I’ll admit it. I’m overwhelmed by my A1. I’m really more of a still photographer type, than a video person.

I knew I wanted more than my Sony TRV900 would do. I was shooting my daughter’s high school plays and though they came out “okay”. I knew the picture could be better especially when spot lights were on. I knew the sound could be better because I was recording from the back of the theater.

I read all the things the A1 could do and it included all the things I thought I wanted. Now that I have it and I’m overwhelmed by it. I’ve shot some video with it, it looks great but I’m still afraid to get away from most of the auto settings.

The manual really stinks (in my opinion) for understanding things. There is a lot of “press this or push that” without any real explanation of what those functions do. Maybe it makes sense if you know what happens when you “up the gain” or “turn on an attenuator”, but I don’t. All the custom functions and preset are pretty overwhelming too.

I’m willing to learn, no I want to learn. I’ve learned a lot by reading this forum, but my understanding of all the terms and functions is still pretty weak. I would like to know when to do these things and what happens when you do? I know I could try it all, but if I don’t know what to expect, I think I will miss the purpose.

I would love a “How to use your A1” book, but that doesn’t exist (yet). Any book that talks about all this kind of stuff would be great.

Any recommendations?

Howard

vasst.com

Get the A1/G1 training video.

vasst.com

Get the A1/G1 training video.

This could be exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks.

Edit:
Now that I am looking for training material, here is another DVD I found:

http://www.elitevideo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=257

Before I buy either, has anybody else got them? What did you think?


Thanks,
Howard

Havent seen the vaast one yet but personally Id avoid the Elite video on the A1 like the plague

It annoyed the hell out of me - I've never seen a video that spends more time stating the obvious whilst sidestepping around just about anything useful

compare what seemed like five minutes they spend covering something as simple as how to insert the battery and memory card, to the 20 seconds spent on "This is where the custom preset functions are for knee and pedestal etc - I wont cover these best if you have a play around with them yourself"

Sorry but if someone needs a five min tutorial on battery and memory card chances are they're going to need a bit of hand holding when it comes to the custom presets!

(and vice versa if the target viewers they are pitching at are at a level where they dont need help with the presets then why spend five mins on battery and memory card!)

Ordinarily Id say a video like that is better than nothing as it does at least allow for a basic orientation to the external controls and button positions but when they allow factual errors to creep in on some of the parts they do cover, then it makes it worse than useless IMO

heres hoping the vasst one is vasstly better :)

stevie

I hope so too....i just ordered the Vasst...

There is a lot of “press this or push that” without any real explanation of what those functions do.

I feel your pain. But inmany ways it hurts so good.

Kind of like still camera and darkroom gear/chemical manuals I've see. (It is after all kind of the same, the image is "developed" in the camera and recorded on tape instead of film.) As with any highly capable tool, we have to grow into it.

From what folks are saying, the Elite tutorial is very basic an geared for people who are user manual-phobic. The subtleties of gamma, knee, pedestal, etc. are terms of the craft/trade/art form. A trip to a good book store may be in order to help understand how those concepts work together without regard to a specific camcorder.

A good thing about video is immediate feedback on a monitor - no waiting to soup the film.

After you get the DVD and watch it a couple times you should hook the cam up to your projection device, TV or projector, in your house and play with the settings live to see how its coming together.

I do this with a projector as it allows me to set the cam on a tripod and point it out the window for bright scene tweaking or you just swing the cam back to indoors and you can play with the controls to tweak for low light.

Adjust till you like the output and take notes and store the settings....

The projector is nice because you can vary the screen size projected and you can see the different settings very well and you can see the noise imediately.

Of course you can use the TV for the same testing....

Howard,

If you get some time, use the search function in
these forums and you will be amazed at the amount
of useful and understandable information that is
right here.
I do it all the time. 90% of the time I find enough
information to solve my problem, or where to go
to learn.

I think alot of us are having our horizons expanded
by the potential inheritate in this camera.
May as well make it fun, it can be.

David

I was shooting my daughter’s high school plays and though they came out “okay”. I knew the picture could be better especially when spot lights were on. I knew the sound could be better because I was recording from the back of the theater.

