I'm aiming to video my local club's home games this season and need some advice on camcorder settings for evening games. I will be shooting approx. 25 metres from the pitch,at the back of a large stand (about 20 metres off ground level).Floodlighting is of a good standard but obviously the camcorder will be situated in near darkness during the game.Will be using a Canon XM-1 on a decent quality tripod. Any advice gratefully received!
Hi,
Two cameras would be better and the Panasonic 3 ccd cameras are better in poor light than the MX-1 which to be fair is not far behind. Its when you have to zoom in, in poor light its harder to focus.
The Panasonic is very good at focusing, fast and accurate.
So not too, be of much help.
Jim Bird.
quote:Originally posted by Jim Bird:
Hi,Two cameras would be better and the Panasonic 3 ccd cameras are better in poor light than the MX-1 which to be fair is not far behind. Its when you have to zoom in, in poor light its harder to focus.
The Panasonic is very good at focusing, fast and accurate.
So not too, be of much help.
Jim Bird.
quote:Originally posted by Jim Bird:
Yeah, I've already found this problem with the MX-1 - will just have to be a bit careful with the zoom! - thanks anyway.Two cameras would be better and the Panasonic 3 ccd cameras are better in poor light than the MX-1 which to be fair is not far behind. Its when you have to zoom in, in poor light its harder to focus.
The Panasonic is very good at focusing, fast and accurate.
So not too, be of much help.
Jim Bird.[/B]
Beware with any consumer/prosumer camcorder, the zoom lens will "ramp". This means that the aperture at full wide is bigger than that at full zoom. If you're lucky, the lens might even admit it on the outer ring, telling you what the maximum apertures are are each end. It means that you might get a good picture wide, but you'll run out of light when you zoom in, and that might mean the camera increasing the gain (generating extra video noise) when you're in tight. Losing 2 stops at full zoom is quite normal.
The big boys pay extra for lenses that don't do this. Or at least for lenses that don't do it much or do it only at the extremes of zoom. So a sport zoom for broadcast may have an 85:1 zoom range (yep, honest, I've played with 'em), but the tight end of the lens is used only for finding shots, the used shot is wider. Of course there are always exceptions, but that's the way lenses work.
Try to get more than one camcorder there. You'll probably need at least 3, 2 from the grandstand (so that you can have wide and close shots from the same viewpoint and can let cameras go off-shot so that they can move) and one on the touch line is handy for cutaways, throw ins, crowd reactions and so on. Use a tripod for the grandstand shots, because you'll be going in tight sometimes.
Of course, all this assumes you're going to edit the footage, so you'll need the whole match on tape so that you can select the best bits. But you'll still need at least two high shots and one low to get sensible coverage.
Unless you're happy just to have one continuous shot from one camera, but the viewers will get a bit bored before long...
[This message has been edited by Alan Roberts at work (edited 29 July 2002).]
Many Thanks for the reply Alan - a few things to think about in your reply- this is going to be more tricky than I imagined!
If you decide to film at ground level, please please be aware of Health and Safety risks.
A football travels at high speed, and is a very powerful weapon at short range. Ensure that you are insured for injury, and that your camera is covered too.
We have filmed many high profile football teams at recognised stadiums (including, clue, a very famous footballer married to a very famous pop star), and suffered smashed cameras on 2 occasions. Once, the cameraman suffered a fairly serious cut above the eye (14 stiches), when a tackle near the touchline shot the ball off the pitch and into his camera at high speed from only a few metres away. He had no chance to get out of the way. Viewfinder broken, deep cut, and trip to hospital. The famous man took a corner, and the near-post defender volleyed the ball behind for another corner..straight into my camera, with me behind it. Second smashed camera!
We are very methodical in our filming, and take safety seriously too..so..be careful!
Chris
other things to beatr in mind..night time games and uneven floodlighting, wearing high vis jackets if on touchline, public liability insurance (you could be sued if a player collides with you)
Always ensure you use manual exposure and white balance. If using multi cameras, be careful of colour differences between the cameras..strictly speaking you need a camera control unit to balance colour on each, an also how you will record audio. Are you going to use a commentary? Use a decent microphone like a Beyer Dynamic to ensure a local pick-up for the commentary, and a few carefully dispersed gun mics for the crowd and touchline audio.
Having said all of this, bear in mind too the cost of doing it properly against the likely return on your time/outlay. You don t say what kind of team it is, and for whatpurpose you are filming. Could be a parks team, non-league, or premiership...quality issues are "horses for courses", safety issues apply at all levels. When using scaffolding, or gantreys, take care when wet. Sometimes football matches are played in horrendous weather, so ensure adequate clothing (dont laugh, but longjohns are a good idea), and fingerless gloves help too.
Hope that all helps
Chris
Thanks Chris for the info. - will bear in mind the Safety issues - something I had'nt considered. The team I am doing this for play at non-league (Conference) level so the video will be of interest mainly to the supporters via sales in the Club Shop.
Videoing will be mainly from the rear of a large stand so hopefully I will be out of the winter weather!
Sales are likely to be low, so dont spend TOO much money on producing it!
Good luck
Chris