I am experimenting with Interval recording on a newly bought XF300 having come from DSLR video, so on a bit of a learning curve. I invested in the Vortex Media training DVDs, in which they say lowest number of frames that can be recorded with Interval recording is ‘1’, but the menu is showing ‘2’ frames as the lowest option. Outside of Interval recording, I have the frame set at 25p (I am in New Zealand) and I am wondering is it anything to do with using Progressive? I am fairly sure that the Vortex Media camera was set to 30P so probably not.

The battery is recharging at the moment, or I’d try other settings, but I suspect most of you guys will know right away what the reason is?

BTW Do most of you have more than one battery? I have read that there is a larger battery available, but not priced it up yet.

Just checked:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=PEBP970&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=CABP975&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

That's quite a difference, but if the Canon battery is anything like those in my 1D3s and 1D4 bodies, they give a prety accurate indication of the battery charge.

This looks more like it. 8500mAh for less than US$30

Amazon.com: Wasabi Power Battery for Canon BP-970G, BP-975 and Canon EOS C300, EOS C300 PL, EOS C500, EOS C500 PL, GL2, XF100, XF105, XF300, XF305, XH A1S, XH G1S, XL H1A, XL H1S, XL2 (8500mAh): Camera & Photo

OK, I have been through the Vortex Media Special Functions chapter again, and read the relative pages in the User Guide, and it appears to be a difference between the NTSC and PAL versions of the cameras. The NTSC XF300/305 can record down to just one frame at a time with Interval recording, where as the PAL version can only go down to two frames.

I wonder why that is the case?

This looks more like it. 8500mAh for less than US$30

Amazon.com: Wasabi Power Battery for Canon BP-970G, BP-975 and Canon EOS C300, EOS C300 PL, EOS C500, EOS C500 PL, GL2, XF100, XF105, XF300, XF305, XH A1S, XH G1S, XL H1A, XL H1S, XL2 (8500mAh): Camera & Photo (http://www.amazon.com/Wasabi-Power-Battery-BP-970G-8500mAh/dp/B0046V58Y2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

Yes I have this one and works fine.

OK, I have been through the Vortex Media Special Functions chapter again, and read the relative pages in the User Guide, and it appears to be a difference between the NTSC and PAL versions of the cameras. The NTSC XF300/305 can record down to just one frame at a time with Interval recording, where as the PAL version can only go down to two frames.

I wonder why that is the case?

That is very odd. I wonder why is that case?? The US already get one extra frame rate more the PAL countries.

I have the xf100, but the following holds true for the xf300 series. It will record one frame (two fields) in interlaced mode. In progressive mode, the lowest the camera will go to is two. No idea why. Wish I was smart enough to write a script in something like After Effects to remove every other frame to get the desired effect.

Dave

Hi Trevor,

I'm in NTSC land, and I mostly record on 24p, at the 2 frame interval setting. At 30p, it can be set at 1 frame a second.

Here's one example:

Clouds Over Monument Valley - YouTube (http://youtu.be/Y04Jvv1v5z0?hd=1)

Used Doug Jensen's CP settings.

Best,

I also use third party batteries from my XL2 days, but the charge on these have been depleted (bought on ebay). So I only use them on non-critical shoots. I do have a Wasabi brand battery for my Nikon point and shoot that's been working well.

Best,

Yes I have this one and works fine.Does it communicate with the camera to give an indication of charge & time remaining? There is a comment on that Amazon listing that says that despite the claim that it does talk with an XF100.

Yes I saw that. He seemed pleased with the performance other than though, but I guess you are paying for that chip, so it would be nice if it worked. I can confidentally rely on that feature with my 1D bodies, and it is reasuring to know what sort of battery capacity you have left.

It's not just reassuring to know what battery capacity you have left it's essential. As you don't even have the little button & row of lights like on the genuine Canon batteries then the battery is totally useless as unless you have just taken it off the charger you have absolutely no way of knowing how much juice there is in it.

I'm bringing this thread back to life because I saw a reference to a World-Firmware mod for XF series cameras that apparently gives you both NTSC and PAL options. It apparently has to be done by Canon technicians, and costs several hundred dollars.

More about it in these threads:
Adding PAL settings to XF-100 in "Canon XF Video" on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/groups/canonxf/forum/topic:250012)
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xf-series-hd-camcorders/491521-pal-ntsc-upgrade-vise-versa.html

Does anyone have first hand experience, and just what would it let you do? Would it be possible to shoot single frames in Interval recording in PAL? How about 60fps at 1280x720 PAL for over-cranking?

I have a PAL version of the XF100 and my menu also only shows ‘2’ frames as the lowest option.

I have kept my XF cameras PAL only as I don't see the value in paying £400-500 for the NTSC options. However if the PAL/NTSC firmware is like that for the C300 (which seems likely as the MXF back end is transplanted from the XF cameras) then you have to choose on a per card basis whether you are going to record PAL or NTSC you can't just flip to NTSC for the single image interval recording & then flip back to PAL for 25p you need to format the Compact Flash card for PAL or NTSC. The C300 is a world camera out of the box with PAL/NTSC firmware.