Welcome to DVinfo Howard! While it may not help with your specific A1 questions, you might also spend a few minutes browsing through this collection of threads about shooting stage shows if that's one of your interests. Lots of good advice there: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=60275

Thank you all. I will try the vasst video.

I have been lurking on this board for a while and I have read many threads and picked up a lot of info. But that still doesn't help my basic understanding of some features. Nor does it get rid of my fear of shooting manual or mostly manual.

I will try the video, read some more and play with the camera some more.

Beware of the AUTO modes, as shutter speed, focus and gain jump all over the place, as people, cars, etc. move in the foreground. Shotwreckers!

would it also be worth looking into the Ultimate Guide to the XL2 dvd since the cameras are similar? Or is the Vasst one better since its straight on the A1...it is twice the money

An XL2 DVD is not going to help *that* much in understanding the XH A1.

However, I believe Ultimate Guide is coming out with an XH version soon.

howard, it sounds as if you should start by learning the basics. set the whole custom presets thing aside until you understand the basics.

1. first put your camera in full manual and play with the aperture ring, the shutter, the ND filters, and the gain (in that order). just get comfortable with these first. don't muck around with anything else until you can figure out how to get light in your camera and how to keep it out. you'll need to go into the camera menu to adjust the gain to its maximum gain. the gain is customizable, too. find one frame rate you like (60i, 30F, 24F) and STAY WITH IT. you'll just confuse your learning process initially, as you try to compare the images you take.

take a few notes on what happens to the image when you play with these. for instance, what happens to the image once you drop your shutter speed to 1/15? you get more light, but what happens to motion?

spend a lot of time getting used to the placement of these controls. also, get to the point where you can find the PUSH AF button without fumbling for it. so that you can get a basic focused image fast.

consider that you may have to play with just these features for several weeks before you begin to understand them and to feel comfortable with them.

2. once you can make the adjustments that you need with your camera in a dark room, then you're ready to move on. you have to be that familiar with the basic functions of your camera, to be any good with it.

3. muck around with filters. get a polarizer. maybe one or two others. ND or soft fx or black mist. compare what happens to these images with what comes straight out of the camera.

4. NOW mess with frame rates and repeat steps 1-3 and see what happens.

5. the last thing you should do is download and play with the custom presets. if you do this after you know the basics of getting light in and keeping light out of the camera, it will mean a lot more to you. not only are we talking about experimenting with over 20 looks, these 20 looks change according to specific conditions. for example, steve dempsey's PANALOOK is outstanding for outdoor conditions. i use it regularly. it makes great skies. but indoors, forget about it. there are way better indoor skin tone choices. so you exponentially need to experiment. and you can't use the presets effectively until you know the basic camera functions.

if you try to learn it all at once, you'll give up. if you get the basics first, you will fall in love in a short time. this camera ROCKS.

Solid advice Meryem!

That really is good advice Meryem, thank you.

I will start doing that. Then by the time I watch the Vaast video I should have a little better understanding.

I will post some thoughts in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to all of you and thanks for no flaming.

Howard

hey, if it's any consolation, when i first bought my XL2, it took me six months to even really enter into the realm of custom settings, and i already knew how to use the manual settings on my previous camera. there are so many experienced folks here, that they make things look easy, which really take a long time to learn.

true story: last week, i shot an event. my biz partner and i sized up the lighting and skin tone conditions, then picked what we thought was an appropriate custom setting. then she proceeded to set up a light kit to shoot head and shoulders interviews while i shot on the other side of the room using ambient light. my footage looked fine, and in hers everyone looked sick, because the setting was wrong for the lighting, and she did not re-white balance. and she's good at this!

then this weekend, she shot an event, as the B camera to a shooter 20 years in the business, and due to the A camera being bumped by the camera operator's son, camera A apparently failed to capture any footage at all.

so even really experienced operators blow shoots. and the custom settings are different in different conditions, so, as i said, everyone learns from practice.

and white balance, which i forgot to mention. ya gotta learn to apply a manual white balance. which is easy to do, sometimes difficult to remember, under fast conditions.....

after every shoot, my shooting partner and i have a quick discussion of "what did you learn?"--mostly because we recently purchased the A1s, and they are different than the cameras we shot previously. at this last shoot, i learned that the A1 has a convenient in-menu 12db audio gain, which i had never used before. six weeks later, fairly experienced at shooting, and still learning the finer points of the camera....

every little item that you can identify and master helps.

thanks for no flaming.You can take that for granted, Howard! DV Info Net is strictly a no-flame zone.

