XA20 in extreme lighting condition - Dance Video

[Tim Akin]

This band had some really bright and colorful lights and overall I thought the XA handled it fairly well. Some shots get overexposed when the lights go bright red and green but still manageable. For most of this the XA was in auto exposure with gain limit set to 21.

The other camera on a tripod was the AC90.

www.vimeo.com/akin/abjrdance

[Dave Baker]

I thought the XA20 handled it very well.

I enjoyed the video, I consider it well shot and well edited together and, for once, music I was happy to listen to which helped. A good band I thought.

It interests me because I have the HF G30, which is essentially the same camera and it's nice to know it would cope with this kind of situation if necessary.

Dave

[Bryan Worsley]

I also have yet to put my HF-G10 through this kind of "exposure/gain/WB" torture test, not to mention audio, and I would agree with Dave, both camcorders coped rather well. I assume you had both cams in auto white balance mode throughout?

Watching closely I see you had to fill in with some shots of the band where the the music didn't match what they were playing, but I'm sure most people watching it would be more interested in the antics of the bride, groom and guests to notice.

Were you using the built-in mics, out of interest? Audio blows out in a few places.

Nice job though.

[Tim Akin]

Thanks Dave and Bryan for the comments.

Dave, I thought anyone who owns these cameras or thinking about getting one, might be interested in seeing this.

Bryan, I asked the band to set their lights to all white during the first dance, so I set the manual WB then on both cams and left it that way for the night.

I recorded the sound using the H2n with two mics on the speaker stack, one with voice and instruments and the other on the sub. I usually like to run the drum mic over to the drums but there just wasn't enough time so it ended up on the bands sub. That distortion could be the bands monitor. That's the risk I take when micing this way, the sound is only as good as the monitors being used, which sounded fine when not right next to them. I did use some of the XA's mic( AT875) when on the drums from the song in the video and also from the dancers at times and I noticed it distorting a lot. The AC90 was using the built in mic and there's no distortion but sounds very thin, I use it only for syncing and maybe ambient some.

[Bryan Worsley]

Originally Posted by Tim Akin

...I asked the band to set their lights to all white during the first dance, so I set the manual WB then on both cams and left it that way for the night.

Smart move. I'll have to remember that.

Originally Posted by Tim Akin

....That distortion could be the bands monitor. That's the risk I take when micing this way, the sound is only as good as the monitors being used, which sounded fine when not right next to them.....

Yes, I wondered about that also.

Considering all those variables, I think you pulled it together very well.

Cheers.

[David Stembridge]

This looks great, I am trying one out this weekend, actually an XA25. We are currently still using XHA1s (s) and have been looking at some card based alternatives.

How have you handled batteries, and charging for this camera>

[Paul R Johnson]

It looks nice. Sharp images and audio holds together well as it stays similar in tone throughout. Without a dedicated sound team, not really much you could do to manage the occasional distorted drum or whatever. One thing to perhaps pay attention to are when you use cutaways. You have concentrated on the main action in some sequences, because the images are good and appropriate, but forgotten that many viewers may well be musicians. They will spot the drummer is not playing what can be a heard, same as guitar and bass. Just a tiny cut to a visually interesting second or so, but the fingers are not doing what we are hearing. The guy with the keyboard is a good example. Some shots are real, others clearly not what we are hearing. I think some were close, but notes go down and strange times. I'm being picky if course, but other musicians will be seeing and hearing these things. Some clips were in the right place, but the notes not in the mix. Seeing the guitarist and not hearing him raw also a bit odd, but so difficult to manage. I had exactly the same problem in the video we got of our own band. I was really short of cut aways because the wives and girlfriends we gave the cameras to as an experiment got instruments in every shot. It was interesting as an experiment, but wobbly cam from start to finish. This video looks pretty good to me, and sounds not bad at all compared to the usual horrible sound people get from these events. With mainly led light sources, I set all my cameras to a 5600 preset, and don't attempt a white balance because it changes so much when all the different sources combine.

[Jay Massengill]

The AT875 mic has a strong output. In any situation with loud sound you must engage the attenuator in the menu settings for the XLR input you have it connected to on the XA20 to help reduce distortion from overloading the mic input.

The same is true with the older XA10, but the attenuator switches were actually on the audio control block.

You don't mention if you engaged the attenuator or not, but since it's in the menu of the XA20 and not an external switch like the XA10 had, it can get overlooked.

If a hot mic in a loud situation is overloading the mic input, you can definitely get distortion that can't be tamed with the recording level controls. Using an attenuator (internal or external) or a lower output mic will help.

[Don Palomaki]

Also, when using an external mic you can enable the audio limiter, which will reduce gain if the audio approaches 6 dB of clipping.

The XA20 mic input preamps first stage will saturate/clip at very high input levels (around -23 dBV) if the attenuator is not engaged
With the AT875 that translates to a SLP of around 100 dB, (very roughly the sound level 20 feet from a jack hammer).