My HV10 just arrived...
 

Man this things is tiny.

I will shoot some footage soon anybody have a lead as to where I can post it and what format you would like to see?

Cody, can you take some pictures to show the size? Do you have another camcorder you can sit it next to?

Sure. Here is a link to my Flickr page with a set of cheesy photos of the HV10

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucido/...7594293148520/

In some photos the HV10 is sitting next to my iMac and my older Sony TRV-50. Oh yeah, that is my tripod plate from the Bogen 503 on the bottom.

I can't stress the tiny factor enough.

I have some decent clips showing the amazing new AF. What format would people like? Currently they are Quicktime HDV.

Native MPEG-2 (.m2t) is the best as there is no re-compression. Apple HDV is probably the intermediate codec (i could be wrong) which is okay but will take away a little quality from the original version.

Great pictures Cody, thanks. That sucker is small!

Can you get a tape in and out with the tripod plate on there or do you have to remove it?

You have to take the tripod plate off to change tape and to change the battery.

Does this site host video clips? If not is there a service you recommend to host the clips?

Shoot an Email or PM to Chris Hurd who runs the site. He hosts clips for the good of mankind.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/member.php?u=3

Test Footage uploaded
 

I just uploaded some clips thanks to Chris Hurd.

They are :

Test003_IAF.m2t - Shows how super fast the new focusing is. 2-3 Frames. - Program

Test007_bokeh.m2t - Sorry about the jerky pan (darn 503). This does show off the nice bokeh this camera can achieve. - A/V 2.8

Test009_LowLight.m2t - A quick zoom of my DVD library - A/V 2.8. One halogen track light as key. Shows noise level in low light.

I will add the links to this email when I get them.



Cheers!

Looks like files are under:
http://media.dvinfo.net/canonhv10/

Thanks Cody!

PS nice movies :)

Thanks Colin.

I do want to post a serious concern I am having about this camera.

It is very important for me to be able to load from tape via firewire. Same workflow as DV. I am not sure why, but when I create an EDL to ingest a tape, if the clips are to close to each other I get an error. If I spread them apart, this isnt a problem as much. But the tape loses time code all the time and it concerns me. Is this the early pains of HDV editing or is it a bad build quality on the camera. I am loading with FCP 5.1 on an intel iMac. 2GB RAM. I never experience this with dv on my Sony.

Can anybody address this? I might be sending it back as I really wanted to also use it as a deck. I will say this, I used Panasonic Master tape not an "HD" tape, so that might be the problem? I will go get an HD tape tomorrow and see if the problem continues.

use the "end search" button (see p. 29 in your manual) to avoid broken time code. it will back the tape up a few seconds over your last take. make sure you have adequate handles on the ends of your takes so you don't tape over the important material. canon's lower end cameras don't do this automatically for you, although my more feature-rich XL2 does (even the GL2 has the "end search" feature). you just have to get used to pushing it after each take.

Thanks Merym, but this was time code it was dropping during an extended take I was doing of clouds.

The time code wasn't broken on the tape, it was just having trouble when playing back through firewire. It would break in different spots each time. I ended up doing a "capture now" and got what I needed.

Is this because HDV is still in it's infancy? Or is it a cheap transport system on th HV10? Anybody with practical experience with this?

Even though I don't really use timecode too much (no batch capture- too hard on tape)- I just capture large sections from a point (often beginning), and split by scene cut/timestamp, in Ulead MSPro.
That said, for my DV tapes, I always "blackstriped" them to lay down timecode and blackscreen (just left the lens cap on.) My Optura didn't have "end search" feature, but I usually queued it up if I'd been moving the tape around.

However, for the HV10, 1) the lens cover automatically opens, no more "black" screen :) , and so far it's been good to keep timecode... even after power-off between shots etc.

2) I'm also not sure what happens to the MPEG2 gop stream, to have "overlayed" recordings, eg if I leave a blackstriped (old) spot in between new shots... not sure if it would confuse the editor or camera... also not sure if two recording passes over the DV tape might cause more data loss/dropouts , for higher-demand MPG2 stream? vs DV?