Thanks for that advice Meryem! Again, this is why I love this forum. Much people who 'invented the wheel' before us 'newbies', we only have to follow the instructions to learn from them how to do things right.

Thank you all. I will try the vasst video.

I have been lurking on this board for a while and I have read many threads and picked up a lot of info. But that still doesn't help my basic understanding of some features. Nor does it get rid of my fear of shooting manual or mostly manual.

I will try the video, read some more and play with the camera some more.

Just received the VASST DVD.
Boy, these guys are FASST! Ordered it last weekend, got a few hours ago. Cewl. Will let you know if it's good.

howard, it sounds as if you should start by learning the basics. set the whole custom presets thing aside until you understand the basics.

1. first put your camera in full manual and play with the aperture ring, the shutter, the ND filters, and the gain (in that order). just get comfortable with these first. don't muck around with anything else until you can figure out how to get light in your camera and how to keep it out. <b>you'll need to go into the camera menu to adjust the gain to its maximum gain. the gain is customizable, too. </b>find one frame rate you like (60i, 30F, 24F) and STAY WITH IT. you'll just confuse your learning process initially, as you try to compare the images you take.

My A1 is due to arrive shortly and I'm in much the same boat as Howard. The advice by Meryem will be useful to me. One question about the gain. Are you advising to go into the settings and boost the gain to its maximum? Doesn't gain cause graininess? Please pardon my newbieness... Thanks again for all the help.

Took a fast peek on the VASST DVD video.
It's very detailed and they tell you everything about the camera.
Lots to view and remember. But next to all the content they do show the results when changing settings. I think I will have to watch it several times to remember everything, but the DVD realy covers 99% of the camera.

Ofcourse the fieldwork differs from the video. You have to built your experience by working with the camera. But it is a very nice 'DVD Manual'.

- How does HDV work?
- HDV Audio
- Using HDV peripherals
- Camera buttons and Functions
- Standard operating procures
- Advanced settings (lots of it !)
- Creating Personal Settings
- Sharing Camera Settings (HDVinfo.NET is mentioned!)
- Delivering HDV/SD

Next to that they also tell some usefull tips about extra hardware.

So...first impression: very good.

hi nelson: yes, you don't really want to add a lot of gain, but you should know what happens when you do and also what the limitations are to how your particular camera handles gain.

As a newbie to the XH-A1, who cut his teeth on the JVC GR-HD1 (a simple camera in comparison), I can bet you it will easily take you a year to learn what the A1 can do and how to really get the best shots.

On top of that, if you are new to HDV, you still have your HDV editing and production learning curve to contend with too.

It's really a lot of fun though.

...oh yes, and then there's that pesky audio to worry about! that's a whole 'nother ball o' wax! another realm to master. no wonder DVinfo exists!

First an update: I can't comment on the Vaast video since I still haven't received it. There was a problem. They thought my credit card was rejected. So even though my card did get charged, they didn't send out the DVD or notify me that they thought there was a problem. It is all taken care of and the DVD is on the way.

Some XH A1 results. I shot outdoors in full manual (but auto focus on).

It was easy and not scary! I played with the shutter speed, aperture ring and gain, just as Meryem suggested.

The aperture ring is way to sensitive (I seem to remember seeing a post on how to change that). It was a lot like shooting with my still camera, just up the shutter speed if the picture is too bright and and aperture is at maximum.

I did also try the neutral density filters and those worked great too. I also noticed the light meter (like a still camera) which told me when it thought the exposure was correct.

