EX-1 and HVX200A Run-n-Gun Experiement: Narrativeish

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
http://www.vimeo.com/1457007
http://www.vimeo.com/1456932


One of these videos is the HVX200A and one of them is the EX-1. One has the Extreme and the other has the Letus Ultimate. Both are using the exact same set of glass, Contax Zeiss. You can actually figure out just from looking at the vimeo page which is which. LoL. Cause, I'm tired.

DISCLAIMER
This was an experiment that I was lucky enough to be asked to help with, organized by Willis Chung and his friends. The purpose of the super-short was to put the cameras into extreme low-lit circumstances and see how they performed separately. This is not a scientific VERSUS battle. It was truly an effort for us to get to see how they matched up and which one we wanted to go with in the end.

I haven't decided yet because there's a lot of stuff that didn't happen. We didn't have time or the resources to really light this sucker up. And doing a two-camera shoot, changing back and forth for EVERY shot is really tough stuff. We ran several hours over time budget but managed to get to the last shot. The cameras were put in situations that weren't favorable to either. Running without proper handheld rigs and everything. LoL. We were literally trying to just move forward so a lot of the stuff isn't superb.

THERE JUST WASN'T ENOUGH TIME FOR THIS KIND OF DEAL! But we had fun and didn't get to sleep until like 4AM.

I will admit, first-hand that we didn't have enough experience with the EX-1 to call this definitive. Please do NOT start a big riot over it. In the end it's not a scientific test, it's just a run-n-gun experiment by us. Some shots turned out good, some not as great as they could have been.
 
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i feel 100% sure that the first one is the hvx200 due to its organic look and colors. this to me proves if i'm right that after all has been said and done the hvx 200 is probably the most filmic cam on the market.

the bokeh on the second one seemed to hazy and very distracting. which leads me to believe the letus ex was on that one.
 
I should also point out that on top of shooting +6dB of gain on both cameras we were also shooting with fast lenses wide-open.


Bokeh or EX vs Ultimate wasn't what we were testing for as it's in the most horrid conditions for any SLR glass.
 
LOL. I wish you had an "A" or "B" in the title to give something to easily reference.

1456932 = EX1 Apparent jello-cam in the hallway.

Johnny: think you might want to reedit that post?
 
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Kholi -

You must have watched the animated short "Bingo" just before you wrote this. It's a great horror technique, plus I loved your footage. I don't know if I could watch this after you've gotten the lighting, sound, grading, and other effects done. And take that as a compliment becuase scary movies scare me.

I vote #1 as HXVX and Letus Ultimate and #2 is that Sony thing and the LEX. If it's the other way around, my blacks will be crushed.
 
I couldn't tell, but I have no experience with either camera. I did like the feel of most of the shots in the first one however.

That guy needs to stop with the acid I think.
 
I think the first one was the HVX . The second one had more light and in the shadows especially on the front of apartment shot in the trees.
on teh flm look. The EX1 out of the box has very neutral colours and its picture profiles need tweaking to get in more film like. I own the EX1 and I never shoot with the standard settings.
Scary film btw.
 
I think video #6 on vimeo is Ex1 and #7 is hvx. That said both look good but #6 slightly edged out #7. Did you use an adapter for the whole thing including the opening shot? And even if we don't know which cam is which was the ultimate on the hvx or the ex1? When you said you didn't really have a chance to light it up do you mean you didn't use lights at all in that piece or not as much as you wanted, if you did use some what did you use? And or my own personal curiosity how were your handheld rigs not proper? You didn't use the redrock or zacuto setup for either? Or just pieces of one or something? I'm interested more and more in handheld, that's why I'm always asking you about your handheld rigs lol.
 
first: HVX200A
second: EX-1

Both looked good but the first one seems naturally more "filmic" and moody.
The second clip could have been graded to looked more moody according to the idea.
 
My guess: clip A was all hvx200a baby...yayeaa! However, way too dark on my monitor to be able to discern a great difference between the 2 adapters, but my pick would be the ultimate for the first clip and the letus extreme for the second.
 
uhm.... this is sort of moot.

