Sony HDR-AX2000: A Green Screen Experiment

This is a side-by-side comparison of the results of doing "green screen" video with three generations of consumer video cameras. The cameras used in this experiment are the Sony HDR-AX2000, the Panasonic PV-GS500, and the Sony CCD-TR64. This program also includes a brief discussion of some of the keying tools found in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, and Adobe After Effects CS5.

The goal of this program is to be both informative and entertaining (hopefully anyway). See if you can pass the "final exam" at the end of this video!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Sony HDR-AX2000
• green screen
• Bill
• Velbeck
• Adobe
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• CS5
• After
• Effects
• Lastolite
• digital video
• AVCHD
• camcorder
• palmcorder
• high definition
• review
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• compare
• CPT
• SPHR
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• training
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[DanielHidalgoA]

Fantastic VIdeo thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and making such a great video, im thinking on buying one of this camcorders: Canon XH A1S (CCD) Canon XH G1s (CCD) Canon XF305 (CMOS) Canon XF105 (CMOS) Sony NXCAM HXR-NX5U (CMOS) Sony HVR-Z7 (CMOS) Sony HVR-Z5U (CMOS) Sony HVR-V1 (CMOS) AND OF COURSE THE Sony HDR AX2000 Wich one would you recomend me??????

[Phibes07]

Thanks for watching Daniel! I’m not a hardware expert, but here’s what I learned while I was researching my purchase of the HDR-AX2000. Look for:

1. Solid-state storage - not tape

2. Progressive scan - not interlaced

3. There are pros and cons to CCD vs. CMOS sensors - get the largest sensors you can get, and get a camera with 3 separate sensors

4. CNET is a good source for hardware reviews.

You might also enjoy viewing my new Halloween video using Mocha and After Effects called “My New Mask”.

[wagonburner5000]

very informative and interesting. its an odd luxury to see how far camera sensors have come.

[Phibes07]

Thank you for watching. It was an interesting challenge to produce a single video using source material from three such different sources. It may come as no surprise when I tell you that most of the footage I shot wound up on the digital equivalent of the cutting room floor.

[Phibes07]

To the many people around the world who have taken time to view this program, I would like to say thank you for watching. My translations may be rough, but my gratitude is genuine.

Vielen Dank für Zuschauen

Ringraziarla per guardare questo programma

شكرا على مشاهدة

kiitos katsominen

спасибо рассматривать эту программу

Gracias por mirar este programa

Obrigado para olhar este programa

Regards,

Dr. Bill

[Voodeux]

Thanks for the response. Care to share your lighting setup as well? Any plus-green filters for the background lights? How far are you from it?

[Phibes07]

I used 11 Ecosmart bright white compact florescent bulbs, each producing 120 watt equivalent light output, each with a Bogen white diffusion filter. There were 3 lights on each side of the green screen to light it (I tried Rosco chroma green filters on these lights, but the green spill onto the subject created a lot of problems. I was only 6 feet in front of the screen which made the spill worse). The other bulbs were used for 3-point lighting: 3 bulbs for the key, and 1 each for fill and back.

[Phibes07]

@Voodeux Thanks for watching. Only 2 of the 3 cameras had MWB available (the CCD-TR64 uses AWB only). Since I was trying to make the fairest comparison possible, I opted to use AWB on all 3 cameras. Although the color from the HDR-AX2000 using AWB is good, I have found that I can get even truer results by manually adjusting it. Actually, the PV-GS500 using AWB did the best job reproducing the color of the shirt I was wearing, but it wasn't even close on the color of the green screen.

[Voodeux]

Thanks for putting this together. I was looking for information on keying AVCHD footage from a Sony HDR camera and found this well-made demo. One question, did you manually white balance any of these cameras or go with AWB?