Broken edges on moving things in video

[Chris Fritsche]

I am shooting a couple of action scences and I am noticing that the edges of shirts and hand, basically anything moving has very broken edges, nothing is crisp. I was shooting under a overcast sky. I had the camera set on "dumb".
I had shot some action footage a few months ago close to similar conditions and it cam out almost HD looking. Any Idea what i am doing wrong?
Why am I getting un-crisp outlines on anyone or anything moving?

[Chris Fritsche]

Ok I posted a pic to help explain

http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?i...enshot27at.jpg

notice the face hands and saber prop. I have test shot this a couple of times, I can't get any of those areas to be clearer or not 'broken"

Any advice, please ignore the "waiting for FedX to come with my real blue screen", tarp.

[Greg Boston]

Viewing interlaced footage on a progessive monitor will yield this effect. It should look ok if you view it on an interlaced monitor. Try viewing the footage from the s-video or composite out, hooked to a standard tv or broadcast monitor. Use the Canon remote to step through frame by frame.

-gb-

[Kyle Ringin]

That is interlace combing - it's perfectly normal when viewing interlaced video on a progressive display (such as a computer monitor). If you view it on a tv you won't be able to see it and it'll look like normal interlaced video.

Plug your camera into your TV and watch it and see if it lives up to your expectations.

The only way to eliminate if required this is to have progressive video - either deinterlaced on the computer or in camera progressive. The motion won't be quite as smooth though.

Try it out - switch your XL2 over to 30p or 24p (if it's NTSC) and shoot some more footage.

Cheers.

[Justine Haupt]

Like Kyle said, I would really try shooting in progressive mode... it's one of the really great things about the XL2 (I never shoot interlaced unless the footage is meant for slo-mo). And because it looks like you're going for a cinematic look anyway, progressive will make a big difference. I bought this camera because it's one of the few cameras that actually seem to be able to pull off a film-look (if used right), and 24 or 30p are a big part of that.

And you mentioned it was in "dumb-mode". Why not try getting into the presets? If you don't feel like spending time (days or weeks) getting them just right, the downloadable presets and preset manager at the top of this forum will at least make the image look much better than when in full-auto mode.