What would you like to see if there were a NEW 500?

Noel Evans

Noel Evans

Mod V3 New and Improved
Staff member
Yeah this may never eventuate, but as I shoot I often think I wish I could do this or that. Im talking reasonable wants in line with the cost of camera body etc

Things I often wish for -
-RGB gain settings +/-
-White balance adjustments that can be done in specific 100k increments.
-HD VF
-I think some may say better LCD, LCD matters little to me. So I pass there.
-HDD Bay for direct to HD recording / swappable.
-One from Sony here - Freeze mix function, basically superimposes a recorded image over what you are looking at live so you can match a shot for continuity or position actor etc
-1440x1080 ccds (maybe CMOS can be a consideration as the tech advances to reduce rolling shutter issues).

Thats it from me for now - not that much really.
 
All of the above.

Ramped VFR recording like the varicam.
Waveform & Vectorscope like the HPX170.
If Sony can make a really nice LCD on the EX series Panasonic can do it too, but I have a Carrion, so I know where you are coming from.
 
I think my top needs/wants at the moment would be:
HD VF - or at least a larger one. As it is, it's really, really hard to nail a good HD focus using the VF only.

Next would be a much better LCD. Although we too, have the Carrion's, run and gun stuff just doesn't accommodate a big-ass monitor hanging off the camera.

Then I would like to see a firmware update that gives us scopes, and more robust audio meters.

Finally, this one speaks to P2 in general, but I would really like to have the option of not creating a new clip every time I stop recording. I hate juggling all those clips - especially with multi-cam long-form work, which is a lot of what we do.

I'm sure there is more, but that's what comes to mind at the moment.
 
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Hd vf or at least the 2incher. even the sd sdx900 comes with a 2inch viewfinder.
higher res chips. ( maybe cmos)
Better lcd and or waveform/vector
A little bit tougher looking body. Compared to an hpx 3000 the 500 looks like a plastic toy.

but really panasonic should release something like the ex3, but with 2/3 chips(or at least 1/2).
at roughly similar pricing to the ex3.
 
Andrew as per my first post I agree on everything you put forward, but I wouldnt want Pana to follow the EX3. I bought this cam for the format, and to go backward to 1/2" chips wouldnt make me a repeat buyer.

But good to see what everyone else thinks. Keep em coming.
 
Noel you mentioned being able to do white balance adjustments that can be done in specific 100k increments. That’s something I'm really missing from my Sony I just sold, it made it easy to get that color you’re looking for and also we used it quite often to match different cameras when on live shoots.
The other would be maybe a little less noise but thats a whole other topic thats been done to death! I guess I got a little spoilt when I had the HPX3000 for a week.

Also Noel thanks for your help the other week, that shoot went well by the way.
 
A better Zebra

A better Zebra

The worst zebra stripes I've ever seen in a video camera. Large stripes, way too large. Yes, NEW zebras.


JD
 
I'd like to see the Sony noise extraction filter off of the new 3/4 inch chip CMOS consumer cam. In the picutre it is used to lower the noise of the green grass, selectable between the darker center and the lighter outer area based on luma tables in the Xeon chip processor built into the camera's light meter.

It's amazing how features like this can catapult ordinary consumer pics like this into the pro ranks.
 

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cheezweezl said:
better peaking / peaking in red on lcd.
Click to expand...

Id like to see that on the EVF. Now that would be useful, even if the EVF was black and white.

Ducati the only issue I have with electronic NR is that usually when you introduce something electronically theres some other impact that effects image, and from the NR I have seen in the past it tends to be some level of smear, which is something a consumer cam buyer probably wouldnt care about or notice in the least. An overall reduction in noise would be nice of course. Maybe CMOS is the answer?
 
Very disappointed in this camera in some respects. This is what I would like to see in a revision:

(1) A monitoring system that doesn't distort. This is really annoying and makes you think you are recording bad sound.

(2) More than three white balance memories

(3) A better viewfinder

(4) Audio controls that don't push the camera sideways when you push them whilst shooting

(5) 18db able to be programmed into the normal gain switches

(6) Programmable white balance switches

(7) Standby switch in another position and that is labelled "on for cam on" and "off for cam off" instead of meaning STANDBY is either off or on.
 
I miss my soft Sony shoulder Pad that just melted into my shoulder, the foam shoulder pad on the hpx feels like some sort of packing foam.

Has anyone changed theres (if you can) or am I the only one with sore shoulders?
 
I hope Panny doesn't come out with a new 500 version, because i just bought mine few months ago :D though, there are things that could definitely be improved...
 
JohnnyD said:
The worst zebra stripes I've ever seen in a video camera. Large stripes, way too large. Yes, NEW zebras.


JD
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally agree. And of course also an easily accessible switch for zebra1/zebra2.
Or maybe even better - double zebra like in the old Sony DXC D30/D35. Nice transparent lines for zebra1, transparent dots for zebra2.

I thought these were perfect - I shot some stuff with a Sony DXC D50 recently and was shocked they had changed their zebras to something more like Panasonic. The lines were still transparent, but much bigger and with huge peaking edges. I almost shot too dark sometimes because these huge glowing zebra lines scared me into stopping down. Still a lot better than the HPX's ... :(
 
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