HMC150 questions answered...

Thanks mc smooth...
i guess it was worth a try

(i hate typing with caps lock on!)
rendering in ae...
 
question for you owners of the 150, i'm thinking that i read somewhere that it had a floating lens, meaning, zoomed all the way you can have the iris wide open, but as you zoom in the iris closes down to like 3.4. i know the canon A1 has this, but my hvx doesn't, and i assumed that the 150 wouldn't have it. anyone care to chime in on that?
 
manglerBMX said:
question for you owners of the 150, i'm thinking that i read somewhere that it had a floating lens, meaning, zoomed all the way you can have the iris wide open, but as you zoom in the iris closes down to like 3.4. i know the canon A1 has this, but my hvx doesn't, and i assumed that the 150 wouldn't have it. anyone care to chime in on that?
Click to expand...
Your HVX does have it, all cameras have it. The EX1 has it, the HD100/HD200 have it, the PD170 has it, all low-cost cameras have it. It's called "ramping". On the HVX200 it goes from 1.6 to 2.8. On the 150/170 it's 1.6 to 3.0.
 
PKraft said:
I'm pretty sure, it's nothing but a flag in the firmware of the cam that differentiates it from the 170 family on that level. So basically there must be a hack.
Click to expand...
How do you figure? The software specifically looks for certain values, and if it doesn't recognize them it either fails to load or ignores it. The major point you needs to be understood is that this is not a DVCPRO HD camera. A lot of hardware and coding went into getting the AVCHD internals working. I highly doubt they left the entire DVCPRO chunk of code in the firmware, and if they did, it would have nowhere to write to.

The only reason why the frame rate hack works is because the HVX already had multi frame-rate functionality AND a codec that can handle multiple frame rates AND some extra modes that were tested but not implemented. The 150's codec cannot do this, and the way the frame rates are set up is completely different. There also is not much play with the shutter speeds. So what im saying is that the code doesn't already exist, they would have had to have spent time/money writing it for this camera/codec just so they could disable it. Just doesn't make sense.

Believe me, I would love this feature, but there would need to be a better explanation of how it could be possible (other than modding the firmware). I could see 50/25 possibly working since the codec supports it, but I'm not sure if the hardware is set up to handle the different clocks or if the models share the same firmware. If hardware is the same and firmware is different, you would have hope for finding a copy of both firmwares so you could switch. I would be plenty happy with a way to hack the shutter speeds alone and do the rest in post. I don't know why they gave up the slow shutter (1/6) of the DVX.
 
How does the usefulness of the HMC150 compare to the smaller palm HD cams like the Canon HF10? In regards to shooting Home movies/vacations, etc.
I would like a camera that will give me better color, low light performance and compression.
I assume the HMC will give me that although I realize I will not be able to stick it my coat pocket.
So, is it enough of a difference to warrant lugging a larger camera?

(The HF10 looks bad in low light. And the compression really shows up when I screen it on a 50inch plasma. Bright light shots not so bad)
 
Wow you might be right!!

"For the highest recording quality in 720p or 1080p progressive format, the AG-HMC151 offers the professional high-quality (PH) mode exclusively designed for AVCCAM camcorders. Operational at between 50 Hz and 60 Hz, the AG-HMC151 can be used easily anywhere in the world."

I also found this on the Panasonic Australia web page:
http://panasonic.com.au/products/information.cfm?detailsID=453&contextID=4728

"It supports a full range of HD formats including 1080/60i, 1080/50i, 1080/30p, 1080/25p, 1080/24p native; 720/60p, 720/50p, 720/30p, 720/25p, 720/24p native; and it is 50Hz/59.94Hz switchable."

It's a bout time we had 24P available to us in PAL land - this could certainly explain why the PAL model costs around $1,000 more!!

But then I've searched through the downloadable user's manual for the PAL model and it says nothing about 50/60Hz operation... Rob & Barry any idea, could the manual be wrong??
 
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Bokes said:
How does the usefulness of the HMC150 compare to the smaller palm HD cams like the Canon HF10? In regards to shooting Home movies/vacations, etc.
(The HF10 looks bad in low light. And the compression really shows up when I screen it on a 50inch plasma. Bright light shots not so bad)
Click to expand...


The biggest problem with consumer cams is that they have no manual settings to control aperture & shutter which means low light footage will always be too dark if you disable the internal AGC by using Spotlight or Sunset modes or incredibly grainy in any other mode :(
 
Evro said:
Wow you might be right!!

"For the highest recording quality in 720p or 1080p progressive format, the AG-HMC151 offers the professional high-quality (PH) mode exclusively designed for AVCCAM camcorders. Operational at between 50 Hz and 60 Hz, the AG-HMC151 can be used easily anywhere in the world."

I also found this on the Panasonic Australia web page:
http://panasonic.com.au/products/information.cfm?detailsID=453&contextID=4728

"It supports a full range of HD formats including 1080/60i, 1080/50i, 1080/30p, 1080/25p, 1080/24p native; 720/60p, 720/50p, 720/30p, 720/25p, 720/24p native; and it is 50Hz/59.94Hz switchable."

It's a bout time we had 24P available to us in PAL land - this could certainly explain why the PAL model costs around $1,000 more!!

But then I've searched through the downloadable user's manual for the PAL model and it says nothing about 50/60Hz operation... Rob & Barry any idea, could the manual be wrong??
Click to expand...

I sure hope so! When is the 151 due out so we can confirm this?
 
Hi all,

Does anyone have any green screen footage (even quickly put together) they could post?

It would be much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Evro said:
But then I've searched through the downloadable user's manual for the PAL model and it says nothing about 50/60Hz operation... Rob & Barry any idea, could the manual be wrong??
Click to expand...
Seems like the 151 is confirming NTSC/PAL switchability. But keep in mind, that unit will only be available in Europe. There'll be a 152 in Aus/NZ, and a 153 and 154 in other territories (like Korea, China, etc). So there isn't just one "PAL" model, there are multiple. I imagine each territory will get to set their price and determine if they're going to be switchable or upgradeable or just PAL-only.
 
Evro said:
The biggest problem with consumer cams is that they have no manual settings to control aperture & shutter which means low light footage will always be too dark if you disable the internal AGC by using Spotlight or Sunset modes or incredibly grainy in any other mode :(
Click to expand...

All recent Canon consumer cams allow controlling shutter speed, aperture and even gain manually. It is just not as simple as having a dedicated button. Panasonic consumer cams allow doing the same, and even in a simpler fashion (can't control gain separately from aperture though).
 
Interesting thing in the 151 brochure, cant shoot 50hz and 60 hz onto the same sd card!
30p is shown as 24p native and 25p shown as 25p native...
 
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