I played with the gain a bit, I guess that is analogous to the ISO setting on my camera, since the higher the gain, the less light needed but the more noise introduced. Though even at +12 I didn't see a lot of noise (outdoors). I did not really need this in full sunlight outdoors.

When I viewed my video I noticed that when I was pushing the shutter way up (in the thousands) the picture got very noisy. That was not obvious in the view finder. On the other had, it does look like I can trust the view finder (for the most part) to show me what the picture will look like. That was one of my big worries.

Next up, shooting indoors and in a theater with theater lights.

Don't overdo the still camera analogy. With a video camera it's not a good idea to use the shutter for exposure control If you're shooting at 24fps, shoot at a 1/48 shutter speed; if you're doing 30fps, use 1/60. Any other shutter speed other than the one that works properly with the frame rate will give you some funkiness, as you've noticed.

It's the focus, not the aperture ring that's adjustable. In the custom menu.

Don't overdo the still camera analogy. With a video camera it's not a good idea to use the shutter for exposure control If you're shooting at 24fps, shoot at a 1/48 shutter speed; if you're doing 30fps, use 1/60. Any other shutter speed other than the one that works properly with the frame rate will give you some funkiness, as you've noticed.

It's the focus, not the aperture ring that's adjustable. In the custom menu.

Thanks, I'll make sure I take that into consideration. I will probably stick with 60 frames a second, (actually forgot to try 24) and 1/60 where I can.

Okay, so I will have to turn the aperture ring more slowly. I doubt I will ever use the manual focus, my eyes just aren't that good any more and I'm sure the auto focus would do a better job.

Hey Howard,

I'm almost in the same situation as you are. Exploring and trying. It's fun with the A1!

As I told before: I ordered the Vasst DVD on a Sunday and got it by mail on tuesday. Very fast for mail which came from the USA to the Netherlands.

The DVD is has super content for beginners and advanced users. It's absolutely worth the money. But I'm also convinced that every user has to 'grow' his experience in the field. Working with the camera. As much as you can.

Good luck! Keeping an eye on this line.

I got a Rode NGT-2. I plugged in the XLR and it works "fine". Though there does seems to be a lot of low end noise. The mic was mounted in a shock holder.

I can run a low pass filter in editing, but I would like to understand a few things.

I've used the Mic twice. Once outside with some wind and I was sure that was the total cause was the wind. Then I used it again in a gym and there was still low end noise. So now I'm not sure if it is the mic, the camera or the settings.

The Line/Mic switch is set to Mic, which I guess is correct since I'm using a Mic. XLR MIC ATT are both off (not sure what this does). Other switch is set to CH1/CH2. Audio level set to A. Mic sensitivity set to Normal. The top Mic. Att was set to Att., I don't know why. I also don't know what it does.

I've searched a lot, but still don't understand all the Mic functions. Any information would be appreciated.

nice going, howard. it's fun to witness people learning their cameras in a solid, foundational way.

my first question regarding audio would be: did you go into the menu's audio settings to turn on the XLR function? if you don't do this, you can have the mic mounted up, and you'll still be using the on-camera mic to record...and the external mic will generate noise that the on-board mic will pick up.

i'm more of an image maker than an audio expert, but there are certain foundational principles to good audio as well.

1) mounting the mic on the camera is usually your last choice. get a small mic stand (you can usually get a cheapie from radio shack or guitar center, it doesn't have to be fancy), and once again EXPERIMENT with your mic. where is "off-axis"--meaning how far to the side of the mic does your speaking subject have to be, before the sound signal begins to weaken and thin?

2) getting your mic close to the sound source improves your sound. this sounds obvious but can actually be tricky, depending on the situation.

3) get a subject who can repeat phrases for you--read from a book or something--and place the mic everywhere you can, under their chin, over their head, to the side, and when you get your sound loaded into the editor, you can measure the differences.

4) learn what clipping and attenuation are--read all about it in DVinfo

learning your mic is a bit like learning your camera, because getting good at it is all about the subtle differences in how you place it. i'm no audio expert, i'm more of an image maker, there are way better people who can advise you on the finer points of audio, but this is a good place to start and remember the conventional wisdom: bad audio is a way bigger turn-off than bad images. you can get away with some lesser image quality, if you have a good story, but bad audio will frustrate audiences quicker than anything....

