Videography Lessons in NYC for Canon XF100?

Hey All,

I recently got a Canon XF100 camcorder and am struggling to find the right settings to make footage look good under varying scenarios (my first decent camera). I've seen posts online about Color Picture profiles and such, which I am using, but I am still fumbling around with getting results and overall understanding.

Is there anywhere in NYC I can go to have someone seriously teach me the ropes with this camera first hand?
Thanks in advance!

Look up AbleCine, they have a great line-up of seminars, many of which focus on specific cameras.

I have no idea about personal training in NYC, but I assume you've found the XF100 forum at dvinfo.net. Scroll back a couple of years and you'll see a lot of suggestions. It seems daunting at first, but you really just need to decide if you want a flat look that you adjust in post, or a more finished look in-camera. You can then create Custom Picture files to achieve what you want with a relatively few settings: gamma, saturation, sharpness, etc.

There is also an excellent training DVD set from Vortex Media. Now that the camera has been out for 3+ years, it's only $50. The DVD set is for the XF300/305, but 85% of it applies equally to the XF100/105. It doesn't cover Custom Picture files though.

Feel free to contact me with more questions if you wish at daviddixon at macdotcom.

Thanks; I actually didn't know about that forum and it has a lot of good info in it. I didn't see any XF100 workshops at AbleCine, but I'll keep looking.

Also, Manhattan Edit Workshop, keep an eye on their offerings. Them and AbleCine both offer great classes. Just keep checking their offerings, get on their email list.
www.mewshop.com

I have been using the XL1s since it came, and am still not done with trying out all the custom image settings :dry:

As mentioned above, there's a load of custom presets posted on the web. Check out a bunch of them and use the one you like most.

I normally use CP9 and do the rest in post.

Thanks. I guess my current confusion is which parameters the CPP affects and which it doesn't. For instance is stuff like aperture, gain, etc NOT part of the CPP, and they work in tandem to get the effect your looking for.

For example, right now I am looking to do a video with a similar style as these: www.youtube.com/user/bigthink (basically the whole "infinite white" interview setup). I have ample lighting and all the white screen stuff. What settings should I have to best achieve this effect?

I've read (and noticed) that the XF100 default settings create footage with a lot noise, so I'm thinking perhaps I should set the gain to -3DB or some such, and open the aperture to compensate a bit (F4 perhaps)? Then I should probably set the focus mode to face detection.

Thanks for the input so far, guys.

See p. 99-106 in the manual for details on the CP settings.

No, aperture, gain, etc. are not included in the Custom Picture settings. Simplifying a bit, the CP settings include Gamma, Shadow areas (Black Gamma), Knee (highlights), Sharpness (general sharpness), Coring (sharpness of details), Color Matrix, and Color Gain (saturation).

No, the camera does not handle noise well and especially gets noisy when used in Auto mode. Gain can be set as low as -6, so use negative gain whenever possible. You can set a limiter to restrict the Gain - most set that to +9 at most. Due to diffraction softening the image it's best to always keep the iris at 5.6 or wider. I shoot at 2.8 or wider whenever I can. The sharpness is still good and the 1/3" chip will still have plenty of depth of field.

I don't actually use the face detection, so cannot tell you if it works well. I use the excellent peaking options if I'm not able to use autofocus.

The free Canon XF Utility is an excellent tool for archiving footage, but it also shows all details of CP settings used on each clip. That's convenient for looking back at footage to see what you liked or didn't like in the settings.

Face Detection is not really reliable. I shoot a lot of seminars with folks behind a microphone. Even when Face Detection correctly recognizes a face, the mic is sharp, the face is soft.

That is useful information; thank you. I'll try capping the gain at -3DB and setting the iris to 2.8 and see how that looks.

One final question. I'm shooting in 1080i and when I import the file directly into FCPX (using the utility) the footage exhibits a lot of noise / flickering (interlacing artifacts I believe). To fix this I just take the file that FCP imported and run it through hand break to fix it, and then it looks good. My question is: do you think my doing this results in footage any clearer than if it was shot in 720p, or should I just use 720p?

Thanks again, everyone; this thread is really helping me out.

Gain at -3 will look good, but you don't have to keep it that low. I usually vary from -6 to +6 with good results. I never shoot 60i - I shoot a lot of 720p60 and 1080p30. If your subject matter works with it, 24p adds about a stop of exposure.

Okay; so if my end goal here is to upload the highest quality 1080 video I can to youTube (which I think caps frame rate at 30), the setting I should be using is 1080p30, and not 1080i60. Correct? Thanks!

Okay; after making the aperture and gain adjustments; things are looking a bit better. I still need help on the Custom Picture Profile side I think though.

I found these: vimeo.com/groups/canonxf/forum/topic:230636
And have been using the Tru_Vid2 one, but I think it does a little too much glossy/smoothing.

I keep hearing people reference a standard flat BBC one that is nice and flat and ready for post production, but I can't seem to find anywhere that has the files. Does anyone here have that file / know where I can download them? Thanks!

Here's the official report done by Alan Roberts for the BBC with his recommendations for settings to use. It's not as simple as just loading into the camera, but can be done manually.

downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-..._Canon_XF100-105.pdf

I find it not really that flat - it just recommends Cine1 with dialed back sharpness. If you try the Alan Roberts settings, I recommend also experimenting with various levels of raising the Master Pedestal to retain more shadows. I also like some Black Gamma settings that I got from the dvinfo.net forum that give a softer rolloff to the blacks: Level 23, Range 3, Point 29.

Okay; I'm still figuring out what all these words actually mean and how to create a new CPP from scratch, but I'll give it my best shot. Thanks.

You don't have to create one from scratch - there are several blank ones by default. You can even rename them as you wish.

You'll find all those terms in the CP settings menu as you go thru them. Pedestal adjusts the bottom limit of Blacks, Black Gamma controls how smoothly or abruptly the exposure curves down in the scene from lower mid tones to total black. Again, although not explained well, this is covered on p. 102-103 in the manual.

And there are similar highlight controls (Knee) although if you're using Cine1 or 2, the Knee is controlled by that and the manual settings don't work.