Would you buy a HMC150 right now?

[Guy Mcloughlin]

One thing I noticed about the Patriot IRIS SDHC cards is that they are slightly on the “thick” side, which seems to make them more robust, but they do fit my HMC-150 without any problems. A friend found them to be a little bit snug in his Canon T2i camera, but I’ve had no problems with my Canon 60D camera.

[Al Bergstein]

I have both the T2i and the HMC 150. I find that the Canon is great to just carry around with me, when I don’t do ‘pro’ video work. I can shoot either stills or video in high res, and when I do shoot video, it’s usually not needing great audio. A very solid ‘gun and run’ camera for the odd surprise event. But I do have an off camera shotgun I mount on a bracket. All in all, it’s great for what it does. Currently I’ve been trying to figure out a color balance setting so both cameras will match in post. Haven’t found it yet. Wonder if it’s even possible.

But I would never choose it as a primary, for all the reasons mentioned. And yes, I have loved the 150. I do wonder about the new HMC 80 though. Seems to be a solid lower end choice.

Alf

[Richard Johnson]

I currently have a HMC-150 and I rent other cameras when necessary. It’s nice for me to have a good “all rounder” for pretty much any shoot but then be able to rent additional cameras(which is surprisingly cheap). It is convenient to own a camera so I would recommend you buy one…but I might wait and rent till after the holidays-new models released, old models at reduced prices etc.

I recently have been shooting multi-cam shoots with canon DSLR’s and the HMC-150. I’ve used the 5dmii, 7d and t2i’s. I think the t2i is a phenomenal value, but if I could only buy one camera, it would be the HMC-150. I do really like the footage from DSLR’s, especially as b-cams. I may end up buying a panasonic GH2. I’ll rent one eventually and be able to analyze footage for myself. I did this with a HMC-150 and a HPX-170 before I bought the 150. Very similar footage.

Most likely what I see myself doing is picking up an Atomos Ninja HDMI capture device and a Panasonic GH2. Then I can use the Ninja on the 150 for green screen work or hook it up to the GH-2 for multi camera shoots. I edit in FCP so capturing directly into Pro-Res sounds like a boost to quality and efficiency.
Alf: I get the T2i and the HMC-150 to match pretty well in post. Especially if I have time to send them to Color. I have a saved setting to match the cameras. It’s tougher for me in FCP and from what I can tell FCP and Color don’t play together with multicam edits as it views them as nested clips. (i have studio 2) But yeah, they can be matched pretty well from my experience.

[Al Bergstein]

I should really sit down and work out the balance between the two cameras. I’ve sold my T2i and am currently working with the 7d and the HMC150. More and more I’m going back to the 150. It has it all. But the 7d is easier to carry around. Anyway, they are both great cameras. Now to figure out how to marry them up.

Alf