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Home :: The Ultimate HD Camcorder :: Case Studies :: Case Study #6
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Canon XL H1 HD camcorder's Genlock, Time Code, and High Definition
Picture Quality Makes Music Documentary "Sing" for DVD and iPod
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Robin Mudge understands image quality. With around 300 documentary films to his credit as either producer, director, and/or writer during his years at the BBC, he has experience in shooting 35mm, Super 16mm, and numerous video formats. These days, Mudge is a scholar at the American University in Washington D.C., and a maker of music documentaries and videos. When an opportunity arose recently to produce a DVD for a new bluegrass group, Mudge knew he wanted to capture their performances in high-quality digital high definition video, but his budget demanded that he use affordable cameras to get the job done. Satisfying this seemingly contradictory requirement began with his researching current camcorder alternatives.
"I'd read a lot about the emerging HDV format, so it seemed the obvious choice, at least for affordable HD production," Mudge recalls. "We definitely needed to use more than one camera simultaneously, but the HDV cameras that were available weren't suitable because you couldn't synchronize them. Then we heard about the Canon XL H1 HD camcorder, and the more we read about it, the more obvious it became that this was the camcorder we needed to use."
Mac Business Solutions, of Gaithersburg MD, sold Mudge two XL H1 HD camcorders, and rented him a third. "We looked at cameras costing $30,000 to $40,000," he says, "but the difference in picture quality compared to the XL H1 HD camcorder was not significant enough to make that jump in price. For less than $9,000 the XL H1 HD camcorder is a very good value."
Genlock and Time Code
Shooting a musical performance with multiple camcorders and a separate audio deck to record 5.1 Surround Sound necessitated synchronization of both picture and sound capture. "Unique among HDV cameras is the XL H1 camcorder's genlock input, which enabled us to synchronize our three camcorders," Mudge explains. "Not only that, but the XL H1 HD camcorder has SMPTE time code inputs and outputs, which enabled us to jam-synch time code to our separate audio recorder. We used the XL H1 camcorder's running free with time code and jam-synched to the recorder's time-code output so that each operator was completely free.
"We recorded over a period of almost two hours and to my amazement the three XL H1 HD camcorders remained in-synch with one another with free-running time code with absolutely no slip among any of the cameras or the audio recorder. I assumed we'd have to pull things up a bit, or slacken them off on one or more of the cameras, but the synchronization was perfect, and the picture quality was really nice. I was very pleased. We later synchronized our 1080i footage in Apple's Final Cut Pro."
Total Image Control
Careful crafting of the look of the image was another crucial factor for Mudge in producing his bluegrass documentary. For this, the Canon XL H1's Total Image Control capabilities proved essential. The XL H1 HD camcorder offers multiple custom presets for control of every image parameter. Six custom presets can be stored in the XL H1 camcorder's internal memory; 20 additional custom presets can be stored on an SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card.
"The most important thing was we had to make all three XL H1 camcorder's match, picture-wise," Mudge elaborates. "And for me--coming from a strong film background--I wanted the softest curve we could possibly produce. The more I read through the XL H1 manual the more I realized that the image controllability of these cameras was really terrific. There were a number of pre-sets for the gamma curve. We set out to produce a relatively low-contrast image, and the XL H1 camcorder's worked flawlessly. One tends to be critical when purchasing cameras, but I was extremely impressed with the picture quality of the XL H1 HD camcorder and have experimented with them since our first shoot. Now we're using two cameras to shoot the same bluegrass group in a new venue."
Mudge's experience in crafting a unique look for his documentary with the XL H1 camcorder's Total Image Control settings prompts him to share some informed insights on the differences between film, video, and digital HD.
"All video cameras produce very different types of quality than film," he says. "The image quality of digital HD isn't better than film. It's different than film. Technically film is 'better' in many respects, but the overall impression of the picture is that it is different. I think that the image quality I get from the Canon XL H1 camcorder is fantastic, I really like it, especially on the low gamma settings where the contrast range is extended. It's really very nice indeed. Like most or like all video cameras, there are areas of high contrast between deep shadows and extremely bright highlights. But the XL H1 camcorder handled it better than most of the cameras I've actually been using or have ever seen.
"Also, I really like using available light wherever possible, even in interior situations, just lifting it a bit here and there if necessary," he adds. "And if one uses available light carefully you get very, very nice pictures. We certainly do this with film, and in my sort of extended experiments with the XL H1 HD camcorder between serious music shooting, I found that to be the case with this camera as well. Again, the pictures we make with the XL H1 HD camcorder are different, but very nice."
Preparing For the Future
In addition to a planned DVD release of his bluegrass documentary, Mudge's client also intends to release the footage for distribution on iPods. These small screens, says Mudge, are another compelling reason to use the HD capture capabilities of the XL H1 HD camcorder.
"We shoot in 1080i and we're definitely preparing this material for broadcast on high definition networks," Mudge affirms. "But the main output for this project is going to be on DVD and iPods. Not only does the XL H1 camcorder make nice, sharp pictures for DVD, we have found that the final pictures on the iPod look much better when they are originally acquired in HDV, as opposed to standard-definition DV. When you transcode material to standard definition from HDV, there's certainly an improvement over just originating in DV. Also, with cameras as affordable as the XL H1 HD camcorder, there isn't much point in shooting with anything but HDV."
"We had a meeting with the record company to show them the rough cuts of the material," Mudge concludes. "We showed them the Sony PSP running a 16:9 full-matted picture, we showed them the iPod with the 4:3 cut, and then we showed them the DVD with the 16:9 image. Everybody was very impressed with the quality of the pictures off the DVD, but they were staggered by the picture quality on the iPod.
"For us, shooting HD with the Canon XL H1 HD camcorder is the way to shoot for broadcast and home-video distribution today, and the way to prepare digital content for the future as well."
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