scott moore
New member
Hey Everyone,
This is my first post here and I'm gonna come in hot with some findings I've had with the DVX in live event scenarios. We've originally shot live event work with the Panasonic PX270's but have since upgraded to the DVX200's last year, so I can offer a little bit of comparison as well.
We've owned 3 DVX 200's since February 2016, and I've been increasingly impressed with these cameras for live-streaming-to-web use. We also use them in IMAG events, but there is definitely a lag coming out of the SDI & HDMI that is noticeable for most settings. The worst lag comes when the camera is in UHD 30p or 60p mode, and I've found the setting FHD 29.97p to provide the least amount of lag that makes it bearable to watch on screen, but it is still there (about a 2-3 frame delay). The lag isn't noticeable for talking or singing close-ups, but moreso if you're taking a shot of a drummer hitting a definitive beat. We also own 3 px270's that have no lag, but we actually never use them because we still prefer the DVX's image.
That large (relative) sensor is just amazing for setting up rack focus shots and dropping BG out altogether. With the most recent firmware update, I've reset all the scene files and it also seems like scene 5 looks really good straight out of camera. I set the noise reduction to -7 (to stop the 80's strobe effect) and was still able to get useable footage with this scene file even cranked all the way to +17db Gain. We were shooting a 70 piece orchestra in a hockey arena that were only lit by their book lights and 4 banks of reaaallly small yorkville LED light bars (the ones they use at weddings to uplight the white silky stuff (tool? tule?)) I pooped my pants a little when we walked in and that's what they were setting up, but since I knew we were going out to youtube live, it would crush the s*%t out of the footage and denoise it in it's own special way so I figured I'd give it a shot. It was better than not seeing anything, but in reality, what we were seeing on the program monitor actually looked pretty decent. Noise was there, but it wasn't really overpowering like I thought it would be. The darker shadows on Scene 5 hide the grain really well, and they seemed to have fixed the weird gamma that I've had problems with before. Humans actually look like humans now. Before I was terrified to dial in WB kelvin for fear of having warm skin tones that made people look like Donald Trump. I'd always faithfully White card whenever I could to get skin tones in the realm of flesh, but it seems whatever Panasonic have done now with at least scene file 5, I can have warm light on someone and they won't look like a big orange turd. (which is good for the mixed LED & Tungsten lighting setups a lot of stage productions are doing around here lately)
When we go back to using the PX270's they just look so much like video now, we rarely ever break them out, which is a shame because they aren't that old... We've just been so spoiled with the look of the DVX's. the 20X zoom is really nice on the PX cams, but the suuuuper deep DOF just kills us to watch now. The PX's are also pretty terrible when it comes to noise. We rarely push them past +6db and even then you can really notice the difference compared to the DVX's in terms of noisiness. I was afraid to turn off the DVX's noise reduction because I thought I would be back in the realm of the PX's, but it seems with the downsampling from 4k, the grain is very fine.
I'm considering picking up a 4th DVX to round out our live kit so we don't have to try and mix in a PX, but i'm waiting for us to get our hands on a GH5 to see if it has the same terrible amount of lag the GH4 has from the HDMI out. I'm not sure what it is with panasonic and this lag issue, but it seems like they don't really care about processing times for their lower end line of cams in lieu of keeping the costs down maybe? I wonder if it's something that can be fixed in firmware, at least for HD output. We're definitely fine with the amount that shows up on screen out of the DVX's at HD-30P, but zero lag would always be ideal! I would be willing to pay another 1-2K more for the DVX that could produce a zero latency image... and maybe lose the red side door :grin:
This is my first post here and I'm gonna come in hot with some findings I've had with the DVX in live event scenarios. We've originally shot live event work with the Panasonic PX270's but have since upgraded to the DVX200's last year, so I can offer a little bit of comparison as well.
We've owned 3 DVX 200's since February 2016, and I've been increasingly impressed with these cameras for live-streaming-to-web use. We also use them in IMAG events, but there is definitely a lag coming out of the SDI & HDMI that is noticeable for most settings. The worst lag comes when the camera is in UHD 30p or 60p mode, and I've found the setting FHD 29.97p to provide the least amount of lag that makes it bearable to watch on screen, but it is still there (about a 2-3 frame delay). The lag isn't noticeable for talking or singing close-ups, but moreso if you're taking a shot of a drummer hitting a definitive beat. We also own 3 px270's that have no lag, but we actually never use them because we still prefer the DVX's image.
That large (relative) sensor is just amazing for setting up rack focus shots and dropping BG out altogether. With the most recent firmware update, I've reset all the scene files and it also seems like scene 5 looks really good straight out of camera. I set the noise reduction to -7 (to stop the 80's strobe effect) and was still able to get useable footage with this scene file even cranked all the way to +17db Gain. We were shooting a 70 piece orchestra in a hockey arena that were only lit by their book lights and 4 banks of reaaallly small yorkville LED light bars (the ones they use at weddings to uplight the white silky stuff (tool? tule?)) I pooped my pants a little when we walked in and that's what they were setting up, but since I knew we were going out to youtube live, it would crush the s*%t out of the footage and denoise it in it's own special way so I figured I'd give it a shot. It was better than not seeing anything, but in reality, what we were seeing on the program monitor actually looked pretty decent. Noise was there, but it wasn't really overpowering like I thought it would be. The darker shadows on Scene 5 hide the grain really well, and they seemed to have fixed the weird gamma that I've had problems with before. Humans actually look like humans now. Before I was terrified to dial in WB kelvin for fear of having warm skin tones that made people look like Donald Trump. I'd always faithfully White card whenever I could to get skin tones in the realm of flesh, but it seems whatever Panasonic have done now with at least scene file 5, I can have warm light on someone and they won't look like a big orange turd. (which is good for the mixed LED & Tungsten lighting setups a lot of stage productions are doing around here lately)
When we go back to using the PX270's they just look so much like video now, we rarely ever break them out, which is a shame because they aren't that old... We've just been so spoiled with the look of the DVX's. the 20X zoom is really nice on the PX cams, but the suuuuper deep DOF just kills us to watch now. The PX's are also pretty terrible when it comes to noise. We rarely push them past +6db and even then you can really notice the difference compared to the DVX's in terms of noisiness. I was afraid to turn off the DVX's noise reduction because I thought I would be back in the realm of the PX's, but it seems with the downsampling from 4k, the grain is very fine.
I'm considering picking up a 4th DVX to round out our live kit so we don't have to try and mix in a PX, but i'm waiting for us to get our hands on a GH5 to see if it has the same terrible amount of lag the GH4 has from the HDMI out. I'm not sure what it is with panasonic and this lag issue, but it seems like they don't really care about processing times for their lower end line of cams in lieu of keeping the costs down maybe? I wonder if it's something that can be fixed in firmware, at least for HD output. We're definitely fine with the amount that shows up on screen out of the DVX's at HD-30P, but zero lag would always be ideal! I would be willing to pay another 1-2K more for the DVX that could produce a zero latency image... and maybe lose the red side door :grin:
