Hdrhc1

J

julienhi

Member
Has anyone played around with this sony yet, i wanted to buy it as a secondary unit wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this
 
It's an okay B-camera if you set the exposure and stuff right. This is done by adjusting some other option that's linked to it, but I can't remember where the chart is. Good camera, but I'd only buy it if I had an FX1/Z1U to go along with it. That's the closest match in video quality.
 
I do have one. It’s the best $1700 HD video camera you can buy. :laugh:

Sorry, all joking aside - I purchased this camera for two reasons: I wanted to get some first hand experience experimenting with my editing system to see how well it performed using the Cineform intermediate CODEC. And to have a great little personal camera to use on family vacations etc..

So far it has more than met my expectations. I now know first hand that there is a lot more to using and editing HDV with the Cineform CODEC (Cineform works great) but this is not for the faint of heart or those on a tight budget. Once converted to the “Cineform Visually Perfect” format it consumes twice the disc space and requires about 75Mb/s per stream. So if you want multiple real-time streams your going to need to raid a couple of 7200RPM firewire 400 drives, that should give you three or four streams or you can probably get five or six streams using 10,000RPM drives or firewire 800.

I am editing on a PC with PPro 1.5.1 with the Dell 24” “Cinema” display. The footage looks great on that but currently I have no way to output HDv to an HD Plasma, CRT or projector and all of my efforts to compress the footage to share on DVXUser have not ended well. I’m not sure if this would be any better on a G5 with FCP5. I don’t know what the data requirements are for editing HDV “natively.”

Straight out of the camera the footage is amazing. However, I would not recommend that anyone use this camera to make a living. Keep in mind that I would not recommend anyone try to make a living using After Effects either, but plenty of people do. :happy: The clarity and detail this little camera produces, well you have to see it to believe it. Again, it is amazing and even though the WOW factor is pretty high it does not produce very “filmic” footage. It really is “Big” video. The CMOS chip seems to handle situations where there’s a bright blue sky and colorful objects in the scene extremely well, probably much better than my Betacam SP. Unfortunately in lowlight it goes from marginal to crap really quickly.

It does not deal with motion very well. It appears to me that is a trait found in the FX1/Z1 as well (maybe HDV in general). This might be an odd thing to say, but this is a fun camera to play with. I always found myself being very careful with my DVX100a, of course I ruined it on my last family vacation. I don’t worry about this camera at all I just point and shoot and produce the coolest home video’s on my block.

But if you’re someone who is serious about cinematography and wants to learn by using a camera that will prepare you for a career in the entertainment industry I would not recommend this camera. If you can afford it and just want to see what HD(v) is all about this is a great inexpensive way to do that. :engel017:
 
ChuckS,

Too bad. I was thinking of the 'HC1' for a feature I am working on.

Blair Witch was shot on Hi-8. Why would this be any inferior?

Chris
 
Sure if you think Blair Witch was a good movie and wanted to produce something like that then the HC1 would be fine. I just thought we were trying to move up the proverbial production food chain - not down.

The HC1 is a great consumer camera and if that's what you expect from it if you buy one then you won't be disappointed. But if you’re looking for the same functionality that you would find in a prossumer camera like the DVX100 or a professional camera you will be very disappointed. This is not simply a matter of you get what you pay for. You know the feeling you had the first time you used the DVX100a, it just felt like you got so much more than you paid for. That’s the same with this camera, not that they are anything alike but when you use it and see the footage your just amazed that it came out of that little camera. :grin:

So from that perspective it’s cool. But if your aspiring to shoot a Blair Witch project then I have this old VHS camcorder I’ll sell you, which is twice as big and I’ll only charge you half as much.
 
well great thanks thats exactly the same reasoni wanted it im waiting for the hvx myself like everyone on this board :) but in all seriousness ill be editing on my new g5 2.7 and was wondering the g5 can it be taken seriously to edit major productions?
 
and also bottom line is i want to buy a cam that will be closest to real theatrical film as posssible im assumingthe new panasonic everyone is raving about lately will do this im just waiting to see footage from that baby. but im in editing school now and wanted soemthing to practice with and this little sony should do just that
 
If you want a camera that is the closest to real theatrical film as possible, look at the Konvas 35mm camera. It shoots genuine actual 35mm film, exactly like what gets shown in the theater. And they're cheap; some can be as low as $1,000. Film and processing aren't inexpensive, but then again, it's actual film at that point...
 
thanks. so why doesnt everyone just get this convas instead of paying 6000 for things like the hvx or the xl2?? ill look into it but i guess it wont be digital and i dont think i can transfer konvs footage to an apple for final cut editing can i.
 
ive looked into this camera a bit and am confused as to why more people dont discuss it in the forums. how would you go about editing footage on this konvas?
 
It shoots 35mm motion picture film. You edit it by having it transferred to videotape at a telecine facility. They'll give you a tape or disk with whatever you want on it (high-def, DV, DigiBeta, whatever) and you can edit it on your desktop computer. Then you generate a cutlist/Edit Decision List, and hand that (and your original camera negative) to a negative cutter and they match the negative to your computer edit.

