Video (Caldicot Castle)

Martin_Man · 25 Feb 2009 at 18:49

hey folks, here's a video i put together using my canon HG21 of caldicot castle, hope you like! Click Here

Can you Let me know how long it takes for the video to load as i may need to change some settings? thanks!!! also, any feedback will be great

adeq1 · 25 Feb 2009 at 19:18

Hi I tried to have a look but taking ages to download on the free (i.e. rubbish) hotel wifi, got the first few seconds. Is it just me or is there there a black line down the right hand side and what looks like a shadow from a lens hood? you may want to crop that out.

A.N.Other · 25 Feb 2009 at 19:26

It took me about 10 minutes to download it fully.

It's well put together, but there's very little there that separates it from a series of stills put together in a video. Sometimes there's a bird, or the clouds move, which reminds you that you're watching a video, but apart from that, most of it just looks like photography.

Martin_Man · 25 Feb 2009 at 19:34

Ah yes there is a line going down the right side of the video, it’s just because of the width of the video which is a little to long, I can easily fix that. That shadow is my wide angle lenses which I attached on the camera, whenever i try and get some wide shots sometimes the edges appear. i don't know why though i paid enough for it

thanks for the feedback

Martin_Man · 25 Feb 2009 at 19:50

A.N.Other said:
It took me about 10 minutes to download it fully.

It's well put together, but there's very little there that separates it from a series of stills put together in a video. Sometimes there's a bird, or the clouds move, which reminds you that you're watching a video, but apart from that, most of it just looks like photography.

I just showed my brother and he agrees with you, I suppose your right in many ways that I could have added more movement to the video, but with movement such as zooming (in/out) and panning across, it can be to harsh for the eye specially if you don’t have the correct equipment to do it. That’s why I keep my videos still for now. Thanks for letting me know about the timing, I’ll fix that asap

Russinating · 25 Feb 2009 at 22:17

110mb for 4 minutes is way too high. You should be aiming for around 20-25mb max for that length.

Also, what's the intended use of the video? It's hard to give feedback without knowing this. If it's just for personal enjoyment, then what anyone here thinks doesn't really matter, but if not then what kind of advice are you after?

The video isn't varied enough. As has been said, it's more like watching a slideshow. None of the shots are particularly well composed (each can be judged as a separate photo), and they're all fairly wide - you're not picking up any detail.

Also, it seems odd that you're keeping all your shots still, yet you don't have a tripod. Buy one, or shoot films that require less precision and smoothness.

Sorry if it all seems negative, but hopefully it'll allow you to improve!

adeq1 · 25 Feb 2009 at 23:07

Martin_Man said:
I just showed my brother and he agrees with you, I suppose your right in many ways that I could have added more movement to the video, but with movement such as zooming (in/out) and panning across, it can be to harsh for the eye specially if you don’t have the correct equipment to do it. That’s why I keep my videos still for now. Thanks for letting me know about the timing, I’ll fix that asap

i'm not sure what the proper term is, but manually focusing on distant and then close objects would add a little more to the movies, without crazy zooms or pans. I.e. focus on fence post (castle blured in background), then refocus on castle, leaving foregound fence post blured. If you look at any of the sample videos for the DSLRs with video (EOS 5D MkII, D90 etc) you'll see what i mean.

Martin_Man · 26 Feb 2009 at 16:09

rghjones said:
110mb for 4 minutes is way too high. You should be aiming for around 20-25mb max for that length.

Also, what's the intended use of the video? It's hard to give feedback without knowing this. If it's just for personal enjoyment, then what anyone here thinks doesn't really matter, but if not then what kind of advice are you after?

The video isn't varied enough. As has been said, it's more like watching a slideshow. None of the shots are particularly well composed (each can be judged as a separate photo), and they're all fairly wide - you're not picking up any detail.

Also, it seems odd that you're keeping all your shots still, yet you don't have a tripod. Buy one, or shoot films that require less precision and smoothness.

Sorry if it all seems negative, but hopefully it'll allow you to improve!

No it's fine thank's for that. The castle is only down the road from where i live so i'll always have time to go back and film a little more. I have a low budgeted tripod so the movements comes out very joggy when panning, but the good thing about it, it's very easy to take around. I'll be keeping an eye out for one on ebay.

when you say picking up enough detail, what type of detail are you looking for? I'm looking to improve on my skills, so what any one has to say will always help me out.

I'm going to sound rather stupid now but, what did you mean by?:
'110mb for 4 minutes is way too high. You should be aiming for around 20-25mb max for that length'

Russinating · 26 Feb 2009 at 20:37

Martin_Man said:
No it's fine thank's for that. The castle is only down the road from where i live so i'll always have time to go back and film a little more. I have a low budgeted tripod so the movements comes out very joggy when panning, but the good thing about it, it's very easy to take around. I'll be keeping an eye out for one on ebay.

when you say picking up enough detail, what type of detail are you looking for? I'm looking to improve on my skills, so what any one has to say will always help me out.

I'm going to sound rather stupid now but, what did you mean by?:
'110mb for 4 minutes is way too high. You should be aiming for around 20-25mb max for that length'

I'd definitely recommend getting a decent tripod if your serious about video.

Detail can be anything - some nice close shots with a lot of depth of field - a flower blowing in the wind, a bird on a branch, a bug crawling along the floor. Anything that adds to the atmosphere.

A film that's 4 minutes long should be 25mb max.

Martin_Man · 26 Feb 2009 at 21:24

rghjones said:
I'd definitely recommend getting a decent tripod if your serious about video.

Detail can be anything - some nice close shots with a lot of depth of field - a flower blowing in the wind, a bird on a branch, a bug crawling along the floor. Anything that adds to the atmosphere.

A film that's 4 minutes long should be 25mb max.

Ok, give me a week I'll fix my problems.

I see your an experienced camera man?