HC3 Slowmo Clip at DVinfo.net

Andreas Fernbrant · June 30th, 2006, 08:13 PM

Hi there,

Got my HC3 yesterday and played around with it today.
Heres the result:

www.2vault.com/SlowmoHC3.wmv

Kind regards

Mitchell Somers · June 30th, 2006, 09:50 PM

what size is that clip??? Im thinking of the same camera.... it seems a no brainer for the price point?? whats been your impressions???

Ainslie Davies · July 1st, 2006, 03:15 AM

Wow, that is impressive, whats the acual resolution like compared to the FX1? Have you got an HDV version of that?

Andreas Fernbrant · July 1st, 2006, 04:14 AM

They are 1080i clips as far as I can tell.
But they have lost alot of the resolution. When you switch into the
smooth recording mode you see about a 50% loss in resolution. But because I only use this cam for web resolutions I think it does the job.

The camera have a really hard time focusing while in smooth recording.
You have to point it at the subject quite a while before recording.
The "buffert" feature works great for me. I press the button when my friends land their flips and I get slomo from 3 seconds before I pushed the button.

Mitchell: What do you want to know? I bought it because I need a light camera to bring with me to shows and shoot small web resolution clips to feature on our website www.2vault.com - I liked it because it had the slow recording feature. But to be honest me personally, I would never use it to shoot anything serious. But If you have specific questions or want to see stuff shot with it, let me know and I'll try to help you make a fair decition.

Ainslie Davies: Well, my friend got a Z1 but I've never seen any raw material from that. A week after he got it, he dropped it from Swedens highest building: http://www.diepresse.com/upload/20050824/torso1.jpg
He found it about a kilometer from the building. It was acually recording and he tried to rehouse the tape but I don't know how that went. I can't really judge if the 2 cameras can be put up against each other so I won't comment on it.

This is a Sony HDR-HC3 (PAL)

Kind regards,
Andreas

Adam La Prade · July 2nd, 2006, 12:01 AM

I'm looking to master that exact same style of editing...

What did you use to ramp down that speed? I love Adobe premiere Pro, but I think that is the one feature missing.

Scott Casper · July 2nd, 2006, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam La Prade

I'm looking to master that exact same style of editing...

What did you use to ramp down that speed? I love Adobe premiere Pro, but I think that is the one feature missing.

I have this camcorder and I think this clip is just the smooth slow motion recrding mode on the camera. It`s a feature that shoots at 200+fps for 3 seconds giving you a 12 sec. slo mo clip. It`s a nice feature with one big draw back. You needs lots of light!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
I don`t think this clip is a postprod. editing sample...

Ainslie Davies · July 2nd, 2006, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andreas Fernbrant

They are 1080i clips as far as I can tell.

Any chance of an acual HDV clip, WMV at either 1080 or 720? The one you posted was compressed to 400x228, I would love to see it at 1920(1440)x1080 or 1280x720 to compare to the bigger cams and see what the resolution loss is with the slow-motion.

Andreas Fernbrant · July 3rd, 2006, 12:16 AM

I'm going away for a few days right now. I'll try to post some new material when I get back.

I used Vegas for the speed ramp, edit and color correction.

Scott: It's not 200fps. It's more around 120fps in camera. But you could make it around 300 fps in post without it looking really bad.

This clip is just a cam test really, nothing fancy at all. Just me and my friends playing around.

Look for new clips this upcoming weekend.

/Andreas

Martin Pauly · July 4th, 2006, 12:53 PM

I am uploading a short clip (huge file, though - more than 60MB) that shows 12 seconds of footage shot with the HC3's slow-motion feature, and then another few seconds of pretty much the same scene with the HC3's regular recording mode, to show the difference. This is a QuickTime movie file with 1920x1080 resolution, which explains the file size.

As you'll be able to see easily, the noise in the slow-motion recording is really bad. Judge for yourself if this is still a useful feature.

