. But they never go into how they handle overloads; experience shows that a decent neg stock will grab 15-16 stocks, some will do 20. Remember that a stop is 2:1 in light level, so we're talking of contrast ranges up to 2^20 (1,000,000:1). 8 stops is only 256:1, 12 stops is 4,000:1. Much of the extra that film does well is in highlights, the precise tonal range where the effects are most visible, so video doesn't yet, and will probably never, get close, even after I've waved my hands over the camera. What they do manage to grab though is a contrast range similar to neg film through a telecine with a one-light expsosure. Film scanning to video can't capture the full range that the neg captures, something has to go, so in post, you can usually push or pull the range to get more highlights or more shadows. If you forbid that, and allow only a single pass with one light source, then the best of HD can match decent neg stock. That's the principle.

So, a consumer camera like the FX1/Z1 hasn't a chance, all you can do is a pale approximation. All the maths for this is in my research paper.

Hope that helps.

[Nintembo]

Indeed a great help Alan, Thank You.

[Unicorn]

I'd certainly agree that the Z1 doesn't come near film in terms of contrast range, but I was shooting video while visiting a cathedral during the week just to test it out and was pretty impressed by what it could do: it handled a poorly-lit interior with tons of stained-glass windows, and a brightly-lit exterior with lots of shadows, far better than any other video camera I've used. Probably not quite as good as the Digibeta cameras I've edited footage from (no idea who set them up or how), but close to it.

[David Sinnott]

Totally agree with Infocus - you will certainly need a monitor to gauge how good your shots are coming out. I too own an FX1 and although the flip out screen is good as a viewfinder, I wouldn't rely on it 100% when it comes down to fine detail (i.e. shadows etc)

[infocus]

I wouldn't rely on it 100% when it comes down to fine detail (i.e. shadows etc)
I'd probably only rely on it 15-20% for quality judgement! ;) It also overscans badly (inexcusable) and I've already had to edit something shot by somebody else with the mic well in shot - you may even have seen that on TV! :)

[Nintembo]

Hmmmmm

I have just played my FX1 footage, and via SVideo wire, played the footage through my regular (non HD) TV - and too my suprise -the footage came out. (Ableit squashed as it was a 4:3 TV)

Anyway, I shot on 1080 interlaced HDV - I thought I would only be able to play this back on a HDV monitor?

Am I also correct in thiking shooting on 1080i HDV is the best picture quality I can obtain with my camera?

Nin

[Gordonjcoe]

Hi Nint

Yes I've just tried the same thing and to my surprise it played back on my TV too using S-video.

Granted I'm not viewing on a high definition TV but I could swear the picture looked marginally better when coming from high def footage.