View Full Version : Another "First Time out with the XH A1"


J.P. Castel
February 10th, 2008, 10:43 PM
Alright i have been watching this form for quite sometime and have admired many of the great work that i have seen on the XH A1 and well i finally got my hands on one. Hope you enjoy my first test.

Shot on 30F using Steven Dempsey's VIVIDRGB Custom Preset

Little Bit of color correction in Premiere Pro 2.0 Switching over to Vegas soon. Down Converted into 720p.

Song: The March by Alex Wurman From March Of the Penguins

Ps. I know the shots of my Girlfriend don't really make sense in this reel but i put them in just to smite her :)

http://www.vimeo.com/668192

Morgan Crossley
February 11th, 2008, 02:52 AM
Nice shots J.P.

Keep it up! i recently bought the xh-a1 and i'm learning more and more about it everyday!

Will Mahoney
February 11th, 2008, 10:18 AM
Nice shots, man. I just ordered my A1 four days ago from Zotz! I can't wait for it to get here!!

And I really like the colors. I've been seeing a lot of people who are using the presets from Steven Dempsey, so I'm definitely going to give them a whirl.

Thanks!

John Stakes
February 11th, 2008, 10:26 AM
I really like the change of focus on the back of the bench (:49). I didn't know the A1 had such fine focus control, usually everything that close to me remains in or out of focus. What settings were you recording in and what mode?
Guess I need to go through the manual again :/

Vince Hill
February 11th, 2008, 01:35 PM
Wow! I loved this - nice to see what you can do with the XHA1. I just got mine a week ago and found your video very inspirational. Great music as well.

Eduardo Miguel
February 11th, 2008, 02:24 PM
I really liked the DOF you achieved straight out of the box. Good job with the focusing too.
keep up the good work.

Jim Miller
February 11th, 2008, 03:35 PM
Nice. Don't worry about the girlfriend part making sense. If mine was that good looking I'd put her in the video too! ;-)

Bill Busby
February 11th, 2008, 05:08 PM
Nice. Don't worry about the girlfriend part making sense. If mine was that good looking I'd put her in the video too! ;-)

Jim, let's hope your g/f doesn't get bitten by the video bug & decide to join DVifo & stumble on your post :D

Jim Miller
February 11th, 2008, 06:32 PM
Good point! Actually, I've been married for 25 years. My wife would find it amusing now. ;-)

J.P. Castel
February 11th, 2008, 06:54 PM
Thanks everyone for the great compliments

Yeah, I must say that the DOF was very surprising out of the box, but as a Nikon user lets just say i can't wait to pick up a letus when i have the money.

What settings were you recording in and what mode?:/

Well i was shooting in manual mode with the shutter at 1/30 pretty basic for the first test shots. I had the ND filter to 1/32 because it was filmed outside during the day. I don't remember what the aperture was at exactly, but for the most part I think it was all the way open, based on the zoom, allowing for the DOF. And the focus was all manual through the LCD screen. Despite what i have seen on the forums the screen is very clear and pretty easy to focus with.

A little shaky on some of the shots, because i was using an old family tripod, i guess we can call in an heirloom, some of you out there know what i am talking about, but i just picked up a Bogen 501HDV for a great price and I am very excited to see what kind of difference it will make.

I am actually heading to a Land rover off road rally this weekend and i am taking the A1, so i guess i with be able to test it out pretty soon. Anyone have any creative advice for shooting vehicles. I have shot similar events on my Sony DV Camera, but the results always look somewhat amateur.

Eduardo Miguel
February 11th, 2008, 07:56 PM
I know what your saying about the letus J.P., but I have yet to see an example of the a 35mm adapter that was sharp enough for me. Whenever I see footage of one (although very nice images), they still tend to be too soft for my taste.

Steven Dempsey
February 12th, 2008, 09:47 AM
What music did you use, it sounds very familiar.

Morgan Crossley
February 12th, 2008, 11:11 AM
Song: The March by Alex Wurman From March Of the Penguins



ahemm.....

Steven Dempsey
February 12th, 2008, 11:13 AM
In the words of Homer Simpson, "Doh!"

Ira Ostrowski
February 12th, 2008, 08:40 PM
jp did you use cineform software before going into premiere? looks real good....peace

J.P. Castel
February 14th, 2008, 03:29 AM
jp did you use cineform software before going into premiere? looks real good....peace

No, but i just recently downloaded the 30 day trail, and i am impressed with the results. Still trying to figure out how this whole process works though. I am still running Premiere Pro 2.0, which should be fine for cineform, but with vista as my platform i am still getting a lot of run errors. Recently i have been able to use cineform Prospect through premiere to capture footage, but really haven't had the time to look at the differences in the media yet. I will say, that the cineform footage is a lot faster to work with though.