Chris, I notice in post 2 , No. 18 is titled PANALOOK, but Steven updated it to PANALOOK2. It's there in post 210.

Cheers.

Thanks Allan -- I have a lot of work to do in getting our library updated.

Yes, it's much appreciated Chris. For A1 owners this is probably the best thread around. One question that's probably been answered, will any other H1/G1 custom presets work in the A1?
Cheers.

Absolutely no difference whatsoever between G1 and A1 custom presets. They are fully compatible. As are custom presets from the new XL H1S / H1A. That's four camcorder models sharing the same custom preset files.

Older XL H1 presets are not compatible though.

Thanks for the "Preset" thread on the XHA1. I'm looking to buy an XHA1 and it was a toss up between a few other similar cameras. But with the tweakability and support of these presets I'm sold on the XHA1. I even borrowed one from work for the night just to try a few of them out before I ordered my camera.

Alot of the "Presets" would be very usable in a time crunch situation where if you want to have saturated footage or present a certain look you could do so with minimal effort and very little color correction in post.

Thank again, hope to contribute my own "Presets" in the future.

These presets are awesome, i don't know what i would do without this forum. But are these presets applicable to SD/DV mode instead of HD as well? Would there still be the richness in the color minus the sharpness?

One thing that someone might want to do is gather all of the preset information in this thread and create an updated spreadsheet. Maybe Chris prefers to do it himself but I suspect he would appreciate someone doing the legwork for him.

Many have benefited from the hard work of others here to produce these presets so I think it would be a nice gesture to give back to the community and work on consolidating all the information into something more immediately accessible.

Chris, feel free to chime in here if you object.

I have made the Custom Preset Movie 1.0 complete.

You can watch it on Vimeo:

http://www.vimeo.com/846830

It contains 28 Custom presets. If you register on VIMEO the original file can also be downloaded and the image quality is better.

Very well done Gert. Thanks a lot. This makes it a lot easier to compare the different presets.

I'm also planning to make the same stuff in a dark situation. But there might be one problem: how to set white balance in a dark situation?

Vivid B
 

VIVID B is a mod of the famous VIVIDRGB preset. It's bluish, but still rendering a good skin tone.

VIVID B works better when you set the gain at -3dB and set the white balance to "preset" which produces less color noise.


All parameters but the following are identical to the VIVIDRGB preset:

Color Gain -15
Red Gain -25
Green Gain -20
Blue Gain 25
RG Matrix 0
RB matrix 0
GR matrix 0
GB matrix 0
BR matrix 0
BG matrix 0

Newbie havin' trouble!
 

Hi guys,
So i just got my A1, and I copied all these presets to my SD card in a folder named "PRESETS" and when i try to copy them to the cam, it is greyed out. So, I tried copying a preset from the cam to the card just to see what happened: it put it in the folder with all the presets from this thread! Any help on how to copy over presets would be helpful. (also, will the cam read the file names (like VividRGB, etc... or will it just number them from 1 to whatever?)

Thanks guys!
-Steve

The folder name must be "PRESET" without the "S".
The procedure for calling up the presets is detailed in your operator's manual on page 81.

I figured it out, I wasn't naming them correctly (PRESETxx)
Thanks,
-Steve

Preset: Vision
 

Hi,
i created a new preset that seems to work very well in every situation.
I called it Vision because it's colorimetry remembers me the Kodak Vision2 (with the due respect....)

I recommend using -3dB gain and i suggest using the manual color temperature to adjust the overall look.

Vision

GAM CINE2
KNE LOW
BLK STRETCH
PED 0
SET -9
SHP 0
HDF LOW
DHV 0
COR 0
NR1 OFF
NR2 OFF
CMX NORMAL
CGN 0
CPH 0
RGN 0
GGN 0
BGN 3
RGM 0
RBM 0
GRM 0
GBM 0
BR0 0
BGM 0


Example Clip here:
http://www.vimeo.com/998538

Nice work Giovanni,

I have one question: why do you recommend the -3dB Gain setting?

If you have enough light, the -3db gain setting reduces the gain of the camera and produces images with even less noise than the 0 db gain setting (as well as all other gain settings.)

Thanks Dan.
I now know what to do for the next version of the custom preset movie.
See, I had some thoughts about how I made it the first time and I wanted to make a new version which is better and if possible with more presets.

There were some questions about the white balance and other stuff like the gain settings.

I did some tests yesterday evening with the Kelvin settings and I think i'm going to do make a new version with a fixed white balance setting. In other words: I'm going to set the camera to a certain color temperature.

Shame I don't have a color temperature meter available. That may help a bit.

Can I compare the GAIN settings of the A1 with the ISO settings on a Digital SLR camera?

Dear Gert,

Yes, they are similar concepts. Gain makes the camera more sensitive, at the cost of increased noise in the image. The same applies to high ISO settings.

Nice! I experimented with my Canon EOS400D last week and made great photo's on ISO100.
It's great weather over here. Blue skies, warm and sunny weather so we leave the house as much as we can. And yes, both camera's are my companion in a backpack so nothing escapes the electronic eyes.

About the presets:

The first movie I made of the CP's I used a Expodisc to set the white balance on the camera each time I changed the CP on my A1. But, I had some doubts about the results. So there are still some open questions:

1: Is there a difference between the white balance setting with a Expodisc and a white surface object like a grey card which also has a white surface side.

2: Do I have to set the white balance each time I change the CP. In other words: Does the CP have influence on the white balance?

3: If I use a certain white balance setting in Kelvin which should represent the light on the moment I start filming, can I then compare all CP's with each other?

Dear Gert,

I have not used an Expodisk.

It would be interesting for you to run some tests comparing the use of the Expodisk to traditional white balance using a white card. I typically use white foam-core board, but there are better white balance cards.

I feel that for your Custom Preset testing, I would use the traditional white balance, using a white card instead of using an Expodisk.

I would white balance after making all of the Custom Preset changes, but I do not know if it would make any difference. I strongly feel that "white balance after" would be best, however.

You should definitely white balance after adding or removing a Neutral Density filter.

I would reserve the use of the Expodisk to situations where you can not use a white balance card due to the event, or nature of the scene.

Hi Dan,

With any luck I will compare five different ways of white balance tomorrow.

1. Automatic
2. Preset with 'Sun'
3. Preset with 'Kelvin'
4. White balance with a greycard (white side)
5. Expodisc

The preset with Kelvin is set with a bit of knowledge about color temperature and my eye in the viewer (is the surface white or does it have a tinted color?)

Should be interesting to see what comes out of this test.

I have not thoroughly tested this, but it seems that:

If you white balance manually, then switch to "Kelvin Mode", it will display the color temperature that it used for the white balance.

Then you can adjust the white balance manuallyto suite your needs.

I highly recommend that you calibrate your viewfinder so that the colors/brightness and contrast are correct. You can search for threads on how to do this.

Unless your viewfinder is calibrated, I would not use the "Kelvin Mode" to adjust for white balance, until I did some testing (and viewing of the footage).

In other words, I would trust the camera's white balance over tweaking it in Kelvin mode, while using the viewfinder to judge the color balance (until you have confidence that the colors in the viewfinder are accurate.)

All of this is easier if you have a calibrated HD monitor.

For what it's worth...according to Bill Pryor:

From http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.ph...ckground+color

"Unfortunately the camera does not provide a color temperature readout. Since it knows what the CT is when it white balances, it should be easy to provide that readout in the viewfinder, but they don't. Very annoying."

Kinda silly, but here goes:
Do you guys ever shoot with NO presets, just the factory settings out of the box?

Dear Steve,

No.

Thanks Dan,
I don't how to take your message, are you being a silly goose or do you really NEVER shoot with factory settings. (I know it was kind of an asinine question :)
-Steve

Hi Steve,

I think that because the Canon XH-A1 has a flexable matrix built in. It can be set to the colors anyone wants it to have. Many first users of the A1 compared the picture with their 'old' camera. Not satisfied with the results they made their 'lookslikeXYZ' preset.

