Recently, I was asked to help out a friend figure out some issues with the Canon HF11.

I am not going to really review the camera here, other than it is pretty cheap and does do some amazing pictures for what it is as long as you have plenty of light with it.

So anyways, back to my problems with this camera. This camera is being used to shoot stock footage, and he had purchased it and was delivering 10 second clips and pretty much was having zero trouble with it. I borrowed it to shoot some clips when i was out in the desert, and wanted to see how it would handle some things etc.

This camera shoots 1080p over 60i, which is not the end of the world, but not ideal for me. The stock house i have been talking to wants 1080p24, and i would rather shoot in that format for many reasons. I have made it pretty clear to most people that i hate interlacing!

So going thru the workflow and coming up with a good solid system to work by with this camera was my purpose here. Well, the main problem is that Canon chose to do some quirky things to me on this camera.

Issue #1:
Canon chose to have the video clips start over on numbering at zero each time you format the card. Yeah! that adds an extra step to the workflow to rename each clip to be unique.

Issue #2:
1080p60i. Canon chose to be lame here. The main problem is that they implemented non-standard cadence. Each time you start a clip, it picks up where the last clip stopped, rather than starting up with the same pattern. For example, PPPII(P=progressive, I=Interlaced). The last card that i shot had a mix of clips that used:
PPPII
PPIIP
PIIPP
IIPPP
IPPPI

If each clip started and used PPPII or ANY of the other ways, but only 1 of them, then all clips could be batched thru cinema tools fairly quickly and have the pulldown removed. No recompression needed, just a new file output.

Rather, you have to go thru each clip and figure out the cadence. That sucks.

So the only practical way to deal with the reverse telecine is thru compressor. You use the high quality frame controls to remove the reverse telecine, and it works beautifully, but it does do it a bit slower and it is recompressing. Lucky that proRes can handle the recompression.

i created a droplet that i drop all clips on, and it handles it in the background for me thru compressor.

I wrote to canon tech support and after quite a few emails of them blaming apple and fcp for causing it, they finally agreed that it is a consumer camera and the 24p is just to make it feel like cinema, rather than being 24p.

I don’t have any test footage from the hf20, but i assume that it handles it the same.

What i am curious to see is the new HV40. They claim Native 24p recording, but i wonder if it truly will be native or over 60i with non-standard cadence.

So it is not the end of the world, but not ideal either, so just a heads up with all these canon prosumer cameras.