Meryem,

I used a shock mount in the hot shoe of the A-1. I did change the input to the XLR, everything else was to it's default auto settings, no change to the gain or sensitivity. I just read that the Attenuator switch under the screen is for the on-board mic, so turning that on did nothing. I did notice that the mic levels always seemed to be near the top (probably clipping, I do know what clipping is :), but I still got the low end noise.

Your suggestions about getting the mic close to the subjects are good, but I don't think will work in my case. The main reason I got this camera was to shoot high school plays and with my old camera all the video was color shifted or blown out when the spot lights came on. I just wanted more control. The on-board audio wasn't too bad. I got the A-1 for more control of the Iris during the show and got the Rode NTG-2 because I read on this forum that it was a good mic for the price.

I'm usually at the back of the theater when I shoot, so I could have a stand for the mic, but right next to me and I don't know if that will make much of a difference. The sound in general was pretty good, it just had a lot of low end noise that sounds like wind when there was none.

I really did spend about two hours search all the "audio" threads of this forum before posting. I even saw some with the same low end noise problem. I didn't understand it all. Does the audio gain boost the single? Does the Att. reduce the signal? I just never found a thread that explained that and the manual sure does not.

So I will go try some more testing. I will have my daughter sing across the room. I will see what happens if I go manual audio. With the Att. on and with the gain on.

Thanks again,
Howard

Howard

I have the NTG2 and whilst I find it adequate, I also find it cannot cope with anything stronger than a light breeze.
Wind noise and buffing can be elimainated to a greater extent by a Rode Dead Cat.

Howard,

I've got the NTG-1 on my A1 and often find myself shooting a play or musical. (Thank heavens the licensing companies have finally seen the light and are beginning to sell those rights.)

These Rode shotguns are really very sensitive and can get you useable audio from a distance, but anything at a "normal" sound level more than 10' away is going to give you that background noise. I always try to get a mic near the stage or a board feed in addition to the back-up Rode on camera. Then I mix as needed in post. (Board operators in high schools have quite a range of abilities) If you end up using the Rode track, you'll pretty much have to run it through a "de-noiser". I have the Adobe package and Audition has a pretty good noise filter.

Mervyn, I just got the dead cat. Can't wait to try it out.

Brad, at the last play I shot before I had my A1, I was hooked into the board. But they didn't know what they were doing and the sound was blown out. Good thing I recorded more than one night.

At the next show I will try hooking to the board and monitoring, but I also plan on recording to another deck or camera.

I'm getting Final Cut Studio 2 and it should arrive today.

Thanks for all the advice.

Still don't have the Vaast video, but that should show up today too.

Howard

Mervyn,

I'm getting Final Cut Studio 2 and it should arrive today.

Howard

Is FCP 2 out already?

Is FCP 2 out already?

They started shipping yesterday, the 15th, for some pre-orders.

They started shipping yesterday, the 15th, for some pre-orders.

Give us a report when you start using it.

I usually get the first unit that comes to the Apple store, but I have a lot of started projects. I want to make sure that there are no conflicts with the cards that I have installed.

I got the Vaast video and watched it. I'll get to my review of it in a minute. But watching it and learning about all the custom settings brought up one big question.

I see that you can change everything that is recorded with filters and settings which is pretty cool. But I wonder why? The reason I ask is, assuming that you keep the exposure correct and shoot a clean video wouldn't it be better to do all those features in Post. I know Bill Pryor will get "mad" at me, but when shooting with my still camera, it is much better to shoot raw and change anything I need, unless under or over exposed in Photoshop. Why would I want to do the same in FCS2?

Okay, now on to the Vaast video. Did any of you ever go to "The Preview House", where you watch a movie or a TV with a dial in you hand and change the setting from 0 (bad) to 10 (great) all the time you were watching the show. Well, while watching the Vaast video it was on 0 for the whole time Dan and Don. It was like they were adlibing the whole thing to get it done it one take. One would say "what is that button" and the other would say what the button was, no other information. Mistake were made and not corrected and it was very hard to watch.

