equipment question.........

K

KS_Rockstar

Member
[FONT=&quot]so i recently got a green light for 13 episods of a series!!! I have about 40 thousand budget for camera equipment. my plan is to buy 3 mini dv hd cameras and shoot in 16:9 Hd format. one camera will be on a glide cam, one will be hand held or on sticks and one will be in an underwater housing.

the backround....... i have been shooting 35mm film for 13 years. over the last 2 years ive started to play with video, hd and mini dv. ive actually shot a few projects that had a 35mm budget in min dv just so i could learn while i earne. this shoot will take me and a small crew literally all over the world. we will be shooting hundreds of hours of footage.

i bought, shot with and eventually sold on e-bay a sony hvr z1u and equinox underwater housing. after buying it, renting it and selling it i actually came out +1500 bucks! i sold it because the jvc hd 100 and the canon h1 were comming in a few months and i knew they would blow the sony out of the water in terms of image quality.

i never even bothered to look at the panasonic as i thought it was just the so[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ny with a different shell (i later learned i was wrong).........

one of the spots i shot with the sony was actually played as a commercial at the movies (the digital commercials that they play before the previews start). i was amazed that blown up that large the image was actually very good.

since then ive shot one spot with the hd 100 (and only saw it on a 32" tv) and a few spots with the canon. i must say that the canon has the best image quality (on a 42 inch plazma) of all three ive shot with (though like i said i never got to see the jvc on a nice screne).......................................

so my question is which system do i go with? the p2 concept would definatly not work as i will shoot 100's of hours of footage and will not be near a computer for weeks at a time. so whatever i shoot with im using tape. i think i can get an underwater housing for all 3 cameras and i think i can get a wider lense (not an adaptor but an actual wider lense) for both the jvc and the canon. both of them have pretty simple controls and didnt take much time to learn to use. one thing i didnt like about either is the lcd (or lack there of in the canon). the best screen by far was on the sony.

i probably wolnt have a chance to use the panasonic hvx200 before i have to make the decision to buy one system.

finally, comming from a flim backround, im not super knowledgable about 1080/72/24p/24pa/60i/60p/50i/50p/2:3/4:4/et, et, et.......... things like, "looks really good" and "easy to use" or "very durable" mean a lot more to me.

any suggestions/advice you have would be great.

ps, i cant spell that well even when im wide awake so there was no hope for me tonight.[/FONT]
 
no you posted in the right place; just no responses. i will give my input when i get back home later. patience...
 
imo; shoot w/ 3 dvxs, stock up on www.litepanels.com, batteries, and whatever stabilization systems your gonna be using. consider "professional" audio also. i really haven't shot w/ hd; so you may get some advice from someone who has. are you going to edit this whole thing or just handing over the tapes when finished?
 
^^rgr that!!^^ tnx for the info so far..... ill ask some more specific questions:

oh, no editing for me, ill just hand over the tapes........

also, its going to be mostly day exterior...........

the kind of info im looking for is this:

if i drop all three cameras (the jvc, the panasonic and the canon) which one is least likley to break?

if i hand the camera to a pa and say, "shoot this", which camera will be the easiest for that production assistant to use?

if i put the settings on all automatic, which camera will produce the best picture?

if i need parts/accessories for these cameras, which one will have the most avaliable parts?

stuf like that.
 
Here are some links to threads on these cameras, do some reading and I'm sure you'll find all the answers you need.

Barry Green on 4 Cam Shootout

The article that is referred to in the above thread is at dv.com (which you'll have to register) and you can find it there, it's by Adam Wilt.

Also, if you can't shoot P2, then the Panny is out of the question for HD. If you want SD, then you can get mini DV NTSC 16:9 out of it. A lot of this depends on the station that you are doing this work for...how are you delivering, HD or SD? Some places are very specific about format, etc., so don't forget to look into that.
 
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