Doc Crew Gear Advice - 500 or higher? AVC-Intra?

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scynda

Member
So i have two HVX's right now and we've rented the 500 as our A-cam for our shoots so far. Its great, I love it, and we got approval to buy a proper camera for our work.

I was all sold on the 500 but my boss wants top top quality and is willing to back it up. He wants me to shoot full 108024p the entire time for future proofing the material. I'm scared of using the 500 sensor shoot at 1080 the entire time while still recording in an older anamorphic codec like DVCProHD, especially as an AVC-Intro board is out of the picture.

I got some hands on time with all the camera's at NAB and it seems like the 2000 with AVC-Intra is the way to go. This way we're getting better chips and a better 10-bit format that will be around a lot longer, hopefully integrating with a future HVX-esqe w/AVC-Intra replacement in the future. Also, from what the rep told me, i can shoot 1080 24pN with the AVC-Intra board, hence getting back some of my recording time i lost by switching up to 1080.

Anyway, just looking for anyone's experiences either with the 2000 and 200 working together, thoughts on AVC-intra, experience filming out or mastering the 500 at 1080p, etc, etc. I have to recommend and support my purchase recommendation pretty soon
 
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We shot 2000 with 200 at the 2007 Iditarod. You can match the cameras fairly well if you bring the 2000 down to match the 200; the 2000 is capable of more than the 200 ever would be, of course.

The ultimate to look at, if your boss will approve it, would be the VariCam 2700. It's everything the 2000 is, plus AVC-Intra, plus everything the HPX500 is.
 
thanks for the quick reply Barry, i've just been reading some more about the cameras, including a bunch of stuff by you, i really appreciate you being a good source for everyone out there.

The problem with the 2700 and even the 2000 is that it's getting up above the price range of the Red, which my boss has considerable interest in. I'm a bit concerned about getting in over my head with Red and its production and post workflow(we're only a couple of guys) and i need to know how to push for a Panny over a Red at this price range. Do i need 4k if i have 108024p AVC-Intra? Red had a wait list, what's the availability of these cams?

Also, i've been reading about what i lose with the 2000 over the 500 but want to clarify. Can i still load scene files to match my 200's? I notice i have DRS but is there CAC? I can live without the variable framerates in my A-cam since i have a back up for timelapses/slo-mo's in my 200s but is there anything that's going to hold me back?

thanks again...
 
The Red is an entirely, completely, thoroughly different ball of wax. It's not a video camera at all, it's a raw digi-cine camera. The workflow in post is right now painful; it takes me about an hour to convert each minute of footage into a partially-editable format at full quality. I was really hoping for some major announcements of new workflow options at NAB, but that didn't happen. Near as I can tell, they're waiting for Build 16 to go final before releasing the SDK, so affordable workflow options are probably at least a month or two away.

(there's of course a working workflow option from Assimilate, but $31,000 for a fully-configured Scratch Cine is not on my radar.)

The Red puts out phenomenal images. It's not a broadcast ENG camera or a news camera, which the 2700 is. The 2700 is a digi-cine video camera, the Red is not a video camera and is instead a RAW digi-cine camera. Very different workflows, and not a whole lot in common.

I guess it all depends on what it is you plan to shoot, and what your workflow will be like.
 
scynda said:
Also, i've been reading about what i lose with the 2000 over the 500 but want to clarify. Can i still load scene files to match my 200's?
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The 2000 can be made to match the 200 and the 500; we had to do that at the Iditarod. It takes some work, but the 2000 is infinitely tweakable and you can dial in that look.

I notice i have DRS but is there CAC?
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No CAC in the 2000. It's available in the 2700, 3000, 3700, and 500.

2000 has lots of ENG-specific features that the 500 and 200 don't.

2000 is also way heavy, as compared to the 500. 500 has VFR, 2000 doesn't.
 
why not just go with the HPM110 in combo with the HPX500 that way you can have the new codec and variable frame rate and full raster

I think a lot of owners of the Varicam, such as myself, will be using this great little device to get teh advantage of the new codec and variable frame rate without having to pay for a new camera.

I haven't tested this out yet, but it looks like it might be the way to go and I'm looking into it.
 
It's great for the original VariCam, absolutely. Not quite as good for an HPX500 because the 500's SDI output is 8-bit, so you wouldn't be getting the full advantage of what AVC-Intra could do.

The 110 has a lot of benefits for a VariCam owner, including:
1) Records the full-raster 1280x720 signal instead of 960x720
2) Records the full 10-bit output of the SDI
3) Does frame-rate conversion (pN mode) automatically, on the fly, for in-the-field instant playback of variable-frame-rate footage
4) It gets rid of tape and lets you use P2, turning your tape camera into a tapeless system and eliminating the need for a deck.
 
Thanks for all the posts, i def think Red is a bit overkill for what we're shooting and what we're staffed for. I wish i could push for the 2700 but we cant wait for fall to buy a big camera. We'll see how the meeting goes, any of these cameras are super sweet and it'll be nice to have some real glass to work with alongside my 200s
 
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