That update is for the C1, not the HD1.

BLIMEY, they dont like the HD1 at all !!!

"That update is for the C1, not the HD1."

There hasn't been a firmware upgrade for the HD1, Bob.

It's something we all hope will happen.

I posted the link to illustrate that Sanyo, if indeed conservative about firmware upgrades, have at least done it for an earlier Xacti model.

Yes, it does leave a lot to be desired in terms of explaining what they mean, and those long HD review videos. Well, it's not like it's a review site like camcorderinfo, but that's another story. At least it is not like a review site where they act like erratic monkeys smacked out on Jiff Rock (i.e. "Monkeys on Jiff Rock", because the monkeys are so dumb they think the light coloured jiff rock powder is something else illicit, and upon using it they are going crazy with pain and delusion).

If Sanyo wants to counteract the negative reviews, they need to upgrade the Firmware, and in light of H264 camera marketing, upgrade features and performance, and change the model number.

Yeah, if Akihabara News downloaded Carlos Serrano's 124 shots from the Sanyo HD1 they might see the camera in a different light.

Footage from France
 

Hi,

I am coming back from holiday and finally, I had the opportunity to test my HD1.

First impression: I didn't find enough motivation to shoot stabilized by mean of a tripod. Most of the time, I shooted holding the cam in one hand. It's a pity due to the shaking aspects I have to deal with.

Result: 70' footage, a lot (300) of pictures which are looking pretty sharp and are giving full satisfaction.
On the other hand, I have the feeling that I definitely never come close to Carlos footage quality.

Up to now, I did only monitor the clips directly from the HD1 connected to a 50" Pioneer plasma. Results are satisfactory although too much rushes are shaking.
On the other hand, I don't find the footage really sharp on my DELL 20"

Just to give you an idea, here are 2 of them:

http://files.filefront.com/SANY0080M.../fileinfo.html
http://files.filefront.com/SANY0360M.../fileinfo.html

Most of the time, the settings were approximately as described earlier in this forum.

Thanks for your comments.

Erick

I've been collection some raw HD1 footage for the last few months and have been trying to use it to make a decent movie but I quickly found out iMovie just doesn't work if you want some originality and are thinking out side the limited themes. I have since taken the plunge and gotten Fincal Cut.. omg! it can actually do what I have in my head! Here's the results of my very first Final Cut edit from footage taken on my last trip to NYC and SFO (where the whole trip felt like I was in either a plane or an airport)... http://static.talentlessclown.com/RaceAroundUSA2006.mov I'm not 100% happy with the edit (there are some bits that need cleaning up as they feel out of place, like the surfing shot and the neon sign) but I promised myself I would stop editing for the night and get some sleep :) And I now know I can just reopen the project and fix it without any pain! did I say I love Final Cut? :)

Scott,

WOW, very cool, though Im not sure if its a testament to your HD1, final cut pro, or plainly your energy putting the stuff together. (smile)

But its nice. and I don't find the sufer out of place.. the neon maybe but not the sufer.. :-)

Thank you for the link..!


Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

Scott,

I have Quick Time updated but can't read your file. What kind of software do I need?

Scott, that was great. A real advertisement for the camera, I announce thee, Sanyo HD1, the minimum, acceptable, quality for HD.

The surfer and neon, go excellently with what you are trying to do, they provide a good contrast of the trip, that is a bit arty but nice looking at the same time. The inside from the arched windows is less appealing, but I don't really have too much against that either. It is more like something to contrast the music, which is excellent, which means your clip is almost as good.

Good on you.

Wow. Awesome video Scott! FCP is a great piece of software.

I really like the multiple videos going on at once. Is that a FCP exclusive feature or can other software do that?

Since I am running Windows XP, I wonder if Avid or Premiere or (?) has a similar feature. I would love to try it out!

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Erick: quicktime 7 or latest VLC will play the file (it's a H.264/AAC mov)

Carlos: Most post production software will allow for multiple video streams at once, so it's not a Final Cut exclusive :)

I've also just edited together some more HD1 footage from a trip to Italy (I sound all jetsety and travelled, but it's not true :)). We went up a cable car from Courmayeur to see Mont Blanc, and we sort of weren't ready for just how light headed we would get up there :) http://static.talentlessclown.com/FirstToFly.mov

Scott -- What version of FCP are you using? Are you importing the HD1 footage directly into the program? When I have gone to the Apple Store with my HD1 footage, I could not get the FCP on display to recognize the MP4 files. The store does not yet have the new universal version installed (! This is the store in Palo Alto that Steve Jobs visits regularly !) so I have been using iMovie and biding my time. How long does rendering into H.264 take? My attempts in Quicktime Pro have taken something like 20 times the running time of the footage (rendering in 1280 X 720), whereas rendering into Apple Intermediate HD takes about 2X.

