hpx 300 help!

[Michael Sacci]

Why not post a clip and your settings.

what level of shoot are you?

[Jeff Regan]

You might try raising chroma level, using HD Gamma vs. Filmlike Gamma,
and lowering Master Ped as a starting point to see if you’re headed in the right direction. These things are more often done in post vs. in camera these days. Filmlike Gamma would be preferable for high contrast exteriors, capturing more highlight detail, but will look flat compared to a normal video gamma.

A more complex set of adjustments would be Matrix settings, best done with a MacBeth color chart or DSC Labs Chroma Du Monde chart with HD vectorscope. Matrix and Color Correction(don’t know if the HPX300 has either circuit) really allows one to specifically attain their preferred look for color primaries and secondaries, both for hue and saturation. It would be much easier to successfully download the Panasonic scene files, find one that is closer to what you like and tweak from there.

Panasonic cameras are known for great colorimetry and skin tones, but, at least for the high end cameras, the matrix settings are deficient in green and cyan.

Jeff Regan
Shooting Star Video
http://www.ssv.com

[Steve Eisen]

Lousy picture is due to operator error. Adjust your scene settings. Lighting your scene will also help.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Dan Brockett]

I tend to agree with Steve. The three shoots I have done with HPX300, the footage has been outstanding quality, much better than I ever thought possible from a 1/3″ chip set.

You must have something setup wrong or must have a defective camera.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[John d Foundas]

Ummm Steve…I did check and download various scene files and used a full pepper kit as a test.
It’s just a bad camera out of the box.
BTW I have 7 Emmy’s, 4 Murrows and 3 White House Press Photographer awards.
Being an engineering techno geek doesn’t make YOU a good Photojournalist.

Warmly,
John Foundas
FOX NEWS

[John d Foundas]

Thanks Dan,
Allowing me the possibility of having a defective camera was quite nice of you.
LOL. Enjoy your evening.

John

[Jeff Regan]

John,

This isn’t making sense to me(I’ve only tested the HPX300 once, so I’m making some recommendations based on ownership of HPX170, HDX900 and HPX2700), first you said the scene files weren’t loading properly from the SD card, then you said you loaded them.

If you loaded multiple scene files, surely you saw some differences between them? A digital camera is just hardware looking for the right software and firmware to provide the final image.

The fact that you are a news shooter tells me potentially a couple of things(please correct me if I’m off base):

You want a contrasty image-try HD Gamma or B Press if the 300 has it

You want lots of detail-raise the detail level

You want a bright image-raise the gamma point

I saw that you complained about noise with the 300-raise coring to +2

There may also be black stretch and/or mid gamma options to try out.

While the HPX300 doesn’t have as many menu options as an HPX2700, there should still be enough scope for getting a look that you like out of the camera. We are in the range of the subjective here, that’s why there are so many menu line items for image control.

To say that the HPX300 “is bad out of the box” either means you don’t like the factory setup or the camera is defective. Not seeing differences between scene files, or seeing differences, but not liking any of them seems odd.

Jeff Regan
Shooting Star Video
http://www.ssv.com

[John d Foundas]

Jeff,
Thank you for the advise.
I’m sorry if didn’t lay out my efforts chronologically.
The SD card was bad…anyways.I did see differences in the various scene files.
However, one thing remains constant…The camera does not produce a crisp image.
Noticeable on ext footage, but indoor, even under quality, soft lighting…it looks cruddy and noisy ( yes I added firmware).
Unusable and would never let a client see this. A bench tech seems to think the cam has lost its “Set Up”.
NO CAMERA should look like this out of the box. tweaking is one thing, but there has to be a quality control level
at somepoint. I’m sending it back to BH and considering getting the JVC HM700.

Thanks for your input,
John

[Dan Brockett]

Hi John:

Since I am as sarcastic as you are, I salute your answer, pretty good. I wrote what I wrote because I have used three different 300s and unless the camera is defective or really setup wrong, it couldn’t look as terrible as you describe.

Rock on. BTW, if you are a news guy, JVC? Really? JVCs break, the only news operations I have ever seen them are in super low budget local stations. No rental companies stock JVC for a reason. You will have down time. They can make nice looking pictures though but if they are always in the shop, what’s the point?

Good luck,

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[John d Foundas]

Dan,
Thanks for the thoughts.
I work in news yes…however the camera(s) in question are for Corporate client work. I would never use the 300/HM700/EX3 for any news application. The skewing and low light limitations are deal breakers in that regard. That being said, the JVC product line has come a long way and a straight out of the box comparison, the JVC has a superior picture to the hpx300. The 300 I have does not produce a clear,crisp,cracking picture.

John