I just recently purchased a Sony HX9v compact camera so I can take some photos while out on my bike. The camera also shots 1080p video at 50fps which is amazing for this price. I just had to test this out, so took a mixed bag of shots out and about Belfast. The video quality is impressive, but since there is no manual control your options can be quite limited and the low light performance is pretty poor. I crushed the blacks in this video to hide the massive amounts of noise in badly lit conditions.
There is limited control over focus but if careful you can trick the camera into pulling focus from an object to centre screen. To do this you set a focus point and tell the camera to track it, then deactivate the tracking while shooting and the focus will pull to the centre mark.
Overall it’s a good camera offering amazing video quality for the price. I can definitely see myself using it for specialist applications where a bigger camera will physically not fit.
http://www.vimeo.com/28221853
Thanks for posting this video. Your shots/technique look amazing to this amateur and have given me lots to think about. I am literally on my 5th day of the digital video/NLE world so seeing examples of good technique at the capture stage as well as the editing stage is super helpful! I got an HX9V last week, as a toy to just shoot vacation footage, but quickly realized this camera far exceeded my expectations for video! For photography, not so much..:(
I am using FCPX and have been experimenting with shooting at 1080p 60fps and slowing down to 25%. My slow motion does not have the same feel as some of the shots in your video. I know your panning speed when shooting may be different than mine but would you mind sharing how you are capturing and then slowing down?..For instance are you capturing at 60fps, creating a 60fps sequence in FCPX and then slowing and to what percent etc? Or are you shooting at some other frame rate to begin with?..
Anyway, thanks again and beautiful work!
If you shot at 60fps I would use a 30 fps timeline to get the best slow motion at 50%. Going below 50% to 25% you would best use optical flow retiming to get the best results. The slowest i’ve gone here is 50%
Thanks Andy…I’ll give that a shot!