And many customers are not satisfied with the 'straight out of the box' picture quality of the camera. So they started their own journey in making custom presets.

I myself still have a few open questions about custom presets, but still it's all up to you: which setting do you like? Out of the box or any preset available. It's totaly up to you and all other users. Try and experiment, you will love it.

I haven't used the factory settings since I discovered the presets on this forum. Wouldn't have known how or where to start by myself.

Gert - compared with my XM2, the colours on the A1 were wonderful. But my first shoot was water birds in winter - lots of blues, greys and whites. Only when it came to birds in the garden, with a predominance of greens, yellows and reds, I found the colours a little washed out. VIVIDRGB sorted that one out!

Dear Steve,

Please accept my apologies.

I wasn't trying to be silly, I was just trying to answer your question.

I never shoot without a custom preset (unless I accidently hit the button to turn off the custom preset - one should always double check this before shooting).

When I purchased the XL H1, I tried all of the presets available at that time.

I liked Alister Chapman's preset the best, but I made a slight change to it. I found it to be natural and it appears to work under a very wide set of conditions.

So, I always use Alister Chapman's preset (with my slight modification).

The factory image out of the box is purposefully somewhat flat, to give you a baseline upon which to build your desired look. Think of it as terrain landscaping: one approach to creating an appealing landscape is to start with a flat, level surface. Sure, at first it's boring to look at, but it gives you a solid place to build whatever you want. That's the idea here.

You could build the look in post, but by doing it in-camera you are saving time and compression.

I have been using Steve Dempsy's Vivid preset and love it, I am doing a dance recital this weekend and can not get in the hall until the day of the show to check the lighting. If the lighting is a little dark, is there another preset that would be better?

I have to expand on the presets I use, dark receptions dont do well with that vivid preset.

I saw some footage (if i remember by Chris Hurd) shot in Japan at night in a taxi using no preset and it was fantastic. So i think that the cam is great even using no preset. It depends on the situation.

I use Steven Dempsey's Panalook2, and I like it a much better than his Vividrgb. To me, the colors with Panalook2 look more natural and don't seem oversaturated as they did with Vividrgb. The reds look more resonable as well. I think it produces a great image, and seems to work better in lower lighting. It may be worth experimenting with to see if you like the results.

It was shot by Kaku Ito, not me.

Thanks will give that one a shot.

Saving 20 Presets
 

I have had problems saving 20 Presets, I am going to get both cameras out again tonight but almost sure one of them would not allow me to save over 9 presets. Does anyone know why? I checked some obvious things like firmware versions etc.

I will get them out tonight and go into more detail of the problems I am having just thought someone may have run into this before.

Denny

Dear Denny,

On the XL H1, you can save 6 Custom Presets in the camera's memory, then 20 on the SD memory card.

Then, using another, more advanced technique, you can store an unlimited number of custom presets on the SD memory card.

Ok, thanks, I was thinking I could save all 20 on the cameras memory.

Any advice from you pros on the order you save them. Do you put the ones you use most first, or try and stick to the order thats on here for easy ref.

Also do the first 6 PRESETS on the card need to match the 1-6 Presets you saved on the camera?

Sorry for the probably newbie questions, but going to set up both cameras (XH-A1's) tonight and want to set them up the same and most effecient.

Denny

Dear Denny,

You can load any of the Custom Presets on your SD Card, or multiple SD memory cards, into the six available memory slots on the camera.

While one SD card can have only 20 presets, SD cards are cheap, so you can load 20 more onto another SD card.

(And there are more advanced techniques.)

(Note: The XL H1 has only 6 slots, the XH series may have more.)

So, which preset you load into which slot is up to you.

I keep an Excel spreadsheet of which preset is which.

If and when you choose a custom preset that seems best for you, you could load it into all six slots, just to be certain that you do not accidently switch to another (inappropriate for your conditions) preset.