Comparison Grid: HMC40, Sony SLT55 and VG10

[Denniscasey]

I am taking big steps for me; moving from Avid Liquid to Avid Media Composer 5 and want to move from SD video (Sony VX2000) to HD video. I mostly video vintage sports car races and VX2000 is great (3 CCDs no rolling shutter, follow focus in autofocus, etc). I have read a lot about DSLR video and because of autofocus features read a lot about Sony SLT A55 and NEX VG10. Then I thought the creativity of shallow depth of field with DSLR and large APS-C sensor would be a problem for keeping race cars in focus at they come from far away, roar by close to me, then go away into distance. VX2000 followed all this and kept in focus. So, I put together attached spreadsheet comparing (for my type of video) these three cameras. Keep in mind I am not expert (I am prosumer type) and spreadsheet is based on reading only--no experience. Still, please let me know if I have covered main things and let me know if I would be making good choice (in less than $2000 price point) with HMC40 for shooting sports car races and also scenic vacations. Also, I hope someone has experience with HMC40 and Avid MC5 editing--any problems with HMC40 codecs or whatever--remember I am new to HD editing also. Would like to buy camera soon so appreciate timely comments. New to forum also and having trouble attaching Excel spreadsheet so if it does not appear let me know. Thank you, Dennis

 

[brentscott]

just downloaded the file. i'll check it later and give my thoughts soon. i am also new here. nice to meet you.

 

[Jason Allen]

Avid Media Composer 5 will work well with all of the formats in your comparison. I use MC5 and Avid Symphony Nitris at work to edit HVX200, HMC40, VG10, and various HDV camera's footage.

On to your comparison chart questions:
-All of the cameras ultimately record to 4:2:0 color space, so the advantage of the 3 tiny CMOS sensors of the HMC40 over the VG10 and SLT55 is limited in my opinion.

-All of the cameras use CMOS-based sensor tech, so they will all skew. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison between the HMC40 (which I recently sold) and the VG10 (which I recently bought), but they seem to perform about the same. I haven't used the SLT55 extensively enough to determine panning skew, but I'd imagine it to be fairly comparable to the VG10.

-For stills, the SLT55 will produce the best results and focus the fastest when used with fast glass (f/2.8 or faster).

-Microphone-wise, the HMC40 wins. With the add-on XLR module, you have 2 phantom powered, manually controllable XLR inputs. The VG10's onboard mic is very very good for an onboard mic, and with continuous ambient sound, the autogain tracks well without clipping - but the second things get quiet, the autogain will punch it "to 11" and give you a nasty, hissy sound. Also, you will pick up every little handling sound as you handhold... so unless you're locking off your shot, forget sound quality from the onboard mic. The minipin input will allow you to feed XLR mics in via an adapter (I use a Beachtek DXA-4), and you can force the automatic gain control to behave by feeding a tone input on one channel, and your XLR feed on the other... but it's an unreliable solution, as you still have no monitoring. The same thing applies for the SLT55.

-The VG10 will only autofocus quickly enough to be useful with 3 lenses currently - the 16mm f/2.8, the 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 included with the VG10, and the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. More E-mount lenses were announced, but are not yet available. On the VG10, Alpha lenses focus slower than grass grows. With AF, the VG10 defaults to close-subject priority focus- so unless you're right up on clean glass, it will make every effort to wreck your shot by focusing on whatever smudges and dirt are on the window you're shooting through.
-IMPORTANT NOTE: the VG10 does not have servo-motor controlled zoom. If you want to pull back smoothly from telephoto to wide, you'd better be locked down on a tripod and have very steady hands. Also, none of the zooms available for the VG10 are parfocal (holding accurate focus while changing focal length), so you must refocus after zooming.

-The HMC40 is the only professional option in this group when it comes to exposure monitoring and watching for blown highlights. It has a built in waveform monitor and customizable zebras. The VG10 offers an on-screen histogram the size of your pinky fingernail, and its metering system tends towards overexposure to preserve shadow details... best used in manual exposure mode with an external monitor offering the exposure indicators (that the camera lacks) for anything where you 100% HAVE TO GET THE SHOT.

-In low light, the HMC40 is not the best choice, but I disagree with your assessment that the VG10 and SLT55 are not suited for low light. You get plenty of useful elbow room with gain on the VG10 (I'd say +15db gain or just shy of 1600 ISO is my threshold for unacceptable levels of noise on the VG10). The HMC40 is great in daylight, or if you have some heavy-duty lighting indoors... but if you're shooting available light at night, the HMC40 can be very frustrating.

-As for available framerates, the VG10 actually captures at 1080p/30p and records in 1080p/60i. You won't see frame-tearing on the edges of a moving subject as though it were interlaced capture. The HMC40 offers the most options, as you can shoot at 720p/60p and then interpret the footage later as 720p/24p for some buttery smooth 40%-of-real-life-speed slow motion.

My bottom line on your choices:
For video, the HMC40 is the only professional choice in your selected options, but it comes with the limitations of its small sensors - nearly infinite depth of focus at all apertures, and low sensitivity for available light shooting in dark environments. Its LCD screen and viewfinder are both very low resolution and hard to judge proper focus on, but with HDMI out there are plenty of external monitoring options.

The VG10 is a handycam. It is not a professional camera, though it can be used for capturing some very professional results. It comes with significant limitations that reduce its usability as anything but a "B" camera for your needs - lack of smooth zooming, lack of parfocal lenses, lack of framerate flexibility, lack of manual audio control, lack of professional exposure monitoring. It also has substantial advantages for certain uses - it can adapt nearly any SLR lens, it can acheive extremely shallow depth of focus, its larger sensor allows for more flexibility with gain, its electronic viewfinder and LCD screen look gorgeous and are a pleasure to use, its form factor is that of a video camera while yielding footage comparable to that of an SLR.

The SLT55 is a still camera first and foremost. It's great as an SLR, and as a video camera, it has possibility, but it comes with all of the limitations of the VG10 with the added limitation of a weird form factor for shooting video with and shot-duration limitations. Its battery life is comparatively short compared to the VG10, also.

The HMC40 will be a better camera for your needs I think. If you need the HMC40 feature set but with low light sensitivity, the HMC150 is right up your alley, and also a great choice, though a bit more expensive (maybe out of your price range - but worth it if you need its capabilities).