Every time I am at the coast and want to shoot a nice wave video, the wind ruins the sound completely.Since we have no way of connecting an external micro, I have to find a solution to keep the sound but kill the wind noise.On my first blog post here I showed you a little furry thing to stick on top of a camera what eliminates the wind. It looks like a baby hedgehog on top of the camera and is quite expensive. I remembered that in the olden days before people running around with microphones who looked like an animal on a stick there were foam balls on top of the micro to keep the wind out. So I took a bit of foam and held it in place with a crossed rubber band to do a test.
The result was astonishing. There was silence where the awful wind noise was before, so with this little piece of foam and a rubber band I killed the wind noise. All other sounds came in clear through the foam. It cost nothing and had a tremendous impact on the quality of the video. My Canon S2 already had an electronic wind filter (same as SX10 and SX1) but this was just for a very slight breeze. Anything like I encountered on the coast here the Canon is not able to eliminate even partial.
The next days I will find out how thick the foam actually has to be to be effective and how to make it look a bit more eye pleasing. I will keep you posted.
Update 2009.09.05 To make it look nicer until I find some black foam, I shaped the foam down to fit the camera and made it slimmer. With the help of a blue marker (no black was at home) the yellow foam got a more pleasing looking color. Now I need to find black rubber bands. The wind test with the fan showed some slight wind noise at setting 3. I will cut a couple different ones and then do the test at the next high wind on the coast.
Just came home from the beach and there was little wind but it picket up a bit once a while. So this is definitely a bit too small to to a perfect job.
So your puny computer has problems playing the clips from your camera. Welcome to the club.
On my search for an affordable solution to play full HD files on the big screen I found an interesting gadget. After learning the hard way that a media player with or without hard disk and a HDMI port does not necessary also plays HD videos I needed to do some research on that topic. In my case the media player enclosure did not even wanted to touch SVGA (800x600) or anything with a higher resolution. No way to ask for a down sampling or so. Just DVD resolution is the most these units want to play.
We have a Media Markt here on our island and I got very confused there a couple days ago trying to understand what is the difference between a just player with a HDMI port and a player with also an HDMI port and a 500 GB hard disk and why the are costing exactly the same, why some have an antenna and others a connection to the ethernet and there are prices from 70 to way over 200 Euros - well you get the idea. After my homework I decided for the WD TV because the Asus is to new to be here already and the popcorn hour is to exotic to be here. The Xtreamer would be 119 Euro and had to be ordered via mail. Lucky for me the Media Markt had 3 WD TV just sitting and waiting for me and for 95 Euro I snatched one, another one found a new home just a few minutes later.
Remember my confusion about these things a couple days ago? I had nearly purchased a 500 GB or 1 TB SO Speaky HDMI (what a goofy name) from DANE ELEC for 119 or 149 Euros. Well today when I snatched my WD TV the 1 TB had a new price. 99 Euro - the 500 GB was still at 119 Euro. For that money I got myself another 1 TB storage with a free basic media player. Funny thing, I tried to find the codecs or resolution on the box. Nada not even on the small handbook anything. On the drive is a handbook folder and there it states:
Hard disk fling system: FAT32 Media fles supported: 1. Subtitle: SRT, SSA, SMI 2. Audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, DTS 3. Video : MPEG1/2/MPEG4.XVID.DIVX.VCD.DVD(*.mpg;*.mpeg;*.dat;*.avi;*.vob;*.ifo) 4. Picture: JPEG, MJPEG Memory cards supported: CF.SD.MS. MMC.XD in FAT32 or FAT16. SDHC cards are not supported. Output mode: Composite video, HDMI audio channels, Progressive scan video component. USB port: High Speed USB 2.0 Audio Output: Analogue stereo Video output: CVBS.HDMI .YPbPr Picture resolution: 720*480(NTSC, YPbPr, HDMI)/720*576(PAL, YPbPr, HDMI) Power consumption: 30W (Max)
So you see you have to dig deep to find out what these things are capable of. I tried to find out if anybody tested one of the full HD hybrid cameras on the WD TV, but no luck. So here for your information the WD TV HD will try to play the original video footage from the SONY HX1, the Canon SX1, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Panasonic GH1 in full HD resolution (video camera full HD in the case of the SONY). I took the clips you see at: Movie Time - the 1080p competition HX1 vs SX1 vs GH1 vs 5DII and play them one after another in full HD resolution. The video quality on this You Tube clip is not good, but it is just to see how well or not they are playing on the WD TV. You will find more general info about the cameras and video clips here at the Camera Labs website. Also you can download the short clips for yourself on vimeo and compare for yourself.
