[Nate Stephens]

Kevin,

I downloaded their demo and just fired it up in our “insert stage” (translate garage). We have a green screen/drape hanging and a home made lite grid with 300 watt halogen yard lamps.

I put our new HVX200 on a Bogen tripod (for still photos), plugged the HVX into our MacBook Pro 15″ via firewire, turned on 4 of the 300 watt yard lamps (they do have gels attached) and fired up the Veescope demo. In less than 20 minutes I had a great key, perfect edges and using the “dutch tilt” of the tripod head, I had Heads to toe talent chroma keyed over pictures.

The demo does not allow for saved video files but it looks great for 100 bucks. And the key was easier than setting the key using my Broadcast camera plugged into our Videotech Prodigy switcher.. All this running ON Batteries for less than 10k. At HD 720.

It might not be “Hollywood” enough for some people. But to my 25 years of mid market chroma keying eyes. It is the best location key for the money. And the client can have a finished video before I go home.. Just edit on the Mac Book Pro with FCP and hand them their final video.. I will have to remember to take a printer so I can print the invoice and hand that to them too… :-0

[Nate Stephens]

Their PCMIA units only top out at 16gig with a 30mb/s write speed… Me thinks we will be paying Panasonic’s big “got u” tarrif on P2 cards for awhile. I would love to find a third party vendor for P2 cards.

But their 3.5 ATA / sata class units claim to be 200 times faster than a 15000rpm spindle.. Now that sounds encouraging. But NO prices listed… Better start saving the pennies…

[Nate Stephens]

” Then I thought it might be even easier to just shoot myself (I don’t mean with a camera)”

Get the downpayment first, party hardy, and then just loop a firewire cable around the lighting grid in the studio… a lot less messy…

Or just send the details to me ;-0

It will be interesting to see what the pros suggest. I have a three camera HVX200 shoot coming up and I am totally new to the HD world.

[Nate Stephens]

I was just reading an Eventdv article on Mac field/location monitoring and it pointed me to the website Veescope.com.. Check out their VeescopeLive software for chroma keying on location.

Very interesting.

[Nate Stephens]

Becareful what you ask for Nick, you just might get it. Our new MacBookPro came two weeks ago (after I sold the 3 year old Power Book) and our new HVX200 came last week, a day after our sales guy sold a three camera HD shoot for mid-January. Now we need 2 more HVXs’ and a crash course on how to turn them on…..

So you are in Pennsyvannia, That hunk of coal could be the best present you ever got. You have heard of the 300million Coal gasification plant going in on the river. Now I am going to have to go get a bigger hunk of coal to get my bid noticed …. dratsss

Merry Holidays to all the Bovines in the pasture and remember, no matter how bad the economy gets,,, they will always need us to prove it wasn’t really that bad,,, “””just check out this edit, if it’s on tape, it gotta be real”” Go get ’em in ’08… 🙂

[Nate Stephens]

Thanks Jon,

Your awesome… Do you prefer the Dual Adapter over the Addonics PCMIA/express card adapter. The difference seems to be the cabling on the units. Is the perfomance the same?

Does the cabling help protect the lap top?

Is there a reason for your choice. The Dual Adapter is about 40 bucks more than the Addioncs if I remember correctly.

Thanks

[Nate Stephens]

“two questions for you: how did you decide on Scopebox? and did you consider the 17″? ”

Bob, When I posted a question (about a week ago) to confirm wether you can plug the HVX200 into a MacBook Pro and into a Firewire drive and record hours of 720p. Barry Green responded with an afirmitive yes, And I can do 1080p,,, Yea Haw… I asked Barry if he had any favorite location software and ScopeBox was one of the three he mentioned. ScopeBox location HD monitors and HD Scope and records to hard drive for $600…. Try to do that with dedicated hardware.. I want a good scope on location (never had one in Betacam SP world, just wanted one) I would love to have a good HD CRT on location. But Santa’s pockets are only so deep. I an hoping to take my old Sony SD monitor and plug it into the SD composite out of the HVX200. I hope it works “good enough” to get me started in HD world.

I would love to have the 17″.. Just about bought one, a scratch and dent return, for 2,200 at Micro Center… But it did not fit into my location backpack, (1.5″ tooooo long, I tried it) I have a backpack that holds my Nikon D40, 2 extra lens, Panasonic 3chip consumer DV camera, batteries tape, 2.5 external FW- HD, tape, blank CD’s /DVDs, misc.parts and my Mac Power Book 15″, now my MacBook Pro “. I have used this rig to document a Math Science camp for two years. It works great. You park the car, hang everything on your back, walk across campus .5 mile, chase elementary aged kids with camera for 6 hours, repeat journey back to car, go home collapse or visit bar and drink.

I hope to find a matching backpack/case for the HVX200 and Mac book Pro..

Yes I have noticed that the glossy screen looks sharper, and have thought about making a monitor hood for it. The office demos just look great on it.. But from experience, after many long hours of staring at monitors or viewfinders, I find my eyes starting to go weird do to the stress and long days. They act like a kalidascope with the edges of your vision freaking out. Not particular nice when your driving. So it is almost a health issue. My concern that the increased “spectral highlights” on the screen might make for more eye strain…..

Otherwise I would keep the glossy.. Better black / dark details, sharper edges, graphics just Pop…

[Nate Stephens]

Jeremy,

Thanks for your suggestion to do a search… The search did highlight the conversation on Matte vs glossy. And it also illustrated just how much these threads ramble away from the original subject.. What does “I was wondering if the AJA IOHD would support the AVC codecs. Maybe that will be forthcomming in a software upgrade” and a complete discussion of the IOHD have to do with matte – glossy..

I have to agree with Walter the reflections on the Black start up is distracting cause it reminds you to shave the mug… And there is reflections if you stand to the side and try to view it. But as the guy from London Digital Heaven mentioned the colors do pop and seem richer. Playing back a QT video clip from a job last year, I first noticed that people of color (the main subject) skin tones are just georgeous, but the compression mush from compressing a small dv camera video into a small QT video is much more obvious..

Which makes me wonder if glossy would work better as a field monitor for Panasonic HVX200-P2 which is to be its’ main job. Would I get a better focus monitor?

Anybody using glossy screen Macbook Pro 15″ with the HVX200 ????

Or will the spectral highlights, bright reflections, exhaust your eyes quickly.

[Nate Stephens]

Jan, I tried to send you my email twice, along with a HVX200 thankyou and a SOny HDV chuckle…. I quess I flunked translating email code.. Mine is nate@tvsvpro.com…

[Nate Stephens]

Per,

I am no Tech Emmy winner.. but from what I can see in your photos,,, I am amazed that a camera that cost less than a good HD lens can pull a key that good… Thanks for posting them. I am more encouraged than before.. Yes I can see your enlarged edge defect. But most of my clients don’t study their monitors with a magnifying glass, let alone walk and talk much better than your model. And they are way not that cute….