Gord Stephen
Forum Replies Created
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They’ll all do 60 fps in 720p, which you can play back at 24 or 30 fps for 2.5x or 2x slomo – the Sony also apparently has a ‘Smooth Slow Record’ feature that shoots at 120 fps (I’m assuming for a short duration and at reduced resolution, similar to previous Sony cameras).
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I’m a happy HMC150 user. The 150 and 170 are very similar – the 170 has a few extra features that the 150 doesn’t, but the biggest difference is, as you’ve said, the recording format and media. DVCPRO HD is an older format, quicker and easy to edit, and the cards are more robust/reliable – but as you know, more expensive too… AVCHD is a leaner, more space-efficient codec, but that means it’s also more processor intensive and often requires transcoding. The cards are dirt cheap though.
So depending on your timeline in post, that could be a factor (ie for quick turnaround news work the 150 probably isn’t your best bet).
When you say variable frame rates, do you mean 24/30/60 fps or do you want the more exotic rates as well? The 150 won’t do the non-standard frame rates, but honestly, in my experience I’ve never had a need for them… If you want slomo, shoot 720p60, if you want sped up footage, just speed it up in post… Just my opinion though, maybe others have had different experiences.
I don’t know if you’ve looked at Sony’s HXR-NX5U? I don’t know much about it other than that it records AVCHD like the HMC150, but it might be an option for you to consider.
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Sometimes a really noisy image can mean that you need to black balance the camera – some people even BB every time they turn the camera on. You could also try turning down Detail and V-Detail and turning up Detail Coring in your scene file settings.
Hope that helps – if not, maybe try resetting the camera?
Gord
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Good to know, thanks. It’s best practise not to delete stuff from the card through the computer, only use the camera’s interface – there are metadata references, etc on the card that the camera knows about but you don’t.
Now that the card works in the camera again, have you tried reformatting it? (Again… only in-camera.)
Gord
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Hmm… it would solve your DOF problem, but you would probably still need to do some fiddly post work to get the colors to match…
There’s the lighting/exposure issue as well, the cameras have different sensitivities – if you’re using the same aperture on both lenses to match DOF, you’ll need to light for the 150 and match the 5D’s exposure with ISO adjustments/ND filters.
The 150 puts out a softer image (the adapter will only make it softer if anything) and the 5D’s pretty sharp, so that’s something else to consider too.
Don’t know if you’ve seen this – someone else’s take: https://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=43678
At the end of the day though, all that really matters is your test results and whether or not you’re happy with them… you’ll never know until you try.
If you give it a try, post back about how it goes… I’d be interested to hear your results.
Gord
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No personal experience with this, but from what I’ve heard it’s hard to match the HMC150 and 5DMkII looks… which does makes sense when you think about the differences in sensor size and type, different colour & encoding algorithms, etc. That being said, if you really need two cameras and don’t have a rental budget… Well, do what you have to do, just make sure you run tests first.
From a technical perspective, editing should be fine as you’re converting everything to ProRes anyways. Hope that helps.
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[Ryan Orr] “I like the Alesis ProTrack for the iPod Touch.”
… That’s just cool. Give me that over an ‘iPhone video stabilizer grip’ any day…
Gord