Dynamic Range: HVX vs DVX

M

Marshallarts

Well-known member
I've been searching for information regarding the latitude of the DVX vs the HVX. Can someone point me in the right direction. Specifically I want to know the range of each camera and if the HVX is more limited because of the same size sensor packed with more pixels.

Thanks very much for any info. On the verge of being a first time owner of one of them... Would very much like the HVX for vari-frame rate, DVCPro, tapeless workflow (to be appreciated in the future not now--can't afford P2 cards), among other great upgrades. But i'm concerned about the same size sensor and the effect it has on latitude. Specific documentation would be excellent if you have it!
 
I could be wrong, but I believe the DVX has 7 stops of latitude and the HVX has 8. This has been discussed before, so search around a little. I am sure something will come up.
 
kyle.presley said:
This has been discussed before, so search around a little. I am sure something will come up.
Click to expand...

Thanks Kyle. I hate to bug again, but I tried searching under all possible combinations of "HVX", "versus", "DVX", "dynamic range", "latitude..." and can't find anything...? I know this must have been covered but maybe I'm not searching under the right words, I don't know. I tried google, yahool, and here.

If someone knows could they please provide a link? It would help for anyone in the future searching under my terms as well (this thread could redirect them)
 
7/8 seems a bit misleading to me. I'm guessing at least one or two of those stops would be unuseable becuase of grain.
 
Barry mentioned, according to Panasonic's data, that the DVX has 7 stops, the HVX has 8, and the Varicam has 10. Those are Pansonic's numbers.

Users on this board, and my own comparisons, seem to indicate that the DVX has 7 1/2 and the HVX 8 1/2 (I've heard Varicam guys claim it has 10 or 11 depending on who you ask).

I belive that Adam Wilt argued that, if you tweak the settings and mess with it enough in Post, you can get 9 1/2 stops out of the HVX200 (remember DVCPro means that more highlight and shadow info can be brought back) but it's probably not worth it given the grain added.

It also depends on the setting you use. I think Barry in the HVX200 book says that the Cinelike V gives you 8 stops but with less noise and Cine-like D gives you 8 1/2 but is much noisier.
 
7 and 8 are pushing it i think. but yes the dvxusr.com media seems to confirm the HVX beats the DVX. The Varicam achieves it's stops by dividing up its tonal range into more steps. too bad, but if you want the "range" then great.

P.S. i don't think you can mess with it in post to get another stop. Although, there is more information over 100 IRE to extract (in post) for visible pleasure. but the camera (as all cameras and stock) has it's limitations.

why don't you just shoot something and tell us what YOU think?

Do I sound like an old guy? Good!
 
I did a quick test with my HVX, I don't know how accurate it is. I set up a grey card at IRE 50 then stopped up to 100 and down to 0ish. There were 3 stops above and 3 stops till about 10 or 15. After that there there were like 2-3 more stops to get to 0. This gives me about 6 useable stops and then a few down in the blacks that seem kinda pointless to me since if you raise the blacks of course you get a bunch more grain. I also tried shooting at a constant f-stop and lit the grey card to 100% then lit the card to 15, 10, 4, 0. I also took a meter reading at those IREs and subtracted it from the 100% meter reading. The results seemed to be about the same between the two tests. I found it surprising and a bit funny how many stops were between 4 IRE and 0. This could just be the wrong to test dynamic range and if so, I would love a better way, but according to this test I'd say theres more around 6 useable stops. Oh, the test was done with cine v and the final cut pro waveform. Anyone know where a graph of the dynmanic range would be so I could see how much falls on the low end of the IRE scale?
 
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You might try it again with Cine D, as it gives prority to dynamic range. I think you might find more usable dynamic range.
 
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