Hi. I recently bought an HG10 and am trying to figure out how to use it. I use iMovie '08 for video editing. When I play back my video on the LCD screen on the camera, it looks bright with good colour distribution. However, when I import it into iMovie, it looks dark and, frankly, horrible.

I don't know if this is because I'm using the auto white balance on the camera, but if that's the problem why does it look so good on the LCD?

I've uploaded a short 75MB clip of video I took this afternoon in bright sunlight. This clip looks fine on the camera, and like total crap on my computer screen. Check out http://www.clarke.ca/media/movies/test.mov . I'll also include a screenshot of the histogram of part of the movie.

If anyone can help me understand what I'm doing wrong, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
- Andrew.

[glesgaguyav]

How does it look played back on your TV (HD)?

Never shot footage in snowy conditions but I would imagine you would need to use the Program AE mode for snow, the Auto settings probably can't handle the high contrast, it just sees black and white.

By the way the cip didn't look too bad on my computer screen.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

How does it look putting the clip through your TV from the camera.

What looks bad, the quality, colours, contrast etc?

The HG10 has program modes for snow/sand etc. Also lenses can only see so much contrast, its the same with still cameras, you can have a bright sky and dark areas all with the correct exposure. The camera they use for TV programs are about £60,000 each to get that sort of quality.

Have you tried using the supplied program on the HG10 disc.

I have just got a HG10 myself but not really played with it much yet.

Thank you for your responses. The videos look too dark. That's how they look bad. They're good and clear, but very dark. Here are two more samples:

Auto white balance, cloudy afternoon: http://www.clarke.ca/media/movies/test_cloud.mov (280KB)
Sunny white balance, overcast sky (don't ask me why I didn't use cloudy; maybe I'll try that tomorrow): http://www.clarke.ca/media/movies/test_wheel.mov (30MB)

In test_cloud.mov, on the camera I can see the details in the girl's jacket quite clearly. In test_wheel.mov, on the camera I can clearly see the rim details when zoomed out and viewing the whole trailer. The snow on the wheel is bright white.

On the movies you download, the girl's jacket and the rim are almost completely black. The snow on the tyre is more grey than brilliant white. Basically, everything just needs to be brighter.

I don't have an HDTV but I'll hook the camera up to my normal tube TV tonight and see what it looks like there.

Canon doesn't provide software for Mac users, and recommends iMovie. I could use Canon's Windows software within VMWare and should probably try that when I get a chance.

Thanks again,
- Andrew.

[glesgaguyav]

on the HV20 (the tape version of the HG10) you can increase the exposure to brighten the picture, it also has a Zebra Stipes function that lets you see if the whites are over exposed, I presume the HG10 is the same.

I presume you are using the manual mode, have you tried the auto mode it really is very capable.

Originally Posted by glesgaguyav

on the HV20 (the tape version of the HG10) you can increase the exposure to brighten the picture, it also has a Zebra Stipes function that lets you see if the whites are over exposed, I presume the HG10 is the same.

I presume you are using the manual mode, have you tried the auto mode it really is very capable.

Hi. test_wheel.mov was shot in manual mode, but the other two were in fully automatic mode. I'll look through the manual some more and see if there's anything I can do to the movies on the camera.

Thanks,
- Andrew.

Well, I just tried looking at the footage on my dad's tube TV by plugging my camera into it. While the brights were nice and bright, the darks were too dark still. I started posting an update here before thinking, "hey, I'll bet his TV isn't calibrated." Sure enough, the contrast was turned way up. After calibrating his TV, the footage looks right when played back on his TV.

So in short, the footage looks fine when played back from the camera, either on the LCD or on a TV. It doesn't look fine when imported into iMovie.

- Andrew.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

I loaded these in to Sony Vegas and it looks much better than the iplayer, it looks grey and a bit lifeless on iplayer.
It is hard for any camera to handle a large contrast like snow and shadows but I think the HG10 is doing a great job there, the problem lies with your player and not the camera.

[senu]

I dont have imovie but dark scenes played back on Hi def TV still look dark(er) than on the Camcorders LCD but very watchable
Vegas 7 ( which I have ) doesnt like non Canon AVCHD but the dark scenes look perfectly acceptable on Nero showtime
TBH though No camcorder likes dark scenes and the AVCHD one even less so but My experience of the HG 10 is that although it absolutely shines with good light it handles low light reasonably well