HPX 300 Test Footage Shoot Day

[lyonfilms]

I am going to spend a good part of tomorrow (Sunday) running around with the HPX 300. In another thread I posted some of my increaseing pan tests, but I am going to get a lot of different looks tomorrow - all outside though.

I am going to shoot a number of things keeping the camera primarily in 1080 AVC-Intra 100 at 24PN. Although I am going to shoot some 720p 60 over 24pn. I will also get a few 60i shots in 1080 for those that are interested.

I am likely going to shoot some by a river. Some in downtown Portland. I am going to shoot my business partners young kids playing at a playground and running around with a soccer ball.

I promise to get a good variety. Both at the long end and wide end of the stock lens.

Will likely post results to Vimeo unless someone wants to host for higher quality download.

[David S.]

Must be sunny in Portland.

I for one appreciate this. I haven't had any response to my last two requests made to my rep.

best

[hotchkiss]

I also really appreciate the effort and time your are spending to do these tests- thank you ! I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Thanks again.

[lyonfilms]

I am in the process of uploading 4 different sets up clips from my efforts today.

Today was a good chance to really just spend some time with the camera.

The clips (as soon as they've uploaded) can be seen at our blog www.LyonFilms.com/blog. From there you can see all four and link to Vimeo to see them in HD. Remember, when using Vimeo to (1) let them load the entire way BEFORE starting playback and (2) turn scaling OFF for smooth proper playback.

First - I would really appreciate any news that Jan Crittenden Livingston can give as to progress, if any, Panasonic is having in regards to reducing some of the skew and what I consider to be too much noise.

BAD:
1. 1080 24PN has significant skew when panning with speed or shooting from the shoulder and "whipping" the camera back and forth to follow unpredictable action. I wish it wasn't so...we own one of these...but it is. Period.

2. The camera exhibits skew at the other settings as well. Now, this ISNT new. Barry Green's post (look for it) explains this in exacting detail with percentage increases over the EX3.

3. I realize this camera crams a ton of pixels into a 1/3 inch chip. With that comes noise. I understand. I think the camera is a little too noisy but, you know, it is really close to what I personally would deem "fine" considering the chip size. So, here's to hoping a firmware can help with this, even more than what the first pre-release firmware upgrade supposedly did.

4. No native support for AVC-Intra with either Adobe or Final Cut...yet. I hate transcoding and swear that it adds some noise to the image (maybe my imagination).

GOOD:
1. Resolution. At full raster 1920x1080 when shooting in AVC-Intra, the camera has the detail.

2. Color. I like Panny's look. This camera has it.

3. Options. This camera PACKS IN THE OPTIONS. Wow. The fact that it shoots just about every single flavor of video possible, including over and under cranking is just great.

4. ENG style body. Removeable lens. Proper batteries. Proper ins and outs.

Notes:
Since we own one of these cameras I really want to love it. I can't say I love it BUT, there is a LOT to like about the camera and we will use it a lot. We just have to be careful in how we use it. We have to be more aware of its limitations that we have with other cameras.

I also REALLY hope Panasonic's engineers take some direction from RED and please, please, please, in a timely manner release firmware updates. I imagine those of us who own one would be fine with periodic releases that fix or improve the shortcomings in increments. I would much rather have this than wait longer for one major update. I will take my udpates in shots rather than pints.

Hope this was helpful.

[David S.]

Actually it didn't look that bad until . . . . towards the very end downtown with the buildings. Right at 2:56.

Oh my

[alexdias]

oh my...

[DavidNJ]

The exposures were dark. Did you use a polarizing filter? Can you load a short 1080p segment? I am curious what the railing on the walkway bridge over the railway bridge looks like.

In the download, the chroma channels seemed very noise free. There seemed to be more texture detail than recorded in an EX1/3; however than maybe (and probably is) more a function of AVC Intra over XDCAM EX.

Overall, it seemed a very competitive image in this price range.

[Kenn Christenson]

Kinda glad I'm holding off on this camera until all the "technical dust" settles a bit.

[lyonfilms]

I will try and find some time today to upload a short 1080p version to Vimeo, but I just noticed that they are down for some technical problem for at least 3 more hours.

A few of the shots might be a bit underexposed, but I think some of the darkening occurred going from AVC to Pro Res to down rezzed h.264. Nasty way to get a "real" look at any footage. That being said, a few times, mainly in the city streets, I was purposely exposing more for sky to see how the camera handled the shadowed areas.

Jan - can you chime in with any update at all on Panasonic's progress on looking into some of the problems?

Also, to one of the other points above, that the video was OK until minute 2:56 - yep! you got it. LOL. The camera, when tightly controlled is fine, but that is the problem. As we all know, we can't tightly control many situations. The whip back to follow the bus is a perfect example of that and the resulting video was rubbish.

Cheers.