Guy Mcloughlin
Forum Replies Created
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>>>Biggest drawback is the SD card–both in terms of dependability and colorspace quality.
I would check this out very carefully before you buy the HPX170. Personally I have had ZERO issues with SDHC cards over the past 18 months, but I was careful to test about 6 different brands, and only buy the brand that performed the best for me. ( which was the Patriot IRIS SDHC Class 6 cards, which are specifically built for professional video work )
As far as colorspace quality, make sure you do tests, because every side-by-side test I have seen between the HMC-150 and the HPX-170 the color and image quality was virtually identical with the same settings. The HPX-170 makes green-screen and CGI composite film-making easier, but the difference is not as much as you might expect. There are lots of people doing professional green-screen work with the HMC-150 with no problems at all.
One other thing to keep in mind is that the HMC-150 camera records a slightly higher resolution image than either the HPX-170 or HVX-200A cameras, so don’t expect to see better resolution than you are already getting with the HMC-150.
If I was looking to get a better ENG style camera I would look at the new Canon XF300/305 cameras that start at $6,500, or if I could afford it the $8,500+ Panasonic HPX-370 camera which is the only under $10,000 prosumer camera that records 10-bit color without a HD recorder deck. ( the Sony EX-1R/EX-3 output 10-bit color but require an external deck to record this image ) These are full res cameras, so they will look a bit sharper than the HMC-150 / HPX-170 cameras.
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…For shallow DOF ( depth of field ) shots and for low-light video work the Canon DSLRs are great, especially considering that you can get in the game for as little as a $1,000.
But as professional video cameras they suck in these areas:
– Low HD resolution compared to HD video cameras
– Bad image aliasing when shooting curved and diagonal shapes
– Bad image moire when shooting detailed wide shots or subjects with complex patterns
– Lots of rolling shutter problems, making shots with fast motion impossible
– No servo-zoom controls
– Limited zoom range compared to video cameras
– Slower f-stop zoom lenses ( f1.6 zoom does not exist for DSLR )
– Bad audio pre-amps
– No audio power ( does not provide phantom 48 volt )
– No exposure zebras
– No color vectorscope
– 12 minute maximum length for any shot, making the camera bad for long format and live event shoots
– Does not provide clean HDMI output, so you ares still stuck with the red recording dot in all your shots
– Image stabilization inferior to some video cameras ( especially the new high end consumer cameras like the Panasonic TM700 )
– No 4 hour high capacity batteriesI could go on, but you get the idea…
The Panasonic AF100 is something brand new. It’s a camera that combines all of the features of the prosumer video camera format with the large-sensor shallow DOF of a DSLR camera, providing the best of both worlds. I personally think it will have huge impact on the marketplace and will likely kill-off several prosumer competitors. It also brings prosumer video firmly in to the world of cinematographic film making. I definitely plan on buying an AF100 around May next year ( once I am sure that all of the bugs have been shaken out ), but I will be keeping my HMC-150 for my regular video work, and I will keep my Canon 60D camera to use as an excellent stills camera.
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You buy a camera based upon what you need right now, not what happens 3 years down the road…
Right now there is no better HD camera at $3,000, and I seriously doubt that Panasonic will come out with a newer HMC-150 model in the future.
I agree with Noah that 3 years from now the market will be all about cameras that are like the new Panasonic AF100 ( which will be out at the end of this year ) that offer interchangeable lenses and large-format sensors.
I plan on buying an AF100 camera next May ( I want to be sure that all of the bugs have been shaken out ), and I will still keep my HMC-150 for the quick’n’dirty shoots where I just pick-up the camera and go.
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“Device Explorer” is a feature in the Sony Vegas editor 9+ that lets you import a video that is stored on a SDHC card as multiple files as one big AVCHD file on your hard drive.
So if you do a 160 minute shoot at the PH Mode which would almost completely fill a 32 GB SDHC card with many 4 GB files, you can use “Device Explorer” in Sony Vegas to import this as one 32 GB file on your hard drive.
Essentially the Sony Vegas “Device Explorer” function is reading the meta-data that the camera stores on the SDHC card, and stitching together all of the pieces of a long video file back into one large file on your hard drive.
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Definitely try using “Device Explorer” with Vegas Pro 9 ( or 10 ) as I am pretty sure it will fix your audio dropouts.
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Hmmm… I haven’t noticed this so far, but I am using Sony Vegas to import all of the segmented video files as one large AVCHD file. ( Using Sony Vegas Pro “Device Explorer” to import the video as one file )
Can someone post what steps are required to reproduce this problem?
For example, how long do you have to film in PH mode in order to see this problem?
Does it happen as soon as the video file is segmented ? ( at the 2 or 4 GB mark )
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Ideally for indoor work you want to use a good cardioid or hyper-cardioid pencil mic on a boom just out of the shot. Most shotgun mics under $1,000 do not work well indoors because they have poor off-axis sound rejection, thus they pick up almost as much sound from behind the mic as they do in front of the mic. Cardioid / Hyper-cardioid mics have very good off-axis sound rejection, making them the best choice for average to small rooms.
AKG Perception 170 – Small Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Microphone
Audio-Technica AT4021 Small-Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Microphone
AKG Blue Line Series Microphone Kit
Audio-Technica AT4053b Hypercardioid Condenser Microphone
The more expensive lav mics sound very good, and some of them like the Sanken Cos-11D sound as good as a condenser pencil mic.
Sanken COS-11D Miniature Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone with XLR Output (Black)
…While I own a COS-11 lav, I don’t use it very often because it picks up audio from almost everywhere. ( it requires a quiet room to use it effectively )
My favorite general purpose lav mic is the TRAM 50, which has pretty good sound, and very good off-axis sound rejection if you face the mic towards the vampire-clip.
Tram TR50 – Omnidirectional Lavalier Condenser Microphone (Black) : Sennheiser Mini-plug
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Do you have the LINE/MIC switches on the front of your HMC-150 set the same?
Having one channel set to MIC with the other channel set to LINE would create a scenario just like the one you described.
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“Unlike the hvx the 150 does not shoot 24pn in 720, only 1080”
This is NOT correct. The HMC-150 can shoot video in the following formats:
720/24P (native)
720/30P (over 60P)
720/60P (native)1080/24P (native)
1080/30P (over 60i)
1080/60i -
It sounds like it could be physical damage to the lens mechanism, which means you are going to have to take the camera to Panasonic and have them check it.