My "big honkin" Sony Z7 has three levels of stabilization hidden away in the menus. I use the strongest one but that was not the default.

With the similar look/output of these 2Cameras... they will make an excellent A Cam - B Cam team.

Okay, I think this seals the deal.

First, I promised Paul_w swans... Here they are.
Second, I know I'm going to have to refine my technique to reduce the exposure to fix the blown out whites on the swans.
Third, I won't make any other comments, but feel free to post yours back here.



I'm disappointed the YouTube quality, so you can view a better version here: http://www.jazzythedog.com/testing/swans.html (click for the full screen view).

...Jerry

Jerry, the AC130 definately looks better to my eyes! better colours and as far as i can see better resolution too :) nice test, thanks for posting.
Got my footage but had to go hand held, will post soon :)

great.
Paul.

"Got my footage but had to go hand held, will post soon"Ha! I must fess up... the AC130 (at 20x zoom) was on a tripod, but it got "giggled" in the middle of the shot. The TM700 (at 18x zoom) was totally hand-held. I guess Mercalli can fool even the experts.

...Jerry

Was convinced this was all tripod! fooled me for sure.
Your Mercalli stabilization technique is the thing of legend.

Paul.

Paul,

If you want me to stabilize your footage, I'd be happy to do so. Do you have a Dropbox account?

...Jerry

No I dont have dropbox, but its ok, let me see what i can do with this first. I may even get up early in the morning (its midnight here now) and get some steady shots.
Thanks Jerry, right, im off to bed :)

Paul.

"I know I'm going to have to refine my technique to reduce the exposure to fix the blown out whites on the swans."

Surely your new camera has zebras?
Get used to understanding how they work and then using them.

A polarizing filter might also be useful in shots like that.

"I'm disappointed the YouTube quality"

All those little rippling waves are a challenge. If you shoot tighter you'll probably get better results in many ways. Of course that means getting closer and then those pesky ducks do their exit stage right trick.

Bob.

"Surely your new camera has zebras?Yeah, actually both cameras have Zebras. The problem is that those swans are just little dots in the viewfinder/LCD, and the Zebras are barely visible. Zebras are easy when they cover large areas, but if they just show up as as pinpoints, that's when it gets tough. Where I need to "refine my technique" is to look for even the smallest zebra - if that's something that's critical to the shot.

The other variable is that I can customize the zebras on the AC130 to certain levels - I still need to study that.

Both shots were taken from the top of an observation deck and that was as close as I could get - with max zoom.

In any case, thanks for the tips. I'm learning and will get better with practice.

...Jerry

"The other variable is that I can customize the zebras on the AC130 to certain levels - I still need to study that."

Absolutely, if your camera has dual zebras like my EX1 really learn how to set them up and use them. Shooting stage shows I'd be absolutely lost without them. Agree with your previous comment, unless you've got a decent area in shot zebras are impossible to read, they can just look like "something". They can also get in the way, I'm regularly turning them on and off. One trick you can try is using a grey card to set exposure.

"Both shots were taken from the top of an observation deck and that was as close as I could get - with max zoom"

And that's the kind of shot that is a full on stress test for the camera and the lens. I'd file those shots under "that's how bad the camera can look". Now to get yourself feeling more positive go shoot some medium close ups in the golden hour.

Bob.

What zebra settings does it give you Jerry? 70 / 90 / 100?

You might try simply shooting something like a white wall or the sky and upping the exposure until the zebras just show up (at each of their settings), then see exactly what luminance that relates to on the Vegas scopes. I bet you soon become dependent on them.

(p.s. don't forget this when you get the chance)

Okay, as promised, here's the longer video. I just had some fun with this - nothing serious here (and as I mentioned earlier, forgive me for the blown out whites - this was my first go with this camera).



...Jerry

Very nice! I like it. Maybe we should start a nature HD channel :)
And thats a nice camera too. Extended version, thanks for posting.

Paul.

Nice!

I like that it uses SD vs. P2's and can simultaneous record to two memory cards for redundancy. It also lets you easily record sound from more than one source. These redundant features make it a great grab & go camera that's priced right for the features.

