Shooting in HD

Cincyfilmgeek wrote on 3/27/2006, 9:13 AM
In reading a lot of comments on this forum many people have said it is a whole different ball game when it comes to shooting in HD from SD. I know HD has a lot more detail in it so when it comes to focusing it is obviously much more crucial to get it right than SD. Is this a correct assumption? I am buying an FX1 and have never shot anything HD so could people enlighten me on some tricks or what I should do differently when shooting on HD as opposed to SD? I know lighting is everything, it is with all photography.

Comments

Yoyodyne wrote on 3/27/2006, 9:44 AM
"I know HD has a lot more detail in it so when it comes to focusing it is obviously much more crucial to get it right than SD. Is this a correct assumption?"

Yep, focus in HD is very unforgiving - and the problem is, unless you have a full 1080 by 1920 monitor right next to you it can be tricky to nail. The viewfinder on that little Sony rocks and the focus assist thing is a huge help, not to mention the auto focus (of course I would never use it ; ) is very good. The problem is if you are off by even a little bit, the resulting softness is very easy to notice and most of the time focus is a bit of a guess. Now I know why all the film shooters have a tape measure :)
rs170a wrote on 3/27/2006, 9:52 AM
Now I know why all the film shooters have a tape measure :)

Don't forget the focus puller.

Mike
Spot|DSE wrote on 3/27/2006, 9:56 AM
Getting skin tones right so they're not painful to look at is a learning curve, getting gamma curves right so the picture "feels" smooth is important. Learning widescreen vs standard SAR is a challenge for some types of shooting.
Add to that new framerates for many, less light sensitivity, and a very unforgiving resolution, it all adds up to "I need to practice."
for me, going from a 2/3 HD cam to 1/3 was a significant learning experience.
Yoyodyne wrote on 3/27/2006, 10:17 AM
Oh, and back focus is really crucial too! Shot a bunch of stuff with the Z1, came back and compared it to some other stuff shot with a different z1 - mine was a bit softer. I was freaking out - I knew I was very careful with focus - even had a 720 hd monitor there with me...

checked out a focus chart with the camera and it would not hold focus through the zoom range - very subtle, in fact I can only notice it on a nice HD monitor, but it was there! I thought those fixed lens cams could not lose back focus, turns out it they can and it is a service technician adjustment. Make sure to check the back focus on your HD camera every so often, even the fixed lens guys can get a bit out of whack.
johnmeyer wrote on 3/27/2006, 10:46 AM
Here are some great places to get lots of information from people who are shooting in HD with the camera you are about to get:

Sony HDVinfo.com

also:

High Def Forum

In the second link, scroll down and click on "High Definition Cameras & High Definition Camcorders."


rport wrote on 3/27/2006, 6:02 PM
http://www.studiodaily.com/main/work/6147.html

These guys give you hands on experience with shooting & editing HD/HDV
Serena wrote on 3/27/2006, 9:22 PM
The nature of SD with low resolution and great depth of field is very tolerant of user-errors. HDV is a tool of greater precision and it will more precisely reveal your errors. Auto-focus on the FX is good but can be seduced by patterns behind the subject (eg MCU) giving you, for example, wonderfully sharp wall paper and fuzzy talent. It works a lot better than I expected, but my expectations were low. However it can save you when viewfinder focusing doesn't cut it (as I recently found). The old measuring tape method is available because distance is presented in the viewfinder although coarse control makes setting a little difficult.
Whole-heartedly agree with Spot about skin tones and gamma -curves; quite a learning curve for a film person. But the only SD camera I've used did much worse!