Camera Choices for Event Production Company

[Jimmy Pierce]

Here's the run down. I work at a production company that holds a film making workshop on a yearly basis for adults with special needs. We have two workshops in California. The camera of choice is the Canon XH-A1 in both workshops. This is what our students are learning with. We've shot several types of videos that all turned out looking great. Once our students graduate the program, if they are capable enough to work in the industry, we give them the opportunity of working with a subsidiary production company that shoots content such as conferences, stage productions, company picnics, music videos, commercials, EPKs, red carpet events, graduations and possibly documentaries, etc.

Up until now, the subsidiary production company has been using the equipment in our workshop. Now, I am about to put together basic camera packages for the subsidiary company to own and operate. The Canon XH-A1 so far has been a great camera to work with for those shooting with it, myself included. But times are changing. Newer cameras have better features than this camera, are capable of shooting sharper pictures, and some need less lighting. Also the direction we are going are hard drive and card based recording, versus MiniDV tape.

There are several advantages to the cameras we have. First and foremost, our students are learning on these cameras, so making the transition into the professional world, there is less of a learning curve, because they are operating with the same equipment they learned with. Second, the camera's are cheaper in price and we know what they're capable of. Third, tape storage feels a lot safer than hard drive storage.

This takes a lot of thought for me, especially since newer cameras are more expensive than the camera we own, but have a lot of imagery advances over the XH-A1, given the gap between releases.

What would you suggest?

By the way, I am going to post this same thread in the other brand forums, because it's possible we could go with a different manufacturer.

Thanks for reading and hope it wasn't too long.

 

[Exact]

Not sure why this is in the HMC150 forum. The HMC150 is a great events camera for sure, but :

• You like tapes - the HMC is tapeless
• You want sharper - I'm not sure the HMC 150 is going to be sharper
• You want cheaper - the prices are coming down, and it's a lot cheaper than the AF305

In a similar way to tapes needing to be ingested, AVCHD requires transcoding for work on most NLEs. Some of the recent versions such as CS5 can work with it natively, but if you are training your students for the workplace, how many will have CS5?

Your post makes a lot of statements but doesn't really ask any specific questions. "What would you suggest?" is too vague, which maybe why you haven't had any replies to date.

Now, if you were asking specific questions about the HMC150 in particular then:

• Is the HMC150 good in low light? Yes. We normally only need to shoot at 0db and 6db and get great results. 12db can be a bit blotchy but neat video can rescue most of it.
• How is the tapeless workflow for FCP? Use the Log & Transfer window - transcode to ProRes 422 (LT). Speed of transcoding depends on your CPU. Timecode is preserved. You can then backup either the cards (you need to copy the entire folder structure) or the transcoded footage (or both). Teaching your students to back-up is an important task.
• How is the 720/60p mode? Great for slo-mo.
• How sharp is the 1080p mode? Not as sharp as (say) the newer Canon AF-300 etc.
• How is this camera as an event camera? Probably better than the XH-A1 in reality. 16GB cards give you 99mins per card. Low light seems to be better. Colors are typical Panasonic colors (most people love them).
• Would I recommend the HMC150 to other people in the event industry? Yes.
• Would I recommend the HMC150 as a learning tool? Yes
• Would I recommend the HCM150 to you? I simply don't know enough about your needs or your student's needs to know if it's a good fit or not. Tapes may be more intuitive.