I got Final Cut Express HD 3.5 (the universal version) running on my iMac. I simply drag the mp4 files directly into the project (or use import>files) and it reads them perfectly. Rendering and exporting to H.264 isn't real time but I haven't timed it to know what factor it runs at. I do all my basic editing using the real time approximations to check how I'm going and occasionally render short bits near transitions to get an idea if it's going to work and then let it render while I'm doing something else to check the entire edit. As a rule I let it export to H.264 overnight while I sleep :) It doesn't take all night but it does get me to stop editing and actually sleep, if it was instant I think I'd just tinker all night, never call a project "done" and get myself a sleeping disorder :)

Thai Kickboxing - handheld iso 200
 

I can't believe Im doing this.. But here it is.. Sunday morning 2am I was at a kickboxing fight in North Hollywood, when these two guys on in the ring the crowd did go positively wild... So I pulled out the HD1 just in time... 13 seconds later it was game over.

Check it out at www.bophoto.com/HDV/video - WARNING - this is almost 90megs..!

Shot handheld, iso200 anti shake turned on. color balance using the warmbalance cards "minus green" for flourecent light. a little magenta but much better than what it looked like with the cameras standard setting.

In retrospect I think it could have shot at iso100 and hold a bit more highlights.. But it still capture the feel very well of the action.

Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

Sanyo says lense mechanism problem
 

Just called Sanyo and they gave me addres to have fixed. they said that all the orginal batch of hd1 has the bad lense mech. They have replaced the problem lenses with the new ones they are sending out.

Even though some still may consider this camera as a "toy" , actually people forget that it is progressive camera. And try as you might progressive motion is darn good!

Anhar

Virtual Dub
 

Carlos,

You mentioned a few post back about editing your files in Virtual Dub after converting them with MP4aAVIEdit. When I try this I get an error in VD that is saying "Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'MP4V' (unknown)".

Do you know where I can download this codec... google wasn't much help.

Right now I am converting them to Huffy through the program... but that takes forever and generates HUGE files on the longer clips.

And to keep with the threads topic here are two videos of my 1 week old daughter. Videos were converted with MP4aAVIEdit, 2:1 high quality scaling reduction, saved out as Huffy, then converted to Flash 8 video at 700kbs.

Kiara in her rocker (camera is placed at her feet)
http://www.evilfree.com/andrea/blog/video/rocker.html

Playing with our baby
http://www.evilfree.com/andrea/blog/video/tickels.html
(this would look much better if the camera wasn't moving so much)

I know that I can get some beautiful flash video once I get a chance to go through some of my other shots. The 2:1 reduction really cleans up everything and gets rid of the noise, and you are still left with 640x360 progressive image... very high for web video.


Also people have mentioned editing their videos with Vegas. Does Vegas accept the mp4 file natively or must they first be converted into another format. Does any PC editing software natively support the mp4 files?

Thanks so much!
Adam Schroeder

Adam,

I think you only need the DivX codec, but to ensure compatibility, try to install a codec pack, like K-lite. Search for "codec pack" in google.

You can edit the original clips with Vegas, but i don´t know if the software uses its own codecs or uses the installed codecs in Windows. Codec Pack again:-)

Thanks for your clips.

Enjoy!

Sample - Macro of Baby Grasshoppers
 

I had the HD1 for less than a week when I took this video. Thanks to all, your samples convinced me to buy this camera and I LOVE IT. Glad I found this site, as the reviews made it sound as thought I'd be watching grainy out of focus video...boy are they WRONG!!!!

http://files.filefront.com/Grasshopp.../fileinfo.html

WOW. very nice, you had to be patient to get that close to the grasshopper..!

Yeah, I totally agree with you, some of the reviews made the camera sound pretty terrible. As it is... the results I have seen have been much better than suggested by the reviews.!


Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

Samples, macro
 

Thanks - hardest part is getting focus.
Just got back from San Juan...got some good Lizard shots.