Result: The WD TV plays all 4 clips without stutter, it has just a problem with the uncompressed audio format what Canon still thinks it has to use in their videos.
Here the info if you want to compare the codecs from the cameras.
SONY HX1 Format : MPEG-4 at 12.3 Mbps Length : 67 MiB for 45s 545ms Video #0 : AVC at 12.2 Mbps Aspect : 1440 x 1080 (1.778) at 29.970 fps Audio #0 : AAC at 128 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz
Canon SX1 Format : MPEG-4 at 43.0 Mbps Length : 194 MiB for 37s 866ms Video #0 : AVC at 41.6 Mbps Aspect : 1920 x 1088 (1.778) at 30.000 fps Audio #0 : PCM at 1 411.2 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 44.1 KHz
Canon EOS 5D Mark II Format : MPEG-4 at 40.5 Mbps Length : 139 MiB for 28s 700ms Video #0 : AVC at 39.1 Mbps Aspect : 1920 x 1088 (1.778) at 30.000 fps Audio #0 : PCM at 1 411.2 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 44.1 KHz
Panasonic GH1 Format : MPEG-4 at 32.1 Mbps Length : 145 MiB for 37s 888ms Video #0 : AVC at 32.0 Mbps Aspect : 1920 x 1080 (1.778) at 25.000 fps Audio #0 : AAC at 157 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz
My first post in this blog was about the mirror what would provide the HX1 with the same flexibility as Canon has with their variangle swivel screen. 4 days later I ordered the mirror from Hong Kong via ebay. Less than a week to reach Spain and a few days more to reach our little island next to the Sahara.
The envelope is well padded
and easy to open for customs to check what is in
the box arrived undamaged
with simple pictogram instructions on the back
the mirror was surrounded by a sturdy packing material
and this is the new best friend of my HX1 extended
looking good, so far
3M VHB sticky tape is used, so no cost cutting here
can you see me now?
mirror? what mirror - I am the screen protector!
OK - OK it says Super Magic Mirror on the back so what?
testing if the mirror interferes with the flip screen function nope - works like a charm.
behold the first self portrait there is an oldtimer from 1956 hidden in this foto
this setup would work so much better on cameras without a viewfinder/flash hump
So we need to stick the mirror upside down on the display. Luckily the 3M sticky tape sticks on a flexible plastic frame, what can easily flex and disengages from the display without problem.
So, now upside down and it works well, no constriction in movement.
Hah - take that hump
this is how the setup above looks.
Finally, you do not rely on external mirrors for creative photography So, how does it work out? As a sunscreen works perfect - display is better to see. As a screen protector - feels sturdy enough. As a variangle substitute - well we are pretty close here.
