HVX Or EX1?....Or wait it out for SCARLET

Dylan Marshall Brady

Dylan Marshall Brady

Member
i am a teen film maker with a broken down handycam and a anamorphic lens
i thought it would be time to step it up
im considering hvx ex1 and possibly scarlet
which do you think would be my best option?

(fcp user)
 
Nobody knows anything about Scarlet, and won't know anything about Scarlet for another three weeks, so any comparison is way premature.

As for the remaining cameras, a large part of the question is your budget. There are many other cameras on the market too, including the XHA1 and there's the forthcoming HMC150, both of which are going to be about half the cost of the EX1 and 30% less than the HVX, so if price is a big consideration you might want to look at those.
 
Dylan, I watched some of your stuff on YouTube. Great work, the cinematography is excellent. I'm 15 myself. Where are you located? Your YouTube page says "MW" which I assume means midwest.

As far as buying a new camera, I would wait for the HMC-150 if I were you. Right now I am using an XL2 and I will be buying the HMC-150 when it comes out this fall. If you don't mind me asking, how are you funding an $8000+ camera purchase?
 
Why would you want to deal with Long GOP and rolling shutter/CMOS with the EX1?

HVX200 with DVCProHD I frame and 100mbps is so much easier to work with.

Go over to the Sony XDCAM EX forum and read about the issues.
 
The issues are also apparently growing -- multiple reports of dust or crud in the lens is the latest. DVInfo has lots of threads active with issues.

Seems like Sony rushed this thing out too quickly. We should probably have some sort of buyer's guide post to say what the issues that early adopters are experiencing, and the current status (i.e., is vignetting still an issue with new receipts, or has that been taken care of?) I can't imagine too many people wouldn't want to know this info before plunking down their cash.
 
This is from the RED site
Re: Scarlet
What we know:
RED Pocket Professional [not prosumer]
Motion Capture Camera
Will not compete with or replace the RED ONE
To be introduced at NAB 2008
It'll have a sensor and [metric] buttons
RED trademarked "Scarlet 2K"
Assimilate's SCRATCH will support Scarlet


NAB is just over two weeks away I for one would wait and see ! Also note the trademarked 2K. This alone is worth the wait.
 
Jarred apparently registered "scarlet2k.com". 2K isn't that big a deal by itself, it's just a few pixels more than 1080P. Now, if it's 4K, that's a BIG deal. Either way, even if it's not 4K and it's just 2K, that's still pretty darn sweet and a little bigger than the highest-res broadcast transmission we have.
 
I think many people don't realize that 2K refers to horizontal resolution as opposed to 720/1080, which refer to vertical resolution. Is it better than "HD"? No doubt. Is it going to make a difference to 99% of the people (especially if they output to DVD or even Blu-Ray)? Probably not.
 
Excellent point. 2K (or "2048") is not twice the res of 1080P! It's a little tiny bit more res, about 7% more in each direction.

1080P = 1920x1080
2K = 2048 x 1152

2K is a cine format for digital acquisition, and not a video format. If Scarlet is truly "2K", that might point to its target market (i.e., perhaps it's not a "video" camera at all? Red One isn't a video camera, it's a digital cinema camera that shoots raw files; I'd bet Scarlet is pursuing a similar angle.)
 
I may be wrong, and yes everything is speculation until confirmed but to me the Scarlett 2K trademark is a strong indication that this will indeed be a 2K camera, the deliberate mention of Professional as opposed to Pro-Sumer would also indicate some form of removable or else a high quality lense system. I have said it before but it was dismissed I think Scarlett will be positioned just above the HVX price wise 2-3K, why do I say this; Red has been masterfull in letting their customers tell them what they are looking from Scarlett. In recent weeks RedUsers ( well positioned users) have moved from describing the Scarlett as a pocket camera to saying they are not sure of the size of the pocket in question.
I think the unit will probably be modular like RED One so Red can make a profit from offering the add on Viewfinder/LCD rails, mounts etc. Again I may be wrong but to my mind the market to be capitalised on is the one between the 1/3' pro-sumer cameras and the RED One and HPX500.
A 2K camera with many of the features of the HVX with a modular design will not adversly affect or compete with the Red One. And if it is priced just above the HVX it is not out of reach for the low budget indi market. Add some form of interchangeable lense option and you may just have the low budget camera for the next five years. Again all is speculation, but it is exciting. The only thing worrying me at the moment is all this mention of motion capture !!!
 
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I just recorded 2 days with the EX1 and I have the HVX200, what can I say:

- EX1 resolution is amazing e it has less noise than HVX 200;
- HVX 200 image is more filmic and EX1 is more video (yes, I tweaked a lot the EX1 settings, skin area selection is nice and saturation control in dark areas is nice, but I preffer the HVX gamma & overall look);
- EX1 rolling shutter wasn't a problem in my footages;
- EX1 lens is great, cards worked fine;
- Some EX1 controls aren't fast to access;
- EX1 LCD is great !;
- EX1 monitor output is delicated and in a bad location;
- EX1 painting is bad, some buttom letters went away.

Ulisses
 
139 videos in the last 11 months...wow. You have improved a lot since the beginning. Nice that you have an indoor Apple store...I had to wait outside.
 
2K could surely also mean 2048x1556, which is the resolution my Cineon scans have been for the last 12 years for effects work.

Plenty of resolution there. I don't buy into this 4K malarky.
 
electricpig said:
2K could surely also mean 2048x1556, which is the resolution my Cineon scans have been for the last 12 years for effects work.

Plenty of resolution there. I don't buy into this 4K malarky.
Click to expand...
2048x1556 would be a 4:3 aspect ratio (which makes sense, since film is 4:3). But I doubt they'd make it 4:3...
 
I think the 2k doesn't mean as much to folks as knowing the footage will probably be very clean. 2k and only a bit better than 1080p yes...but from much better chips than most cameras out right now (or so we hope). Almost like having RED ONE footage just a hair worse, and half the size. Thats what interests me.
 
Hvx

Hvx

I was in the same situation as you.

I went with the HVX.

Mostly because I've used it and loved it.

And there is already an answer to most questions you'll have about the cam.
 
I would go with the HVX, but you may want the EX1 considering that you have been using a Sony camera for a while now. We'll know more about Scarlet at NAB in three weeks, so definitely wait until then to purchase one.
 
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