I'm going to be shooting a few interviews and capturing some field footage this weekend at a training session for a celebrity car race and was wondering if anyone had a few suggestions for settings to use on my XL1.

This footage will most likely be aired on television, so the quality of the shoot is very important.

What settings would you suggest for the interviews?

Also, which settings will work best for capturing the cars traveling at high speeds?

I have my own thoughts on this, but outside info. never hurts! Any suggestions would be helpful!

Thanks.

Find out if the TV outlet has any specific requirermens. Fully manual mode and settings can give the best results - if you know how to set up the camcorder for the shots. Practice in advance, at the venue with the expected lighting if you can, try differnt settings, view the footage and see what best meets your needs.

One thing I have found in shooting auto races is to stay away from fast shutter speeds. I almost always shoot in TV (shutter priority) mode with the shutter speed set to 60. Even though the cars are moving fast, you are usually panning with the car so your primary subject is moving slowly within the frame. Fast shutter speeds will produce an undesirable effect with regard to background objects. Cars in sharp focus with the background slightly blurred is much easier to watch. Also use manual focus.

Thanks for the suggestions!

What about using frame mode...how well does this transfer to television? I like the "look" that I get w/frame mode, but would it be better to deinterlace w/my editting software or should I not even bother?

Trevar,

You will not want to shoot anything for TV broadcast in frame mode. Do not de-interlace in post either. You will get a case of the jitters, so-to-speak.

If you are shooting in full manual, activate your zebras and set them to activate at 80. This will help you keep your levels more tolerable for broadcast.

If you are new to using the camera, practice-practice-practive. Most of all, have fun.

Good Luck!

Bill

Frame mode will cause a sort of strobe effect in pans and with moderately fast moving objects in the farme. Not fun to view. (Recall how bad fast pans look in the movies.) With TV you probably are trying to look like TV (video), not like the movies.

Thanks for all the help.

Outside: use the ND filter if there's enough light.

I'm a fan of Manual White Balance, +2 setup and +2 Sharpness. It gives me a pretty good image without oversharpening and allowing me to go straight to Bcast even though it's sort of cheating by trying to imitate the setup of 7.5 IRE.

Just keep the zebras showing a bit, but not much on the highlights.

I shoot a lot of freelance stuff on my XL-1s for TV news. Most of the stations like a little crisper look than the softer look Canon delivers naturally. No problem. I've got one custom preset set to do what I call "The Sony Look," a second set to do The Sony Look with with more low-light capability (which seems to work better than tweaking the gain, by the way). I have the third one set for really soft, Movie Frame Mode stuff I do with a 1/2 black promist filter. If I want the natural Canon look, I just turn off the custom presets.

Also... use -3db gain anytime the light allows.

gonna diddle with this myself. As a new owner, I've been disappointed with the low light grainyness. -3db gain helps. I filmed a choir onstage. Marvelous sound. what happened to the picture. It worked better on 'spotlight' which I didn't want to do cause I can't control it. I'll fiddle around next time but I'd love to have any suggestions on manual adjustments to improve low light and stark contrast.