I use my HVX200 and GH2 for church and community activities. Most of my video is shot in 720P and encoded to SD after editing for viewing on the local cable access channel. I shoot in HD for uploading to Vimeo and to try to get the best quality video I can.The church video is a weekly event where the community and personal shooting is less frequent. Examples of what I have done in the way of personal and community video can be found on my Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/neovideo2
Video from our church services as well as special church projects can be found here: http://vimeo.com/conneautchurchofgod . At this time, church video is my biggest concern. The
church sanctuary lighting is metal halide lighting only. Those lights have aged to the point where some put out a pinkish light while others put out a blueish cast. Lack of light seems to be a bigger problem than inconsistent color of the lighting. Sanctuary lighting correction isn't going to happen any time soon that I can tell. I am told that replacing the present bulbs with new ones will result in lighting that is on the harsh side due to excess brightness.
My GH2, fitted with a Canon FD 85mm 1:1.8 handles the church sanctuary's lack of light fairly well, usually set at f2.8. The 14-42 kit lens does not come close to handling the lack of light, especially since it has to be used zoomed in which closes up the aperture even more (f5.6?). There are other concerns with using the GH2 but I will leave that for another thread. The HVX200 has to be used with gain at 6db, iris wide open, and the shutter at 1/30 to keep the noise to a minimum while getting enough light to give decent video quality.
I say all of the above to hopefully give enough information to get some feedback on a replacement camera. I am looking at used Sony EX1R and the soon to be released HXR-NX3. I have done some research of the advantages of the EX1R over the more affordable EX1. I have looked at some of the reviews on the NX3. Right now, I don't have the the need for HD-SDI but I do need HDMI output. When I use 2 or more cameras, I mix using the multi camera editing in Premiere Pro CC. Live mixing may eventually become a reality for church video but it seems a ways off. HDMI out is a need as we feed sanctuary video to two HD TVs in the foyer about 30' away via an amplified HDMI splitter. The component video from the HVX200 is covered to HDMI via a Blackmagic Intensity Extreme. The larger 1/2" EXMOR CMOS, HDMI & HD-SDI output, and the high quality LCD seemed to make the EX-1R an easy pick until I saw the NX3 on B&H. My biggest concern with the NX3 is the smaller 1/2.8 sensors followed by lack of SDI output. I am assuming that if HD-SDI becomes a need in the future, I can purchase an HDMI to HD-SDI converter. Of course, the price of a new NX3 is a big plus for that choice but if it doesn't do the job for me in my low light situations, it would be money wasted.
This reviewer of the HXR-NX3 seemed to be impressed by the NX3's low light ability http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6gtN9aJ8m4&feature=player_embedded#at=369 . I realize there is limited information available for the NX3. I have seen these minimum illumination specs for the NX3: min illumination of 1.2 lux (1/30) or 1.0 lux (1.25) and these specs for the EX1R: 0.14 lux (Typical) 1920 x 1080/59.94i mode, f/1.9, +18 dB gain, with 64-Frame Accumulation. With minimal hands on reviews out there for the NX3, if anyone out there would care to give an opinion on this decision, your input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help.
Video from our church services as well as special church projects can be found here: http://vimeo.com/conneautchurchofgod . At this time, church video is my biggest concern. The
church sanctuary lighting is metal halide lighting only. Those lights have aged to the point where some put out a pinkish light while others put out a blueish cast. Lack of light seems to be a bigger problem than inconsistent color of the lighting. Sanctuary lighting correction isn't going to happen any time soon that I can tell. I am told that replacing the present bulbs with new ones will result in lighting that is on the harsh side due to excess brightness.
My GH2, fitted with a Canon FD 85mm 1:1.8 handles the church sanctuary's lack of light fairly well, usually set at f2.8. The 14-42 kit lens does not come close to handling the lack of light, especially since it has to be used zoomed in which closes up the aperture even more (f5.6?). There are other concerns with using the GH2 but I will leave that for another thread. The HVX200 has to be used with gain at 6db, iris wide open, and the shutter at 1/30 to keep the noise to a minimum while getting enough light to give decent video quality.
I say all of the above to hopefully give enough information to get some feedback on a replacement camera. I am looking at used Sony EX1R and the soon to be released HXR-NX3. I have done some research of the advantages of the EX1R over the more affordable EX1. I have looked at some of the reviews on the NX3. Right now, I don't have the the need for HD-SDI but I do need HDMI output. When I use 2 or more cameras, I mix using the multi camera editing in Premiere Pro CC. Live mixing may eventually become a reality for church video but it seems a ways off. HDMI out is a need as we feed sanctuary video to two HD TVs in the foyer about 30' away via an amplified HDMI splitter. The component video from the HVX200 is covered to HDMI via a Blackmagic Intensity Extreme. The larger 1/2" EXMOR CMOS, HDMI & HD-SDI output, and the high quality LCD seemed to make the EX-1R an easy pick until I saw the NX3 on B&H. My biggest concern with the NX3 is the smaller 1/2.8 sensors followed by lack of SDI output. I am assuming that if HD-SDI becomes a need in the future, I can purchase an HDMI to HD-SDI converter. Of course, the price of a new NX3 is a big plus for that choice but if it doesn't do the job for me in my low light situations, it would be money wasted.
This reviewer of the HXR-NX3 seemed to be impressed by the NX3's low light ability http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6gtN9aJ8m4&feature=player_embedded#at=369 . I realize there is limited information available for the NX3. I have seen these minimum illumination specs for the NX3: min illumination of 1.2 lux (1/30) or 1.0 lux (1.25) and these specs for the EX1R: 0.14 lux (Typical) 1920 x 1080/59.94i mode, f/1.9, +18 dB gain, with 64-Frame Accumulation. With minimal hands on reviews out there for the NX3, if anyone out there would care to give an opinion on this decision, your input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help.