Or, if you're finishing on video, you don't have to bother with all that. Just get the footage transferred to video and edit from there, just like any other format.

The reason people don't discuss it is because 35mm film isn't cheap; it can cost anywhere from $30 to $100/minute to shoot it, process and transfer it.
 
Another thing to consider is the area you live or plan to work. Not all of the services Barry mentioned are available everywhere and if they are can often be cost prohibitive.

Also, if you choose this route its a good idea to work with someone who has experience managing the post production workflow. Ussually you do a one-light transfer for the dailies, do the editorial and then a best light transfer (color correct) on only what you need. I worked with a Producer who spent a fortune color correcting everything that was transfered. You'd think the post facility would have informed her the right way to do this, but she was insistant so they were happy to take her money.

If you think you're going to save money buy purchasing a $1000 film camera rather than $3500 on a DVX or even $10K on HVX - you're being penny wise and pound foolish. But if you have a knowledgeable crew to help you it can be done.
 
ChuckS said:
Another thing to consider is the area you live or plan to work. Not all of the services Barry mentioned are available everywhere and if they are can often be cost prohibitive.
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Very true. None of the services I talked about are available here -- I have to ship stuff to L.A. to get it processed and transferred; and if I want to supervise the transfer that means driving or flying in, too.

If you think you're going to save money buy purchasing a $1000 film camera rather than $3500 on a DVX or even $10K on HVX - you're being penny wise and pound foolish. But if you have a knowledgeable crew to help you it can be done.
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Definitely. The simple point is, film is out there, film cameras are out there, and for those who want film, it's available. HVX or DVX is a video camera, not a film camera. They can do amazing things, and over the course of a production they'll be much less expensive to operate -- but the question asked was "how can I shoot something that looks the most like film in the theater", and the answer is: don't forget that you can shoot exactly the same film that gets exhibited in the theater.

But you'd better know exactly what you're doing when trying that, or you can run out of money *real quick*.
 
Exactly and I do understand this, I mean it would end up being way more costly to start using real film in the first place, and am I right when I say that using an and Hvx or any good quality dv can make your movie look like real film as long as you know what you doing? Im going to stick to waiting around for the HVX200 but the drwaback on that one is again the amount of time that can fit on that memory chip, doenst panasonic specialize in flash mem, theyll make a buck on selling the extra memory on this thing... Im getting my G5 2.7 with my 23" screens delivered this week and Im hoping i made the right choice , ill have final cut and avid on it , i guess next it just learning them and taking my time to learn well , and getting a good camera to do the work , and then maybe,,maybe ill be in business.
 
and barry when you say "the answer is: don't forget that you can shoot exactly the same film that gets exhibited in the theater." do you mean touch ups and conversions that can be done to make your digital film look like film? Whats the best software to do this Vegas?
 
julienhi said:
and am I right when I say that using an and Hvx or any good quality dv can make your movie look like real film as long as you know what you doing?
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Only if the person shooting real film didn't know what they were doing! :grin:

24P video is great and all, but it doesn't hold a candle to real, genuine film. There's a reason, and a very good reason, that 99% of Hollywood movies are shot on film. They've got big budgets, but they don't squander their money needlessly: if a $3,000 1/3" DV camera produced results just as good as film, they wouldn't shoot $2 million worth of film when making their movies!
 
julienhi said:
do you mean touch ups and conversions that can be done to make your digital film look like film?
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No -- I mean that people shouldn't get so caught up in the video thing that they forget that real film is still available and very much alive. And for people searching desperately for the "film look", I'm just saying "the ultimate way to get the 'film look' is to just shoot film." It may not be a practical alternative for most people, but it is an option that's out there and it's not nearly so out-of-reach as a lot of people seem to think.
 
well you know your stuff Barry, and your right I do think people simply want to make there own indie films and do it themselves, ALA open water blair witch, while not having to answer to the big studio execs along with the red tape involved in making a 5 mil picture delaing with william morris aint a piece of cake. Well I guess it does come to down to financing in the end, and yes i agree if most people could im pretty sure they would simply would all use film stock cameras, but there seems to be this big debate going on that times have changed and now it can all be done in the comfort of your home. I think what most of us trying to shoot with these digital cameras want to make something that will get noticed and if it gets noticed im sure youll get the budget to make something bigger and youd be using pro film cameras to get it done. I have a story about a famous art forger ive been sitting on for 5 years cause i simply dont have the connections to get it noticed so i figured id just do it myself somehow.
And in regards to film look yes thats what everyone is always talking about on the net, and maybe someday this equipment will be cheaper which will allow more people to make movies and be noticed, and maybe that is starting with this HVX and thats why everyone is doing cartwheels over this thing. Do you work as a director your self? and maybe this is off topic but have you watched thos simens film school dvds by any chance?? are they any good??

http://www.webfilmschool.com/startni.htm

or these??

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/index.html
 
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