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HDV, DVCPRO, DVCAM????
I am a video producer who is about to step it up to HD for the first time and I was looking for some advice as to which format would b e best for professional picture quality and (more importantly) easy video capturing and editing.
I just want to make sure i don’t go with a format that’ll make me sorry in the editing room. At the end of the day, the camera selection will be up to my DP, but I figure having some info ahead of time can’t hurt.
Just to be specific as possible, the project is a semi-cinematic music video (so I don’t need feature quality picture, just something that looks better than basic 3CCD) and I will be editing on a FCP system (any advice about harddrives for HD storage would be appreciated as well.)
Sorry for rambling but I’m at a loss. Thank you!
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5 Replies
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sounds like DVCPRO-HD 1080 is what you might want.
Simple, does not require a massive disk array and it just works.
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So, you think something like the Panasonic HDX-900 DVCPro HD would get me the picture and post pro flexibility I’m looking for?
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HDV is Sony’s answer to High Def using 4:2:0 color space. What does that mean to you? A good HDV camera takes a good looking 16:9 video but is a real paid to edit because of the limited color space.
DVCPro HD is High Def at 4:2:2 color space and also produces a great looking video but is easy to edit with camera’s like the HVX-200 and HPX-200 being P2 media instead of tape and color space very easy to capture and edit.
DVCAM is SD only – basically 4:1:1 color space as is any DV 4:3 footage. Definitely not High Def. Some use it as anamorphically but that just reduces the actually pixel count of a frame below that of a 4:3 frame.
XDCam is Sony’s High Def camera but still uses 4:2:0 color space (like HDV) and media cards, not tapes.
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[Joe Mar] “So, you think something like the Panasonic HDX-900 DVCPro HD would get me the picture and post pro flexibility I’m looking for?”
That’s a solid HD camera and we’ve used it quite a bit on projects here. Might be overkill depending on your budget. HVX-200 is also a solid camera, but of course you have to use the P2 workflow for that. That’s very cool and getting a lot easier to work with as the format matures.
A Sony HDV camera is a fantastic camera in the hands of a good DP. We’ve used it on documentaries here, but we convert the footage to DVCPro HD during ingest and edit in that format. I just experimented with rendering the footage to ProRes HQ in Color and than finishing in that format and it did look absolutely fantastic.
DVCPro HD is a proven HD format and has been used for years on broadcast programming, documentaries and independent films. Easy on the hard drives too as it’s a small format.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Thank you both for the information. It was very useful. I think I’ll end up using one HDX-900 or two HVX-200’s, depending on whether or not my DP can take full advantage of the higher end model. Thank you again!
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