Also, at least w/ MSpro8, all the DV metadata functions (DV scene scan/logger, auto split-by-scene-cut, shot timestamp display), does NOT function w/ the MPG2 stream even though the data is there (actually, when I set the HV10 to DV lock eg down-rezzed to DV format/SD size, all the DV control/metadata works again.)

I don't know how FCP does captures or what it requires, but you might try a "blackstripe" first...
so far for this type of metadata capture issue, I think it's the software having incomplete support for (new) HDV... some users have reported the same MSPro issues above for Sony HC* cameras, so it's not just the Canon.

dude! Red Dwarf DVD's. Very nice.

So when you play the tape back in the camera does the timecode work fine, as in the numbers displayed on the LCD? And it only breaks when capturing over FireWire? You haven't had an issue capturing DV over FireWire to the same computer? Intel iMacs are farely new so there could be some issue with the Apple drivers. Do you have another computer, Mac or PC to try a capture on?

Is it just on the batch capture? "Capture Now" works fine?

I capture my DV like Colin does, big files. I actually use BTV Pro to capture even though I edit in FCP because I like the simplicity of BTV's interface.

Just checked out your clips. The vertical banding in the dark cassette shot is evident, just like that other night show posted with the white car. Wow, that focus really changes quick. Great shots. The clarity is really great.

But didn't CANON's engineers forget to include an external microphone input?

The microphone input is a must for me.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

This subject has been discussed to death in various threads.

cody, that's a pretty concerning issue, because i think one of the selling points of the HV10 is its use as a deck, esp. with playback of progressive images from the forthcoming XH series cams. definitely, not all cameras seem to be created equally in this regard. i have a little canon ZR100 for dumping DV files, and it captures like a champ, whereas my GL2 shows exactly the symptoms you are describing. i wonder if this issue is characteristic of particular models or if it's something going on within the individual cameras?

I primarily bought this as a deck for my soon to arrive A1. So, this does concern me.

But, I am new to HDV production (a veteran of DV) and will do some serious testing this weekend. I will post my findings based solely on performance of this camera and its deck potential. In the meantime, can somebody clarify whether this flakey loading issue is an HDV thing or a camera thing?

Cody, to test if it's the camera losing stuff, or just your software interacting poorly w/ HDV, set the HV10 to "DV Locked" mode for the DV output (p35 of the manual) before you connect to the pc via firewire.

This will make the camera act in DV camera/deck mode, as far as the PC/software can tell, even if the on-tape footage is HDV format.
The video will be down-converted to DV size, and it does output the DV metadata eg timecode/timestamp data correctly, at least as far as my quick testing w/ Ulead MSPro8.

Thanks Colin, I will try that along with some other things I have devised. I shall report back.

Cheers!

component capture?
 

Does someone have the ability to capture from the camera's component output (if it exists)? I'd like to see the quality of that video.

Is there any software for the mac that captures a firewire input as .m2t ?

(I have iMovie / FCP )


Cheers.

When I captured this footage with FCP in HDV108060i, the files came in without a suffix. I just added '.m2t' and they worked great.

Field Test
 

I am convinced this is a great little - no make that tiny - camera.

I did captured about 4 hours of DV footage without a single hiccup. The little camera performed well. Not a single drop or timecode violation.

The HDV capture is still fuzzy, but so far I have been able to work around it's drawbacks. I am fairly convinced that the HDV codec trying to cram so much information in to a DV size stream is the culprit.

I can't express the stunning clarity this tiny little camera is capable of. Its miniscule exterior makes it ideal for casual verite style shooting.

The mic issue is kind of sucky, but come on, 15 years ago you would have been using a NAGRA and that was professional. The sound coming with sight is a recent addition to the filmmaker's arsenal how quickly we forget.

The issue of whether something is professional or not is ridiculous. I am a professional and I think this camera has a great future as part of my arsenal of tools. Don't worry yourself so much about whether something is considered professional or not and instead focus and taking advantage of all the means at your disposal. OK, I am off my soapbox.

Thanks guys. Cheers!