HVR-A1 & Micro35
 

Just thought I'd post a clip I did with this little wonder last week.

http://tcck.hopto.org/tcck/images/micro35/guitar.jpg
Click Here

• Settings and Gear used:
  Micro35 DIY
  HVR-A1 in 60i
  AT822 stereo condenser mic
  FCP
  Filters:
  Gamma .85
  De-saturation -40
  Contrast 10 / Brightness 0
  Magic Bullet LS Bronze
  Too Much Too Soon's Blend Fields
  Exported footage as 24p

Now I just wish my iBook could keep up with it!

enjoy

That was great. Thanks for posting that. I honestly thought that looked incredibly nice. I'm looking forward to getting my camera now. I mirrored that on my server because it took more than a half hour for me to download that from filefront.

Matthew Kent - Guitar

He encoded it with hinted streaming, it should stream nicely right off that link in your browser window. It does for me (using Safari). Thanks again for that movie.

Matthew, really cool footage. Do you think you could post pictures of your A1 with the Micro35 DIY? I would love to see what it looks like.

Cool video Matt. Thanks for the new link Dan, worked a lot better

Thanks guys, I'll have to take some pics of my rig... it's very ghetto :p, but I'm a college student, so i got an excuse.

I'll try to get them up tonight... glad u guys enjoyed the flick.

I am also a college student and very interested in constructing the Micro35 DIY. How much did it cost you to get it done and where did you get all the necessary parts?

Looks great!
 

Matthew, that looks great.

"Steve... You have to see this" is right!

Looks so good, and thanks for spelling out your techincal means-to-an-end - very helpful for future reference.

Looking forward to seeing the flicks of your camera set-up. I think we can almost make it out around 2 minutes in, reflected in the sunglasses (Not really, just kidding).

Im also very interested in how much you spent and how easy is it to obtain the parts. Im new to this board, but I just recently purchased th A1U, and Im in love with it. The video was unreal by the way.

-burk

I think the footage looks fantastic. I'm really impressed with the images from that camera.

Like others, I'd also be interested in more details about the micro-35 setup, specifically what lens system you were using and setup.

Keep up the good work (and posting it).

very, very nice - I wish you hadn't posted that though. Now I'm going to have to find the time to build my own micro-35...

Did you use the videomic for the audio? The guitar came through very nicely considering you were outdoors on a busy street.

His list shows "AT822 stereo condenser mic" which I take is the Audio Technica microphone.

Here's the link:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--AUTAT822

Thanks guys for all the praise. Most of my film friends are pretty astounded by my footage this time as well (and jealous *hehe*). As for pics of my rig, click on the links below. I just got home, and was only able to snap a few before my digital went dead on me.

http://tcck.hopto.org/tcck/images/micro35/M35-A1.1.jpg
http://tcck.hopto.org/tcck/images/micro35/M35-A1.2.jpg

I'll have to get some nice ones of it outside sometime. As for how I built it, where I got the parts, etc... it's all in the $50 guide Redrock sells. It wasn't hard to get the stuff... just took awhile going up and down the isles of Home Depot looking for the right parts... initial cost was probably around $120 (including the guide). I've spent almost a year working on perfecting the 35mm look with my skills and equipment, so I really have no idea how much I've spent completely... if I had to guesstimate, it would probably be around $500 - $600, and the cost keeps going up (ugh). If I could do it all over again, I'd probably just save up and buy Redrock's $950 indie bundle... although what I've learned in the process has been priceless.

The concept of how it works isn't all too different than these instructions, which I used to build my first box. It gave me good results, but nothing like what I've got now. Oh... which brings up something. I was able to get a friend who bought Redrock's indie bundle to sell me his extra ground glasses, so my footage is not a good gauge of Redrock's DIY setup, since the disc they provide in the kit isn't as good. Sorry to get your hopes up guys.

Anyways, now that you've seen my first test with my A1, here's my second. I didn't get the coloration in this one the way I wanted, so I'm re-compiling it on a G5 at school as I type. Hopefully by morning, I'll have a more colorful 1080p version waiting for me.

--Enjoy

What I downloaded and watched had no better than DV resolution and your subject was under-exposured by more than a stop. Likely 2 full stops. And, the sick color didn't help. Or, maybe that was a comment on the "singers" voice.

The camcorder is capable of shooting a far better image than that in AUTO mode. Not clear why folks are saying your "grunge" video looks good. What is the point buying an HD camcorder and then shooting so poorly? Just use your parents VHS camcorder if you want terrible looking video. It takes zero skill to shoot bad video.

Hey Steve, glad we've got a critical eye here. Yes, the sharpness of my footage is not up to par... I actually turned it down based on some recommendations I'd read on the making of Marla the Movie. I'm thinking it doesn't really apply as well to HD. And you're right on with my exposure. It was about 5pm, and getting dark fast. With the correct exposure I had more gain than I wanted, so I lowered it on purpose.

As for shooting bad video, it was only a test, but I'll try to do better next time, and if needed, I do still have my parents old VHS camcorder. Anyways, thanks for the critique.

There's a difference in being critical and being rude. You might want to look into a little thing called "tact". I am new to these boards, and am always clamoring for new footage that people have shot with the A1U. Each time I see a clip, there's something new that really impresses me about the camera. This time, the DOF provided in conjunction with the lens adapter was fantastic.

All of your points are valid, but when the original poster states that he is shooting TEST footage to ascertain the effectiveness of his homebrew lens adapter, you might want to cut him some slack on the underexposure.

I still think the vid looks great Matthew, and thanks for the additional info as well.

-burk