[Daniel Schultz]

Thanks for all your help, John.

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

John, thanks so much for taking the time for your response. A couple follow-up questions:

I think I’ll go for the “easy” route, which will also be less invasive for kids and classroom. For the onboard light, are you thinking of something like a micro litepanel? Are there other options you’d recommend more? And since we’d be using it as fill, I’m assuming adding diffusion would be good? (I think I can request a classroom with north-facing windows, so that’d be my key.) And having never used them before, how bright/bothersome would they be for kids–likely 4th grade or so? And do I have to change the dimmer on the light, or be concerned with changing exposures I move from medium distance to close up?

I’m thinking of not using the Joker, since I will not have gaffer help on this shoot. The idea of a kid tripping over the chord, knocking over the light, etc…yikes!

Appreciate your advice!

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

Thanks, John. Never used cinema tools before. Anything I should know before going into it?

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

THanks for the advice! Happy New Year to you!

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

Thanks for your response, Steve.
What I don’t get is why are the HMC150 files so much bigger than the EX1 files at the same resolution (1080/30p) They’re both high quality HD, but the HMC150 seems to take about 5 times more Hard Drive space. Any thoughts?

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

As an HMC150 owner, my feeling is the transcoding time is not a big deal. It’s easy to view, select and transcode the clips you want. I love my camera, my only issue is the file size of the transcoded files. But I don’t know if it’s any worse than the JVC model you’re considering.

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

Hi Noah,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. At the risk of sounding “whiny” I’d say the issue with the large file size is this: Yes, hard drives are $200 per terabyte. But then I need two so I have everything backed up twice. One medium size job takes up 50-60 gigs with all the footage. So that means after about 15 jobs, I have to archive. I can use toast to burn to DVD’s, but it’s a lot of DVDs. I don’t have the $$ for tape backup machine, and Blueray doesn’t seem to be so cost effective. I’d prefer not to use the SD cards as backup either, if I can help it.

It was just comparing footage from the two cameras: HMC150 and the Sony EX1. The EX1 takes up so much less space and the quality seems just as good.

So, is what I’m hearing that there’s not anything I can do do make my file size smaller w/out loss of quality? If so, I’ll bite the bullet and take it from here.

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

But why is the the AVDHD footage take up so much more room than the XDCAM from the EX1? The quality looks just as good on the EX1, don’t you think?

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

I’m using proRes 422 with FCP 6.0.6.

Dan S.

[Daniel Schultz]

Hi Noah,

I tried playing back using the ESATA external drive, and I’m still having the same problem. The scene is of a school bus, rather close up, moving from one side of the screen to the other. If you care to take a look, the video’s playing on our website at https://www.scholastic.com/administrator. It’s one of the early scenes in the video within the first minute.

Interestingly, I had a videographer shoot a similar scene of other school busses. He shot on SD, not sure what the camera was, but it was a pro SD model of some sort. I believe their both 30p. His footage of the schoolbus moving through the frame is smooth–no stuttering.

What do you think? If you had a chance to look at the link/footage I sent, do you think it’s just a matter of being too close to a large moving object, thereby giving the effect of panning too quickly? And if that’s the case, why would an SD camera (inferior in quality to the HMC150 I assume) not have that problem?

Thanks again for your time

Dan S.