New to all of this !! Help With HVX 205 A

R

rzblack

Member
Hey evreybody my name is Rob and Im very new to this. Hopeing some one could help me out a little. I dont shoot what a lot of you do and Im not in film school. So Im very new to the inter workings of film making like you all are. I shoot very low buget movies very very low buget movies. I have all ways used my Sony FX1. I got 3 years ago. Never reley used the HD on it got a good deal from a friend who worked at sony so I said yea. Well no some one Im working for is going very big into the HD and Blu Ray to be exact.
Well the HD footage I was geting with the FX1 was not real good especialey in low light. So we came to the conclushion to get a newer camera. For what he wanted I figured we should some what up grade. I did a bunch of reserch and we settled on the hvx 205 A. We got the P2 format cause we figured if we went with that for mat it would also be better. Well I got the camera today and in the mist of reeding the manules and stuff I have discoverd that the HD recording is only avalible on the P2 format. I cant record the HD on to a Tape. Like I can on the Sony FX1. Am I right on that discoverey. I never new that if thats the case nor did I reed that in any reviews. Can some one confirm that the only way you can record the HD 1080 is on the P2 cards. If thats the case its a bumer.
Like I said Im not very skiled like you people on here. We actuley probley have to much camera for what we need but we want the Blue Ray HD stuff to look the best out there for the movies we are doing. And if the P2 card thing is what will only work with the camera for HD I was thinking of by passing the P2 Cards and geting the FireStore FS-100 Portable DTE . Beacuse are ave shooting for a scene is around a hour and a half worth of footage. geting 32 G P2 cards would be costley and a pain in the butt to change out.
Can some one help me out on these questions thank you very much and please excuse my lack of knolege. Thank you again
PS I cant find the spell check on here cause I know my spelling is crap im sorry on that.
 
It only records HD to the P2 cards. If you use 24PN on those 32GB cards you can get 1 1/2 hours per card thus giving you 3 hours of record time. Firestore is not a bad alternative, but keep in mind that there are moving parts and if you have it on your hip and are walking, and it is swinging it is not good. However if you are doing interviews or are able to secure the Firestore so that it doesn't get jostled, like to the bottom of the camera using a JimmyBox, www.jimmybox.com, it would work well. know how your tools work and you will get a successful recording.

Hope this helps,

Jan
 
Well as long as you acknowledge it.

P2 is the only way you can record HD. The camera records HD in the DVCProHD format which is too much info for a tape to handle (lay terms here). I use the FS100 and P2 and like both for different reasons. My Firestore has been utterly 100% reliable.

EDIT: Posted same time Jan... but your too fast for me.

And Ill back up Jans point... keep the Firestore secure.
 
Yes, you can only record HD on the P2 media, tape does not have the bandwidth to carry DVCProHD (100mb/s).

on the FX1 it is HDV (25mb/s), which essentially is a larger picture compressed into the same bandwith as DV (so it's awefull IMO).

Do yourself a favour, hire a P2 card or two when you shoot again.

after that you will run to the closest store and buy P2 cards. The workflow, reliabilty, transfer time, everything is just AWESOME!!!

if people like National geographic is changing to P2, trust me, it's good enough for people like us.

remember the P2 cards can do SD (in DV or DVCPro) all the way up to HD.

really do yourself a favour and try the workflow!
- Derrick
 
You guys have been great. Thank you very much. I thought that was the answer. I red the book and look on web sites and I thought I was going crazy. So yea I think I will get the firestone. To be honest with evreybody we shoot adult. And for 1 scene we useley shoot about a hour and a half worth of footage. So I think the Cards might be a pain. We shoot 2 scenes a day. So Im thinking the hard drive is the best and way what you all think. Hope I didnt offend anybody. RB
 
look what you guys shoot is for you to decide. This community is here to help teach each other to get better at shooting footage. You have not forced anyone to see anything, or said anything nasty which could be offensive, so that being said,

with 2 P2 cards and a laptop, you'll be better off than tape could ever offer you.

a 32GB card is going to give you 64+minutes of 720PN modes. so a 1.5 hour shoot could fit on two cards, OR

offloading the P2 card to the laptop is faster than realtime, so while you shoot on one card, the other card offloads to the laptop. and you have immediate playback to see what your footage looks like (he he, not sure in your enviroment how many retakes you can have, he he he),

And when you get to the office you can start editing because the files are allready on the HDD.

- Derrick
 
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Yep, I second for the P2 option. Notice that you can't view clips immediately after shooting like you can when you record P2 on camera. Also, if you want to do slowmotion, to see results immediately, you can only see it in P2.

2x 32gb cards is an investment for years to come. They are almost fail proof, and much more reliable than the Hard disk based firestore.2x 32gb cards in 720pn gives you hours of recording. And if you upgrade later to a better Panasonic camera, you can keep using these cards, even for better codecs like AVC-Itra (Panasonic's high end codec).

And here's another suggestion. Make sure you check for P2 prices Online (from high reputation US stores). Some countries are selling P2 at ridiculous prices.
 
I do agree with you guys, dont get me wrong. But I think Id prefer anyone to be shooting 1080 where possible.
 
All of you have been great thank you very much got another couple questions for you all. I called a local store out here for some P2 cards also looking into the Firestone. Well the guy got talking to me about the camera and stuff and he was telling me the Sony HVR-Z7U is a better camera. Tell me this guy is wrong and he is just trying to sell me on it. My head is spinning with all this info. And Im still torn on the P2 cards and the Firestone.
IM GOING CRAZY.
 
And also you guys is there a way to shoot directley into my MAC. By passing the P2 cards and the fire stone and just go direct into my computer. I dont know if I should be making new topics of if me posting this here will get these questions anserd. Thank you.
 
Match your camera settings with a FCP easy set up and shoot anything but pNative.

HD Monitor
ScopeBox

are also available, but require FCP DVCProHD codecs.
 
the sony mentioned shoots HDV. i personally consider HDV exceedingly inferior to DVCproHD.

and yes, if you are asking a new question, you should start a new topic.
 
you probably can go straight into FCP on a mac, on PC you can use Adobe OnLocation which is a specialist tool for straight recording, it's got it all.

Wait till you see what comes out of the DVCProHD 720p or 1080 footage the HVX shoots, you'll never look back!

- Derrick
 
rzblack said:
All of you have been great thank you very much got another couple questions for you all. I called a local store out here for some P2 cards also looking into the Firestone. Well the guy got talking to me about the camera and stuff and he was telling me the Sony HVR-Z7U is a better camera. Tell me this guy is wrong and he is just trying to sell me on it. My head is spinning with all this info. And Im still torn on the P2 cards and the Firestone.
IM GOING CRAZY.
Click to expand...

Dont worry, you already have your camera and theres enough info out there for you to get it working right for your purpose. Its a salesmans job to sell.
 
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