We didn't respond to this thread previously because we didn't consider ourselves experienced enough to comment and for the most part still don't but having been a reasonably seasoned HVX200 and HVX200A user and recently going the distance into the HVR-Z7U HDV world we thought we'd offer at least some early input . . .
ROLLING SHUTTER - alhthough touted to be a major hazard with the CMOS chip we haven't seen this. Whether the CMOS rolling shutter issue has been fixed by Sony's new EIS (enhanced image stabalization) or the new pre-filtering of image noise system, we have not seen this come into play BUT the camera time is somewhat limited at the moment reporting less than 10 hours.
LOW LIGHT - absolutely astonishing. Great images at low light and right there with a DVX100B with -18db gain or the low light PD170 cranked . . BUT . . at these levels there are problems with auto focusing when doing any kind of pushes where the camera hunts and chases quick and dirty on close ups and totally "bad" for production use and thus - must go to manual focus in this scenario and is especially a challenge in low light. For our low light wedding receptions and event applications however not a big issue, set the back focus carefully and maticulously on the removable lens (like you should with any removable professional lens), set the zoom to wide (no push) and move the camera not the zoom . . which is the way we usually do it anyway. Our DVX's did this too when hand held zooming but not even 1/10th as much as the Z7. In fact, move the camera a little like in a handheld situation (which is ALWAYS for us on wedding receptions) and do a zoom and it's actually funny (not really but for a pun anywho) to watch the camera hunt and chase for an image. The first time I asked myself, "where is that coming from?" However, a quick search finds that there are helps to make it better as indicated above. The end result is about like the DVX on auto focus . . or . . just go manual and the problem is not there. For us we like auto in this scenario and thus we go infinity and move the camera which is what we did with the DVX and HVX anyways. Handheld zooming is an invitation to make viewers sick
)
HDV RECORDING - not at all as bad as we had thought. Having formerly had HVX200A we were very very worried about the image quality and very worried about this compressed codec but the newer design image noise clean up in the Z7U apparently sends down a cleaner and more robust HDV image to be recorded and the result is a cleaner picture which has way more color than we were expecting and so here we were quite pleased. Also, haven't experienced any drops yet either which was something we were very worried about although "time" may change this present experience.
REMOVABLE LENS - this is a beauty. The ability to control everything (zoom, focus, iris) with one hand in one location without moving around is like heaven. I had never experienced this before but I love it. The ENG guys have all the tools) If we only had their budgets )
REMOVABLE RECORDING UNIT - this is a sweetheart. For the guys who like the external hard drive recording like with the Focus Enhancement gear, you will love this Compact Flash drive unit. We don't know all the ins and outs yet but the ability to take the thing off, use it in the field with a camera battery as an external drive for other apps, is a like "where did this idea come from?" Also, Compact Flash is soooooo simple to use it's a dream. Pull it from the unit, plug it into a laptop with a port or an external adapter that can be picked up from Wal-Mart for 20 bux and Windows or OS X recognizes it instantly and the HDV material is available instantly. This is nice . . PLUS . . see the next comment.
ARCHIVAL - we were even more impressed with this feature and have found our hearts journey . . we get both tape for archiving and safety factor and direct to edit Cards like we had with the P2 and for our TV, event, and commercial applications, we can actually go straight from the shoot, edit from the Compact Flash material (with the tape waiting anxiously in the background in case the Compact Flash was disastered) copied over, and output within the hour.
TOTAL STORY - We recently went from Avid to Apple Final Cut with a MacBook Pro and MacPro with Avid Liquid and Edius Broadcast on a Windows Boot Camp partition, and found that we can take the MacBook Pro to the clients, shoot the video material with the Z7U on CF and tape (again the latter simply for backup/archival), load into the laptop in minutes using a Sony fast external card adapter (have tried many and learned that this Sony one is extremely fast for some reason?), edit the commercial on location while the shoot crew is packing up, fix any corrections right at the customers, and upload to the TV server via ftp upload and left with a check. Now that's the way to do commercials. We just termed this process as "Production On Location" or POL for short.
PRODUCTION NOTE - BTW, because of our lack of experience with Final Cut at the moment, and our present continuing growing experience with Edius, for speed we use Avid Liquid Pro on the Windows side; however, it will only be a matter of time for us to probably go 100% FCP Suite 2 because of it's total flexibility and workability for our broadcast, event, and movie needs.
So, there is our limited experience update on this threads question and hope that this helps at least some as we too struggled with this camera question as we sought to improve our workflow and ease our fears of solid state production.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that the LCD is a real comfort both in position and look (looking comfortably forward and easy to look onto the subject from the panel) plus has a nice crisp apparent HD image. Also, we're hoping to try some DVcam to see how that looks and now that we have it, learn how to use the histogram. The HDMI was nice for instant viewing on an HDTV and as far as the feel of the device in our hands, it's pretty much size and feel of the HVX with a nice egonomic handle but without the front end load of the EX1 which we didn't like at all for many many reasons not the least of which was the front end off balance and the "no immediate backup - archive" on the fly.
ROLLING SHUTTER - alhthough touted to be a major hazard with the CMOS chip we haven't seen this. Whether the CMOS rolling shutter issue has been fixed by Sony's new EIS (enhanced image stabalization) or the new pre-filtering of image noise system, we have not seen this come into play BUT the camera time is somewhat limited at the moment reporting less than 10 hours.
LOW LIGHT - absolutely astonishing. Great images at low light and right there with a DVX100B with -18db gain or the low light PD170 cranked . . BUT . . at these levels there are problems with auto focusing when doing any kind of pushes where the camera hunts and chases quick and dirty on close ups and totally "bad" for production use and thus - must go to manual focus in this scenario and is especially a challenge in low light. For our low light wedding receptions and event applications however not a big issue, set the back focus carefully and maticulously on the removable lens (like you should with any removable professional lens), set the zoom to wide (no push) and move the camera not the zoom . . which is the way we usually do it anyway. Our DVX's did this too when hand held zooming but not even 1/10th as much as the Z7. In fact, move the camera a little like in a handheld situation (which is ALWAYS for us on wedding receptions) and do a zoom and it's actually funny (not really but for a pun anywho) to watch the camera hunt and chase for an image. The first time I asked myself, "where is that coming from?" However, a quick search finds that there are helps to make it better as indicated above. The end result is about like the DVX on auto focus . . or . . just go manual and the problem is not there. For us we like auto in this scenario and thus we go infinity and move the camera which is what we did with the DVX and HVX anyways. Handheld zooming is an invitation to make viewers sick
)HDV RECORDING - not at all as bad as we had thought. Having formerly had HVX200A we were very very worried about the image quality and very worried about this compressed codec but the newer design image noise clean up in the Z7U apparently sends down a cleaner and more robust HDV image to be recorded and the result is a cleaner picture which has way more color than we were expecting and so here we were quite pleased. Also, haven't experienced any drops yet either which was something we were very worried about although "time" may change this present experience.
REMOVABLE LENS - this is a beauty. The ability to control everything (zoom, focus, iris) with one hand in one location without moving around is like heaven. I had never experienced this before but I love it. The ENG guys have all the tools
) If we only had their budgets )REMOVABLE RECORDING UNIT - this is a sweetheart. For the guys who like the external hard drive recording like with the Focus Enhancement gear, you will love this Compact Flash drive unit. We don't know all the ins and outs yet but the ability to take the thing off, use it in the field with a camera battery as an external drive for other apps, is a like "where did this idea come from?" Also, Compact Flash is soooooo simple to use it's a dream. Pull it from the unit, plug it into a laptop with a port or an external adapter that can be picked up from Wal-Mart for 20 bux and Windows or OS X recognizes it instantly and the HDV material is available instantly. This is nice . . PLUS . . see the next comment.
ARCHIVAL - we were even more impressed with this feature and have found our hearts journey . . we get both tape for archiving and safety factor and direct to edit Cards like we had with the P2 and for our TV, event, and commercial applications, we can actually go straight from the shoot, edit from the Compact Flash material (with the tape waiting anxiously in the background in case the Compact Flash was disastered) copied over, and output within the hour.
TOTAL STORY - We recently went from Avid to Apple Final Cut with a MacBook Pro and MacPro with Avid Liquid and Edius Broadcast on a Windows Boot Camp partition, and found that we can take the MacBook Pro to the clients, shoot the video material with the Z7U on CF and tape (again the latter simply for backup/archival), load into the laptop in minutes using a Sony fast external card adapter (have tried many and learned that this Sony one is extremely fast for some reason?), edit the commercial on location while the shoot crew is packing up, fix any corrections right at the customers, and upload to the TV server via ftp upload and left with a check. Now that's the way to do commercials. We just termed this process as "Production On Location" or POL for short.
PRODUCTION NOTE - BTW, because of our lack of experience with Final Cut at the moment, and our present continuing growing experience with Edius, for speed we use Avid Liquid Pro on the Windows side; however, it will only be a matter of time for us to probably go 100% FCP Suite 2 because of it's total flexibility and workability for our broadcast, event, and movie needs.
So, there is our limited experience update on this threads question and hope that this helps at least some as we too struggled with this camera question as we sought to improve our workflow and ease our fears of solid state production.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that the LCD is a real comfort both in position and look (looking comfortably forward and easy to look onto the subject from the panel) plus has a nice crisp apparent HD image. Also, we're hoping to try some DVcam to see how that looks and now that we have it, learn how to use the histogram. The HDMI was nice for instant viewing on an HDTV and as far as the feel of the device in our hands, it's pretty much size and feel of the HVX with a nice egonomic handle but without the front end load of the EX1 which we didn't like at all for many many reasons not the least of which was the front end off balance and the "no immediate backup - archive" on the fly.
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