Florida 07 HD vid (Canon HV20)

[lukep01]

I've been a member of this forum for a while and always been lurking, got a nice bit of info about the HV20 so I bought one in when I went to Florida and it is an awesome camera. Here's a video I shot while I was over there, 4 hours worth of footage edited down to 3 minutes in Premiere with a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, let me know what you all think.

Couple of backup links for the 1080p + 720p versions, bit slower than my server but will do until 1st of June, when I get more bandwidth.

http://www.mia-media.co.uk/florida07/1080p.wmv

http://www.mia-media.co.uk/florida07/720p.wmv

http://www.mia-media.co.uk/florida07/480p.wmv

If you don't have WMP10+, you'll have to download this one as it doesn't use the HD VC1 codec - http://www.mia-media.co.uk/florida07/florida07.wmv

[abs]

awesome mate, the pq is top, how much did the cam set you back. looking at going to Florida sep/oct and this has just wetted my appetite even more, great editing and the music suited the footage

[lukep01]

You'll love Florida, it's awesome there!

Camera cost me about £550 with the excellent exchange rate, they gave me a free tripod and case worth 100 quid too :D

[englishquad]

abs's post says it all...awesome. first time ever ive actually enjoyed someone else's holiday movie...well done!!

[taras]

Super Video, I'v just come back from there myself, you have captured the whole atmosphere

[Bacus]

Luke, Video looks stunning mate !! Right now for my question !! Can you tell me exactly where you got the camcorder from , Exactly mate !! As i am off to orlando on the 4th june and i was going to buy be for i went !!! I may not get the same camcorder as you have as funds are tight but i was looking for the best kinda deal !! Any help mate ? Regards Si

[lukep01]

I bought it from Ritz Camera in the Florida Mall, price may have even gone down since Apri too!

One thing to remember though is that the camera is an NTSC model, I wrote the below when I was explaining the differences on another forum, so forgive me if it sounds patronising, as I'm sure most people on here must know the differences!

SD Resolution is 720x480 as opposed to the 720x576 we have over here and it shoots at 30 frames a second or 60i (60hz) as opposed to the 25 frames a second (50i, 50hz) we use over here. This isn't a problem for newer TVs or Flat Screen TVs as they can handle 60hz.

The HD Resolution is the same, recording at 1920x1080 (which when edited is 1440x1080 but with an aspect ratio of 1.33, bringing it back up to 1920x1080 when played) Only real difference again is the frame rate, NTSC is 30fps, PAL is 25fps)

Now the confusing bit, the camera can shoot progressively, the NTSC model can shoot 24fps progressively, which has a 3:2 telecine pulldown applied to it to bring it up to 60i, if you want to edit it you'll have to remove the 3:2 pulldown on capture for the best results for a progressive picture but you could just use a normal deinterlace method after you've edited.

The PAL model shoots 25fps progressive, which is then interlaced to bring it up to 50i, you can edit it as normal and then just deinterlace to get the progressive picture back, so a bit more simple!

The charger accepts 100-240v and 50hz or 60hz so no problems there, you just need to get a uk 'figure 8' plug to go into it.

All in all I couldn't be happier with it, battery lasts about an hour too, which is very good considering the resolution it is shooting, you can buy a bigger battery too for it, it's also got a mic jack and accessory shoe for adding a directional microphone or light, also has av in, which is useful for bullet cams or capturing analog stuff and converting it to digital. It has lots of settings too, you can change the aperture, exposure, shutter speed, white balance and focus. All are pretty easy to pick up through a simple menu system.

[redsox_mark]

Footage is great, as well as your writeup.

The overall edit was good. For me, some of the cuts were a bit quick (though that's better than long shots which get boring). Also the subject seemed to jump back and forth - sea world, Universal, back to sea world, etc. Not trying to be mean or picky, just some hopefully constructive comments.

[LicensedTaximan]

wahay that was just great, We are also going to Florida but not untill August, school holidays and all that. I'm probably going to purchase this camcorder in the next couple of months and the picture quality looks great. Anything is going to be better than my somewhat half knackered s-vhs palmcorder, and with the probability of buying the Sony Vegas editing suite I think this is gonna be a hellava opportunity to make a high quality unforgetable home movie. We're going for three weeks two at the theme parks (Disney on site) plus going to Universal etc ect, and one at the Gulf coast to crash out.This will be a holiday of a lifetime for us as the kids (two girls) are still at the wonderment stage being thirteen and eleven. Nice editing enjoyed it thoroughly.

[lukep01]

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

Footage is great, as well as your writeup.

The overall edit was good. For me, some of the cuts were a bit quick (though that's better than long shots which get boring). Also the subject seemed to jump back and forth - sea world, Universal, back to sea world, etc. Not trying to be mean or picky, just some hopefully constructive comments.

cheers for the comment, I didn't really know where I was going with it, it was a very quick edit and I just found a bit of footage I liked and stuck it in where the music fitted, obviously I cut around that though, like with the car parts and 2 roller coasters.

[redsox_mark]

Yes - there was some amazing clips in there, like the 2 roller costers in sync! Overall an excellent job, especialy if it was a quick edit.

[mmace]

Originally Posted by lukep01

4 hours worth of footage edited down to 3 minutes in Premiere

ah, so I'm not the only one!
everything I edit I cut down to very small times, when I'm editing the wife goes on at me about it, but when it comes to watching stuff, no one gets bored and all the main bits are in there!

[tausifs]

Originally Posted by lukep01

You'll love Florida, it's awesome there!

Camera cost me about £550 with the excellent exchange rate, they gave me a free tripod and case worth 100 quid too :D

I got a HV20 too. Please let me know if you plan to convert any footage to 1080/24p and which software you have in mind. You probably know that the HV20 doesn't incorporate flags that would facilitate inverse telecine. Apple , Cineform or Adobe Aftereffects are what some have used that would work with the non-flagged HV20 output. There is a concerted consumer effort to get Canon to do some form of firmware update that would allow flagging of frames (if even possible). Some customers are even quite bitter that Canon advertise it as 24p but it doesn't put out flags to help actually get true 24p easily. Canon's line is that there is 3rd party software available to do this and anyway that thats what their high end videocameras do and are for ie. a high end specification and currently seem to be washing their hands of this issue.

[lukep01]

That video was shot in 24p but I could not for the life of me work out how to get rid of the 3:2 pulldown so I just edited it at 60i and then deinterlaced it.

I now know how to get rid of the 3:2 pulldown but it would mean recapturing using the edl file for Premiere in combination with Cineform. Only problem is that the edl isn't spot on due to losing 6 frames a second, so I'd have to do a lot of tinkering with the timeline once the footage is captured again but it is doable.

[redsox_mark]

So an advantage of the UK (50i) model is support for 25p (instead of 24p) doesn't need this pulldown.