Aj-hpx2700

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
After reading Barry Barverman's glowing review of the 2700, has anyone spoke with a dealer to determine street price? With typical discount, I am think $32 to 34k but does anyone know?

Dan
 
I will be posting a review very shortly as well - i am authoring it right now after having tested the camera for 4 days last week
 
puredrifting said:
After reading Barry Barverman's glowing review of the 2700, has anyone spoke with a dealer to determine street price? With typical discount, I am think $32 to 34k but does anyone know?

Dan
Click to expand...

I have one on order -- should be coming in the next couple weeks as part of the second shipment. I paid in the range you are quoting, not including EVF, of course.

Hope that helps,

Peter
 
Peter Richardson said:
I have one on order -- should be coming in the next couple weeks as part of the second shipment. I paid in the range you are quoting, not including EVF, of course.

Hope that helps,

Peter
Click to expand...

Thanks Peter.

Please keep us in the loop as you receive your camera and shoot with it. What sort of production will you be using it for?

I am really torn, I know that the 2700 will be a great camera, but on cable budgets and having to buy two cameras, I will probably start out with a pair of 500s, depending on the production requirements. There was a good article in one of the magazines this year about a guy in Florida doing fishing shows on two 500s and said he was pretty happy with the result as was his client ESPN. I know that the VF sucks on the 500s and I have heard that some are upgrading them to a better VF for about the same price as a good 8" LCD. I do wish that the 500 had higher resolution CCDs but I know I can still make good looking images with the 500.

Unfortunately, the shows I am producing will probably be largely shot handheld with some sit down interviews and some jib shooting but a lot of handheld. Which means using an 8" monitor is a little tougher than using the VF.

Obviously the 2700 is a different level of camera than the 500 but then again, I have created really beautiful footage with my HVX200 and 170 so the 500 is a step up from both of those. I have shot a lot with the old Varicam and loved it and the footage that I shot with it too. It's a tough choice, a new Varicam with P2 that I would love but probably can't afford two of or two 500s, which are really just an HPX170 with a better lens and bigger chips. I probably will be able to to afford two of them as well. Or perhaps just one 2700 with te HPX170 as a B-cam? I am afraid that the Varicam would look so much better than the 170 that they wouldn't cut very well together whereas the 200 and the 170 cut very well with the 500s.

Ahh, decisions and money! Possibly may just have to rent two 2700s if we decide we must have that "look".

Dan
 
oh come on guys... stop hurting me all these amazing reviews how superb 2700 is... we know that, just why spill salt on a wound... i want it, but too much for my pocket now..
 
puredrifting said:
Obviously the 2700 is a different level of camera than the 500 but then again, I have created really beautiful footage with my HVX200 and 170 so the 500 is a step up from both of those. I have shot a lot with the old Varicam and loved it and the footage that I shot with it too. It's a tough choice, a new Varicam with P2 that I would love but probably can't afford two of or two 500s, which are really just an HPX170 with a better lens and bigger chips. I probably will be able to to afford two of them as well. Or perhaps just one 2700 with te HPX170 as a B-cam? I am afraid that the Varicam would look so much better than the 170 that they wouldn't cut very well together whereas the 200 and the 170 cut very well with the 500s.
Dan
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Dan,

I have cut 200A footage into shows shot with my HDX900 and most people would have a hard time telling the difference. It helps if the 200A shot isn't a wide shot with lots of fine detail.

Another option you may want to consider is two HPX2000's--yes not as flexible
as a 2700 frame rate wise, but you'd have native 720p imagers, the option for
AVC Intra, save close to $30K and Panasonic has 0% financing right now.
 
Hi Dino:

Thanks for the advice. We'll see what happens with the shows I am working on but if we get lucky and get picked up, I will have to do something quick. If not, I will just keep plugging away with the 200 and the 170 that we have.

I also need to negotiate with the cable nets as far as camera shot on. I know that most of them want stuff shot on 2/3" chip cameras but that is starting to change. I like shooting with 1/3" cameras. I like a smaller, lighter tripod and a smaller jib and dolly. Switching our workflow over to all big cameras would screw up a lot as far as gear that we use besides the cameras.

And for some of the shows we are doing, being small and unobtrusive is a definite plus. Unfortunately they have not yet invented the invisibility cloak for the 2700 so whenever you are shooting, you raise a lot more attention with a big camera. Particularly with travel shows where you are trying to be as low key as possible generally.

Dan
 
got my 2700

got my 2700

yes it is sick. shot some nice looking stuff while waiting for the encode card. got the encode card last night and shot some stuff real quick while i visited my friend on his documentary site. i posted at

http://www.productionmeeting.com/profile/EthanSigman

it was quick and dirty and 1 in the morning......ill get some better looking stuff up soon. the encode card is nice for getting things to the web super quick. i have gps on the way too, which i am excited about....

i am getting set up for intra tomorrow so i can see the stuff better and work with it some....
 
I've been really impressed with the 2700. We've been comparing many different cameras and the 2700 with the AVC-I 100 codec has been a real wonder. It is a native 720p chipset but the upscale to 1080p off the chip is very impressive. In fact our MTF tests put it right in line with some 1080p native cameras. The 3700 has some big advantages of course - those 1080p chips just can't be beat. But the 2700 really holds it own.

AVC-Intra is a big deal. 10 bit full raster is a huge deal especially when it comes to shooting Film-Rec. Finally there is a codec that can record the range that the camera can produce.

I terms of matching with a smaller camera.. the HPX170 or HVX200A is still your best bet. I wouldn't try to match it with Film-Rec mode but in the Filmlike gamma modes on the 2700 you'll be able to easily match. There is just something about those Panasonic colors that isn't easy to match on any other camera line.

The HPX2000 with AVC-I board installed is a great other option. But if you are into all those 'cine' style features of the VariCam (ie Film-Rec at 600% !) then the 2700 is the way to go.

I'm looking into posting some short example videos in Pro-Res. Hard to do considering the size. Let me know if you want to see anything in particular.

Andy
 
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