Update: Created an account on Vimeo and starting to post some videos there. Or you if you can’t be bothered going to Vimeo you can check them out here, Summer In Japan and the First iPhone In Japan but don’t expect too much, i haven’t got any editing software yet do they’re still as shot, they will get better though. Lastly if you want to check out how to fold a shirt the Japanese way then you can see that here.
Since moving to Japan i’ve developed a bit of an interest in photography and now own a nice Canon Digital Camera which often gets a good workout on the weekends as i make my way around the Yamanote Line.
Japan is such a great place to take photographs and there’s certainly no shortage of inspiration as you walk the streets and visit different places on the weekend.
So last weekend, after considerable time spent reading reviews on various sites, i decided to step things up a bit and buy a High Definition Movie Camera and after only a few days playing with it i’m glad i did.
Update: The best clip i’ve taken with it so far, still raw footage but i’ll be editing it soon. Check it out on Vimeo for full HD.
Furukawa Hanabi Party from Neil Duckett on Vimeo.
I opted for the Sanyo Xacti HD1010 model which has only recently come out. It’s a pretty small unit that fits nicely in the palm of your hand and weighs little more than a still shot camera, here’s the bad boy here pictured next to my drink of choice, while i’m working anyway, for comparison purposes.
Specs of the camera are endless but the basics as follows;
- Able to record to memory in Full HD (1920 x 1080)
- Slow Motion Video Function
- Image Stabilizer Function
- Face Chaser
I went with the 32Gb SDHC Memory Card too …. bumped the price up a bit but it will give me 5 hrs of movies at max resolution rather than 37 minutes on a 4Gb card.
At the moment i’m trying to work out how i can get the movies i take up on youtube, based on their size and their limitations regarding HD movies.
Any suggestions on software to use to easily resize the mpeg 4 files created are more than welcome.
Once i get that sorted out, hopefully sooner than later, i’ll get some clips up on the site.
Complete list of specs can be found here.
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Looks delicious, I’d love one of those too.
YouTube doesn’t provide much quality, have you considered blip.tv or Vimeo? They are great for HD movies.
Looking forward to whatever you take.
Just had a look at Vimeo, looks like that could be a good solution, thanks for the tip. According to their help section …
# Can I upload in HD right now? Yes.
To take advantage of HD, all you have to do is upload a clip that’s 1280 x 720 resolution or better. Our servers will make a standard quality version first, then a little later your clip will appear in HD.
I’ll create an account and test shortly!
Yeah, Vimeo is really nice, Neil! try it out. Howmuch did you spend on all this stuff?
The camera itself was ~120,000 yen … add the spare battery, HDMI cable was another ~10,000 yen … the 32 Gb card was the expensive part, about 65,000 yen … but like i said, 5 hrs full HD is great.
Neil, where did you buy our 32gb card? In Akihabara or a big box store like Bic? Is it a class 6 card? One of the only things I think Akihabara is cheaper for are things like memory cards.
I bought the Xacti HD700 in February, imported from the U.S. because I wanted English menus (ludicrously ones sold in Japan have only Japanese), and right away got an 8gb Transcend Class 6 SDHC in a small shop I know on the backstreets of Aki for ¥6,000.
I joined Vimeo immediately as well. It’s great, save for the extremely slow upload speeds. I like that people can download the exact same file I uploaded directly from Vimeo to view the video at max quality.
What app are you using to edit the raw footage? I am just using iMovie HD (’06) as it requires no conversion of the raw footage.
What settings did you use for the hanabi footage? (if you remember) I took two hanabi videos this summer and yours seem to be a good bit sharper, which may just be the better optics of the 1010.
Hey Jason, the card i bought from Yodobashi in Shinjuku … this bad boy here which is class 6, whatever that means. http://www.yodobashi.com/enjoy/more/productslist/86814563.html
At the moment i’m not using anything for editing, i may have to buy a mac and change that soon though, i’ve had a look over the last week or so and i think i’ll go down that road soon.
Settings? I used the ‘fireworks’ setting (appropriately i guess) and set it too shoot at 1280 x 720 and 60 fps. I find the full blown 1920 x 1080 doesn’t replay that well for me at the moment.
Hope that helps and i will look for your stuff on Vimeo …. feel free to post the link here.
Looks su-weeet!!
I think the “Slo-Mo” function will be very entertaining
Vimeo is without a doubt your best bet.
Nice camera….next time go tech toy shopping remember your best friend (me) ^_^
With equipment like this we will all soon be James Bonds…………. Imagine if we had this type of technology 30 years ago……… wow…..
It’s amazing what you can do with a personal camera these days.
Vimeo is one of the best quality video streaming I’ve seen. Even Dailymotion cant quite hold a candle at the quality. I like it very much.
I am very impressed with it ….. big fan after only a few days looking through it.
Just bought the 1010 and love it. wanted to know which setting you have had the best success with for fast moving video like a golf swing? I really enjoy the camera function from the video.
Thanks.
I cant say i`ve done much testing with fast stuff like that …. i will have a play around though and see what works best.
Hi,
I just bought the same cam as you guys and i can’t seem to to do a direct playback on my tv???
I tried hdmi, av and usb wired directly to my tv but it just won’t play? I tried NTSC and PAL but it doesn’t work…
Would truly appreciate some advice here.
Thanks in advance!
Chris
I use HDMI no probs. You may have to scale back the resolution to get it to play though. Usng Full HD you need to do some other stuff to get it to work, pain i know.