HC1/A1 indoor footage
 

I have an A1. I am still a newbe to video but I am learning. I take a lot of indoor footage in my house, of my kids. I have lighting issues with the A1. I am slowly working them out, using more and more manual settings. My footage indoors is getting better all the time. I am trying different settings and lighting solutions. A tweek here a tweek there, it's starting to be "acceptable". The outdoor footage is breathtaking, Looks as good as almost anything I watch in HD on any HD channel. Indoors is good but not what I want. I went to a local Ultimate Electronics to drool over the newer HD big screens there. They sell HC1's, I was floored at the indoor footage it was taking. As good as outdoor stuff I have shot. That unmistakeable "HD" look. I looked at the camera settings. Everything was in auto. I know in a store they have good lighting but this was awsome. I am now wondering if I have a problem with my A1. They were also just inputting to a HD monitor, not filming and replaying from a tape. Am I missing something? How can this be?

I'll bet your house just isn't as well lit as the electronics store. Bring your A1U to the store and ask to compare the footage.

David,
If your taking video of the kids and there won't be any lamps in the frame, just remove the shades and use 100 watt light bulbs. Remember...video loves plenty of light. You may get some odd shadows, but it will be worth it for them to watch when they get older. My kids are in their 20's now and they still get a kick out of watching the antics they did around the house when they were young.

Some shops are as well lit than a (cloudy) day outdoor ! I wouldn't be surprised if that shop had 10 to 20 times more light than in your home.

Assuming a typical 100W bulb in your room, that roughly 1000 Lumens

Most shops will typically have 4 times 58W fluorescent tubes combined with some a couple of 70W discharge lamps in an area(to highlight products) ~ the same size as your room. Each 58W fluo is 5000Lumens and each 70w discharge lamp is 6500Lumens, so count about 4*5000+2*6500 = 23000 lumens !

What I have been doing is replacing my incandescent bulbs with high output color corrected fluorescents. They use less electricity, need to be changed far less frequently, and output a whole lot more light.

What do you mean by "color corrected" fluorescents ?

(I use CRI index 80 compact fluorescent, which is kind of the standart I suppose)

The higher the CRI, the closer the light source comes to naturally occuring sunlight or to professional tungsten lighting, both of which have CRIs of 100. Most color correct fluorescents for use with video of film have CRIs of 95 or higher.

When fluorescents have lower CRIs, they have what is called a green spike. This can be corrected by adding different strengths of magenta gel (depending on how much of a green spike the light has). This will make the light look kind of pinkish to the eye, but it'll photograph normally.

Commercial Electric makes 20 watt daylight balanced fluorescent bulbs with a CRI of 90, and they're sold at Home Depot for (I think) $11 for a three pack. They're actually pretty good considering the price, but they're a bit deficient in red.

Jessica
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