Would the 3" mirror would work with my 2.7" screen on the Ricoh R6 also? Since the next smaller size is 2.5" I would loose too much with that one.
works like a charm too
again the angle of the mirror for the shot above
It stays a bit over the frame but not over the camera hight and and it really did not want to come off from the Ricoh metal case. So on a metal surface it sticks much more thorough than on a plastic screen. Here are the exact dimensions:outside: 6,7 cm 2.63" wide, 5,2 cm 2.04" high inside: 5,9 cm 2.32" wide, 4,4 cm 1.73" high thickness: 6 mm
Hellooooo Candy Shower 21 Lam Hing Street Kowloon Hong Kong - I like to order another one for US $11.46 please! So if you have a Panasonic FZ28 / FZ28 the Kodak Z980, Nikon P90, Olympus SP-590, Pentax X70 or any other camera and you want more freedom in composing your pictures or want to be more creative, you should give this gadget a try.
hidden street shooting
Update 2009.09.12 Two days ago I got my second mirror from Hong Kong and it works well with my Ricoh R6
Today I wanted to test if I carry the HX1 in an unthreatening way how street shooting would turn out. Since I was near a beach and on the street were no people I went to the beach. Here I have to warn the people form the puritan and religious countries. We here in southern Europe have no problem with breasts and nipples. For a European female it is normal to be topless on the beach or parks for sunbathing. For our very little ones it is normal not to wear anything. And most people do not have a problem with that. If somebody glances at a topless woman or a naked kid, they are not perverts and peeping tom´s nor pedophiles. They take a glance and that´s it. So if you are offended by a breast, please skip this post. This is the way I carried the camera, you see the index finger tip is not on the trigger. The shutter button is sensitive enough to function this way also. The arm was hanging loose and was slightly swinging in the normal way you go if you carry something light but delicate. The only thing I did was swivel the hand in the direction I wanted to shoot. A couple fotos below are even shot with the camera pointing backwards after I passed the subject I wanted to capture.
The shots are all in an angle and in portrait orientation. Some have been straightened out and cropped some are just resized. The fun part is, all were taken just walking by and maybe twisting the arm a bit to point the HX1 in the direction where I thought was something interesting. I saw at home so many things in the snapshots what I absolutely missed on the beach.Remember they are shot with out proper prefocusing and while in movement. So they are not at their best quality wise. Do not judge how blurry they are, judge how good they are shot under these circumstances.
just girls walking by
Family portrait ... just enjoying herself
look for the peson behind the guy and where her hand is ...
NOW I AM A BELIEVER ahem ....
Hello World!
damn, that key safety box does not taste like orange ice at all look ma, I will be a surfer when I am big
Update 2009.08.25 3 low light and slightly blurred fotos
waiting for Godot . . .
street racer
note to self, in low light situations move ISO from 125 to auto . . . but it is interesting how certain parts are sharp and others much more blurred.
This will be a post about how people customize their HX1. It will be updated every time I find something new.
Let´s start with Captain EO Aero The HX1 with a Raynox DCR-2020PRO, a 2.2X telextender. You find his pictures and mods on flicker and Stephen explains a bit about it and shows an example of a 7 mile away house he shot in good clarity here.
I am playing with cameras since I was a teenager. My first real camera after the Kodak Instamatic with the ultra modern flash cubes was the RICOH TLS 401. Why a RICOH?
She was the only cheap SLR camera who had 2 viewfinders. One as usual and one on top. You see now where my fable for cameras with more viewfinder / display felxibility comes from. With the RICOH I went through all the fun the people today have who buy a DSLR. First the camera, then you add some more lenses for flexibility, you need a flash (hello Olympus E-P1), there is need for a tripod and definitely some filters, lens hood, remote (was a rubber squeeze ball with a hose to remotely trigger the shutter. I had my first girlfriend and - well you can guess) . Put this all in a nice bag - nah the tripod is too big you need to carry it extra, and you have yourself a semi professional setup. Somebody just forgot to tell you about the fun and convenience to schlepp it around with you permanently - you don´t want to miss that shot, don´t you?
This is where today a sturdy, always carry with you around (even in your shirt pocket if you want), camera comes in handy. Like my RICOH R6 but this is another story.
