[Joe Incardona]

Mark, the reason we were evaluating the HPX-3000 and the EX-1 together is that I’m trying to decide on an “A” camera and a “B” camera that will complement each other well in our corporate and broadcast production operation.
The HPX-3000 is clearly a good choice for an “A” camera due to the 4:2:2 color sampling. When we put our test footage from both cameras in Final Cut and put the shots “under the microscope,” we could see that the 4:2:0 color sampling of the EX-1 caused a noticeable dark edge when keying the footage over certain backgrounds (obviously the lighter the background color, the more noticeable the dark edge around the detail of the flower petals in the test shots).
This means the EX-1 probably isn’t your best choice if you plan to do a lot of chromakey work.
However, due to the fact the EX-1 is native 1920×1080, it looks really good compared to the HPX-3000 footage (also native 1920×1080) when using the EX-1 as a wide-shot camera in multi-camera situations.
We do a lot of multi-camera shoots, so I was trying to find an affordable “B” camera to use with the HPX-3000.
Originally, I was considering the Panasonic HPX-500 as a possible “B” camera to the HPX-3000, but it is not a 1920×1080 native resolution camera. Also, given you can get two EX-1s for the price of one HPX-500 with a good lens, the EX-1 is looking very attractive as a “B” camera to the HPX-3000. And, for those doing multi-camera, switched-live shoots, the fact Panasonic now has a sub-$8000 HD-SDI switcher will make it possible for us to do three-camera shoots with the HPX-3000 as our primary camera, and two EX-1’s as the secondary, wide-shot cameras. The EX-1 has HD-SDI out, while Panasonic’s entry-level solid state camera, the HVX-200, does not (you have to jump up to the much more expensive HPX-500 to get HD-SDI).
I hope to have the HPX-3000 in house by some time in January, and the two EX-1s by February (our dealer here in Memphis has quite a backlog of orders for that camera).
Thanks for your interest!

[Joe Incardona]

Thanks, Ron, that’s all good information. I’ll be on the lookout for manufacturers, and their reps here in our market, to distribute promo codes for the Show…and thanks for the tip about the rooms filling up fast.