Thanks for the demo videos! Really nice camera, congratulations!
Were all the setting manual?
You happen to remember what were the aperture and shutter setting for the nice DOF shot at 2:15? Are the manual settings easier than the TM700? I seem to have a hard time w/ manually setting the aperture w/ the TM700. It always auto adjusts, even in manual mode, when I leave the manual aperture menu.

The TM700 has a 'Beach Mode' which would have probably made the water & sky in your 'Swans' clip look a lot better. (Different Manual Settings would have probably made it better also - not necessarily the same settings as the AC - not necessarily as good as the AC)

Nick_Hope asks, "What zebra settings does it give you Jerry? 70 / 90 / 100?"Turns out there are two Zebra settings, 80% & 100%, however these are customizable in 5% increments. There's also a "Y Marker" setting that places a Marker box in the middle of the display and reports the luminance for this area - kinda like a spotmeter. I'll bet this is what I should have used for those white birds.

The next question is... what value to I want to shoot for? Just keep it below 100% or do I want a lower number? That's where I'll want to do some testing - your white wall/sky test sounds like a good place to start.

Still testing and learning, I'll get better,
...Jerry

Byron_K asks, "Were all the setting manual? Well, for the most part the AC-130 settings were auto (I'm still learning the ropes on this guy). However, I knew I was going to have to stabilize in post (as many of these shots were handheld), so I set the shutter to 1/1000. With this, most of the shots were wide open - occasionally the camera would ask me for an Neutral Density bump-up which I complied with.

Re: the TM700, I manually set the white balance (more on this in my post below), my shutter speed @ 1/2000 and set the iris to wherever the automode set it at. Per my previous comments, I should have dialed that down to prevent the blown out whites. Does it auto adjust even on manual? I haven't noticed that, but I'll do some testing and report back.

...Jerry

[r]Evolution said, "The TM700 has a 'Beach Mode' which would have probably made the water & sky in your 'Swans' clip look a lot better. (Different Manual Settings would have probably made it better also - not necessarily the same settings as the AC - not necessarily as good as the AC)"What [r]Evolution is referring to is the Bondi Blue white balance issue of the TM700. If you read the forums it's a common complaint. Luckily, I haven't seen it too often and when I do, I'll normally adjust it in post. In this case, I didn't touch it, because I wanted to make a valid comparison of the two cameras.

That said, some people have posted an "fix" to the Bondi Blue problem by the following procedure (see: http://www.avforums.com/forums/camcorders-video-editing/1382709-panasonic-xx600-700-bondi-blue-turquoise-bias-issue.htmlPanasonic xx600\700 bondi blue (turquoise) bias issue[/link]

1) Switch to a manual White Balance
2) Set the manual WB by means of WB cap, gray card or expodisc.
3) Switch to preset of WB ("indoors 2")
4) Switch back to manual WB installed before.
5) The color of the sky or blue object will change from bondi blue to normal blue.

I remembered this while out on this shoot, but "messed up" on steps 2) & 4) my dim memory of this had me setting this to manual "daylight", going to "indoor 2" & switching back. I guess as you can see from the demo video - it didn't work.

I admit I haven't tried the "Beach Mode" - sounds a lot easier.

Ahhh, more testing!
...Jerry

"The next question is... what value to I want to shoot for? Just keep it below 100% or do I want a lower number?"

The 100% zebra is telling you you're close to clipping if it's something white.
The other zebra is generally set to 70%. That's around the ideal exposure for caucasian skin, I dial it down to 65% for my darker skinned talent.

It sounds simple but you'll face problems, you can start to see them in your duck video. So you close the iris a bit to stop the white ducks clipping but the darker ducks could easily get too dark and you'll loose all the great colors in them.

Same thing happens with people wearing white shirts in full sun, something is going to suffer. You can tell them to change their shirt, you could "bag" their shirt or you could put a scrim over them or you could wait for the golden hour and pray a lot. None of these solutions maybe available to you so you've got to make a call using you're own discretion. If you lucky maybe your camera has a "knee" function that'll let you retain highlights by compressing the top end of the gamma curve. Even then if you're not careful it can cause other problems such as posterization of things like white clouds on a blue sky on a bright day.

Bob.

Bob,

Thanks for the tips. The camera does have "Knee", "Gamma" as well as a "DRS" (Dynamic Range Selector) functions.

Bear with me while I shoot some less than perfect videos - I'm learning this stuff.

...Jerry