Before I end my trip down memory lane and bore you to tears let me quick show you one of my early works. A cheap bastard I already was as a teenager and a fan of the big picture also. So instead of making pictures, I was making slides and discovered the easy way of foto manipulation by just putting 2 slides together in one frame to create something rather unique. Please remember that was many years before the IBM PC was born and the normal picture manipulation was done in a darkroom or via (air) brush.
After my experience with the camera equipment and the unwillingness to always carry it around, I was happy when the superzooms came into play. The usual 3x zoom was a bit limited and so was the creativity what you could do with it.
In this post, what will be updated on a regular base, I will show you some things I discover with the HX1 that I find amazing.
Let´s start with this evening and a nearly missed sunset. Thanks to the Twilight Mode shooting something like that in a near perfect quality is now possible.
I was wondering if the panorama mode would work under these low light conditions. Here is the cropped, resized and re compressed result. It was shot with ISO 800 and 1/30 sec. We are talking of a camera movement in a 180 degree circle with all the shake, rattle and roll you get when you do this in a spur of the moment where in time you got the tripod ready the colors were gone. Did it come out perfect?
No, there were some stitching errors. Is that bad? No, I just cut out what I wanted and if it was important to me I could have easily fixed the the crocked phone line. To have a camera who delivers these low light shots is simply amazing.
Isn´t the ISO 800 noise really bad in a moved around blurred picture? Not for me when I consider under what circumstances this shot was taken, no Sir, not bad at all. For your critical eye here a lossless crop of the original, unchanged in any way. Update 2009.8.20 It is extremely hard to catch a permanent fast moving flying bug (sorry have no idea how it is named) in macro mode. So, the bug moves, the camera moves the distance to the bug moves - you get the idea. So you need a camera who is very quick in focus and shooting. And lots of pictures to get at least a few clear ones. 100% lossless crop.
The 20x zoom combined with the forced flash to get the detail what is lurking in the bushes.
From a small island west of the Sahara I bid you a warm welcome to my global neighborhood. Relax, have a drink and let me tell you a bit about the Sony HX1.
If a post is updated it will move to the top and the GMT time stamp is updated click on the end of the post on Read more »
usable low light HD video with good noise reduction
good video compression and easy to work with codec
best low light performance thanks to hand held twilight mode
best handling in changing aperture, speed, ISO and exposure compensation via clickable thumb wheel
good inteligend auto and dummy mode
good for party pictures using anti motion blur mode
1st panorama hybrid, very easy and lots of fun
the 3" flip screen (would like a swivel better but only Canon makes them in super zooms) but 3" for 4:3 and 2.7" for 16:9 compared to 2.8" for 16:9 and 2.2" for 4:3 with the SX1
supplied proprietary long lasting battery with charger and a to the minute power left meter
lots of creative settings
automatic focus from 5 mm to infinity (and beyond). No more pushing the macro and super macro button.
hot swap memory cards (no need to power down)
very strong flash throttles good down at macro exposure
the bad:
the viewfinder is as small as from the Panasonic FZ28 / FZ38
pictures sometimes too soft (not sharp)
no full HD (but compare the resolution to the SX1 there is little difference)
design (I find the SX1 design more pleasing)
button layout, crammed playback button, useless C button. They should call it an M for my button and allow to put a movie mode or what you would like on it instead of just 3 choices...
proprietary battery (supplied)
zoom and shutter noise when filming in very quiet environment (very sensitive stereo micros)
no wind filter, sound cuts out if it is too windy.
A bit crammed thumb rest area (easy to solve, just pull the display away from the camera and your thumb has a big area to roam around)
hard plastic viewfinder
slow response menu system, you need to turn the mode wheel slowly to see the screen respond. (just look directly at the position off the wheel for instant info)
and the ugly:
the very expensive Sony memory stick ( it´s betamax etc. all over again) That was the deal breaker for me since it came out and prevented me from buying the H1 so I got instead the S2 with SD card and AA rechargables. I swore to myself: no camera with memory stick or XD card ever but in the end the Sony had too many good points, like getting 169 minutes of 720p or 86 min of 1080p in high quality video on a 8 GB memory stick.
need dongle (supplied) for HDMI, need special cable for usb and video (supplied). What is the reason to spend extra money in developing a non standard plug and then providing an special made cable and a special made dongle for HDMI? It costs much more than having standard plugs and cables. (upgraded to ugly after working with it)
this is a work in progress, I will add new points as I discover them.
