HD Xacti Tips
These are great little cameras but a few things will give you much better performance.\\
On a shared camera its always a good idea to set it to the factory default as a base:
Menu/Option Menu #3/Reset
Image:
Its a bit counter intuitive but the best image quality will come from setting the camera to the second option:
- Recording Menu #1/Movie/Full-SHQ 1980x1080 30fps SHQ
- 16G cards will provide almost 3 hours of recording.
- 16:9 aspect ratio.
If you are just using the video for your blog or other online uses it might save you some time to shoot standard def & work with smaller files.
- Recording Menu #1/Movie/TV-SHQ/640x480
- 16G card will provide over 10 hours of recording time
- 4:3 (square) aspect ratio
Audio:
If you plan to record audio & want it to be of a decent quality you must use an external mic. There is a small cable that comes in the soft case. It will connect to a mini plug. On top of the camera is a hidden shoe if you want to carry the camera & mic as a single device. The audio input is a bit funky so be sure to test your set-up before the big shoot.
Post-Production in Final Cut Pro:
The Xacti uses a codec that is not native to Final Cut Pro. If you are planning on doing a lot of effects, etc. it might save you a lot of rendering time to immediately export your footage into ProRes 422. There are two ways to do this:\\
- Apple uses the media manager which creates a new project with the converted footage.
- Ken Stone has a tutorial which makes it possible to convert incrementally - which is better if you will be having multiple shoots for your project.
Other things you might want to double check:
- Focus: Recording menu #2
This camera can be set for manual focus. Its not a great interface but some situations require it.
For shooting those tiny projects (Arduino board, etc.) use super macro & a tripod
- White Balance: Recording menu #3:
If you are shooting a projection make sure the white balance is set to daylight (sun icon) otherwise everything will be blue!