Widescreen video help

briano.de.rhino

Hi,

I have a Canon xm2 and use Premiere pro cs4 and after effects etc to edit.

In the past I always selected 4:3 aspect ratio on the camera and when i created a new project.

This latest video I decided to set the camera to widescreen and also went in to the cam settings to click 16:9 to 'on'.

In premiere I created the project as wide 16:9 also but it all seems to look like 4:3.

I saved it out as an .mpg and changes ratio to 16:9 also but exported video has 2 black bars on left and right side. I presume they are there because the project is meant to be wider but the fottage is not as wide as it should be hence the vertical black bars?

Any help would be great - like what settings everything should be on before I start etc. I may have to keep this video as 4:3 fi I want to use the existing footage, but thats ok.

Brian.

Morrisseeee

This worked for me: try SDCOPY , google it & download it & bobs-your-aunt !

briano.de.rhino

Cheers for that,

I eventually got an unbroken link to that software. When I try to change the files using it, it says they are not .MOD files. They are .AVI files. THEY capture out of the Canon Camcorder as .AVI

Any chance you know how to make these files 16:9?

101001

does the 4:3 image of your 16:9 footage look squezzed? left to right

have you set up a 16:9 timeline in premiere pro and captured in that?

briano.de.rhino

Hey,

No it is not squeezed. Which I copped earlier today so I tried an experiment - I turned the Canon xm2 on, then looked at settings on the screen. It said WS for widescreen but I realised the 'auto' settings was on. I switched the cam to manual and the 16:9 numbers came on the LCD screen!!

I filmed the other night for the first time using widescreen - it was a bit of a guerilla shoot in extreme low light and I had the auto function on to save time.

So theres my problem - A canon XM2 only seems to record 16:9 in manual mode.

I took the test clip today, placed it into a premiere widescreen project and bobs your nephew it appears to be 16:9.

Another noob question......Is there another type of widescreen? that is wider, while watching an old movie, raiders of the lost ark or something I noticed it looks really wide.

101001

briano.de.rhino wrote: »

Another noob question......Is there another type of widescreen? that is wider, while watching an old movie, raiders of the lost ark or something I noticed it looks really wide.

indeed there is... what you are talking about are different aspect ratios... here you go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29

James74

Briano, you can use the xm2 in 16:9 either in auto or manual...
The aspect ratio is fixed in 4:3 in "Easy Record" mode only, in all other modes you can change it. Easy Record isn't the same as Auto on the XM2. Easy Record sets everything on auto and doesn't allow you to mess with any of the other functions, in AUTO mode everything is still done for you, but you can also tinker with the focus controls, the exposure lock dial, white balance and aspect ratio if you want.

1. Switch the camera to Program Mode (use the the small switch with a "Easy Recording" green square and a "P"), select "P".

2. Just behind that switch there is a combined dial / button (the "Select" dial), press it.

3. This gives you the Program Mode menu, the options are:
AUTO - Full Auto but allows you to change some settings if you want, select this option and you can shoot 16:9 in auto.
TV - Same as AUTO except you can select the shutter speed, the aperture and gain will adjust automatically.
AV - Same as auto except you can select the aperture (F-stop), the shutter speed and gain will adjust automatically.
MANUAL - Full manual mode.

You'll probably find fairly similar settings to this in most cameras.

btw, great wee camera once you get used to it, but I found that you really need to get way from shooting in full auto to make the most of it.

James

briano.de.rhino

Thanks for that James,
I indeed meant u cant get 16:9 in easyshoot mode.

I dont video much, just as small part of my job so I havent figured out using TV or AV modes and what I can use them for to my advantage. Dont have the time and if I did learn something off the internet by the time I would be shooting a video again in 2 months time I would have fogotten. Also, usually the shoots are low on time and high on me trying to make sure everybodies camera is in position and a million other things.

My standard thing is to leave it on auto or else to pull manual focus a little and zoom in to get some depth of field behind my character.

