HF S10 Close up problem
 

I have an online pearl jewelry site that I am wanting to produce some product videos for. I have some good lighting but am still having trouble getting what I feel are great close ups for pearl jewelry. Is there a special lens or additional equipment I should be considering to get really stunning videos? Perhaps a wide angle macro lens?

I find that I have to keep the camera about 2'-3' away to get it to focus correctly and I have to enable the zoom feature.

Also any tips for settings on this camera would be appreciated. I am a complete novice and purchased it really for this one purpose.

An example of the type of videos I am after can be seen here: http://www.ice.com/earrings/pearl-ea...epy_102975.jsp but I was hoping with a HD camera to produce more vivid quality.

Try using the following:

Telephoto mode
Set the white balance to tungsten
Make sure there is plent of light on the jewelry

In the video you linked to the shot with the jewelry on the rotating wheel had a lot of light on it.

Another thing you may be able to do in post with your existing footage is bump the contrast up a bit. And/or if you have an RGB curves option you could bring up the curve up a bit on the master channel. That should really make the colors pop more. Just don't get crazy with it or you will bring up the video noise as well.

That's really all I can say generally.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been making some progress thus far. I have found that most of my isolated jewelry shots will need to have the zoom done with the pan and zoom feature in Vegas. The camera simply will not allow for good close up shots on small objects, or I'm still missing something. To get good focus requires me to be back about 4 or 5 feet.

One thing that has made the biggest difference is using the sharpening tool as well. It has just come to my attention that Vegas will not automatically bring the files over in HD, but rather does so in SD unless you change the settings under properties. That should help quite a bit as well.

Trial and error takes time but seems to be getting me to where I need to be.

Bruce,
You need to buy a set of close-up adapters which just screw onto the lens (58mm)
These are very good: http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/9102134/Hoya-Close-up-Kit-+1-2-4-Diopters-58mm/Product.html?ptsl=1&ob=Price&fb=0&&_$ja=tsid:11518|cc:|prd:9102134|cat:Camera+Accessories

You'll find the same products in your country I'm sure.
For an example of what you can do with them, I used them on the close ups at the beginning of this clip:
You can still use the 1.7 teleconverter option as well if you need to!!!

You're probably missing something.

Firstly, don't use the zoom, that's akin to trying to focus on a close object with a pair of binoculars. Instead, move the camera closer. Using manual focus, it's actually possible to get within an inch of your subject. If you need it any larger, then use the 1.7× crop.

Try to stay away from pan/crop in Vegas as you're discarding information, and of course, make sure your project properties are set to a HD resolution that matches the camera.

I agree with Stuart about the zoom - I have an HF100 (based on the HF10) so it's pretty similar to yours I think, and it can get great macro shots if I don't use the zoom (i.e. have the zoom all the way out to the widest angle) and move the camera close to the subject.