What is the best tapeless HD camera that is the most compatible with FCP editing?

[Shane Ross]

Panasonic P2. The HPX-170 is by far the easiest tapeless camera to use with FCP.

Shane

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

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Julie

As a rule, asking the question “What’s the best (anything)?” on any Cow forum is likely to get you ignored or insulted. The “best” is highly subjective and depends on your needs, your skills, your budget, etc.

Having said that, if your budget is $1500 per camera (you said $3000 for two), I don’t think you’re going to find a tapeless HD camera that has a particularly seamless workflow with FCP.

It sounds like what you’d like is the JVC GY-HM100U which is supposed to save video as QuickTime files, so no Log & Transfer (i.e., transcoding) is necessary.

I’ve not worked with this camera and I don’t know how good it is, much less whether it would be the best solution for you. But you’d only be able to afford one of them on your budget.

https://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101845

So unless your budget doubles, you’re probably looking at some flavor of AVCHD. It looks better than miniDV and will transfer faster than ingesting a tape, but it will eat up lots of drive space: if you convert to ProRes–it can be as much as ten times larger (i.e., 5 GB of AVCHD footage can transcode to 50 GB of ProRes clips), so buy cheaper cameras and stock up on hard drives!

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me will have better news.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

A fine camera, Shane, but she said the budget is $3000 for two cameras. You’d only get one HVX-170 on that budget.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Shane Ross]

Ah…skimmed over the budget. Yeah, with that limited budget, for tapeless you are looking at AVCHD cameras, or the Canon 7D DSLR. Log and transfer on both will get you to ProRes or ProRes LT…and depending on the camera (some are finicky), the process is either easy or hard.

Sorry, but I don’t know the best camera in that range.

HMC-150 for $3000 is good. But that is ONE camera.

Shane

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

[Mike Raff]

Jessica (sorry about calling you “Julie” before).

You might want to take a look at the Canon HF S21:

https://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=177&modelid=19827

Good luck!

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Rafael Amador]

There are two small cameras to consider due to their really big CMOS:
– JVC Everio HM 550
– Canon Vixia HFS 10, HFS 11 or HFS 100.
The Everio has an 1/2.3″ CMOS and these Canon have an 1/2.6″.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Jessica Mathies]

Hi Mike (and Shane and Rafael),

No worries about calling me Julie, at least it started with a J. 😉 Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I knew when I first posted this question I would probably get ignored. You are right, the “best” is very subjective and everyone seems to have an opinion that differs from the next, but I was desperate. I am so grateful that you, Shane, and Rafael took the time to reply. I was unaware of the information you all shared, so you guys have really helped me in making a decision. I apologize for the late reply as I hadn’t received an email from CreativeCow alerting me that anyone had responded. I just saw your posts today for the first time, and will be reviewing all the cameras mentioned as soon as I am done writing this.

Thank you so much for your help.

Jessica

Jessica

[Jessica Mathies]

Hi Shane,

I just replied to thank all of you for sharing your opinions. I sincerely appreciate your replies given my question. Mike mentioned the JVC GY-HM100U, which allows you to record to .mov. This would be ideal. Do you have any thoughts on this camera? I’ve read your reviews in the past and really value your opinion.

Thanks again for you help.

Jessica

Jessica

[Shane Ross]

I haven’t shot with the JVC, nor edited with the footage, so I can’t say for sure. But it has three strikes against it in my book.

#1 – it shoots to .MOV in the HDV and XDCAM codec, so it ONLY works with Final Cut Pro. Not Avid Media Composer (that I also use a lot), not Adobe Premiere. If you only use FCP…then you are set.

#2 – The HDV codec. That format is the worse “professional” format out there. I am shocked that networks accept it. More artifacting occurs with that format than any SD format, and they networks would kick back any tape with the tiniest beta dropout. But HDV glitching…they are fine with. And it happens a LOT.

#3 – XDCAM codec. 4:2:0 color space. It’s OK, but not as rich as DVCPRO HD or AVCintra. But this is personal. I work with this format all the time, and it is LEAPS AND BOUNDS above HDV.

The camera shoots an OK image, from what I saw playing with it at a convention, but tying yourself to one edit system, and the HDV codec…nope, those turn me off.

Shane

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

[Dennis Radeke]

“#1 – it shoots to .MOV in the HDV and XDCAM codec, so it ONLY works with Final Cut Pro. Not Avid Media Composer (that I also use a lot), not Adobe Premiere. If you only use FCP…then you are set.”

Not entirely true as the JVC camera will also shoot true XDCAM EX and capture to an SxS card. About a year ago this $600 option became standard for the 700 camera. So Premiere Pro and others can potentially use the JVC 700 camera.