The upload is currently in progress (slow transmit on my internet connection), but you'll be able to download the file here:
http://idisk.mac.com/mpauly-Public?
Filename: HC3 SlowMotion.mov

- Martin

Martin Pauly · July 4th, 2006, 05:53 PM

To add another variation for comparison, I appended to the clip described in my post above another 12 seconds of slow-motion video, this time slowed down by Final Cut Pro. I took the first three seconds of the HC3's normal recording and had Final Cut Pro slow it down to 25% of the original speed, making it 12 seconds long. To me, the result looks much nicer than the HC3's built-in slow-motion recording.

The filename is still the same, but the file size has grown to just around 100MB. To summarize, the file contains the following (about 12 seconds each):

1. HC3's slow-motion recording
2. HC3's regular recording
3. HC3's regular recording, slowed down by Final Cut.

All in 1920x1080, such that you can really see what comes out ot the camera.

- Martin

Ainslie Davies · July 6th, 2006, 07:45 PM

Any chance of a Windows compatable quicktime file or something WMV encoded? Keen to see what this cam can do!

Jesper Andersson · July 6th, 2006, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ainslie Davies

Any chance of a Windows compatable quicktime file or something WMV encoded? Keen to see what this cam can do!

It works on my windows machine with quicktime 7, have you updated?
Or else download VLC player from www.videolan.org
That player can basicly play everyting

Ainslie Davies · July 6th, 2006, 09:08 PM

VLC can't play it either, though it does play other .mov's. My editing PC has not been able to play any quicktime file outside of a webbrowser for about 6weeks. So I have been trying to play it on my laptop with quicktime 7 but it says "missing component" sometimes. Just a white screen with no audio or video. Sux

Ainslie Davies · July 9th, 2006, 07:43 PM

I thought I would have cracked it this time... I remembered that I had an iBook G4 in the library so I downloaded the clip onto that... nothing, still nothing; it just refuses to play saying "missing component". The story so far; Editing PC - will not play on VLC or Quick; HP/Compaq laptop - same thing; G4 iBook - will not play on Quick or that crazy iMovie HD.

The only thing I can think of is that I am missing some Final Cut component as we are a PC based company but I don't get how - a few posts up - it has been played on a Windows PC.

I guess I will never know.

Martin Pauly · July 13th, 2006, 03:21 PM

I don't know what to tell you, Ainslie. I am showing it with QuickTime (7.0.4, I believe) without a problem on my iMac. I don't have a PC at hand to try it out, but apparently it worked for Jesper. The only other thing I could do is take some stills (of individual frames) to show the noise in the image. Would that be helpful?

- Martin

June 30th, 2006, 08:13 PM	#1
Andreas Fernbrant Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sweden - Helsingborg Posts: 283	HC3 Slowmo Clip Hi there, Got my HC3 yesterday and played around with it today. Heres the result: www.2vault.com/SlowmoHC3.wmv Kind regards

June 30th, 2006, 09:50 PM	#2
Mitchell Somers New Boot Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 8	cool effect what size is that clip??? Im thinking of the same camera.... it seems a no brainer for the price point?? whats been your impressions???

July 1st, 2006, 03:15 AM	#3
Ainslie Davies Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 117	Wow, that is impressive, whats the acual resolution like compared to the FX1? Have you got an HDV version of that? __________________ Ainslie Davies - www.dualityproductions.com

July 6th, 2006, 07:45 PM	#11
Ainslie Davies Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 117	Any chance of a Windows compatable quicktime file or something WMV encoded? Keen to see what this cam can do! __________________ Ainslie Davies - www.dualityproductions.com

July 6th, 2006, 09:08 PM	#13
Ainslie Davies Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 117	VLC can't play it either, though it does play other .mov's. My editing PC has not been able to play any quicktime file outside of a webbrowser for about 6weeks. So I have been trying to play it on my laptop with quicktime 7 but it says "missing component" sometimes. Just a white screen with no audio or video. Sux __________________ Ainslie Davies - www.dualityproductions.com

