Need advise for HD Camera for Documentary shooting

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Honestly, I would strongly consider finishing the doc in Standard Def. I don’t know if you’re shooting in 16:9 or 4:4 (for all intents and purposes NTSC/PAL standard). If your existing footage is 4:3 you’ll need to add shadowboxes after it is up-resolved to HD (I assume you’d want your finished product to be delivered in HD if you switch to HD). Depending on how tightly you frame, a conversion to 16:9 may be impossible.

Secondly, there is the general quality of your camera to consider. Unless you buy a camera near the same family as what you have, you should expect to do some color correction on footage from one camera to the other for a proper match.

Thirdly, you may or may not have to upgrade your computer to accommodate the needed horsepower to process an HD post-production pipeline.

As for camera recommendations, ENG style cameras are not my area of expertise, I’ve used the Panasonic HVX-200 (can be found cheaply used) and HPX-500 with no complaints as to their performance.

Angelo Lorenzo
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[Meghna Damani]

Thank you Angelo,
Appreciate you taking time out to respond. I’ve shot mostly in 16:9 and very inclined to stick with the DV, my only concerns are distribution as most networks will not touch DV, but then I could always upgrade in post, correct?
Thanks!
Meghna