Among the typos I left this out - despite the hubbub about the HVX200's 540 line resolving power, everyone I know feels it holds up to HDCam and even film outpt as well or better than its HDV equivalents. Resolution isn't everything by a long shot.
Also be warned that the fake 24P on some of the Sony cameras can NOT be treated as 24P in post and looks really really wonky. And I left out my summary: assuming 24P is necessary: Best value: Panasonic DVX100 (but doesn't do HD) Best HD option under 10k: Panasonic HVX-200 Best Professional HDV for the money: Canon XH-A1 Best Consumer HDV: Canon HV20 Best Consumer DV: Sony's cheapos still have the picture quality edge, while Panasonic's have the interface/ergonomics edge. Brook On 12/9/07, Brook Hinton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Warning - long response. > > First - if you have a good rental house nearby I would strongly > consider renting for your for-hire work unitl you get a good sense of > what cameras you like and how their workflow works out for you. That's > what I'm doing right now - there's still a lot of upheaval in the low > to mid end HD production field and things will keep changing rapidly. > The fallout from the introduction of the RED camera is going to change > things drastically. > > That said, here's my take on the sub-10k cams I'm familiar with. > You'll note very little Sony or JVC mentioned - I used to favor Sony's > stuff, but they've fallen way behind in this field in my view. JVC > makes some very interesting midrange cameras, but I am leery of their > > For 24P in standard def/DV you are pretty much limited to the > absolutely excellent Panasonic DVX100 (or its more expensive big > brother, the HVX200, which also does HD once you add pricey P2 cards - > see below). > > For pro for-hire work I still try to avoid HDV except for projects > that are primarily interviews or other material that won't have a lot > of motion. The Canon HDV stuff does a better job than the other brands > on avoiding motion artifacts and blocking it seems, but you're going > to be delivering on DVD, h.264 files or an HD DVD / Blu-Ray pretty > soon for many clients, which means putting that long-GOP mpeg2 > transport HDV stream through not only color correction and whatever > other image processing and compositing but ANOTHER pass of temporal > compression. That said, I know others who are using the the higher end > Sony and Canon HDV cameras for professional work. If you go that > route, the HX-A1 is a great value. > > If you want 24P in HDV, Sony has one model, but it has pretty crummy > low light performance. Canon's prosumer/professional HDV stuff does > 24F, which is kind of like a 24fps version of "frame mode" on the XL1 > and GL1 - doesn't have the res of 24P but it has the look and can be > treated as true 24P in post. > > On the lower end - while I adore my little HV20 as an everyday > personal cam and even for my own filmmaking, it lacks the support you > really need for professional audio in the field (unless you're doing > double system sound), and is going to make most clients a little > uneasy since it looks and feels like a very cheap consumer camera. > It's 24P feature requires some extra steps in post as it doesn't carry > the cadence flags other 24P video equipment uses. The picture, once > you learn to get full manual control, rivals its more expensive > brothers and sisters though. It's the best consumer-for-pros secret > weapon cam since the Sony TRV900, but it's not something to build a > production business around. > > IF you can afford it and are willing to learn the workflow of using P2 > cards and no tape, the HVX200 is NON-hdv HD camera for the money, does > multiple frame rates, and uses dvcproHD instead of HDV for > compression. Basically (though this obersimplifies), its a native 16:9 > HD version of the DVX100 (it will also do DV on tape). But once you > get the cards and the support stuff it is more expensive than the high > end Canon and Sony HDV stuff. There's a lot of talk about it only > resolving 540 lines and the interpolation it uses. > > > I should also repeat here three mantras I always tell my students: > > 1) Never buy anything until you are ready to learn it thoroughly and > use it regularly immediately. I work with so many people who got > themselves "fully equipped" and then, two years later, find themselves > facing obsolescence or incompatabilities once they are ready to really > learn and use. > > 2) Never WAIT to buy something you need right away due to fear of > something better and cheaper coming out soon - it's not worth the > missed opportunity. > > 3) A skilled and talented artist or craftsperson can get professional > results from almost anything. An unskilled person will not do any > better with a CIneAlta HDCam than they will with a cel phone camera. > The person is at least 95% of the quality equation. The equipment is > secondary. > > FWIW, with apologies for my habitual lectury teacher-tone, > > Brook > > > _______________________________________________________ > Brook Hinton > film/video/audio art > www.brookhinton.com > studio vlog/blog: www.brookhinton.com/temporalab > -- _______________________________________________________ Brook Hinton film/video/audio art www.brookhinton.com studio vlog/blog: www.brookhinton.com/temporalab
