HMC150 questions answered...
- Thread starter Barry_Green
- Start date
That's a great question!
* Anyone with buyer's remorse yet or is it too early to tell?
* Any annoyances?
* I'm particularly interested in views from owners of the DVX, how does it compare ergonomically to the DVX is the LCD as good as it was on the DVX or as bad as it was on the HVX?
:dankk2:
ilauzirika
Boring Senior Member
that looks great.
Hidef1080
Well-known member
Not me...
I was really on the verge of going with the Sony EX-1 because I've always been a Sony guy and the camera plain has great attributes but it also has a great price.
One thing I've learned and no one really brings it up often but I'm sure everyone here knows this to be true – When you move to a new camera or God forbid a “new format” you are going to be looking at hidden or not so hidden cost in new workflows, upgrades, books/training and such.
I really can afford a EX-1 but just because I can does not mean it's the best business move for me.
So it came down to “Bang for the Buck” as Mike Harvey puts it.
I use to say all the time that no one can tell 1080 from 720 under normal viewing and I stand by that.
More money for a better image that people may or may not see.... I don't know.
We freak out over codecs and bit rate and stuff because right or wrong we always look for the “1 pixel edge”.
Seeing is believing and this camera is far better than my HDV FX-1 image-wise. After I saw and worked with some test footage I knew that this lower priced “cheaper” camera could hold its own while letting me hold on to some money.
I finally downloaded shriggs footage.
hooray for me.
The images look great.I don't know if they made changes after Barry Green had a chance to test this camera . But for some reason the images look alot sharper.( probably different settings)The colors are very pleasing and IMHO the 1920*1080 footage looks alot better then the 1280*720 , eventhough Barry said 720p is the sweatspot.
I will be placing an order soon and I 'm look forward to mastering this hd camera.
Do you think it's time to call this site www. hmcuser. com ?
hooray for me.
The images look great.I don't know if they made changes after Barry Green had a chance to test this camera . But for some reason the images look alot sharper.( probably different settings)The colors are very pleasing and IMHO the 1920*1080 footage looks alot better then the 1280*720 , eventhough Barry said 720p is the sweatspot.
I will be placing an order soon and I 'm look forward to mastering this hd camera.
Do you think it's time to call this site www. hmcuser. com ?
I have the HMC150 and have posted a few critical remarks on this forum and the DVinfo forum. My critical remarks are mainly generated from comparing the HMC150 to the Canon XH-A1.
They both have strengths and weaknesses.
The only real bummers for me have been:
1. The onboard mic picks up noise and does not seem sensitive enough. XLR mics not a problem.
2. I wish the lens was longer than 13X.
3. A little bit of purple fringing. Infrequent, but annoying.
4. The overall fit/finish seems a little lower than the A1.
5. It dosen't offer quite as much control as the A1 IMO.
However, it's a very solid camera with excellent IQ. It's major plus is the AVCHD codec (quality wise) and using SDHC cards. This makes the whole capture process so much easier.
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MikeGunter
Well-known member
Hi Kurtmo,
Looks great!
My green screen was very quick, not too precise and looked very good.
Yours is just terrific.
Thanks!
Attic6
Well-known member
thanks hi def and jeff
i guess coming from a 10x on the dvx the lens isn't as big an issue. purple fringing sounds interesting. can't be worse than v1 footage that i've had to rescue.
but some good points. Pity the A1 never recorded onto the cards hey...
And i guess all our critical sound comes rom external mic anyway... and we have all shot with a pd 150 making a racket at one time or another.
Wow, i don't even own one yet and it sounds like i'm defending it... Guess for the price it is amazing though...
i guess coming from a 10x on the dvx the lens isn't as big an issue. purple fringing sounds interesting. can't be worse than v1 footage that i've had to rescue.
but some good points. Pity the A1 never recorded onto the cards hey...
And i guess all our critical sound comes rom external mic anyway... and we have all shot with a pd 150 making a racket at one time or another.
Wow, i don't even own one yet and it sounds like i'm defending it... Guess for the price it is amazing though...
MikeGunter
Well-known member
Hi all,
Is this the place or should a new thread be started for "low light" questions?
There have been several clips posted already, but I'm jonesing for more.
I'm posting a bunch of stuff at Ebay tomorrow... Will buy when I hit the magic $$$$$.
Is this the place or should a new thread be started for "low light" questions?
There have been several clips posted already, but I'm jonesing for more.
I'm posting a bunch of stuff at Ebay tomorrow... Will buy when I hit the magic $$$$$.
I called mine a poopyhead.
Immediately afterwards it shot some incredibly awesome nighttime 1080p footage you would not believe.
Agree Bob, but then jeff9329 was comparing it to the Canon XH-A1 and anyone who owns or has owned the A1 will attest that no matter how badly you over expose your image, the edges still maintain a sharp contrasty edge without that CA (purple fringing) you see on most cameras including ones costing twice the price. Imagine having that incredible Canon A1 lens on the 150
I get CA on my expensive HD200's Fujinon lens so my expectations of the HMC lens are not set too high
PS: Received my 6 x Sandisk Ultra 16GB Cards today...!!
BobDiaz
The Professor
A few years back there was a side by side comparison of different video cameras.
It's not easy to do correctly, but it would be wonderful to take the cameras in the $3,000 to $4,000 range and shoot daylight shots, night shots, studio shots and compare them to see what are the differences and how much of a difference it is.
Such a comparison would need to be a blind test, "here's camera X ... and here's camera Y..." Then write down the group's comments on each image.
Just a thought...
