Hello, I have a hard time getting good horizontal recordings. The video blurs like it can't keep the frames in place as it moves. Its very annoying because I can't record in fast motion for that either, its like I have to record very still, and if I move, it has to be very slowly. I compared video from an almost 20 year old camera and though you can't compare the image clarity, it seems to give better results in the problem I'm having which I find odd. Is there a way to fix this? I record in regular standard definition, full screen.
Another thing that worries me is the poor focus. Its like a focus hunt type of thing that happens several times in situations where light is low. Should I take it to the repair shop, or is there a solution I can do?
Aside from my concerns, is there a camera that works better in these areas? I love the FX7 no doubt, but sometimes it just doesn't satisfy my expectations.
Sony FX7 motion blur?
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acgold7
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Re: Sony FX7 motion blur?
The FX7 struggles in low light, and one of the ways this shows itself is that it tends to hunt for focus. You can work around this by focusing manually.
Not sure what you mean by motion blur, but in low light you could be using a very slow shutter speed, which would exacerbate motion blur while panning. In bright light you shouldn't have any problem, unless you have inadvertently put in too much ND filter, which would force a slower shutter speed as well. When you have this problem, are you in full auto in good outdoor light? How are you viewing this -- on a proper HDTV via HDMI or on a PC monitor? A PC monitor will rarely display interlaced video well, so if you are seeing interlacing lines this could be your problem.
Why are you shooting standard def? You can shoot in HDV and then if you have an old or underpowered PC that can't handle HDV, downconvert either upon capture or, better, when you encode and burn to DVD.
In the tape realm there are unquestionably better cams, but not at that price point. If you want better low light performance but want to stay with tape, you should look at the FX1000. If you want to go tapeless then you could look at the AX2000.
Not sure what you mean by motion blur, but in low light you could be using a very slow shutter speed, which would exacerbate motion blur while panning. In bright light you shouldn't have any problem, unless you have inadvertently put in too much ND filter, which would force a slower shutter speed as well. When you have this problem, are you in full auto in good outdoor light? How are you viewing this -- on a proper HDTV via HDMI or on a PC monitor? A PC monitor will rarely display interlaced video well, so if you are seeing interlacing lines this could be your problem.
Why are you shooting standard def? You can shoot in HDV and then if you have an old or underpowered PC that can't handle HDV, downconvert either upon capture or, better, when you encode and burn to DVD.
In the tape realm there are unquestionably better cams, but not at that price point. If you want better low light performance but want to stay with tape, you should look at the FX1000. If you want to go tapeless then you could look at the AX2000.
Adam
Re: Sony FX7 motion blur?
Have you increased the SHARPNESS setting? If so, decrease it. Too much "sharpness" causes aliasing, which in turns looks like noise and blur when you move the camera.
I also seem to have similar issues in HDV, but I never was able to figure out whether that's due to the cam or to my HDTV performing poor deinterlacing perhaps (it's a high-end Sony though).
I was watching recently some footage I shot by night in Hong-Kong with my FX7 (1/50 shutter speed, 9-12dB gain, HDV mode): when shooting steady, it's reasonably crisp. When panning (even rather slowly), blur kills resolution. Fortunately most of my shots were steady (I try to avoid panning since panning looks bad by itself, blur or no blur). But apparently it would seem that panning by extreme low light is a big no-no.
I also seem to have similar issues in HDV, but I never was able to figure out whether that's due to the cam or to my HDTV performing poor deinterlacing perhaps (it's a high-end Sony though).
I was watching recently some footage I shot by night in Hong-Kong with my FX7 (1/50 shutter speed, 9-12dB gain, HDV mode): when shooting steady, it's reasonably crisp. When panning (even rather slowly), blur kills resolution. Fortunately most of my shots were steady (I try to avoid panning since panning looks bad by itself, blur or no blur). But apparently it would seem that panning by extreme low light is a big no-no.
Re: Sony FX7 motion blur?
Stephan,
There has always been a problem with HDV when panning. The issue is that 25MB/s is fine when normal picture content moves, but when panning, (also when shooting rippled/waved water) the codec gets overloaded and (deliberately) reduces the resolution prior to macroblock coding which is visually better than struggling on and causing blockiness. This was commented on in the earliest reviews and user feedback postings about 5 years ago now when the FX1(E) was released. As far as low light is concerned, the rise in noise level probably takes the codec closer to its bandwidth limit anyway, and even a modest pan just causes it to restrict the data input to the macroblock coding.
My FX1E has all of these features, and I've got used to dealing with them. It was said at its introduction that the FX1 lens was a bit soft, which in retrospect was a wise move as later cameras such as the A1/HC1 & V1/FX7 pushed the resolution to the limit and as a consequence had artifacts and both suffered more in low light situations.
Steve
There has always been a problem with HDV when panning. The issue is that 25MB/s is fine when normal picture content moves, but when panning, (also when shooting rippled/waved water) the codec gets overloaded and (deliberately) reduces the resolution prior to macroblock coding which is visually better than struggling on and causing blockiness. This was commented on in the earliest reviews and user feedback postings about 5 years ago now when the FX1(E) was released. As far as low light is concerned, the rise in noise level probably takes the codec closer to its bandwidth limit anyway, and even a modest pan just causes it to restrict the data input to the macroblock coding.
My FX1E has all of these features, and I've got used to dealing with them. It was said at its introduction that the FX1 lens was a bit soft, which in retrospect was a wise move as later cameras such as the A1/HC1 & V1/FX7 pushed the resolution to the limit and as a consequence had artifacts and both suffered more in low light situations.
Steve
Re: Sony FX7 motion blur?
Thanks Steve for the explanation. This makes sense, esp. the idea that low-light noise would bring the codec to its limits (I never thought of that, although with 9dB noise is still reasonable).
But there are 2 points which make me wonder:
What do you think?
As for the original poster's question, I never used my FX7 for SD DV recording. But wherever there's digital resampling less than 2x ratio in either direction, I now have severe doubts whether that works as well as advertised. Everybody seems to be happy downscaling HD to SD, and it's been disappointing to me frankly (for the same reasons).
But there are 2 points which make me wonder:
- A simple pan is just a translation (roughly), much simpler to deal with compared to water ripples, and MPEG2 is supposed to be extremely efficient for handling translated movement (motion-detection algorithm). Check old-fashioned DVDs, or MPEG2 digital TV (satellite, cable), they only have a few Mbps of bandwidth and don't seem to have issues with panning.
- Maybe my eyes cheat me, but it seems to me the blur is much more apparent with horizontal pans, compared to vertical pans which seem to be much crisper. I recall doing a vertical pan of a church once (bad practice I know ;-) and the vertical motion really looked quite nice for HDV, actually!
What do you think?
As for the original poster's question, I never used my FX7 for SD DV recording. But wherever there's digital resampling less than 2x ratio in either direction, I now have severe doubts whether that works as well as advertised. Everybody seems to be happy downscaling HD to SD, and it's been disappointing to me frankly (for the same reasons).