I have $10,000! What should I do with it?

[Ron Lindeboom]

The real choices you have in that price range are:

The XL H1 as you have already pointed out and for good reasons.

The Panasonic HVX200 as it can shoot in multiple formats and when you need HD, it’s there; if you need to transition off SD but still have some SD shoots, it can shoot in standard def, as well. There are discussions of it in our Panasonic P2 forum.

Those are the two that make the most sense to me.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Malcolm Desoto]

Hey, thanks for replying! I’ll look into the Panasonic HVX200 and check the P2 forum.

Ron Lindeboom, man I here you all the time on the cretaivecow podcast. You’re awesome! Thanks again.

[Doug Collins]

Check out the hdv forum as well.

Doug

[Malcolm Desoto]

Thanks, will do. I think I’m pretty set on the XL H1, but I’l check it out.

[Tony]

Are you interesting in buying a used dvcpro 50 camcorder?

16×9 and 4×3 aspect ratios, records in dvcpro and dvcpro 50 (which is ideal for chroma key work since it is 4:2:2)

If you are interested provide me your email address and I’ll send additional info.

Tony Salgado

[Malcolm Desoto]

Well, I could be interested. I’m really drooling over the canon though. Go ahead and give me the info and I’ll at least let you know.
malcsalot@yahoo.com

Thanks.

[Bill Marcellus]

Get the Panasonic HVX-200 and forget about the Canon. HDV presents all kinds of problems when shooting and even worse when compositing- especially if you are doing VFX. The Panny has the DVCProHD codec- no GOP problems. You actually have discrete frames to composite and use in VFX work.

I have posted material from both cameras and the advantages that the Canon offers in lenses, etc. are greatly offset by the disadvantages of the HDV codec. As soon as you shoot anything with a large amount of motion in the frame and try to composite the footage you’ll see what I mean.

Bill

[Malcolm Desoto]

hey Bill, thanks for the reply. Haven’t checked this in awhile. I’ll look into it. I don’t know too much about camera codecs or the problems with HDV, so it looks as if I have a bit of research ahead of me.

[Malcolm Desoto]

Hey Bill, if you have any links to forums/articles detailing the pros VS cons of HDV shooting, or just things you might run across in the process; please post. I’d be very greatful.

[Bill Marcellus]

Malcolm,

I don’t have any specific links but a search here and on Google should return plenty of articles.

The main difficulty with the HDV codec is that it uses Long GOP MPEG-2 encoding. Long GOP MPEG-2 achieves smaller file sizes by creating GOPs that include different
types of frames that rely on each other to complete the image. For example, a Sony
HDV 1080i camera uses GOPs that are 15 frames long. The first frame of a GOP contains the only I-frame (complete picture). The rest of the GOP is made up of bidirectional (B) and predictive (P) frames. To see a B or P frame, the system must construct the image by reading multiple frames, starting with the first frame of the GOP. This means there is not a discrete, individual frame recorded but rather a group of frames with the codec predicting changes in the image from frame to frame. This becomes problematic when there is motion in the frame, i.e. a person running, a car speeding by, etc. The codec must predict the motion and build an intermediate frame within the codec.

This can lead to “mosquito noise” within the image…much like the noise you see in a poorly encoded MPEG image with motion in the frame. It can also show up as noise in the blacks of an image. Additionally, it can lead to problems in editing and compositing because there are no individual frames to begin with. “Frame accurate” editing has to be artificially created within the editing software.

Additionally, DVCPRO HD is a 4:2:2 signal, which means it retains half the color samples that the CCDs capture. HDV is a 4:2:0 signal, retaining only a quarter of the original color samples, as does DV. The lesser amount of color information leads to the all too familiar “jagglies” when compositing, especially when chromakeying.

The DVCPROHD codec utilized in the Panasonic HVX-200 records a discrete frame for each frame of the material being shot. This means that there are 24 individual frames recorded when shooting in 24p mode. The 4:2:2 color space afforded by DVCPROHD also provides a superior image.

Hope this helps.

Bill