HVX200 and the Redrock M2

Steve Shovlar

Steve Shovlar

DVXuser Sponsor
It was a nice sunny day here in the south of the UK so I went out in the garden and shot some footgae with the HVX200 with a Redrock M2.

This footage has not been colour corrected or anything! Straight out of a P2 card into FCP and onto here. The HVX works superbly with the M2 with sharpness edge to edge, partly because the HVX focuses down to the front of the glass, so the acromat of the M2 can be placed right next to the lens of the HVX. NO need for spacer tubes or anything. No soft corners. Perfect combo!

Lenses were a Nikon 80-200mm 2.8, with the one wide shot a 17-35mm 2.8 set at 17mm. All shots had the lens at 2.8. Being in the UK I shot in 1080i, as 720P is not yet supported. It will look great when FCP support us PAL users!

Ignore any pixilation etc as I made the clip with a bit rate of only 1200. The clips was to show off the DOF.

http://www.steveshovlar.com/garden1.mov
 
Really beautiful, especially in those shots where you do´nt note the limited latitude of video. What really surprises me is the very little softening I have observed so far on HVX-M2 footage. It seems to be really neat, at least on a smaller monitor.
People say that you can´t intercut M2 footage with footage shot without the adapter. But, based on what I have seen so far, to me it seems possible at least when slightly filtering the none-M2-footage while shooting or in post.
 
Looks great, Steve. I wonder if Redrock will have a booth at NAB. Would be great if they had some to buy at the show.

The M2 really has me torn though. I don't know which I should buy first: the M2 or a matte box? I can see more uses for the M2, but a matte box would be really handy. Decisions...
 
Wow, that one wide shot was a good example of the kind of sharpness possible with a 35mm adapter. (You also used an ND grad, right?) Often, people shoot with f/1.4 lenses that would make it practically impossible to follow an actor accurately. Your use of a wider lens reminds me it will be possible to achieve a workable solution. Good work, Steve. 20 minutes well-spent. :)

aelent: Yes, redrock will be at NAB. I found info at www.redrockmicro.com.

Joe 1008: I agree, would be interesting to see some test footage with and without adapters in the same shot/scene, just to see how close you can get them to match.
 
R Gale, its a nice sunny morning here in the UK a the moment ( not sure how long it will last, probably by the time I have typed this it will have clouded over!)

But I will go out in the garden and shoot that wide shot again, with and without the M2, so we can compare shots. I will put up the reults later.
 
Wow

Wow

Wow, I really liked those shots. And considering they probably weren't composed or lit properly, they should look even better once prepped.

I just ordered the M2 and I've been worried about some of the footage I've seen online. I noticed that in the out of focus area of the image, you can see lots of noise and grain from the ground glass.

Steve, your shots didn't have those cyclic noise that I noticed. Maybe it's the Nikon lens that hides them, or maybe the other footages were just shot without the proper settings on the cam.

Anyways, I'm feeling relieved now. I guess the only thing left to do is wait for my M2 and save up for an HVX.
 
Menchifus, a trick I have learnt is don't use the battery that is inside the M2. Use an external battery strapped to the side of it. The external battery spins the motor a bit faster and takes away any glass noise and grain.

There was only natural light. Nothing was composed properly at all. I just put the camera in position and shot!

I have been playing aroound wth colour correction this afternoon and the scenes certainly come to life with a bit of tweaking. If the weather is OK tomorrow I will get out again. Today I have been too busy.
 
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