FX1 Question regarding fast action indoors

[David Atek]

I was wondering what results FX1 users were getting shooting indoors under gymnasium style lighting with fast action?
My plan would be to use the camera for videoing dog agility, which from what I have seen so far, is like shooting in a high school gymnasium. So something similar might be videoing indoor basketball? Is anyone seeing any blurring issues?
So far in the contests they will not allow additional lighting.

[John Kang]

I've shot footage of the Harlem Globetrotters when they were here in Washington.

I think the shots are pretty nice on my FX-1. The clarity under dome lighting worked for me.

I used a fluid head tripod to do my pans and did not do really fast panning but the movements of the players and following the basketball seemed to work out pretty well.

I've also shot some footage of a professional D1 drifter from Japan. He was skidding around the curbs at the Pacific Raceways, here in Kent, Washington and I loved it! However, close ups and or none zooming still seemed to be slow motion to me. Is this a feeling anyone else gets from following motion on video?

[Terence Murphy]

Amazing -- practically the first two posts ever to mention dog agility, and they both appear within a day of each other. I've started a thread on this same subject on the Open DV Discussion forum, primarily as a PD170 vs. FX1 comparison (the main two cameras currently on my list for filming agility). You may want to check it out. Is there a way to merge two threads?

John -- do you happen to remember what your exposure settings were for filming the Globetrotters? And were you filming in HD or SD? How was the color reproduction in your footage? I've figured the clarity with the FX1 would always be better than the PD170, but I worry about everything being a little dull when filming indoors. The lighting issues at these events always make for lots of subtle shadows, and many dogs are dark solid colors which looks bad if the camera doesn't pull out subtle color details.

I'd love a way to make things look faster as well. Everyone always comments how much slower things look on tape than they feel when they're happening. In some respects, a little blurring from a slow shutter speed may be a good thing to create the sense of fast movement. I imagine the large depth of field of a small chip camera doesn't help either.

David -- if you haven't filmed any agility at all and are just shopping for a first camera, I would recommend shooting some footage with a friend's camera (any camera) to be aware of what the issues are. Using a good tripod is key, since you can watch dark video but shaky video can be nauseating (I use a Manfrotto 701RC2 head, but wish I had spent more for a 501 or 503 to get better control over the amount of drag when panning). The slow shutter speed that any 1/6th inch chip camera has to resort to (including my GS250) will cause the equipment to blur as you pan, but if you can track the dog/handler smoothly it still looks ok. The main goal is to capture the action on tape, getting the look of agony on the handler's face when the dog knocks a bar is strictly secondary....

-Terence

[David Saraceno]

I shot four college basketball games with a fluid head.

Client loved them

[David Atek]

Thanks for the input everyone,
Terrance - You are correct that I have not yet filmed anything yet and I am looking at getting a good video camera. I consider myself fairly good with my still camera and wanted to expand my options by going to video. I'll check out the other post
thanks again

[Leigh Wanstead]

I have just shot around ten minutes test footage with my SmoothArm in my dealer's office. I just walked around their office. The footage looks really nice which also demonstrate the depth of the subject. I have turned off the in camera stabilizer and shot 1080i. The camera weighs around 3kg with accesssory. The footage was later projected on screen. It looks fantastic. Better than my panasonic nv-gs400 camera. Great camera ;-)

Regards
Leigh