Will combine to make nice movie..but here are just a few sample shots to see the incredible detail...


http://files.filefront.com/Grasshopp.../fileinfo.html

Gary,

I think to me the most impressive part when talking about resolution, is in the very first part of the second sample you uploaded, behind the grasshopper there is a piece of spider web... its sooo thin and still rendered beautifully...

It looks like you are using the anti-shake on some of the shots..?

Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

Yes I used anti-shake...all but the grasshopper were handheld. I know from reading previous posts that best results are from anti-shake off. Sometimes I forget....

Anti shake is not always so bad.
 

Yeah technically speaking it is better with the anti shake off. but I have found it to be very helpful, when I hold the camera with two hands, I support the monitor with the left hand to keep it level and do by tilting by the elbow joints and panning by turning my body, this give me a very steady platform and adding the anti shake to this really do eliminate the small vibrations for a very steady final image. the boxing on my site were shot that way.


Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

You just need a MPEG-4 video decoder, so you can install Divx (but i don't like the crap they install), or try to install Xvid and configure the decoder to decode "mp4v" files.
If you have ffdshow installed, it can do it too.

Greetings
 

I just wanted to say hello to all and thanks for the info on this camera. I work at a public access television station and have been waiting for a camera of this resolution and price to come along. I have shot on panasonic dvx-100's and Canon xl-1s. I imported the footage Carlos had available, 37 shots avi, into Vegas, exported it as an mpeg 2 and burned it to dvd. I never got this quality resloution for a regular tv signal from either of the above mentioned cameras. The progressive scan is true as well. Beautiful motion and detail. My only question is, did Carlos really use a Sanyo hd-1? Just kidding. All of the footage posted looks great! I am planning on buying at least 2 of these cameras. I do multi cam shoots alot and for the price, this camera is awesome! Thanks also to Bo for the links for mp4toavi and the player link as well. The reason I think this camera got a bad review by many is that there was no extensive effort to handle the mpeg4 files this camera captures correctly by the reviewers. Thanks again,
Arlan

oh yeah
 

It would be cool if there was a dedicated Sanyo hd-1 user group site. I know its work and I don't want to belittle DVi, but none the less, it would be cool.

Firewoorks
 

Brought the camera out last night for the 4th of July firewooks show across the street and learned that the build in microphone is NOT able to handle the pop's

http://eyespot.com/blogs/Bo

Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

I started a thread where people can record their serial numbers, and problems that seem to be fixed on their cameras. To track manufacture fixes Sanyo might implement over time.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...913#post507913

Remembering July 7th bombings in London
 

I've posted some footage up of London during the 2min silence for those who lost there lives in the July 7th bombings last year. I used a 5cm tripod between my legs so its not great but worth checking out if your interested in the quality of the camera on a cloudy day.

http://www.archive.org/details/LondonJuly7th2006 - no signup needed or nagscreens.

I highly suggest people use Archive.org for storage HD footage, because it costs nothing and will be there for ever.

Thanks for the tip, do they allow you to change or remove footage if you want to?

I'm not sure, actually.

HD1 640*480 60fps
 

hi,

in HD1 640*480 60fps is 60 progressive frames or 30 interlaced ?

anybody please send one short ( 2-3 sec movement theme ) HD1
640*480 60fps uncompressed mp4 video...

thx !

Robert

HD1 640*480 60fps is 60 progressive frames

HD1 640*480 60fps
 

and the recorded video same the DV quality ?

dv is 720*480 (ntsc), 720*576 (pal), compress rate 1/5.

ok the size smaller , but my question is the "real look" quality

Some samples
 

Here are some samples I did with my HD1:

Moscow, 07.30.2006, Gorky park, cloudy:
Attraction 1 - 12Mb, 16:09
Attraction 2 - 13Mb, 17:37
Attraction 3 - 5Mb, 17:40
Locomotive - 12Mb, 19:00
Ship - 11Mb, 19:07
Trampoline - 14Mb, 19:17

Frame Grab Sample
 

Hi,

A framegrab from a short film of a tropical butterfly taken at the "Plantasia" in Swansea S.Wales.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0cln9i

A couple of things to note here :-

1. HD video is now of sufficient resolution to pull a decent still picture from. Thereby allowing you to video a scene and then pick the best stills a la multi shot / bracket shooting facilities on still cameras . Very useful if the subject is moving around(!)

2. There has been some of negative press about the form factor of this camera. However for someone with weak fingers/hands/arms - eg from Arthritis, the weight combined with the angled pistol grip holding position is ideal.

Rgds.