Culd yo describe What would the shutter speed, aperture and gain allow me to do?

James74

briano.de.rhino wrote: »

My standard thing is to leave it on auto or else to pull manual focus a little and zoom in to get some depth of field behind my character.

Culd yo describe What would the shutter speed, aperture and gain allow me to do?

Good lord! That's a film course all on its own. And there are waayyyy more knowledgeable folks on here who, I'm sure, would be able to direct you to a few of the great online courses, web pages or even just basic tutorial videos on the intertubes that cover those topics. I'm just a quiet lurker that happened to have an xm2 to hand

If you can get it away from work my advise with this, or when getting to grips with any camera is to get out and play around with it. But a basic knowledge of shutter speeds, f-stops, white balancing, focusing would be a big help. A bit of quick googling should get you enough about the absolute basic theory, well enough to give you a bit of direction to take the camera out and experiment yourself.

But you're right, if it's just for a quick shoot every couple of months, then stick it on auto and point it at the action, no need to be fancy.

And very quickly, very dirty on depth-of-field in shots (and apologies if I scandalize the Pros out there)... Select AV, frame your shot, play around with the exposure dial (on the xm2 small wheel marked "EXP") to change the f-stop, see how that turns out, experiment until bored or fired :P.

101001

quick course in video

stay away from gain: This basically ads artificial light to the footage. It also ads noise (horrible blocky artifacts). Keep the gain at 0db, this is no gain. +6db slight gain +9db more gain etc etc.

The slower the shutter speed the more light gets into the camera: 1/25 is pretty much the slowest speed you can use without getting blur. If your scene is too bright make the shutter faster 1/50 then 1/125 etc the higher the number the faster its is. It refers to basically fractions of a second 1/25 is a 25th of a second.

Aperture: The larger the aperture the more light that gets into the camera. If again your scene is too bright. Close down the aperture this means going up in numbers f2.8 allows most light into the camera f22 less light.

So if we are to use an example: your indoors and your video looks too dark. Bring your shutter speed to 1/25 if there is still to much light close down the aperture going from f2.8 to f22

There might also be an ND filter on the camera. This is a neutral density filter. This also prevents light from getting into the camera. Turn this on if you want less light... off more light.

Aperture also effects depth of field. The smaller the aperture (f22 being small) the more focus you have. Things in the foreground in focus and things in the background in focus. The larger the aperture (f2.8) focusing on the foreground makes the background out of focus and vice versa. You can play with this by say bring a cup close to the camera focus on it and set the aperture at f2.8 and you will notice the 'depth of field'

a quick synopsis of those topics. Hope this makes sense...

briano.de.rhino

Really appreciate that lads.

I actually went down the beach last night. amazing full moon. The sea was fine to film but the moon was blowing out on me. then I realised 10 yrs ago on my sony trv120 I used to record bmx with i filmed the moon and it was crystal clear, so y wouldnt the xm2. anyway i started messing about with manual settings and totally got a good grasp on aperture and shutter speed and got some killer footage. also from your last 2 replies really has it straight in my head now. Cheers, I appreciate it. I just need to mess around now and practise.

Actually one question - If i film a subject in a room and it goes from cloudy to sunny, the light changes dramatically. it ruined an interview i did about 4 yrs ago. What is best option? have it on auto?

101001

briano.de.rhino wrote: »

Actually one question - If i film a subject in a room and it goes from cloudy to sunny, the light changes dramatically. it ruined an interview i did about 4 yrs ago. What is best option? have it on auto?

Personally I wouldnt put it on auto. The Auto function might hunt a little and you will notice the aperture closing down and opening up when it gets darker (it'll go from bright to dark quickly).

Id actually suggest stopping the interview and re-exposing and starting the question again. Dont hesitate to re ask the question. If you want you could even re-frame and edit between the two answers.

But what you should really do is take that into account when setting up the interview. Dont have the window in shot, maybe pull the blind. Find apart of the room thats not so effected. Best solution is always to try and pre-empt the problem