Trying to get A1 to look like my XL1s at DVinfo.net

Les Wilson · February 15th, 2008, 10:22 PM

I've been searching and reading to absorb as much as I can but I have a week to move over to an A1 from my XL1s. I love the XL1s and it has been a workhorse. Starting with some basics to learn the new camera, I took some A/B footage (below) and see the two cameras are giving different results with the same exposure settings. The clip below is using the A1 out of the box in terms of presets versus the XL1s with a custom preset got from this site eons ago and use for everything. With some effort, I was able to locate and set the same settings in the A1 that I could set for the XL1s but it had only a slight effect. Some, but only slight.

I assume that 1/30 f2.0 on both cameras should result in the same exposure. It doesn't appear that way so I'm wondering if that assumption is true.

I'm stabbing in the dark here, can someone point me as to what direction to go to get the richer color from the A1? Exposure, preset tweaking or what?

TIA

Marty Hudzik · February 16th, 2008, 12:15 AM

The A1 isn't as good in low light as the XL1s was. It is close, but the smaller pixels are more dense on a chip that is about the same size, so it gathers less light. So you will ned to compensate for this. So at the same exact settings they will not look the same.

In the world of HD cameras the A1 is a good low light camera. When I first switched to HD I was shocked at the loss of light that was required to get the higher resolution. But Canon pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the H1 and then the A1/G1 and got us some good res and good low light too....relative to other HD cams at the time. The only one in this class that should be better is the Sony EX1 since it has a 1/2" CMOS sensor.

Les Wilson · February 16th, 2008, 08:38 AM

Got it. Pixel density explains it. Thanks. Another realization I had is that the scale of the custom presets are different. The XL1s scale is +- 6 while the XH-A1 is +- 15. Below is where I'm declaring "close enough" and moving on. Increasing the exposure by going to a 0db gain and f1.6 combined with increasing the Color Gain to 6 is giving me results I like. The A1 is also giving more accurate colors as the XL1s makes my lighting dummy look kind of sickly with a green cast on his face.

Thanks again.

February 15th, 2008, 10:22 PM	#1
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	Trying to get A1 to look like my XL1s I've been searching and reading to absorb as much as I can but I have a week to move over to an A1 from my XL1s. I love the XL1s and it has been a workhorse. Starting with some basics to learn the new camera, I took some A/B footage (below) and see the two cameras are giving different results with the same exposure settings. The clip below is using the A1 out of the box in terms of presets versus the XL1s with a custom preset got from this site eons ago and use for everything. With some effort, I was able to locate and set the same settings in the A1 that I could set for the XL1s but it had only a slight effect. Some, but only slight. I assume that 1/30 f2.0 on both cameras should result in the same exposure. It doesn't appear that way so I'm wondering if that assumption is true. I'm stabbing in the dark here, can someone point me as to what direction to go to get the richer color from the A1? Exposure, preset tweaking or what? TIA Attached Thumbnails

February 16th, 2008, 08:38 AM	#3
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	Got it. Pixel density explains it. Thanks. Another realization I had is that the scale of the custom presets are different. The XL1s scale is +- 6 while the XH-A1 is +- 15. Below is where I'm declaring "close enough" and moving on. Increasing the exposure by going to a 0db gain and f1.6 combined with increasing the Color Gain to 6 is giving me results I like. The A1 is also giving more accurate colors as the XL1s makes my lighting dummy look kind of sickly with a green cast on his face. Thanks again. Attached Thumbnails

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February 16th, 2008, 12:15 AM	#2
Marty Hudzik Trustee Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canton, Ohio Posts: 1,771	The A1 isn't as good in low light as the XL1s was. It is close, but the smaller pixels are more dense on a chip that is about the same size, so it gathers less light. So you will ned to compensate for this. So at the same exact settings they will not look the same. In the world of HD cameras the A1 is a good low light camera. When I first switched to HD I was shocked at the loss of light that was required to get the higher resolution. But Canon pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the H1 and then the A1/G1 and got us some good res and good low light too....relative to other HD cams at the time. The only one in this class that should be better is the Sony EX1 since it has a 1/2" CMOS sensor.