HMC150 vs. Sony Z7U

J

Jet

New member
Okay guys, lets not be biased here lol. I know this is a HMC-150 forum but I couldn't figure out where to post this.

Okay, I am about to pick up a video camera next week. I been all over the internet reading reviews about all the top HD independent camcorders, with little clarity of what I'm really trying to find out.

I heard from many sources that the HMC150's visuals look exactly like the HVX200a and the HPX170, but with way cheaper cards. Is this true? To be honest, I am very basic when Im filmmaking, so I dont need a bunch of video frame rates that I will probably never use as well as standard definition.

Also my 2nd question, I been looking at the Sony Z7U quite alot. I heard that the HMC-150's 1080p is really 810, so my question is, how much better is the quality in the Sony Z7U. Can you really tell the difference? Is it better, worse, or the same for a filmmaker who will mostly be using 24p?

Please let me know, thank you all for your time.
 
I heard from many sources that the HMC150's visuals look exactly like the HVX200a and the HPX170, but with way cheaper cards. Is this true?
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The HMC150 uses the same chipset and processing and has all the same menu controls as the HVX200A and HPX170. The images look very very similar, and some could argue that they're identical. I think the front ends of the cameras are identical, but the difference is in the recording formats. For someone who's starting out, the difference certainly shouldn't be anything to be concerned about and if you don't need the other framerates and the cost of the P2 cards is a concern for you, then the HMC150 sounds like the ideal choice among those three, for your particular needs.

As for the V7U, it uses a smaller chipset with higher density pixels. Its image quality will probably look quite good in broad daylight, but the HMC150 will likely blow it away in low light conditions.
 
As a still-new user of the HMC150, let me add that if you use interlaced capture, you'll see 4:2:0 artifacts around objects of very high (color) contrast. The more I look at 1080i, the more I limit myself to 720p while still experimenting with 1080p.

Also, if you plan to do any real editing, you will be looking at a lot of still frames as you line up your clips. I can tell you that 720p24 looks really nice in still mode compared with 720p60. This is because the AVCHD codec is limited to a max of 24Mbps, and when that max is crunching 24 frames per second, it does a really good job. It kinda struggles to keep up at 60 fps. The 170 and 200 have DVCPro HD options, which are 100 Mbps codecs (of a different kind, yes, but don't discount 100Mbps vs. 24Mbps). Thus, if you have the discipline and the tripod needed to shoot video at 24fps (not easy!) you can get really good images. If you don't or can't, then shoot at 60 fps and don't look too hard at the pixels until they are in motion.
 
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