[Lawrence Marshall]

I can’t seem to get the focus assist to work in 480 SD mode (60i, 24p, 30p, 16:9, anamorphic squeeze, etc.). Something stupid I’m overlooking?

Larry Marshall

[Lawrence Marshall]

I just finished two shoots recording to mini-DV tape, both run and gun, both using available light. The first shoot was at a boat show, and I took my new camera there to run it for the first time in a variety of formats: 4×3 480i 60, 4×3 480i 30p, letterboxed 16:9 30p, anamorphic 16:9, video matrix, Cinematrix, CineD, CineV, etc. etc. This was strictly goofing off, not shooting for a client. I put a wireless mic on my friend as we walked around and he “narrated” the boats we were interested in. I must say I was quite surprised when I got back and looked at the footage. I played it on my Panasonic AJ-SD93 deck (a DVC Pro 50 deck), and went component out of the deck to my 20″ Sony PVM 20L5/1, a very high-resolution CRT monitor. I thought the picture looked better than it had a right to… available light, iris opened either at 2.8 or wide open, and I thought the picture looked absoutely gorgeous, especially when I went into anamorphic 16:9 and used the different Cine settings. There were plenty of moments where the footage was quite dark… I parked the tape deck on those and manually cranked the brightness of the monitor as high as I could to wash it out… didn’t see *any* of the noise issues many have been complaining about. The audio was stunningly clean. My wife Karen saw some of the anamorphic 16:9 footage I shot at 30p and remarked “it kinda looks like film, doesn’t it?”

Yesterday I did a shoot for a client, again run and gun, again using only available light. This was at a convention center… all lighting in the meeting rooms were overhead fluorescent. I white-balance everywhere I went, iris floated anywhere between wide open and 4. Everything shot at 4:3, 480i 60. Again used a wireless mic on one channel, a short shotgun on the other. Again I was surprised at footage that looked better than it had a right to. At one point I discovered I had accidentally bumped the gain to +6, and immediately thought “here comes the noise everyone’s been talking about”. When I got back and saw the footage, I was surprised to see how well the camera handled the bump in gain. Yes, there was a tiny bit of noise, but nothing at all objectionable and *nothing* none of us haven’t seen with other cameras. In fact, based on just that one instance of accidentally bumping the gain, I feel I would have no hesitancy to bump it again if I needed to in a future situation.

This does confirm, however, that the HVX wants light. When I discovered the “error” of accidentally bumping the gain switch, I immediately set it back to 0db. When I saw the 0db footage played back (same room, same participants), I wished I had left it alone and kept the gain on… the picture looked much better with the gain on and looked too dark and muddy with the 0db setting. It seems to me that, in this particular room I shot in, any other camera would have done a better job at 0db, but we have all already heard that this camera performs 1-2 stops slower in interlaced mode than comparable 1/3 chip cameras.

One final note on the never-ending “video noise” issue: on the above footage, and also on other tests where I fed component out of the camera to both a component-in Sony LCD 16:9 monitor and my Sony PVM-20L5/1 CRT monitor (trying all formats: 1080i, 720p, B-press, Cine D, etc. etc.), I would often see the “swimming macroblock” noise on the LCD panel, but *never* (repeat, NEVER) saw this noise on the Sony CRT. I’m not a scientist nor an engineer, and don’t understand why, but I do all my monitoring on the Sony CRT (again, a very high-resoution, multiscan monitor), and I am not seeing the kinds of things others have been reporting.

Larry Marshall

[Lawrence Marshall]

…or if you are firmly committed to copying the file to a DVD, try compressing it using the Photo JPEG codec. Set the quality slider to 95. Gorgeous files, small size. Another option: compress it to Motion JPEG B, which is essentially what Media 100’s codec is, but your client won’t need the trancoder to read it.

[Lawrence Marshall]

My immediate usage for this camera is going to be SD, where I will be shooting DVC Pro 50. I don’t own any P2 cards yet, but do own the Panasonic AJ-SD93 DVC Pro 50 deck (which is a half-rack sized deck), which I’ll be utilizing for some controlled interviews. I tested Firewire from the camera passing through to the deck… works fine. I also have the component and SDI boards in the deck… plan is to digitize to the deck and go SDI out to my edit system.

Anyone venture to guess what will give me the better signal out of the camera to the deck: RGB outs or Firewire?

Larry Marshall

[Lawrence Marshall]

I just took delivery today of a KATA MC-61, on Jan’s recommendation. It’s not a hard-shell, but still seems pretty stiff and reinforced somewhere. My requirements were that it be small enough as a carry-on (not checked luggage), and that I can throw it in the overhead. But this thing seems a bit bulky to me… Jan, are you sure this will fit in an overhead??

Larry Marshall

[Lawrence Marshall]

I actually own the Pelican 1650, but was looking for something I could hand-carry on board and throw in the overhead or under the seat. Will check out the Porta-Brace and the Porter case. Thanks all.

Larry M

[Lawrence Marshall]

Jan wrote:

— I think you like others that have tried it will be very please at the results. There are numerous examples of this on the dvxuser site and the DVinfo community site as well. —

Thanks, Jan… very encouraging! I was not the poster of those comments on dvxuser.com, but will re-read the original article *much* more carefully on the specs. (wasn’t trying to throw cold water on anything or start a fight… but sure got a little discouraged reading what some posters are saying right after opening the box on my new camera!)

Larry M

[Lawrence Marshall]

Interested in follow-up from Panasonic regarding these comments from a poster at dvxuser.com:

–540 vertical pixels also means there are only 540 vertical chroma pixels on a 1080p format. That means color is practically 4:2:0 and not 4:2:2. 4:2:2 was supposed to be an advantage over the competition and it’s not there. The HVX has exactly the vertical chroma a 1080 HDV camera has. And lower recorded horizontal chroma in NTSC HVX. 640 compared to 720.–

Also:

–540 vertical chroma pixels in 1080p format is 4:2:0 color by definition. There is no higher color resolution. The camera is recording 1080 chroma but the sensor only has 540 pixels.–

And:

–Pixelshifting is only reading extra luma by using the sensor offsets. Chroma stays the same. Since we know the native resolution of the sensor now, any output will be limited to 960×540 color.–

I purchased and just received my HVX-200, and wonder what the above translates into “real world” when I go to shoot green screens…

Thanks, Larry Marshall

p.s. – I apologize if cross-posting is not permitted at the Cow from other forums… what are the rules on this?

[Lawrence Marshall]

Brad, you dont’ need the expensive HD board with the Sony 20L5 monitor. I have this monitor also… feed it analogue component from an HD source and it will switch over to display the HD signal.

Larry M

[Lawrence Marshall]

I ordered mine from B&H on December 28, and it’s on a UPS truck as we speak. Should be here by Monday or Tuesday next week.

Larry Marshall