July 1st, 2006, 04:14 AM	#4
Andreas Fernbrant Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sweden - Helsingborg Posts: 283	They are 1080i clips as far as I can tell. But they have lost alot of the resolution. When you switch into the smooth recording mode you see about a 50% loss in resolution. But because I only use this cam for web resolutions I think it does the job. The camera have a really hard time focusing while in smooth recording. You have to point it at the subject quite a while before recording. The "buffert" feature works great for me. I press the button when my friends land their flips and I get slomo from 3 seconds before I pushed the button. Mitchell: What do you want to know? I bought it because I need a light camera to bring with me to shows and shoot small web resolution clips to feature on our website www.2vault.com - I liked it because it had the slow recording feature. But to be honest me personally, I would never use it to shoot anything serious. But If you have specific questions or want to see stuff shot with it, let me know and I'll try to help you make a fair decition. Ainslie Davies: Well, my friend got a Z1 but I've never seen any raw material from that. A week after he got it, he dropped it from Swedens highest building: http://www.diepresse.com/upload/20050824/torso1.jpg He found it about a kilometer from the building. It was acually recording and he tried to rehouse the tape but I don't know how that went. I can't really judge if the 2 cameras can be put up against each other so I won't comment on it. This is a Sony HDR-HC3 (PAL) Kind regards, Andreas

July 2nd, 2006, 12:01 AM	#5
Adam La Prade Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 77	I'm looking to master that exact same style of editing... What did you use to ramp down that speed? I love Adobe premiere Pro, but I think that is the one feature missing.

July 3rd, 2006, 12:16 AM	#8
Andreas Fernbrant Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sweden - Helsingborg Posts: 283	I'm going away for a few days right now. I'll try to post some new material when I get back. I used Vegas for the speed ramp, edit and color correction. Scott: It's not 200fps. It's more around 120fps in camera. But you could make it around 300 fps in post without it looking really bad. This clip is just a cam test really, nothing fancy at all. Just me and my friends playing around. Look for new clips this upcoming weekend. /Andreas

July 4th, 2006, 12:53 PM	#9
Martin Pauly Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Posts: 563	I am uploading a short clip (huge file, though - more than 60MB) that shows 12 seconds of footage shot with the HC3's slow-motion feature, and then another few seconds of pretty much the same scene with the HC3's regular recording mode, to show the difference. This is a QuickTime movie file with 1920x1080 resolution, which explains the file size. As you'll be able to see easily, the noise in the slow-motion recording is really bad. Judge for yourself if this is still a useful feature. The upload is currently in progress (slow transmit on my internet connection), but you'll be able to download the file here: http://idisk.mac.com/mpauly-Public? Filename: HC3 SlowMotion.mov - Martin

July 4th, 2006, 05:53 PM	#10
Martin Pauly Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Posts: 563	To add another variation for comparison, I appended to the clip described in my post above another 12 seconds of slow-motion video, this time slowed down by Final Cut Pro. I took the first three seconds of the HC3's normal recording and had Final Cut Pro slow it down to 25% of the original speed, making it 12 seconds long. To me, the result looks much nicer than the HC3's built-in slow-motion recording. The filename is still the same, but the file size has grown to just around 100MB. To summarize, the file contains the following (about 12 seconds each): 1. HC3's slow-motion recording 2. HC3's regular recording 3. HC3's regular recording, slowed down by Final Cut. All in 1920x1080, such that you can really see what comes out ot the camera. - Martin

July 9th, 2006, 07:43 PM	#14
Ainslie Davies Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 117	I thought I would have cracked it this time... I remembered that I had an iBook G4 in the library so I downloaded the clip onto that... nothing, still nothing; it just refuses to play saying "missing component". The story so far; Editing PC - will not play on VLC or Quick; HP/Compaq laptop - same thing; G4 iBook - will not play on Quick or that crazy iMovie HD. The only thing I can think of is that I am missing some Final Cut component as we are a PC based company but I don't get how - a few posts up - it has been played on a Windows PC. I guess I will never know. __________________ Ainslie Davies - www.dualityproductions.com

July 13th, 2006, 03:21 PM	#15
Martin Pauly Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Posts: 563	I don't know what to tell you, Ainslie. I am showing it with QuickTime (7.0.4, I believe) without a problem on my iMac. I don't have a PC at hand to try it out, but apparently it worked for Jesper. The only other thing I could do is take some stills (of individual frames) to show the noise in the image. Would that be helpful? - Martin