finally joined the group

Thomas Smet

Thomas Smet

Veteran
I just ordered a HMC40. I have been a long time user of Canon cameras and started out with a Canon XL1 when they first came out. At work we currently use a Sony F900 HDCAM and the Red camera. I wanted my own personal camera but clearly I am fairly used to pretty decent cameras. After many months of research I felt the HMC40 offered the best image quality compared to what I was used to using. I really didn't want to spend a lot of money and the DSLR's just didn't do it for me yet. I think they are very impressive but the image artifacts are just a bit too much for me right now.

I know low light is going to be an issue but even with the F900 at work which is a 2/3" CCD HD camera we always use lights so I am cool with that. I hardly ever go anywhere without a light of some kind. I'm sure this may hinder me a bit in the future but I think it will be cool.

I want to personally thank everybody on here that has helped me with any odd questions I may have had over the last month or so. A combination of your rare discussions on this camera, the great reviews from people such as Barry Green and Adam Wilt and the great footage on Vimeo it made my decision much easier.

I look forward to having more discussions in the future once I get my camera tonight.
 
Wow! This thing is bigger then I thought it would be. I knew the dimensions of it of course but I was surprised when I saw it for the first time.

You people were not kidding about the low light by the way. I knew what to expect so it wasn't a shock. Hopefully my 50 watt Bescor camera light will help out. I am already planning on getting a better LED light since I don't feel like using my 18 pound battery belt for that light anymore. Yes I used to use it all the time and it can get a bit heavy. Especially since I'm not as young (or fit) as I once was.

Imagine my surprise that Barry's HMC book was included in the box. I did not expect that at all. Is this a new promotion I didn't hear about?

Of course like a fool I did not buy any SDHC cards yet and I refuse to pay local prices for them so I will have to wait a couple of days before I can order some. I have a few sitting around from still cameras but I think they are class 2. I guess I can shoot the lower modes for now until I get a new card. Maybe I will just have to go out and pay 2x as much and buy one at Best Buy tomorrow.

Just for the fun of it I think I may do a comparison between the HMC40 and my old trusty Canon XL1.
 
Ahhhhh! the PASS website is so annoying. I registered last night and it would not let me get the serial number for Edius Neo Booster. It kept telling me my password was invalid even though it works for the main PASS website. Now it locked my account because I tried entering my correct login information too many times. I emailed the PASS support but I expect nobody will be able to help me until tomorrow. Anybody else know a way to fix this?
 
i went threw a simaler thing but i did get my serial number for my edius neo 2.0
but when i went to up load my softwear it keep tellin me that the serial number was incorrect. i had to call around and find out what was goin on. they updatted there softwear th edius neo 2.5 booster. they had to send me a new disk and the serial number they gave me worked for the newer soft wear.
 
I had a similar problem (although not quite as bad) trying to d/l AVCCAM Viewer software... PASS kept telling me I wasn't qualified. Sent off an e-mail, next day they replied with an ftp link w/temp password to the file.
 
Still no luck with the Pass login and Edius software. Hopefully I will hear from them tomorrow. My whole registration is now messed up.

On another note I dusted off my old Canon XL1 for a bit of comparison testing. This wasn't a very scientific test and I just eye balled it but I would have to say that with the XL1 at 0 DB the HMC40 had to be at 12 DB to match the lighting. 12 DB on the XL1 matched 24 DB on the HMC40. The XL1 was never a very bright camera to begin with so the HMC40 is going to be "fun" to deal with. With that said however I think if I were to scale down to DVD resolution I'm sure the 24 DB HMC material might end up looking roughly as clean as the XL1 at it's max of 12 DB. The XL1 at 12 DB was pretty ugly. So I think for SD deliver it should be fairly equal to material I have shot in the past. With the added bonus of actually shooting 24p and widescreen and killer HD in good lighting. In fact I think even in HD the HMC at 24 DB is cleaner then the 12 DB from the XL1. I wonder how good the 34 DB would be down converted to SD compared to the XL1? Maybe I will try it tomorrow although I already know it will be brighter. It may be a tad too noisy however.
 
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