Good B Camera for EX1

HowdyDoo

HowdyDoo

Well-known member
Any suggestions on what might be a decent, economical B camera for the EX1? I can't afford another EX1 and need to purchase a second camera. I need something in the 2-3k price range.
 
I would go with the HMC150



this may be a stretch, but the HV20 might serve you well as a B cam. Just lookout though; you won't have the feature set and manual control you're used to
 
Interesting camera but B and H shows them at $4000 right now, although that may end up cheaper once they get them. Might be out of the B roll price range.
 
Yea, US4K is a bit rich for:

1/4" sensor block with no publised sensor resolution
Small zoom range 10x lens which isn't particulary wide.
No apparent SD mode.
No apparent remote control option like LANC.

Other than the above, my major concern for this unit is sensitivity and noise in gain, both of which I have never really been impressed by JVC cameras...

With no tape transport to worry about the price of such little cameras should be dropping. Less parts, less warranty issues.


At least it isn't limited to shooting in a MOV wrapper, it can also shoot to standard MPG2 wrapper (probably transport stream lke m2t). It does use uncompressed audio though
 
OK, this may seem redundant, but to me The EX1 is allready a B-camera... Like it's a viable cost-effective alternative to shoulder-size cameras. The EX1 and the F-350 for instance is a good team.

If you want a b-camera you want one that resembles the quality that you get from your a-camera so you can cut between them without one sticking out like a sore thumb.

In my opinion there aren't all that many good alternatives, as the drop in quality will be somewhat substantial, so my suggestion is this:

Rent another Ex1 when you need it.

Unless you need it all the time of course. Renting when needed may very well be a good option as you may end up spending less on rent than you would buying another camera, and simultaneously increase your production value. You will also benefit from sharing euipment and know-how between the cameras. Lastly, you won't have to tweak things in post to match cameras etc
 
HV30/20 ... get a wide angle lens with it and maybe a mono pod and your SET.

around 700 bucks ... you can't beat the price/image.
 
I'd say..... Suck it up and get another EX1

Advantages:

- Becomes not only a B cam..... It becomes a Main Back-up
- Same batteries
- Same workflow
- Same profiles
- Same accessories
- Same Same=Less mistakes

frisco
 
What you should do is buy a F-900 and use the EX1 as B camera. Or just rent a Genesis and use the F-900 as your B cam and put the EX1 on E-bay.
 
I use both an HVR-V1U and an HV20 as B cams to my EX1's--the HV20 being the only camera that fits into the nooks in the orchestra shell at the concert hall, sitting on an 11" tall tripod, 12' up in the air. I use that for locked-off medium shots of the conductor and since it's a blackout background (the auditorium) and the conductor is well-lit, I get pretty good results after careful color correction.

That said, I absolutely loathe HDV tape and the a/v synch loss at every tape dropout, not to mention the lengthy capture sessions. A good 1/3" alternative to the EX1 that is compact and has good low light picture and solid state media with XDCam CODEC would be nice to have.
 
basspig said:
I use both an HVR-V1U and an HV20 as B cams to my EX1's--the HV20 being the only camera that fits into the nooks in the orchestra shell at the concert hall, sitting on an 11" tall tripod, 12' up in the air. I use that for locked-off medium shots of the conductor and since it's a blackout background (the auditorium) and the conductor is well-lit, I get pretty good results after careful color correction.

That said, I absolutely loathe HDV tape and the a/v synch loss at every tape dropout, not to mention the lengthy capture sessions. A good 1/3" alternative to the EX1 that is compact and has good low light picture and solid state media with XDCam CODEC would be nice to have.
Click to expand...


You loath the HDV workflow but still recomend it?
Why not recomend the Canon HF100 or newer HF S100?
It is a better sensor block, recording full raster to SD cards...in the $1,000 range.

That said, the Ex1 is hard to match color and resolution, but I would say short of another EX1, the Canon HF series will get you closer than anything else.

It will even match the rolling shutter :-) (pun intended)
 
I didn't recommend any particular equipment above, I merely stated that's what I'm using at this time. I would LIKE to have tapeless XDCam format cameras to replace the HV20 and V1U. I'll probably go with another EX1 for the V1U and await something else for the HV20. I have to test the other offerings from Canon before I can form an opinion on them.
 
Why not recomend the Canon HF100 or newer HF S100?
Click to expand...

I searched all over for info on the HF S100 and only found info on the HF S10 on Canon's site.
Two problems hit me:

AVCHD
No true progressive (24/30P embedded in 60i), so can't edit this footage in Premiere without the dreaded "3/2 pulldown stutter".

To the good, it does appear to be a full raster HD camera. Concern however, as they pack 9 megapixels into a 1/2.6" sensor. That means each receptorsite is much smaller than on the HV20, which was quite noisy to begin with under less than optimal conditions, and tolerable for SD DVD output on good stage lighting conditions.

The ideal would be a Sony offering--a 'mini XDCam' that's under 2lbs and 6" in length. We do a lot of these 'discreet camera' setups where they have to be invisible to the audience, so we can't use full-sized cameras to get facial shots of the conductor, etc. To date, the HV20 has been the best candidate, but it's tape-based and that's costing us $$$ in the edit suite. If there were a way to get an EX1 up into the shell, I'd do it, but we lack the depth in that space and an 11" tripod can't carry much more than the HV20 weightload.
 
I use a Z1U as second camera. Mainly because I already had one when I bought the EX1. I can get them to match pretty well by tweaking the profiles and the footage cuts together OK. I plan to make the EX1 the second camera when I get an XDCam PDW-355.
 
Yes the JVC GY-HM100 looks like a great companion to the EX camcorders.

weighs only 3.2 lbs, records on SDHC media, records in .mov and iso ( which is the XDCAM EX Codec, once the proper paperwork is done).
Records in Apple Quicktime on SDHC media!

Great for news and documentaries.

Should there be a new section for the New JVC products? JVC is rolling out with 2 new cameras this spring.
 
The article mentions Quicktime, which is a turn off for us in the Adobe Premiere world. But what's this ISO format you mentioned? I don't understand how that makes it XDCam format. Can you elaborate?

That's also almost as large as a Panny DVX100--won't fit in the places where we have to conceal cameras during orchestra shoots.
 
XDCam PDW-355 as an A camera to the Ex1? It is to late in the game to buy that cam unless it is an unbelievable deal. Get the EX3. Better quality than the XDCam PDW-355. I am sure sony will replace the XDCam PDW-355 in the next year or so.
 
basspig said:
The article mentions Quicktime, which is a turn off for us in the Adobe Premiere world. But what's this ISO format you mentioned? I don't understand how that makes it XDCam format. Can you elaborate?

That's also almost as large as a Panny DVX100--won't fit in the places where we have to conceal cameras during orchestra shoots.
Click to expand...


I don't know what iso format in terms of recording formats.
The iso format is supported by all major NLE systems ***taken from JVC website
http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101845

You can remove the handle on the GY-HM100, product release date April 2009.
 
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