XL2, more insects, + arachnid footage
 

Hello all,

Below is a direct link to some footage of various insects--a grasshopper, some beetles, an ant. Also, there is some footage of a spider.

QuickTime:
Time approx: 2mins 22secs
Size: 17.4MB

Please option-click or right-click and download.
http://www.unumpictures.com/download...oaltissima.mov



Equipment used:
Canon XL2, stock lens

Please check your link. It's not correct.

Hey Jacob,

Thanks for the heads-up. It should download now.

Brian, thanks for the footage, I plan on buying an XL-2 in January. The clips were great. It's always good to see what you're getting before you buy.

Hey Mark,

Thanks!

There are a couple of other XL2 sample clips on the server. They are from threads posted in August and September. You may have already downloaded these, so if you have seen them, please disregard. If not, just option-click or right-click and download.

http://unumpictures.com/downloads/di...eapurpurea.mov
http://unumpictures.com/downloads/wi...spolylepis.mov

I believe you will be incredibly pleased with the images you can capture with the XL2. It is a great camera.

Now that I'm able to download it, the footage looks great. I love seeing bugs in videos, especially spiders. Weird facination I guess. And seeing the grasshopper poop was a bit disgusting. :) hahaha

Brian,

Saw all three clips, very nice footage you got there.
I tried to shoot insects with the stock lens (xl1s) and it was very frustrating,
So it would be interesting to here how you use your equipment. Are you using manual focus ? full zoom ? very low tripod position ?
What about aiming and viewing.

Keep posting!

Sassi

Hey Jacob,

Thanks!

I love watching insects too. The arachnids are incredible also. I have to admit I'm trying to get over an unfounded fear of them.

About the grasshopper, I didn't notice what was happening while shooting the video. I only picked up on that while editing.

Hey Sassi,

I appreciate that; thanks!

I do use manual settings for everything. Sometimes I use the stock lens' ability to do a zoom in/out to preset positions. In some of the clips, the tripod was lowered to probably 2 feet or maybe a bit less. I do use the long end of the lens predominantly. I try to maintain a respectable distance so as to not disturb the insects too much. I use the XL2's EVF, but I also have an LCD monitor I sometimes hook through the S-video out port to help my old eyes in finding focus. It is a bit inconvenient to lug around, so I haven't used it all the time, but it is nice to have it.

It all begins with a lot of observation. Luckily, these clips were all from my family's backyard(much to the chagrin of some of our neighbors). I usually observe different areas a day or two in advance. I try to shoot a bit before sunset to get that warm glow. If I'm not able to shoot then, I have a white balance setting to a WarmCard stored in the camera, I use that to get the same type of nice glow. After purchasing the camera, I shot test footage with with lots of tweaks to the settings. I configured a custom pre-set which I use nearly all of the time.

Hope that helps.