The second part of the video with Doug was significantly better. The scale went from about 4-10. He went into detail on a lot of things. He "touched" every menu and button. Sometimes just saying what the button was and not what it did. But most times it was useful. There were still some controls where he explained some things but since I'm new to this "pro-video", it was over my head. However, he made uncorrected mistakes too and there was one section where the audio and video did not match.

Rating: Production value: 2-3, Information value: 6-7.
I think it is overpriced for what you get.

Doug did mention a couple of accessories. One I will get, one I wish I could get. The Canon ZR-1000 remote for my tripod is now a must have. I would also love, but will not spend the money necessary for the Firestore FSC60 or 100. But that would be cool.

On to Final Cut Studio 2.

I've just started playing with it and even got it to crash during capture. But it is so cool. It is hard to believe coming from Premiere Elements how much you can do with it. I'm watching that training video too and it seems a good way to get started. I have a few books on order to learn more.

I will post more on that FCS2 in a few weeks.

I have not had a chance to do any more with my A1, I've been too busy. Hopefully that will change in the next week or so.

Howard

Thanks for a great review Howard. I have been following your post here and wanted to see what the outcome would be for the vasst training video. I figured since the price is so high I wanted to make sure you liked it before I spent the money. I too am very new to this camera and have had no experience other than point and shoot palmcorders. When mine broke I told my wife I wanted something better than a cheap Best Buy camera.

I was (still am) quite overwhelmed when I started shooting with this camera and thought a training video would be the way to go. As I mentioned in another thread, I think I bought more camera than I should have. Then I saw your post and said... Hey, I'm not alone! I am sorry that you had to be the one to dish out the money but if it's any consolation, your loss helped out another reader (me)! I guess I will continue learning the camera as I have been. Reading lots of DVi threads and experimenting.

As far as the audio goes, I made a short video the other day using a shure SM58 on a mic stand. I had the camera on the tripod about 15 feet away from me so to get better audio I decided to run a vocal mic via the XLR. The SM58 is not a super cardioid mic that you would typically use as an overhead mic but it is all I have. I set the mic on the boom stand (as an overhead mic) just out of the camera view. I checked to see that I was getting a decent audio level and ran with it. When I went back to edit the video I was truly amazed at how great the audio sounded! It sounds crystal clear, there is no audible noise, and I can actually tolerate the sound of my voice (which I normally hate). I usually thicken up my voice with a little EQ when editing my videos. This was proof for me that the audio input for this camera is great.

If you plan to do any interviewing with your camera you should find that using a hand held mic (something of quality like the SM58) in the XLR input will work beautifully. As far as good shotgun mics for distant recordings Brads advice sounds great.

By the way, when you recorded from the board did you make sure to set your line\mic switch to line? Just curious.

Stacy

Well, while watching the Vaast video it was on 0 for the whole time Dan and Don. It was like they were adlibing the whole thing to get it done it one take. One would say "what is that button" and the other would say what the button was, no other information.

I agree on that part. Maybe it was better to integrate this part in the video where Doug did the whole camera instructions.

Heheh--I don't get mad at anybody. I just prefer to shoot as close to the look I want rather than tweaking in post.

I am sorry that you had to be the one to dish out the money but if it's any consolation, your loss helped out another reader (me)!

As far as the audio goes, I made a short video the other day using a shure SM58 on a mic stand.

By the way, when you recorded from the board did you make sure to set your line\mic switch to line? Just curious.

Stacy

Stacy, I want to clarify. You could skip over the first section and in the last hour there is some useful information. I now understand what the custom preset do and can do. I still will not use most of them, but I'm not afraid of them anymore. If the Vaast Video was $20-$30 it would be worth it. But for $80, it's not even close.

I just ordered a mic stand, thanks.

When I connected to the board, I had my Sony TRV-900. The only input was a 3.5mm jack and they did have a stereo output from the board. They just didn't want to spend any time working on the level. But now with my A-1, I will go for a direct line feed and set the level myself (as long as the level I get from them is useful enough) and we go back to that theater.

