HMC40 - First Look

[KnoxHotch]

Yes, as far as I know it should operate just like having internal xlr on the 150. A friend of mine used to have a dvc30 and the xlr adapter had dual VU meters on the camera's LCD.

 

[BobDiaz]

If you look close at the image, you'll see the audio level meters in the status window. Now in this shot I turned on the waveform monitor, but with the waveform monitor turned off, the level meters can still appear. It is also possible to turn off all the display information and the level meters will not appear too.

In this shot, you can see that there is still a shoe mount to attach a light or something else to the camera.

Bob Diaz

 

[philiplipetz]

Thanks for explaining the XLR adapter. I assume it sounds fine. any preamp problems?

 

[Mark Whalen]

Thanks for explaining the XLR adapter. I assume it sounds fine. any preamp problems?

I've used the adapter with both shotgun and hard wired lavaliers in the past few weeks. In my experience there's far less hiss with the HMC40 and the adapter than there was with the same configuration on its predecessor, the DVC30: with less hiss, or noise from a tape drive (EFI not mechanical) introduced into the signal. The cleanest sound I get with both directly connected mics or an outboard mixer with the HMC40 is by activating the attenuation switches on the XLR adapter.

 

[CAVIDEO]

DVC30 vs HMC40

DVC30 vs HMC40

Mark,

I see you have worked with both DVC30 and HMC40. How would you rate the low light performance of the HMC40 vs that of the DVC30. If you consider it comparable I would be very interested in the HMC40. Thank you in advance for your comments.


Jon Schwartz
CA Video Productions

 

[Mark Whalen]

How would you rate the low light performance of the HMC40 vs that of the DVC30.

That's a good question, Jon. I don't have any real world comparisons between the DVC30 and the HMC40, because I sold the 30 three years ago for a PD170. From what I recall though, I'd say the HMC40 may be a tad slower overall when compared to the DVC30 (of course, it's not even close to the capabilities of PD170 in that regard). That said, I use the HMC40 in conjunction with a Comer 1800 for low light situations and have been very pleased with the results; trying to keep the gain at 12dB or below.

I chose the HMC40 for much the same reason I initially chose the DVC30: smaller form factor with just the right amount of controls for my needs. Frankly, I like the 40 a whole lot better than what I remember about the 30.

 

[ravencr]

I'm posting a lot of little test videos here on the HMC40: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=180937&page=8

There's a lot more to come, but the whether is helping me to get the low light, raining, fog footage done all upfront. Mainly, zooming, panning, tripod, handheld, different resolutions, shutter speed testing so far. Right now I'm uploading some daylight raining footage of more cars and will be uploading regular speed, 75%, 50% and 25% slow motion all shot in PH720-60p.

Chris

 

[ltf3]

Thanks Mark and Bob (for the photo). All the photos online that I have seen not show that side. I was even at a trade show a couple days ago and the rep couldn't even tell me. They had the camera but didn't even bring the XLR adapter. I thought that was weird. So, again thank you both.

Me too! Thanks for the expanded details on the XLR adapter. Just spent 3 hours trying to find out how to control levels since the HMC40 Manual says that the internal level controls are disabled when an external XLR adapter is plugged in! Nothing on Pany's site .... or anywhere I could find ... until here!

Thanks again

Best

Lee

 

[ravencr]

Hey guys,

I just realized to my surprise that all of these low light videos I posted were shot with the gain set at 24db. To me, from the statements I've read, you don't want to go above 12db, so after reading the manual and figuring out how to change it, the rest of my videos were shot with the max at 12db. But, the following videos were shot in full auto, auto gain control, and because of the low light I'm suspecting all at 24db:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_kLRPGH1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LGeh672W3w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1TvGSxXVac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbapMABkrFg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_Qt2P2tqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrJHP8xu9aU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WRWAbS2YXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfEbt3QInms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoTXk8WFPdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijNA4u7LMaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chRUHPZ4t3s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_x7916_E-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEjkZMyVa_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1C7NrD2D8E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1jm8tYD0ao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7I5KEWRmrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcOS1gM_z5E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VyWb0F9CZo

I don't think the above videos look bad at all at 24db, personally. What do you guys think?

Here's the rest of the videos shot with the gain maxed out at 12db, but these aren't all shot in the dark like the above ones. These you'l notice are tests of the gain, shutter speeds, auto gain control vs. manual gain control, digital zoom, white balance, and chroma levels, as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQHQZMbRLs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9drbNib8Mg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVZJSWpR_xY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd8J8Oxp0I0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRVs6rVE_wg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5zM7RZUV4w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-otdIu_L1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B4RiYmJzbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmEAqGb6hN4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAFwQi0WNgU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWnhjmTYxA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvd1G7KCeg

All of the above videos are being uploaded here: http://www.utvreport.com/videos/hmc40videos for download if you want the uncompressed files to watch on your computer versus YouTube. The dates of 10/12, 10/14, and 10/15 are all shot using 24db gain. And, 10/18 are the ones listed immediately above this text.

