Experience with HVX200 and FS100

B

BoulderHVX200

Member
Considering I had less than 2 weeks to prepare for my shoot at the Monaco Grand Prix, I am reasonably impressed with the results. I had 2 4GB P2 cards and the FS100 as well, but despite that the shoot was a bit problematic.
Monaco is a tight circuit, a press credential lets you get anywhere that you are crazy enough to stand. I didn't really like the fact that I had to futz around with the FS 100 and P2 cards in between sessions. I shot in 1080 30p mode most of the time so the space on the cards was limited to 8 minutes and the FS 100 was pretty good however there were connection problems when I was moving around a lot. At times, the P2 cards wouldn't transfer over to my Powerbook fast enough so I had to fall back onto the FS 100 get the shots when the sessions started. But the results speak for themselves, the grand prix cars in High Def look fantastic and I complied a quick little reel for you all to see. All in all, when you are shooting something that is time specific, make sure to have plenty of P2 cards and an assistant to transfer the data for you... also a few massive hard drives don't hurt either.

Go to : http://homepage.mac.com/tadiohead/FileSharing46.html to download the 100meg 720p file.
 
I peeps! I'm new here. I just bought the FS100 and will try it out when it comes in.

Just a note: DON'T ever buy anything from bestpricecameras.com - they totally lied to me about all the products and overcharged me for things I didn't order and then they claim they didn't do so. I bought the FS100 elsewhere.
 
I just arrived from London where I shot the backstage of a show on Barbican for a documentary. I used a HVX200 with 2 4GB P2 and a FS100. I haven't seen the shots yet, we had some problems with Final Cut when tried to play them, but I'm sure the quality is as good as I expect. The FS100 works fine but there are some precautions to be followed. The firewire cable must not be disconnected with both the camera and the FS 100 turned on, there's a risk of losing everything shotted. If you're shooting more then 2 hours you need to backup your material, so besides the camera and all it's accessories you'll need a laptop with an external hard drive... not practical and the transfer of files takes more than 1 hour. Also, shooting with a camera connected to another device isn't easy and even worst when you can't just unplug the cable, you can't attach the FS100 to the camera because it's too heavy and unbalanced for handheld.

About the camera, to be honest I didn't like it (I'm not considering image quality, I know it's really good). It's to heavy for a handheld camera, the viewfinder is too small, terrible in low light situations, the zoom speed is low and using manual focus is difficult because your left hand is helping your right hand holding the heavy camera, so whenever you need to press a button you shake a lot... after shooting some hours there's no strong enough arm to hold the camera steady... I got more tired than when I shoot with big shoulder cameras. I missed my HD100... and I missed tapes a LOT. To bad that such good specifications are inside a limited body.

This was my first contact with the camera, the very first one being used here in Portugal, Panasonic will start selling them here in 1 or 2 weeks.
 
athouguia said:
. . . About the camera, to be honest I didn't like it (I'm not considering image quality, I know it's really good). It's to heavy for a handheld camera, the viewfinder is too small, terrible in low light situations, the zoom speed is low and using manual focus is difficult because your left hand is helping your right hand holding the heavy camera, so whenever you need to press a button you shake a lot... after shooting some hours there's no strong enough arm to hold the camera steady... I got more tired than when I shoot with big shoulder cameras. I missed my HD100... and I missed tapes a LOT. To bad that such good specifications are inside a limited body.

This was my first contact with the camera, the very first one being used here in Portugal, Panasonic will start selling them here in 1 or 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

(1) buy a tripod (or shoulder mount), or maybe
(2) buy a bowflex . . . take up body building.

which body is limited . . . yours or the cameras? (a little humor).

(3) if you can't light your shots professionally they are going to look like poo with any camera, including 35mm film.
(4) miss tape? I don't get the least bit nostalic for having to sit there while the computer digitzes all that tape (including the bad takes).

Try it again -- I think the benefits will grow on you with a little more experience (with the camera).
 
(1) I have a tripod and use it a lot, when I can.
(2) I'm strong enough.

I have no body limitation, but I'm used to professional camera bodies.

(3) I can't light all situations, sometimes you have to shoot it like it is. I used lightning for interviewing the musicians, but I couldn't light all the Barbican Centre... have you ever been there? It's huge.
(4) With tapes I don't need to constantly backup my stuff, it takes more than 1 hour to copy the FS 100 to another hard drive... not good unless you have 2 FS 100s or only controlled situations. I needed to carry my laptop around with an external hard drive. The FS 100 can't be attached to the HVX200 like on a shoulder camera, it becomes even heavier and unbalanced for handhelding. I lost 2 entire takes in 6 hours of footage, we made everything by the book. I don't know why it happened. It is not common to lose takes with tapes, maybe some drop outs and some lost frames... not entire takes. I prefer to wait for the computer to digitize the tapes in post than to have to wait for backups when I'm needing the FS 100 for shooting.

I will try it again and my opinion won't change. It is not functional, bad viewfinder, bad zoom control (it's lower speed is to fast and the higher speed to low), autofocus is a crap like all, manual focus is acceptable but hard to use when handhelding, the focus assist works fine but limits your viewing area, too heavy, bad in low light... Panasonic designed the wrong body for this camera, I wouldn't change my HD100 for this one even if the HVX image was much better... but it isn't. The only advantage is the format that is much better then HDV, that's not good enough for me. This is only my professional opinion, I don't want to start a comparison discussion here. As I said before even using it, this is a professional format inside a prosumer body... with autofocus and all that point and shoot stuff.

This camera is not versatile, it is good for controlled situations and will give you an fantastic image, but it isn't suitable for me. I need a camera that can be used in all kinds of situations.
 
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As for transfering with a Powerbook, remember that both FW ports share the same buss, this will slow down transfer times a great deal. Get a FW PC card, that will cut your transfer times down a great deal!

I shot for three days at an event and didn't find the weight to be a problem at all. We also used CineSaddles, too. If you don't shoot a live event like that without a support system, that's just CRAZY! I swear by the CineSaddle!
 
Our FS-100 Experience:

We just returned from an intense 4 day shoot in NY with two 8GB p2 cards, P2 store & a Firestore FS-100. This mix was ideal. We shor 720p 30N on the P2s and 720p 30 on the Firestore. Each P2 card shot 16 minutes of footage and the offload to the P2 store , with verification, took about 13min. We never filled up the p2 Store in one day, however, we did have an issue with a P2 card seeming to fail (see this post http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=58103) and we switched to Firestore. All worked great!

If you are using the Firestore, you will want an extended battery. It is identical to the Battery for the FS-4.

At the end of the day, all footage was tranferred to two indentical FW800 drives. REMEMBER: This is data, so if it doesn't exist in two places, it doesn't exist.
 
The 2 takes I lost were from the cards, I think there was a problem when one finished and started recording on the other. The FS seemed secure to me, but I was told to never disconnect the cable with both the camera and the FS turned on or I could lose all the footage.

BenB, thanks for the advices. I will try a FW card next time. We will purchase a Varizoom Rig.
 
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