Good luck with your A1.

Howard

Heheh--I don't get mad at anybody. I just prefer to shoot as close to the look I want rather than tweaking in post.

:)

Of course that is probably the best way, but I'm correct, right. Most of that (if not all) can be done in Post?

You can do lots of things in post if you are willing to spend the time to do it and have the tools. Still, there are things like, for example, the effect of a No. 1 Black Promist that you can't quite duplicate in post. I guess you can if you're a big post house that charges a few thousand bucks a day for doing that kind of thing, but we mere mortals can only approach the look. I guess I'm kind of old school. I want the footage I shoot to look the way I want it to look and not have to depend on maybe being able to get a certain look when editing.

That's not wholly true with certain color effects,which further illustrates that life is not black and white, so to speak, and there are no absolutes for any opinion I might express. For example, I did some shots out in New Mexico a couple of years ago, and they looked fine. But I wanted a bit of that "Syriana" warm hot desert look (from their Mexico scenes), and was able to do that with the color correction tool easily. So I guess I'm saying it depends on what look you're after. Still, had I had a camera like the XH A1 when I did that shoot, I probably would have experimented in advance with some camera tweaks and would have shot it with the extra slightly yellow warmth. It's sort of like using different film stocks for different looks and then tweaking in post a little bit.

Another example would be the day for night look. Everybody seems to have a day for night look now, but if you shoot normal footage and use it, it looks like somebody's day for night filter, as opposed to shooting it properly in the first place for a day for night shot.

"If the Vaast Video was $20-$30 it would be worth it. But for $80, it's not even close."

Hmm -- I have to say I disagree about this. I think the Vasst Vid is worth the price. Compare it to a 3 or 4 hour workshop -- which could be anywhere from
$50 to $100 (that's a SF Bay Area conservative price) and not specifically about the A1, just about Digital cameras in general.

I don't mind the Berube brothers -- kind of amusing -- though I probably won't watch their segment again. Doug's in depth section is incredibly helpful -- to me at least -- and I can return to it anytime and go over it again. He's very clear and precise and has a very generous delivery. Made me feel a lot less intimidated by this wonderful camera. For the overall in depth look I'm really grateful it exists. Along with this amazing forum --

Thanks btw for being so candid about your experiences Howard -- and since this is the thread I learned about the dvd on thanks for that too.

Annie

Thank Bill, I understand.

Howard

Stacy, I want to clarify. You could skip over the first section and in the last hour there is some useful information. I now understand what the custom preset do and can do. I still will not use most of them, but I'm not afraid of them anymore. If the Vaast Video was $20-$30 it would be worth it. But for $80, it's not even close.

I just ordered a mic stand, thanks.

When I connected to the board, I had my Sony TRV-900. The only input was a 3.5mm jack and they did have a stereo output from the board. They just didn't want to spend any time working on the level. But now with my A-1, I will go for a direct line feed and set the level myself (as long as the level I get from them is useful enough) and we go back to that theater.

Good luck with your A1.

Howard


Thanks for the clarification. If I find myself going nowhere fast I might consider spending the $80.00. I guess I was hoping it would make me the next Steven Spielberg (yes that was a joke). :)

By the way, there are plenty of good wireless mic setups you can buy if you need to get the audio close to the talent (stage) and stay in the stands, without having to rely on the guys behind the board. That is if you want to spend the money (I don't have that kind of money)!

Anyway, thanks for post on the video and good luck with your new toy as well.

Stacy

Everyone will probably have a different assessment as to the value of the VASST DVD. But I agree with Annie — $80 in the equivalent workshop is very reasonable. And for the peace of mind to know what all the parameters of this camera mean, that's the best $80 I ever spent.

In a few hours, I now know this camera faster and better than I would have ever found through any other medium. That speed of learning curve is priceless.

Annie and Geoff,

If you look at it in those terms, comparing it to the cost of a workshop, then the second half of the Vaast video may be worth the price alone. I did pick up information that was useful.

I just wish Doug was more consistent and went in depth on everything he talked about and not just some things.

Howard