Upgrading from DVX to HVX or Sony EX1

[Shane Ross]

Guess we are going to just have to agree that cameras and formats have strengths and weaknesses. There are give and takes. And a camera that works for one situation might not work for another.

I have worked with footage from both cameras and haven’t had much issues. But I haven’t worked with EX footage natively…always transcoded.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Craig Seeman]

[Shane Ross] “Guess we are going to just have to agree that cameras and formats have strengths and weaknesses”

That’s a given otherwise there would be “the one camera to rule them all.” I know some believe RED ONE is that camera but I’ve also heard the curses.

EX native (wrapped as mov which is just a wrap not a transcode) is a breeze. Set renders to ProRes and there’s NO long GOP confirm. FCP solved that issue a while back.

I wouldn’t be surprised if AVCHD gets the same treatment in the next Final Cut release.

Again AVCIntra’s a different story. I haven’t handled it yet (I have had AVCHD) so it could be the “revolution.”

The chip thing 1/2″ CMOS vs 1/3″ CCD is another thing and you just have to weigh the plusses and minuses. At least with JVC one can now use CCD and have a shoulder mount camera with EX codec. One might almost call that the “compromise” camera.

I can’t help but think Sony has to come up with an “Intra” codec to replace HDCAM. I wonder what will replace the 900/950 but that’s a whole ‘nother price bracket.

The question for us (well some of us) if you’re in around a $10,000 price bracket what are the compromises can you live with relative your workflow and clients.

I guess one question I’d have is can the HPX300 record to SDHC rather than P2?
Mind you, Sony doesn’t “officially” say SDHC support either but users discovered that the right EXpress card adaptor and SDHC card combination worked. Being able to record 57 minutes on a $26 16GB Transcend card is a major cost/workflow boon (although transfer speed drops to 4x or as low as 2x with CRC checking).

I’m sure Canon is going to throw something in to this mix as well at this price point.

[Shane Ross]

[Craig Seeman] “I guess one question I’d have is can the HPX300 record to SDHC rather than P2?”

No, because AVCIntra is a very high bitrate codec. Over 100mb/s. XDCAM is 35mbps, so it works fine on SD cards (with those adapters I have seen).

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Craig Seeman]

Convergent Design can handle those bit rates to compact flash but of course that’s not a simple adaptor.

https://www.convergent-design.com/

One Transcend 32 GB 133x CompactFlash card costs less than $80 US
and provides 71 minutes of footage at 50 Mbps and 35 minutes at 100 Mbps.

BTW I’ve tested SDHC (Sandisk Ultra II) in the EX1 and It can get close to 70mbps before throwing an error and the bottleneck is on Sony’s part, not the card. I’ve heard others have been able to hit that without issue using Transcend Class 6 SDHC. The cards can sustain much higher record rates.

I think 100mbps is possible with the fastest cards. I think the bottleneck is camera side with both Sony and Panasonic. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the next “breakthrough” camera side.

Given that apparently the JVC HM700 can overcrank on the SDHC cards that would mean a sustain write speed of about 87.5mbps and there has to be at least some headroom to make that viable.