Media2u Video Production Blog

Back when we were shooting SD, if we needed a small second camera on location then the Sony PDX-10 was ideal. Given enough light it would happily intercut with PD170 or even SD Z1 footage.

However with the move to HD and shooting primarily on the Sony EX1, our trusty PDX-10 hasn’t found much use. But the need for a small second camera hasn’t gone away. In fact our requirements have made it necessary to seek a camera that is much smaller than the PDX10, the ideal being something so small it could slip into the same bag as the EX1. It also needed to be inexpensive enough to put it into situations where a larger camera might be at risk, or for discreet shooting.

Sure there are plenty of consumer cameras around, but lets face it most of them put out a fairly grotty image. Cheap lenses and build quality that wouldn’t stand up to the vigours of a professional environment.

I’d been hearing good things about some of the Canon Legria cameras (Vixia in the USA) and finally settled on the HFS11 after reading the opinions of some fellow professionals. I duly ordered up a unit for a shade over £900. Even at that price I wasn’t expecting much.

The first thing that strikes you is the size. The unit is tiny and weighs less than one of the batteries from our EX1. This means that even when placed in its own case it will slip in a camerabag with a larger camera with ease.

Size comparison of the Canon against a Sony EX1

The camera does have a fairly full compliment of manual controls, however only one of them can be controlled at a time via a custom wheel. So if you want to flip from exposure (which I’m pretty sure is actually gain rather than a proper iris) to focus then you find yourself using the joystick to a select the option before you can access it. In practice for run and gun work the best results seem to be achieved by leaving the focus on auto and having manual exposure control. For situations where the camera is on a tripod you can select manual focus and spend a few seconds setting it as it’s not as instinctive as a proper focus ring and can be on the fiddly side.

This shot has been downconverted to 720p in Final Cut Pro and then a minor amount of colour correction has been added. A polarizer was used on the camera. Click on the image for the full 720p shot.

Speaking of exposure there is a zebra of sorts. Only for 100% and it cannot be customised but this is still a godsend on a domestic unit. Combined with the manual exposure this grants you a great deal of control over your image.

There are other nice touches such as a 3 second pre-record, an automatic lens cap, a built in video light and a comprehensive menu system. You can also control the amount of gain the camera will automatically apply in darker locations or even turn the automatic gain off completely.

However one professional feature that is missing is the ability to swap between 50i and 60i. Your camera will be locked to the region it originated in. So you can’t “go native” if shooting in NTSC countries, but also means you will need to be wary of grey imports when buying the camera. I did speak to one supplier who was selling cameras that were significantly cheaper than other companies. When pushed his response was “but TV’s these days can play 60i so what’s the issue?”, which was astonishing frankly. So do check before purchasing.

The camera shoots onto SDHC media although it does come with 64gb of built in memory. Professionals will probably be more comfortable shooting onto their own SDHC media as you can simply plug it straight into your computer instead of messing around with USB cables. However the camera does have a facility that allows you to copy your footage from the internal memory onto SDHC which could be convenient for creating backups on location.

A section of image of a train passing the camera while in 1080p mode. Faint interlacing lines can be seen on the trains edges which betray the fact that something odd is going on. The image has not been resized.

One of the attractions of the camera was that it claimed to be able to shoot 1080p. The good news is that this is indeed the case, the bad news is that on closer inspection faint interlacing artefacts are visible on some edges. Investigation reveals that although the camera is indeed shooting progressive, it then inexplicably encodes it as an interlaced image. This in turn appears to be creating artefacts on the image. Why on earth Canon have designed the camera like this is anyones guess, but in effect it means you would be better off shooting 1080i and then doing a conversion in Compressor or your editing package. While the progressive output may impress the consumer, it is worse than useless for professionals.

The camera has a 3.5mm jack for a mic input. However be warned that the hotshoe is a non standard Canon type. Adaptors can be purchased from the splendid B Hague who will sell you a custom made adaptor that converts the Canon into something standard:

http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/acatalog/info_430.html

So what does the output look like? Well it’s surprisingly good given enough light. The camera is so small I’ve been able to take it on cycle rides and have been able to use it in a variety of situations. Yes the domestic lens lets it down and don’t expect to be able to use the zoom during shots, but in general it’s good. The AVCHD codec copes with challenging material such as a field of crops swaying in the wind without breaking up. The biggest giveaway on the footage is the fact the camera is so small it’s very hard to keep it steady when it is handheld. The image stabilisation is good at times and over enthusiastic at others but for the professional it can be counterintuitive and certainly needs to be fully turned off when on a tripod or you start to get some very odd looking results.

Shallow depth of field shots can be achieved with the camera. - Click on image for full HD grab (has not been deinterlaced!)

Shallow depth of field shots can also be achieved which surprised me for such a small sensor. However the lack of an iris means that in practice you have little control over such shots.

In terms of mixing the output with other cameras although the camera shoots 1080i, it seems to look better when downconverted onto a 720p timeline. You can of course include it on 1080i or 1080p timelines but I feel the cameras shortcomings will be more evident. That said it depends on what kind of shot you have planned.

The AVCHD codec retains detail well, although as with all 4:2:0 codecs, blocking is evident on reds. Click image for full 1080p image (not de-interlaced so there are artefacts on the tractor)

This is not a camera to shoot an entire production on, but rather one that you will obtain one or two shots on that will be dropped into the timeline. As such it gives you the size of a discreet domestic camera, but with a picture quality that looks respectable. For the size it really is a marvel and I have to say I’ve found the camera extremely liberating. It opens up a number of shooting possibilities and with the addition of a wide angle adaptor this really is a useful little tool that we intend to put to good use here at Media2u.

Advantages:

• Tiny size
• Decent image quality
• Manual controls
• Zebra
• Removable SDHC media and generous internal memory

Disadvantages:

• Manual Controls can be fiddly
• Interlacing artefacts render the progressive shooting mode pointless.
• Narrow camcorder feel to lens
• Non standard hot shoe
• Need to make sure you can handle AVCHD
• Locked to either 50i or 60i regions. No option to swap.