More Findings About HD1
 

I have gained much from the "Sanyo HD footage thread". Thanks to all who contributed. I have had HD1 for a couple days now, and maybe I can help some others.

I was somewhat disturbed by "busyness" around some edges, and found that turning off the image stabilizer helped considerably. I guess I'll just have to learn to hold it steady! I also found that the "soft" image setting cleaned up the edges even more. By shooting a resolution chart in both the "soft" and "normal" settings, I also determined that "soft" only reduces detail enhancement. The image "looks" crisper in "normal", but measured resolution is the same. It might be possible to add detail enhancement in post - with better results.

The viewfinder cannot be used to judge exposure before shooting. I tried ISO 50 setting, and shot 720p in fairly dark corner. The image was somewhat darker than auto ISO, but much lower noise. I have no problem with dark corners looking dark - better than noisy full level video. The monitor screen was very dark in composing, but the brightness came up considerably when I started shooting. Again - don't judge exposure until you start recording.

The manual exposure settings have questionable value for video. First, I can't really tell what I'm doing. I could be happy with auto mode, but it has an annoying habit of randomly lightening or darkening the picture. I have not found a way of locking auto exposure. Help anyone!

By pressing up on the joystick, you can lock autofocus. If you want to zoom into something, zoom tight, let autofocus work, then lock focus, pull back, and do your zoom in. Focus will be right on.

I have a JVC HD10, and have been editing native MP2 using Ulead MSP7. I found that I could use the included Ulead Photo Explorer to convert the files to uncompressed AVI file. Other choices deteriorated the image. MSP would then accept the file and render to HDV format. The AVI files are HUGE - about 4GB per MINUTE, but at least it works well, and is reasonably fast.

I have a 4GB Transcend card. It works in the camera as well as in an Inland (cheap) USB 2.0 reader. Faster copying files than my 1 GB Sandisk card too!

I am anxious to try adding edge enhancement, and maybe brightening pics a little with gamma in post.

While its a wonderful cam to keep handy, I will NOT be selling my HD10.

Dave, Not quite sure what you mean by "soft" image mode? Where do you change settings for this option? Just got mine last week, not real satisfied with the HD jaggies and noise in low light. I have however had it set with the stabilizer turned on.

John,

Menu, Options (top right), image setting.

UPDATE!

Just finished correcting clips in MSP.
Unsharp mask, level 11, radius 4
gamma 1.12
chroma saturation, -(minus)5

I probably will want to trim some more.

WOW! MUCH better!

gamma 1.2, color -10 better - I think.

Also, image stabilizer doesn't look too bad with "soft" mode.

Wow--I thought the "normal" mode looked excessively "enhanced." Perhaps "soft" could be considered to be the normal mode!

I haven't tested my theory, but I've observed auto (Programmed) and shutter priority modes both have this annoying behavior. I'd consider it a bug! Any time the aperature changes during recording, it seems to "hunt." I've stopped using these modes and mostly use aperature priority mode to eliminate this clip-destroying behavior. I hope Sanyo fixes this and we should probably let them know about it. Like the jaggies, until we tell them, they may be completely unaware, as hard as that is to believe.

Thanks, David! I'll try it. This has been another major annoyance for me. I love my HD1 because it's the only camera in this size and price range that looks good on my HDTV, but you really need some tricks and workarounds (and a lot of light) to get the most out of it.

Cal

Wow--I thought the "normal" mode looked excessively "enhanced." Perhaps "soft" could be considered to be the normal mode!

I haven't tested my theory, but I've observed auto (Programmed) and shutter priority modes both have this annoying behavior. I'd consider it a bug! Any time the aperature changes during recording, it seems to "hunt." I've noticed this problem on many HD1 clips posted to the web so I know it's not just my (our) cameras. I've stopped using these modes and mostly use aperature priority mode to eliminate this clip-destroying behavior. I hope Sanyo fixes this and we should probably let them know about it. Like the jaggies, until we tell them, they may be completely unaware, as hard as that is to believe.

Thanks, David! I'll try it. This has been another major annoyance for me. I love my HD1 because it's the only camera in this size and price range that looks good on my HDTV, but you really need some tricks and workarounds (and a lot of light) to get the most out of it.

Cal