[Leonard Levy]

Depends how complicated the screen is. If its just a “head” its not that big a deal.
If its near full body its more complicated. If they are standing on the screen then its hard.

Bring a spot meter. After all we did green screen for years without waveforms in film.

[Leonard Levy]

Couldn’t you also make the client a dub with files downconverted to ordinary DV then into Quicktime?
Seems like this should be simpler though.
It is good to know that this problem exists.

[Leonard Levy]

James,

I am a working cameraman not a producer. I do not decide how a project will be shot.
Certainly I do always suggest progressive, but often I am asked to provide a camera to fit into an existing project or to shoot second camera on an SD shoot. This is the business.

Yes, the options you suggest (DVX100 570 etc) are fine if you need interlace and want to spend $3000-$5000 for an interlace camera. I don’t.
My beef with Panasonic is that they presented it as a camera that could shoot 480 60i as well as progressive and it doesn’t. The biggest issue really is that by not admitting the problems with 480 60i they are setting people up for serious potential problems. I don’t like phone calls from my producer telling me that my camera’s footage in unacceptable. They count on me to deliver excellent footage. That’s how you lose a client and your reputation.

Fortunately when this happened to me it was with someone I have known for many years and it was a very low budget favor. He told me though that he would not have paid for the job under normal circumstances.
When I looked at the footage I realised he was right.

On the earlier thread you saw, someone had shot for a few days on DVCPro50 expecting high quality images. I believe they may have need to reshoot.

1. Panasonic should admit there is a problem or prove there isn’t.
2. Those of us on the boards should make the problem known so others don’t have “accidents”
3. Panasonic should fix it in an upgrade if that is possible.

I am still happy with the HVX in general, but it does lower my faith in Panasonic and I do feel an obligation to let people know the problem is there.

Unfortunately I got to Barry too late for anything to go in his book.

[Leonard Levy]

This has not been resolved yet.
I pointed the problem out to Barry at NAB and he basically responded by saying “Yow! what is that!?”
He discussed it with the engineers from Panasonic who promised to look into it and get back to him.
They have not yet done that.
My own belief is that this is a weakness of the HVX when it does the math to create 480 60i interlace.
You could call it a “dirty little secret” if you were so inclined.

It doesn’t matter whether you are going to tape or not, and it seems just as bad at DVC Pro50.
It has nothing to do with “Thick or Thin” and can only be mitigated by bringing Detail down to an unacceptably soft level.
Contrary to what Noah said above , this aliasing issue on the HVX is considerably worse than with other SD cameras including the DVX100. (It is the same kind of aliasing though only worse.)
You will not see it all the time, but when it does appear – easily seen in a pan or tilt shot past straight diagonal lines that are relatively thin and contrasty or hot – it creates completely unacceptable video in my opinion.
I first saw it all over the place in hand held footage at a boat marina, and later filming school buses (the hot lines on the roof) for an industrial. You can often see it on say the edge of a hot window sill, bannister or contrasty bookcase.

I will no longer offer my HVX200 for any professional purpose at 480 60i without warning the producer.
This has cut back on my ability to rent it out as a back up second camera on SD interlace shoots.
I’m really surprised that this problem is not more widely recognized and annoyed at panasonic for not addressing or admitting it.
Of course I could be wrong.

[Leonard Levy]

Does the firestore record in “Native” mode. I thought it didn’t

[Leonard Levy]

Someone else reported losing a timelapse shot that A/C was interrupted on so it must need to finalize the shot. Too bad. It’s probably hard to absolutely protect against unless you periodically interrupt and save the shot then restart. Don’t bump it though!

[Leonard Levy]

Seems like the camera may have been well researched but not the P2 and computer workflow, but that’s the really tricky part that needs to be well vetted before production.
Nothing like hard knocks.

[Leonard Levy]

javamikey,
I’m sorry about your experience, and I’m curious what your workflow was.
Hope you don’t take this personally and I may be wrong, but it sounds like your tech staff didn’t do their homework before starting this shoot.

When I bought this camera a few months ago it was clear that this is not a go to the rental house and walk out with the gear kind of workflow.
It’s an accident waiting to happen. I’ve been waiting for stoires like this.
Just saw one yesterday about someone who lost everything when a hard disk crashed – well it seems he didn’t have a back-up … duh.

The HVX workflow needs to be very well understood and well tested by whoever is using it before the pressure of production.
Its best to work with an owner op who knows the camera and computer interface well.
You shouldn’t have had any surprises about download times etc.
I’m not familiar with the P2 store , but i know that even just with a laptop with a PCMCIA slot and 2-3 cards you should be able to keep up with a dramatic feature, though I guess it depends on how fast you are shooting. 4- 6 cards ought to be workable.

How much time did your crew have with the gear before you started?

[Leonard Levy]

Rich, i’m glad you are on top of this and asking questions. I hope to make it to NAB on tuesday.
If you expect to be there give me a ring 415-730-6938 or my email is
nsll@pacbell.net and tell me how to reach you. it would be good to touch bases.
My guess is the engineers know about it and it is a just a result of how they created the interlace signal.

[Leonard Levy]

I compared HVX @ 60i 4:3 to my old Sony PD100 today looking through the Y/C connector.
Not from tape only live.
Definately more jaggies on the HCX I’m sad to say.
I set my detail to aprox match of the sharpness on the Sony.

Jan, I don’t think this has anything to do with “Thick” vs Thin settings (I’ve always been on Thick) , and you shouldn’t have to eviserate your detail to get a decent picture.

BTW I have only checked this at 4:3 since I am usually looking at matching an SD 4:3 camera in these situations.

Also I haven’t taken the time to compare recorded tape off the same deck which is really most important.
Maybe its just a video output issue on the camera? I hope so but I doubt it since my client complained about Tape.

( BTW i thought I posted something to this effect earlier but didn’t see it just now so my apologies if there is a double post.)