To sum it up simple, the Kodak Z980, Nikon P90, Olympus SP-590 and Pentax X70 are pretty much the same cameras, same sensor, same lens - yes, yes the Oly has 2x more, go figure. But these cameras are no competition. See below for a side by side review.
The SX1 is more like the PS3 all serious and more professional with the settings, operation and design, while the HX1 is more like the WII even if the specs and some quality is a bit lower sometimes, it is much more fun to play with - and that is not only my opinion. Watch the clip and you get an idea what I mean.
Here is my blog about the Canon SX10. The only difference to the SX1 is the video mode, shooting speed the viewfinder and display. The later 2 I have covered in my SX10 blog to exhaustion and you will see why the viewfinder issue was the deal breaker for me. The video modes are compared here and I will go into further detail here about the 10 vs the 4 fps mode.
colected tips and tricks
Alan Arthur Katz the white paper A photo course for the beginner of the H series
This info is collected from clie and originates here. 1. use EV -0.3 to get better detail and colours due to over-exposure under default factory setting 2. For sharpest images, set image size to 5M (4:3) or 6M (16:9)
3. Set NR to -1 for sharper images due to Sony's aggresive noise algorithms. Then cleanup using some noise reduction software like Neat-Image
4. Set Sharpness to +1 as default.
5. Half depress shutter all the time to lock the focus before you fully press the trigger
6. Use "anti-motion blur" mode for night shots instead of "hand held twilight". Better results
7. Turn DRO to off unless you really want to use it. reduces geometric distortion when using full telephoto. I think it increases sharpness also (?)
8. Turn on Smart Zoom when you use the 5-MP mode, as this reduces the number of encoding processes from two to one. You also get an original encoding of 5 bits-per-pixel and without Smart Zoom, the first process uses just 4 bits.
9. Use the 720p mode for HD video, as I found that it looks sharper than the 1080p video.
10. For night photos using handheld twilight, adjust EV by -0.7 to -2.0 to get better details. See Jerry's excellent comparison link here http://forums.dpreview.com/...forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=32187076
11. "Antimotion Blur” exposes exactly, "Handheld Twilight" must be corrected about -1.0 EV. Can be used in day time see comparison link http://forums.dpreview.com/...forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=32253896
12. White paper with lots of tips on the H series http://www.aakatz.com/whitepaper/whitepaper/index.htm
13. Avoid zoom extremes - more distortion at extreme ends. If you have to use it, set max zoom then pull back slightly (refer 12. above)
Peoples opinion SX1 vs HX1
collected from all over the net.
Stephen McDonald wrote: One of the main attractions of the HX1 for me, is its ability to shoot good photos and videos in low light. The Canon SX1 does poorly with limited light and produces noisy videos indoors. I'm largely nocturnal in my habits or crepuscular at times (I'm on Raccoon Time) and this is essential to me.
It also has more controls and active features with its video, than HD-shooting D-SLR cameras have, in general. With the exception of those rare photos that have flawless focus and exposure, you won't want to view HX1 photos at full-size or larger. But, if you show them at about 1600 X 1200 or smaller, they can look very good.
The small, supplied battery has a long running time and I never ran short of power, with just the one. I do have an external battery pack, with a plug-in wire to the DC power jack. This consists of a large Sony Lithium camcorder battery of the same voltage, hooked to a cord with the same fixture on the end as the AC power supply. Never use something like this, unless you're absolutely certain the polarity of the connections is correct, as well as the voltage.
