Would you like the HPX170 to be PAL/NTSC switchable?

Would you like the HPX170 to be PAL/NTSC switchable?

  • Yes. Must have out of the box

    Votes: 189 66.5%

  • Would be okay with a factory upgrade option at add'l cost

    Votes: 34 12.0%

  • No. Doesn't matter to me

    Votes: 61 21.5%
  • Total voters
    284
Yes, it looks like I am going to have to purchase an EX1 because the panasonic cameras in this price range do not do this. I was very surprised the original HVX-200 lacked this feature.
 
We are all going Ga-Ga over a AVCHD camcorder offering 21Mbps recording (with peaking to 24Mbps) to be released in Fall 2008? We are all suckers .....

I will wager that before Panasonic will bring this "most wanted" camcorder out of wraps, Sony/Canon/JVC will announce their consumer HD camcorders offering 20/21/24 Mbps recording. Sony with their Sr11 and SR12 camcorders with gorgeous 5+ M pixels CMOS have got everything aligned right. Very Very HiDef CMOS today and the recording capability (24 Mbps) of the future.

My best bet is the HPX 170 which will be (approx) $800 to $1000 less than HVX 200A. Rest of Panasonic camcorders will just bite the dust and MHC 150 will be replacing HSC-A1U and will be carrying a price of $1999.00. It is not worth more than that.

Satya
 
I was thinking 50i vs 60i like PAL vs NTSC. If I want to have a second cam to match up the future HPX170 like the small SD9, is it better with a 50i or 60i thus more resolution and less compression...?

Or does it matter? I know Barry wrote something about this on another forum, but I can´t find it.

And... I´m planning to do PAL and NTSC SD DVD of the same project so what is the best thing to do. Convert NTSC to PAL or PAL to NTSC, 50i to 60i or 60i to 50i?
 
Last edited:
AVCHD is really awesome and CMOS is a nightmare. You can keep that and never let it show it's ugly face again. Simply unacceptable jello vision and crap footage when the camera is moving.. has vibrations.. or if you do a pan that's slighly fast. The last thing I would ever do is call a CMOS camera gorgeous. It's not for me!


Satya said:
We are all going Ga-Ga over a AVCHD camcorder offering 21Mbps recording (with peaking to 24Mbps) to be released in Fall 2008? We are all suckers .....

I will wager that before Panasonic will bring this "most wanted" camcorder out of wraps, Sony/Canon/JVC will announce their consumer HD camcorders offering 20/21/24 Mbps recording. Sony with their Sr11 and SR12 camcorders with gorgeous 5+ M pixels CMOS have got everything aligned right. Very Very HiDef CMOS today and the recording capability (24 Mbps) of the future.

My best bet is the HPX 170 which will be (approx) $800 to $1000 less than HVX 200A. Rest of Panasonic camcorders will just bite the dust and MHC 150 will be replacing HSC-A1U and will be carrying a price of $1999.00. It is not worth more than that.

Satya
Click to expand...
 
Justyn said:
AVCHD is really awesome and CMOS is a nightmare. You can keep that and never let it show it's ugly face again. Simply unacceptable jello vision and crap footage when the camera is moving.. has vibrations.. or if you do a pan that's slighly fast. The last thing I would ever do is call a CMOS camera gorgeous. It's not for me!
Click to expand...

Justyn:

Shot a baseball game last night with the EX-1. What a frustrating camera! Killer lens. Killer LCD screen. Depth of field gauge? Killer! Colors? Ehh, so, so. I like the colors on my HVX MUCH better. Messed around with tweaking Cine 3 and 4, the colors just still don't have the HVX mojo at all, very video looking. Menu structure? A nightmare, almost worse than the Z1 and that's saying something.

Trying to shoot fast pans from home plate to first? A joke. It is so bizarre to pan and see everything in the LCD wave around like...Jello. Yep, you have coined the correct term. CMOS cameras with rolling shutters are USELESS for shooting fast action...sports, car racing, a lot of stuff that I shoot.

The EX-1 made up my mind last night, an HPX-170 will be joining my HVX-200 in the stable.

If all you shoot are still or slow moving subjects, a great camera. But if you shoot flashing lights, explosions, fast pans and fast moving subjects, forget it.

Dan
 
Satya said:
We are all going Ga-Ga over a AVCHD camcorder offering 21Mbps recording (with peaking to 24Mbps) to be released in Fall 2008? We are all suckers .....

I will wager that before Panasonic will bring this "most wanted" camcorder out of wraps, Sony/Canon/JVC will announce their consumer HD camcorders offering 20/21/24 Mbps recording. Sony with their Sr11 and SR12 camcorders with gorgeous 5+ M pixels CMOS have got everything aligned right. Very Very HiDef CMOS today and the recording capability (24 Mbps) of the future.

My best bet is the HPX 170 which will be (approx) $800 to $1000 less than HVX 200A. Rest of Panasonic camcorders will just bite the dust and MHC 150 will be replacing HSC-A1U and will be carrying a price of $1999.00. It is not worth more than that.

Satya
Click to expand...

