xa10user

Now that I’ve finally finished editing the holiday video, I’ve had a bit more time to put together a few of the better clips from my recent visit to Sydney. As you’ll see, I have a bit of a fixation with filming pidgeons – even though they are generally less cooperative than I’d like. It was also a good chance to test the Canon XA10’s depth of field, though, and some of the close-up pidgeon shots came out quite nice and sharp with a gently blurred background. The effect would probably have been better if I’d used a DSLR but I’ve never really liked the form factor of the DSLRs and much prefer using my Canon XA10 for run and gun shooting. I pretty much did all the shots hand held and would have preferred some more tripod shots but I got fed up lugging it around everywhere (even though it’s a pretty lightweight Manfotto travel tripod). One handy feature with the Canon XA10 is the powered stabiliser so I use it for short tracking shots that (sort of) look as though I’ve used a slider (but without the rigmarole of having to carry one around with me). If the shot doesn’t quite seem smooth enough, it’s easy enough to add a little extra stabilisation in iMovie. As long as the shot isn’t too long (say, around 2-3 seconds), then it pretty much does the trick.