Bob Diaz
It's not easy to do correctly, but it would be wonderful to take the cameras in the $3,000 to $4,000 range and shoot daylight shots, night shots, studio shots and compare them to see what are the differences and how much of a difference it is.
Such a comparison would need to be a blind test, "here's camera X ... and here's camera Y..." Then write down the group's comments on each image.
Just a thought...
Bob Diaz
VideoMaker
Well-known member
I am new to HD and the HMC150. I'm coming from a Canon GL2 and the two cams approach things rather differently. I've read through my HMC150 manual and have some real Noob questions I hope someone here will help me with:
1. On page 35 of the manual it states that if you shoot 24p or 30p the signal is converted to 60 fields per second interlaced. Why is this?
2. Also on p 35, it says when shooting in progressive mode to set the shutter speed to 1/50 (OFF) for best results. Why not 1/48, for example, if shooting 24p? And what is the purpose of (OFF)? Is this another way of saying 1/50 is the default shutter speed?
3. On p 36 it states that during macro shooting "AF" or "MF" will be displayed in a frame on the screen. I see no other reference in the manual to macro shooting. Is there a macro mode somewhere?
4. On p 108 and elsewhere (and also here in the forum) there is reference to "native recording" as in 1080 24p and 720 24p. I don't understand what this means, especially since in 1 above it states that 24p is converted to 60i.
5. Am I correct in my understanding that to get the cam into 1/48 shutter speed I would assign that speed to synchronization scan and then select that for my shutter speed?
6. What is the value of the .1 increments available for setting the synchronization scan value (e.g., 1/48.1)? With my GL2 I always shot at 1/60 around TVs and as far as I know I never had a problem with scan lines.
Thanks much for any insights you can provide.
Jerry
1. On page 35 of the manual it states that if you shoot 24p or 30p the signal is converted to 60 fields per second interlaced. Why is this?
2. Also on p 35, it says when shooting in progressive mode to set the shutter speed to 1/50 (OFF) for best results. Why not 1/48, for example, if shooting 24p? And what is the purpose of (OFF)? Is this another way of saying 1/50 is the default shutter speed?
3. On p 36 it states that during macro shooting "AF" or "MF" will be displayed in a frame on the screen. I see no other reference in the manual to macro shooting. Is there a macro mode somewhere?
4. On p 108 and elsewhere (and also here in the forum) there is reference to "native recording" as in 1080 24p and 720 24p. I don't understand what this means, especially since in 1 above it states that 24p is converted to 60i.
5. Am I correct in my understanding that to get the cam into 1/48 shutter speed I would assign that speed to synchronization scan and then select that for my shutter speed?
6. What is the value of the .1 increments available for setting the synchronization scan value (e.g., 1/48.1)? With my GL2 I always shot at 1/60 around TVs and as far as I know I never had a problem with scan lines.
Thanks much for any insights you can provide.
Jerry
Curious... The HMC footage does look quite fantastic. But I'm noticing blurring with motion on the vimeo clips. For example the hands strumming the guitars, the hats motion in the greenscreen clip as the boy places it on his head. Is this due to internet compression, or shutter setting, or something else... or is this normal for this camera?
Thanks.
Thanks.
kurtmo
Eats with 2 Fists
Could be a little internet compression, but I think some blurring is the 24p.
mcsmooth
Well-known member
Reread the 24p part, it is only played back at 60fps but recorded at 24p natively.
Yes, for that mode. Check out page 46, it will make more sense. Keep in mind you can select the "syncro" shutter speed and set that in the scene file. Usually this is at 1/48.0 for 24p.
When you are zoomed all the way out, you should be able to do macro focusing on close objects. In auto mode it will do this for you if an object gets very close. The display makes it apparent when in this mode.
As mentioned above, it does in fact mean it is a 24p file. No duplicated frames or fields. The camera does pulldown to these formats on the outputs to be compatible with standard equipment (every consumer device can read 720p60 and 1080i60).
Correct. I think it starts there by default, so you don't have to do much work.
Modern TVs and LCDs are usually not as big of an issue. But if it is, you actually move a slider to go up from 24.0 to about 250. The increments at 24.0 are actually smaller than .1, then as you get to the much higher numbers, they jump a little bit more at a time. More than enough for fine tuning.
I wish someone would do this too. I just shot a non-technical comparison (you saw the thread on DVinfo) and can see a lot of problems in making comparisons apples to apples. Even if you were to shoot all the cameras with the colors flat, it would still be difficult to make a technical comparison because of all the black level settings.
I shot my little comparison in both harsh bright light and low light just to see which one would handle poor conditions better. All the recent HD cameras and even my GR-HD1 shoot good footage in perfect light.
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AVCHD Accelerator
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AVCHD Accelerator
Hi
A thousand pardons if this is redundant.
Hope it is interesting for the group.
RapiHD™ Accelerator for Adobe Premiere® Pro
Elemental Technologies' RapiHD™ Accelerator for Adobe Premiere® Pro sets a new standard for high-performance non-linear editing. Render Blu-ray quality AVC/H.264 files in real-time. Scrub multiple streams of AVCHD and HDV video while freeing up your CPU to process other tasks. Accelerate your workflow as high-quality scaling, cross-dissolves, and transition effects no longer run slowly. Best of all, this paradigm shift runs on hardware you already have: the NVIDIA Quadro graphics processing unit (GPU) in your computer. Sound too good to be true? It's not. Elemental Technologies’ RapiHD™ Accelerator for Adobe Premiere® Pro will be available in the fall of 2008. To get status updates on the Accelerator, please remember to sign up for the mailing list on our home page.
Please see the RapiHD™ Accelerator for Adobe Premiere® Pro Product Brief for more information
Best Regards;
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