CMOS sucks. That and my general hatred of anything sony keeps me from the other offering for solid state.
 
Timothy Harry said:
CMOS sucks. That and my general hatred of anything sony keeps me from the other offering for solid state.
Click to expand...

As a still photographer, I will say that in still cameras, CMOS is better than CCDs. I was on the Corrado set, shooting some BTS photos with my Nikon (a CCD camera) and the set photographer, Ed, was shooting with his CMOS Canon. When I look at the images that we both shot, same room, camera, available light, his images have a better color and contrast quality. Our cameras cost about the same and the lenses we were using were similar. Part of it is the digital processing engine in the camera but a large part of it is the CMOS.

I don't think the CMOS chip itself is inherently bad, it just becomes not so great when paired with a rolling shutter as the EX-1 and the RED have done.

As far as Sony, they are not my favorite either, but they do make some good products. I have come to the realization that the perfect camera would be a hybrid of the best features of the HVX combined with the best features of the EX-1. HVX has killer look and colorimetry, contrast, P2/DVCProHD. If you could combine all of that with the EX-1 lens, lcd and depth of field gauge with 1/2 CCDs, you would have the best sub $10k camera made, by far.

Dan
 
I don't know how I missed this thread.

Being Ntsc/Pal switchable is a MUST for every HVX user, IMO. Why?

First, NTSC and Pal regions normaly have different HZs lighting. What this means is that a Ntsc camera doing variable frame rates, or even normal 24p shooting with a 60 shutter in a Pal 50hzs Country/region for example, will have flickering on lighting, specially neon lights. I've personaly experienced this, and while with synchro scan or different shutter speeds this is somehow workable, that is a pain.

I can understand the grey market reasoning by Jan. However, Warranty is always an issue, and I believe that support will always be an equation to every pro gear buyer. Just continue with the numbering differences for identifying different markets, and the balance will be kept. Unless, of course, Panasonic is not confident on the service level provided by its distributors worldwide, and that they would ratter import from the US market.

For reference, NTSC users, DVCPRO HD Pal, in 1080i, resolves 1440x1080. So this could be a plus for anyone shooting in 25p, which is easily converted to 24p...

Pal users, our biggest gain would be, of course, shooting the full variable frame rates that the camera is capable. 60 frames to 50 frames, for slow motion, for example is a big difference.

As for the 24p/25p thing, it is a non-issue.

please give us a ntsc/pal camera, which is a standard offering from Sony, for example. I wouldn't even mind paying for the upgrade, like Canon asks.
 
Last edited:
For the 170 to be a pro camera it should have ntsc/pal switchabilty.
It would be International baby.
Plus if 50 to 20 % of your work is pal you would totally need this feature.And in my opinion 25p /50i helps get a better film look (motion) then 24p.
 
I think I read somewhere that the 170 will indeed be NTSC/PAL.
Perhaps it was on the B+H website, can't remember-

JB
 
Hi all:

In another thread, Jan has stated that the HPX probably will not be switchable. She is pushing for an optional factory ugrade ala Canon but even that is sounding doubtful.

Bummer for those who care.

Dan
 
I work for a European network that is thinking about the EX-1 for their international branches. I showed them a few clips with CMOS problems and they are holding back and wait for the HPX. if it won´t switch to NTSC (they have offices all over the states, but mainly NY, WAS, CHI and LA) they will go with the EX for sure. My next shoot for them in the states is in August with my HVX (only for European market), but then we will shoot the Ironman in Hawaii later this year in NTSC and i sure hope to have a few HPXes by then......
 
There was a panasonic fold out advertisement in a magazine that I recently received that specifically said the camera was NTSC / PAL switchable but I really haven't seen anything online confirming that.

With the camera only a few weeks away from shipping, apparently, can anyone else confirm they saw this.?

thanks.
 
I have an HVX-200. I picked up a client that wants footage in Standard Def PAL. To my dismay, Panasonic deliberately sabotaged their product by not including that frame rate. Why miss that step? Purely commercial reasons. After this, do you think I'll buy another Panasonic camera . . . any model of Panasonic camera . . . to satisfy this client? Hell no!
 
In the thread over on DV Info, Jim Martin of Birns & Sawyer is saying that the dealers received a bulletin that said that after registering U.S. Market camera to upgrade from the one year warranty to the HPX 5 year, the camera is eligible for a free PAL capability switch. This blows me away and is definitely a surprise, didn't think that Panasonic would ever do this but I guess there was enough begging for the feature here and elsewhere for Jan to convince them this would be a necessity to compete with the EX-1.

I had bet that Panasonic wouldn't do it so I officially am eating crow for dinner tonight ;-)

BTW, official list is U.S. $5,695.00 with a retailer already offering it at $5,195.00 with a 16GB card and Barry's new bible. Sweet!

Dan
 
My understanding is that the upgrade is $300. They put it out at a lower price point ($300 less than the HVX200) for those who don't need the capability, and for those who do, well, it's basically $5995.

(plus, of course, street price is at least $500 less than that already).

But, yeah, we got it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top