Bolsa Chica Birds
 

went over to Bolsa Chica Wetlands and took some footage, lots of birds diving into the water but really hard to hold camera on one until he dives. this was done 24p 500 shutter speed and color corrected in Magic Bullet Looks.

http://www.vimeo.com/1360093

Pretty scenes and a nice bunch of birds. I downloaded it before viewing and got very good picture quality. There were some editing cuts that were short and abrupt near the beginning, one in the middle of a zoom. You show a Snowy Egret in 3 separate and consecutive shots, in the exact same position. It's best to have a different viewpoint or zoom level after a cut. In this video, some dissolves would have helped. When you have diving birds, like terns or Ospreys, it works best to take some closer shots of them circling or hovering, then edit in some separate diving shots that you took at a wider angle. Trying to hold steady on a hovering bird and then following it in a sudden dive, is very difficult and even the best camera operator would have to be lucky to catch it all in one smooth shot. The general look of the video was good with exposure about right. Shooting in sunlight over water always makes it difficult to have uniform exposure, so it's best to have scene breaks when you swing around to a different shooting angle.

I just put some clips together mainly because I don't use 24p anymore and when we were
there my friend said lets try 24 p at a higher shutter speed. I put them on vimeo to test the quality, because I am planning to launch an HD video sharing site which may have better HD. we'll see. Also were trying something different, I use a Sony V1 and use picture profiles, this day i set one to all zeros, to try the Magic Bullet Looks, they say to shoot with no settings, I tried it, don't like it. At least I will probably use the Sony default, We also shot some stuff testing a n 8' jib arm that day. the few clips i just put up on vimeo were the first HD ones. Vimeo does pretty good at the HD stuff,

It's your Bolsa Chica Birds that caught my eye Hugh.

Please tell me what you think of your V1 for handheld shooting, including viewfinding, peaking, autofocus, favourite settings, how heavy to hold with and without something to lean against ...

I'm seriously thinking of trading in my XL2 for a V1 and your experience would be great to add to those of Alan Craven, Mike Beckett and others.