The lack of any supplied facility for attaching filters and hoods, is a big minus for the HX1. There are alternatives to work around this and an after-market lens adaptor tube for it, is rumored to be coming soon. Search my messages and read about ways I've solved this problem for myself.
The power of the lens and the good Smart Zoom extension of this in 5-MP and 3-MP photo modes (the 2-MP SMZ mode is awful in image quality), gives you much more reach than anyone with a D-SLR can get. Unless they use a $25,000. 1000mm lens, that's as big as a turkey and weighs at least 10 times as much as the camera.
Have my arguments for the HX1 convinced me personally? Yes, as soon as this holiday suspension of delivery has passed, I plan to take on my HX1 #2, after sending #1 back and then having a rather unfulfilling fling with the Canon SX1. That model is a camera that won over most of its proponents, before they or anyone else outside the high-walled Canon castle, had actually put their hands on one. Like a mail-order bride, it is loaded with surprises and disappointments. After probing each one for 12 days, I've decided I can have a happy time with the HX1, but the SX1 and I had unreconcilable differences.
The SX1 has a 5.7 F-stop lens, that is slower than the numbers would indicate. The HX1 has a 5.2 lens, that seems faster than it should be. The difference is in fact, substantial , especially for video and low light shooting. Check out my Beaver and Raccoon videos on my Vimeo album (click on the View Signature button), that were shot with an HX1 a few minutes before sunset, in a shaded area.
From my own HX1 and SX1 photos and also thousands of those online, taken by other people, I regard the SX1 as just a bit sharper in its photos, but only when conditions and camera settings are ideal. I got more keeper shots from the HX1, as it is more responsive and predictable, when you make changes in its settings.
The control wheel of the SX1 is sluggish and often jumps two or three clicks, when it finally responds. Its lens is much slower than that of the HX1, so its autofocus doesn't work as well, especially at full zoom and in low light.
However, the image stabilizer of the SX1 is better and smoother. The small viewfinder of the HX1 is sharper and the SX1 VF is surprisingly limited in resolution, for a camera of this type. Since the HX1 is easier and more pleasant to use, has a better batting-average and also has the anti-blur and twilight composite-photo modes, I give the edge to it, in a photo comparison, over the SX1. This is despite the SX1 being able to occasionally produce a picture that is somewhat sharper and holds up better when examined at full-size.
T. L. Rutter writes:
used the DSLR for some shots, but switched to HX1 the rest of the time because of the zoom, video, and panos.
There were some shots that were next to impossible to step back to get the whole shot so I took them in pano mode and got the complete tree. I took other pano modes to show the "whole scene" to give others a true shot of what I was looking at rather than just regular pictures.
The IQ varied, but most turned out better than expected. Because I am able to zoom in 40x I didn't have to crop.
The video mode was out of this world, too. I took video of nature, some song birds, and deer. I'll be able to pull all of this together for a nice video I can play back on my HDTV.
I also went to a bbq place that had eye candy all over the place. Usually business owner's get weird if someone starts taking a picture of their decor but with the HX1 and twilight mode I was able to snap what I wanted with the owner standing nearby not knowing what I was doing. No flash and the pictures turned out really nice and was in focus and sharp.
I started out on the trip thinking the a300 would be my main camera but it turned out the opposite. If I were to go to the Grand Canyon, that may be a different story! Tobi´s facebook
Want to compare the SONY HX1 with the Kodak EasyShare Z980, Nikon Coolpix P90, Olympus SP-590 Ultra Zoom, or the Pentax X70? Jeff Keller can help you with the others ...
About the main picture: Nearly 4 years ago when my S2 was still new I found a nice image of the Canon with a converter and a nice big reflective lens. This was when I wondered how it would look what I was shooting was reflecting in the lens. This time I let my model climb out through the lens, that captured her, back into reality.
The words from Achmed the Dead Terrorist are perfect for this project.
