Canon Vixia HF G40.

[charlyee]

Hello all, a long time since I posted in this subforum.

I finally updated my 8 year old Canon Vixia HF10 and as of yesterday i am the proud owner of a HF G40.

I use IMovie on my MBP and eventually save it as .mov for "show and tell". It worked pretty well with the HF10.

Would you recommend I do with the same with the G40?

Any particular settings or any other recommendations for using the G40?

Thanks very much for all your help.

 

[joema2]

Hello all, a long time since I posted in this subforum.

I finally updated my 8 year old Canon Vixia HF10 and as of yesterday i am the proud owner of a HF G40.

I use IMovie on my MBP and eventually save it as .mov for "show and tell". It worked pretty well with the HF10.

Would you recommend I do with the same with the G40?

Any particular settings or any other recommendations for using the G40?

Thanks very much for all your help.

I had an HF10 and my documentary group now uses an HF-G30 and XA25. They (and the G40) are really good camcorders. In general I recommend using MP4 not AVCHD format and record at the highest available bit rate. AVCHD is a bit more cumbersome to deal with on a Mac.

My main recommendations are:

(1) For interviews or anything similar, use external audio. Having good quality audio is vital for even recreational or "show and tell" videos. There are many possibilities, but one of the least expensive quality solutions is the Canon/Sony Bluetooth wireless mic. It is the same product under two different brands:

Canon WM-V1: http://amzn.com/B004JNXDH6
Sony ECM-AW4: http://amzn.com/B00JWU6WWO

(2) Manually white balance your shot beforehand. This only applies for fixed shots like interviews or demonstrations. If the subject is moving between different lighting, it's better to just use auto white balance.

 

[v3rlon]

I will second external audio. I often tell people that the metal bracket on top of the camera is called a shoe because, like the things you wear on your feet, it is a rotten place to put a light or a microphone.

Several companies make excellent audio recorders. Zoom is rather famous for it, but there are plenty of other brands. Scouring the used rack at Guitar Center or the local pawn shop might not be out of the question if you are on a budget. There are "turn your iPhone into an audio recorder" device/apps, but I haven't tried those. The trick is to get the microphone close to the speaker, of course.

When recording classes for work, I have the instructor pocket the recorder and use a Lav mike, then use the FCP X auto-sync feature to match it to camera audio. In this application, I get by just fine with a $15 Olympus microphone. You can certainly spend a lot more.

It is AMAZING how much difference basic lighting and decent audio elevates your video from "Uncle with a camcorder home movie" to "are you an independent filmmaker?"

 

[charlyee]

Thank you very much for all the replies. I am involve with Save The Tiger Foundation and World Wildlife Federation, so majority of the videos I shoot would be related to wildlife.

Couple more questions please:

1. In what respected is MP4 easier to edit than AVCHD and is there any difference I quality?

2. What is the best way manually set the white balance?

Thanks again.

 

[joema2]

...1. In what respected is MP4 easier to edit than AVCHD and is there any difference I quality?...2. What is the best way manually set the white balance?...

Each camera is different but the HF-G30/G40/XA25, etc. have roughly equal quality using either the high bitrate MP4 setting or the AVCHD setting. FCPX can edit either one equally well. However MP4 has several advantages:

(1) Can be imported to FCPX with "leave files in place option". This is faster than importing files to the library. This may not be an issue for relatively modest amounts of material. I don't know how iMovie handles this.

(2) MP4 files can more easily be viewed outside FCPX/iMovie at the Finder level. AVCHD is bundled to a single large "file package" which is more difficult to browse in Finder.

If you have older AVCHD content this can be "re-wrapped" to MP4 using the commercial tool ClipWrap: http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap

Or the free tool Rewrap AVCHD: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39800/rewrapavchd

Re setting white balance, see the G40 manual. In general the procedure is press the LCD menu button, then the white balance on-screen button, then select a preset and aim the camera at a neutral white or grey target immediately in front of the subject. Here is a video for an earlier Canon camcorder -- the procedure is roughly the same in your new G40:

This is much more important for indoor shots. For outdoor shots I'd generally recommend just using auto white balance.

 

[charlyee]

Thanks very much. Majority of what I do is outside so I will leave it on AWB for starters.

I can't wait to use it on my next trip.