Johann Perry
Forum Replies Created
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hi Tom,
I’ve already got canon lenses (22 and 11) and personally would stick with canon over fujinon lenses.
best johann -
Hi,
I’m a London based Dp and I’ve had my HDX900 for a month now. In the Uk broadcast market I am having no problems switching all my clients to the HDX900 (BBC and Chanel 4 so far). The main driver has been the superb picture quality and the flexibilty of recording modes. I’ve now had the chance to test grade material shot on the hdx900, sony750 and the sony900cinealta and make comparisons with a top colourist using a Baselight grading system and a Grade 1 Monitor. I’m not going to get into comparisons with the cinealta beacuse it performed beautifully in the grade and is ultimately a much more expensive camera (oranges and apples). The panasonic held its own but you are definately aware that there is more information available from the cinealta giving you a hyperreal picture when finished, quite simply you can acheive stunning results.
The comparison to be made is with the 750 and the hdx900 which are at a closer price point. Like all tests there are limitations because you cannot test for all shooting situations but my main observations were;
Looking at the raw footage out the cameras, the HDX is much cleaner in the Blacks than the 750, even at 9db there is hardly any grain.
The 750 had a much flatter colour palette, the HDX900 is richer.
We were able to pull more information out of the blacks and whites on the HDX900 shooting in FILMLIKE3 gamma mode than on the 750. When you look at the scopes the hdx900 just has more lattitude.
The skin tones were more subtle on the hdx900.
The panasonic is particularly impressive in low light, in real life by my calculations it was two stops more sensitive.
Now having said all of the above the colourist I was working with was able to get a pretty near seamless match between the cameras after some fancy knob twiddling and plenty of talent.
So I think we are back to the old argument that as long as your footage is well composed and lit by someone with some flair and that you treat that footage with the same care through all the production processes then you will get a good result on a variety of cameras.
The Panasonic’s selling point though is it produces a great Hi definition picture for little more than a standard def price. And on that basis mine is booked out until the end of next April, now how do you like them apples…… -
Hi,
brought my 900 just over two weeks ago and have just shot a drama doc for the BBC in the Lake District in the UK. I have to say that I and the producers are delighted with the results. It was a good shoot to test the camera out because it offered many different shooting situations. There was period dramatisation set in the 1950’s and I could quickly create a look for the period manipulating the paint controls. There were a variety of lighting techniques that I used and the camera responded superbly in low light and in high contrast scenes. We were shooting in torrential rain on car mounts and steadycam for a couple of days which was a harsh operational test, no humidity problems the camera performed faultlessly. This was the camera’s first shoot so it’s early days. All I can say is that at this point I’m seriously impressed and I’ve always owned sony camera’s until now. Off to Denmark tomorrow to shoot a documentary feature which will be blown up to 35mm for theatre projection. Has anyone blown up hdx900 rushes to 35mm yet? , if so I’d love to hear from you.
best wishes
Johann -
Thanks for that Mike,
I’ll get in contact,
best Johann -
I’ve been speaking to several large post houses in London over the last month about using panasonics over sony and all come back with the same answer, Dvcpro100 no problem. I’ve been shooting for the last three months on the sony 750 and have never been happy with it. No matter how hard I fiddle I still think it has a very abrasive look. Detailed yes, pleasing to the (my) eye no. In my opinion, which has to be taken subjectively, it handles harsh highlights really badly and shooting 25p can cause havok when panning across a white picket fence or similar. After spending a day putting the HDX900 up against the 750, again, in my opinion, there was no contest. The Hdx900 handled contrast, harsh highlights and paning across tightly spaced vertical lines with far superior results. Skin tones seemed more flattering and overall I prefered the panasonic’s tonal colour range. I have in the past always owned sony cameras and was slightly sceptical about other manufacturers products but after a day of thorough, like for like testing I was more than happy to go with the HDX900. I’ve got several Hi Def shoots coming up over the few months and all the producers are more than happy to go with DVCpro100 and the HDX900. So at the moment I’m happy to make the leap to the hdx900 and hey, if I’m wrong and it doesn’t take off, it will be paid off anyway. I’m betting that it’s impressive spec, lovely pictures and market beating price will win many followers.
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a)unfortunately none available to test on the day, b) great camera but three times the price.