Thanks Nigel. It would be a steep learning curve for people like myself, who are relatively new to video, if we couldn't call on the experience of people like yourself.

I've actually been leaning away from the XF300 for interval recording, and more towards DSLR (I have a 1DMK4) after reading the FAQs and forums at Timescapes. I like the idea of recording at greater than 1080, and being able to pan a 1080 window across that footage in post.

What worries me is the thought that your computer hardware would be unable to handle that sort of workflow. I did a project a while back mixing 1080 video and stills, and found my self running out of headroom unless I kept the stills reasonably small. It was not a problem in that context, because I found that it looked much better panning slowly across a still of only about 2200 pixels wide.

So much to learn. It's a good job we enjoy doing so.

OT: You are running CS6 yes.
For timelaps with stills do the color correction in Lightroom and import the stills as an image sequence into Premiere.
Much less strain on your machine.

For timelaps with PAL and xf100 i set it to the shortest interval and speed it up in CS6 to 200%. That will get rid of the extra frame.

For any relatively short timelapse (say up to an hour or two) I find it far easier to just speed it up in post. If all you want is clouds whizzing past a building to indicate the passage of time this is far more straightforward.

OT: You are running CS6 yes.
For timelaps with stills do the color correction in Lightroom and import the stills as an image sequence into Premiere.
Much less strain on your machine.

For timelaps with PAL and xf100 i set it to the shortest interval and speed it up in CS6 to 200%. That will get rid of the extra frame.

Ann are you saying that with Premiere Pro CS6 I could create a movie file from stills without using After Effects or Quicktime Pro? I did not know that. I have now added After Effects CS6 to my list of Adobe apps though, so have it covered.

What resolution would you shoot the stills at? And would you shoot RAW or JPG? I don't use Lightroom, preferring to do it all with Bridge and Photoshop.

For any relatively short timelapse (say up to an hour or two) I find it far easier to just speed it up in post. If all you want is clouds whizzing past a building to indicate the passage of time this is far more straightforward.

I'm guessing you would not shoot such a clip at 50MB/s Nigel? What I am looking for is a time lapse of a sunrise for the opening and title sequence of my current project. So up to ten seconds of finished video, that would fade leaving the title masked over the sunrise. The project is a promo for a Convention we are running in 2014, the theme of which is 'The Colours of Marlborough' and I have been trying various ideas for the opening sequence. I think I am going to use both the XF300, and a stills sequence from my 1DMK4, to give me something to play with.

I was going to do this at a beach about 15 kilometres from where I live, but I have decided to use the vineyard (which is well into its budding phase) just across the road from my house.

Sunrise/sunset time-lapse are the most difficult sequences to get right as the exposure is tricky. You need to use some sort of auto mode because of the changing exposure but this induces flicker even when you are using AV mode the Canon DSLRS iris still seems to give a little twitch. There is a sunrise & sunset time-lapse that top & tail this little film for which I used the 5D2. http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/panasonic-lumix-gf-gh-series/502144-south-france-real-estate-video-filmed-gh2.html

Thanks Nigel. I have been trawling through the Timescapes FAQs and forums since I wrote the above, and discovered just how many variables there are. I’d be happy to invest in something like GBDeflicker to smooth out the tonal values, as I suspect time lapse would have on-going appeal. Rather like HDR with stills photography.

So I am just going to have a few early mornings and try it out, and try and learn by my mistakes.

I am still learning on the XF305. Had it for about 7 months. It's been a very easy camera to use and I especially like the wave form monitor. Anyhoot, I just tried the interval record mode for the first time. I shot some daytime clips and then tried to do a night sequence of the city skyline. Way too much noise. I think it will be useful in some situations for making a time lapse and saving some shutter clicks on the dSLR. I don't see how I'd be able to shoot a sunrise/sunset with it though. I have enough trouble doing that on a 7D. My next method to try is using a reverse graduated ND filter on the 7D for my sunrise time lapse. Here's a short video of my interval record mode testing I made while on a trip to Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

It was shot in 1080-60i and then rendered out in MPEG2 and then Vimeo had it's way with it, so... drop your rocks, it looks 4x's better in original format.

Canon XF305 Interval Record Test on Vimeo

Camera was in 1080-60i mode. Shutter was 1/60. Interval 1 fps. I think I had it on auto iris. In another test I tried to blur the cars and boats by setting the shutter to 1/15 and using the ND filters to get proper exposure. Seems this would have made for some blur but I didn't see any difference when played back in camera so went back to 1/60 and left it alone.

For Vegas, I just set project properties to match the media, then when I rendered out, I chose Main Concept MPEG-2 Program Stream NTSC Widescreen.