HV20 - Tokyo Footage
 

I really wanted to get the Panny SD1.

I prefer SD cards to HDD and most certainly, tape. However, editing is still a problem and it seems that HDV is ahead of AVCHD in terms of picture quality.

So, yesterday morning I headed over to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku (Tokyo) and picked up the Canon HV20. It helped that my work place is practically next door.

Fortunately, I had some time in the afternoon so I charged up the battery and took it out into the streets of Nishi-Shinjuku and started shooting random stuff. I brought my monopod along and that helped reduce "the shakes."

I also shot some stuff later that night (around 10 p.m.).

I forgot to ask the guy at the store to see if he could get me a copy of the English manual (I have the English version on my computer) so, regretfully, all the footage was shot in full auto.

I'll let you be the judge. As I'm typing this it's uploading to RapidShare.com -- a one minute video at about 65 MB. My computer is a single core P4 2.8 gHz with a gig of ram. It plays the file fine in WMV. I had to dumb it down a little to get it to fit the RS 100 MB limit.

It does seem like it's 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080. Must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Still, I have to say, I'm stoked. I love the high resolution. The colors seem a bit soft but not too bad. There's some blurring but I'm 99.9% sure this is pilot error.

This is the first time I've shot, edited and encoded HDV. All in all, not bad for a first effort, I think. I use Vegas 7.0 and, keeping it simple, it's just about as easy to edit HDV as regular DV. Pleasantly surprised by that. No other software involved -- just Vegas right out of the box.

This cam cost me 107,300 yen out the door so I guess that's around a 1000 USD. With about 25,000 yen added to the "Points Card" I was able to get an extra battery and an HDV tape and still have points left over.

Now, this isn't the best example I've seen of what this little cam can do, but I'm a happy camper. I figure with a little more study I can start shooting in the 24p mode and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that looks. I think this camera has a lot of potential.

While I hope this is my last tape-based camera, I'm really glad I bought it.

I couldn't help but include some photos of the "unpacking" ritual complete with a camera girl :)

OK, here's the link to the vid:

http://rapidshare.com/files/23418440/Shinjuku2.wmv.html

Randall, looks very nice, but when I play it on WMP or MP Classic, it seems the footage is vertically squished a bit. Somehow the aspect ratio just looks a bit off. Any ideas?

This is amazingly clear footage. Thank you very much for posting.

I do agree with Ken. It's just a tad squished when using windows media player.


Got any more? :)

It'd be great if you could get some clips of the cherry blossoms! Shinjuku Gyoen is beautiful this time of year!

Actually, I think Tokyo is a great city to shoot video. There are lots of things going on both during the day and at night.

I'm hoping to go to Tokyo Disneyland this month and get some HV20 clips. I'll try to post good ones. :)

Thanks for the tip.

The HV10's fun, of course, now I want to sell my HV10 and get the HV20. Better lowlight, mic input, yadda yadda. I hope to find a buyer soon, it's only got ~10 hours on the heads. Maybe Ebay's the place.

Actually, I think it's ~15 hours on the heads.

HV20 snow globe clip
 

I've included the source .m2t file as well as a 960x540 H264 movie which I compressed at 75% quality. On the .mov file, I removed the pull down in AE, used the Magic Bullet deartifactor, resized and adjusted the levels a little bit.

Shot it at either F1.8 or F2.0.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/08a5ad/

I think the .m2t looks great!

Thanks David, here's another clip of a cat in front of a window.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/4a878b/

HV20 footage again
 

Its uploading so give it time...

http://www.salatar.com/rainyday/H264_72024p.mov (112 Mb)


http://www.salatar.com/rainyday/Rain... HD 72024p.wmv (193 Mb)
Not a Pro shot just handheld...
Huge story behind it but you'll get the Jist...

For some reason the Quicktime movie isn't recognized by my Quicktime installation. Do I need a special codec to view it?

And the wmv version stops playing at about 33 secs into it.

it just got done on both accounts
and its H264 mov

Great story..
 

..very creative for 12X12. Really nice light and color on the flowers. I'm thinking of getting a bogen monopod and video head for my HV20 as though haven't used one much before, it is just so portable might try to ditch the tripod.

Regards, Alan

yep got it.

Maybe next time wait til they are uploaded b4 you post the links. That way we will know when they are ready on our end and we won't waste the time d/loading unfinished files.

I wasnt expecting to get back to computer for a few more weeks ..
But I did here are a few grabs ( you can see me under said 12x12 carport)