The seccond one is not exposed the same way as the first. As far as look goes there are a zillion things to tweak on each camera so there is really no way to tell, at least not as long as we are supposed to judge by a vimeo-clip.

One thing a lot of people don't seem to understand with the EX1 is that it comes without preloaded scenefiles like the HVX, and thus mistake it for lacking an "organic/filmlike" look. Mostly because of people posting clips with poor scene-file and sharpening settings. And to drop a small bomb, that includes Phillip Bloom's work.... (allthough it is beutfully shot).
 
Johnny Cola said:
http://vimeo.com/1457007 HVX200A
http://vimeo.com/1456932 EX1

As far as adapters, I have no idea ??? I wanna say the HVX200A had the Letus Ultimate since that's how YOU roll.

EDIT: Did you guys ever find her dog? Did she eat it, I mean she had a lot of blood around her mouth?
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LoL Rock. You're crazy, dude. That is correct, though. I suppose it's really easy to tell which is EX-1 and which is 200A. Also, the 200A did have the Ultimate on it. It was simply because we didn't have time to switch the systems over and we had to get shooting fast.

I don't think Willis and I realized how much time it would take to do this.
 
GageFX said:
LOL. I wish you had an "A" or "B" in the title to give something to easily reference.

1456932 = EX1 Apparent jello-cam in the hallway.

Johnny: think you might want to reedit that post?
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I was sooo tired when I put this up. You can actually download the original file and they're labeled Panasonic and Sony. Cheat sheet!

The Jello Cam in the hallway and in the bootleg dolly shot (I was sitting on an apple box and almost fell a few times xD ) show a bit of the wobble but to be honest it's no worse than what I experience shooting handheld with RED. Does anyone else think the wobble was distracting?

I did get some rolling lines in the stairwell from the fluo lighting there, but, you can't see it in the footage.
 
Ducatimark said:
Kholi -

You must have watched the animated short "Bingo" just before you wrote this. It's a great horror technique, plus I loved your footage. I don't know if I could watch this after you've gotten the lighting, sound, grading, and other effects done. And take that as a compliment becuase scary movies scare me.

I vote #1 as HXVX and Letus Ultimate and #2 is that Sony thing and the LEX. If it's the other way around, my blacks will be crushed.
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Thanks for the compliments, Mark. This was actually Willis' idea and I just kinda did what I could with minimal/no light. For a test shoot I think it was a good subject because it stressed both cameras in lowlight situations, moving situations, and operational. As far as me using the darn things back to back and sometimes simultaneously.

The HVX is indeed the first one and the Sony the Second. Ultimate and Letus Extreme respectively. A real dead giveaway would be the soft sides on the EX-1 because the Extreme didn't have an optimization kit. That's also a handicap for the EX-1.
 
zergtherobot said:
I couldn't tell, but I have no experience with either camera. I did like the feel of most of the shots in the first one however.

That guy needs to stop with the acid I think.
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I'm actually with you on the shots from the first camera. For some reason I had trouble with the adapter/Ex-1 combo? It sounds weird, but, I couldn't really figure out where the zoom needed to reside for proper FOV where-as I ALWAYS set my HVX200A to Academy/35mm FOV.

I know, I suck!
 
kubalsky said:
I think the first one was the HVX . The second one had more light and in the shadows especially on the front of apartment shot in the trees.
on teh flm look. The EX1 out of the box has very neutral colours and its picture profiles need tweaking to get in more film like. I own the EX1 and I never shoot with the standard settings.
Scary film btw.
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Hey Kubalsky. What gamma settings do you use for the EX-1? When I went to the CineGammas I noticed that color representation was very poor, or worse-than, standards so I went to Standard 3. That probably wasn't the best choice but I don't have that much experience with the Camera. It's not the easiest to navigate.

One thing is certain, either the Extreme is faster than the Ultimate or I was mistaken in thinking that the 200A was as fast as the EX-1 because the EX-1 was about half-a stop brighter.

Both cameras were at +6db of gain the entire time. If the EX-1 has -3dB is that equivalent to +9dB on the 200A?

Either way, for both systems to be using such a high gain setting I think they look really clean.
 
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