All of the videos aren't uploaded to the server yet, but I think all the 10/18 ones are already. The others are uploaded as we speak. You'l also notice that the videos on 10/18 are much larger than the rest. The reason for this is I outputted them from Adobe Premier at full 21mbps, instead of 6 mbps for all the rest. I can't tell much difference...can you guys? I'm not sure it's worth the extra size, download and upload time personally. I've found too that the best way to play these to see issues is at full screen, not the standard YouTube size.

I hope this helps...if anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. These were things I wanted to know before buying the HMC40, but I couldn't find out there, so I bought it.

Chris

 

[Cranky]

Shown below is a cheap cheap cheap consumer camcorder from JVC:

Why the HMC40 does not have two SD slots? Even more, why the HMC150 does not have two slots? When JVC put two SDHC slots on the HM100 some said that it was a pro model that costs $3,500. But the HM200 shown on the image is a cheap consumer model. Come on, Panasonic, the dual-slot HM100 was released before the HMC40 was even announced. And the higher-level Pana models have two or even four slots (does some model has 6 of them?)

Having only one slot on a pro camcorder is just not cool.

 

[Barry_Green]

Why do you need multiple slots? With a 32gb card, you can record three hours of PH or 12 hours of HE mode in one continuous recording. Do you need more than that?

 

[ravencr]

Hey Barry,

You appear to be the resident expert on these cameras...would you mind sharing how we might be able to eliminate aliasing with the HMC40? Here's a thread we've been talking about it: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/panasonic-avccam-camcorders/465849-help-me-hmc-40-bad-video-today.html

I've done some reading and people are saying to reduce the sharpness, but that seems counterintuitive to having a high def camera...no?

Chris

 

[Allen Ellis]

Why do you need multiple slots? With a 32gb card, you can record three hours of PH or 12 hours of HE mode in one continuous recording. Do you need more than that?

Well for redundancy. Given the sparatic reports of card failures lurking I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind when recording an important event that, well, it might yet corrupt on itself. We can't seem to find the cause so there's nothing we can do much to prevent this from happening.

Assuming it is a problem with the card and not something earlier in the recording process, then a redundant card would increase peace of mind by a lot.

That's not to mention the benefits of handing one card to a client and keeping the other for your reel. Or packing them in two seperate bags at the end for added security.

Since consumer-grade SD can't match the bullet-proof qualities P2 is known for, a redundant card would help that a lot.

 

[BobDiaz]

Does the JVC record to 2 cards at the same time OR does it fill one card and switch to the other?

The first system gives you that redundancy, the second is only helpful when recording VERY long events.


Bob Diaz

 

[BobDiaz]

UPDATE: I looked it up, here's what the JVC sheets say:

Twin SDHC Card Slots
The GY-HM100U gives users the flexibility of twin SDHC memory card slots. When the card in the first slot is full, the camcorder switches automatically to the second with no drop out. Memory cards are hot swappable, so cards can be removed for editing without interrupting the shoot.

Twin SDHC Card Slots with
Continuous Recording
With the advent of high
capacity, affordable memory cards, extended
shooting times have become a reality. The
GY-HM100U goes a step further with twin
SDHC card slots and the ability to shoot
continuously from the first card to the second.
No breaks in the recording, no momentary
dropout—just one seamless take as the
camcorder automatically switches to the
second card when the first one is full. Further
benefits of having two card slots include being
able to make effective use of lower capacity
cards, being able to hot-swap out the first card
for editing while still shooting to the second,
and the flexibility of scene-by-scene card
selection.

I'm sure the JVC HM-100u is a very good camera, but I see nothing that says it can record to BOTH cards at the same time.


Bob Diaz

 

[Denwa]

Damn, wish the 40 and 150 had 2 card slots.

 

[cookieblue]

On Audio - Rode Stereo Video Mic vs a mono mic such as the Sennheiser MKE400

On Audio - Rode Stereo Video Mic vs a mono mic such as the Sennheiser MKE400

Hi all,

Just joining this site.

I've read all the threads thus far and there is not that much discussion on audio.

The one thing that surprised about the HMC40 after buying it without doing extensive research was that the internal mic recorded everything on stereo. That seems to me more of a consumer camera feature than a pro one. It would have been nice to have the option of recording interviews on one channel only.

I know you can get the XLR adapter but I don't see the point since I don't envision using a 2 microphone set up with the HMC40.

I do want to buy a mic for the camera. Something about its internal mic just doesn't cut it for me. Since the audio will be recorded in stereo anyways, I was thinking my best option was the Rode STEREO VideoMic , which records in Stereo using the X/Y configuration. The way I think of it is that since I'm recording stereo sound anyways, I can capture even better stereo sound by getting a stereo mic, as opposed to a mono mic.

In fact, I've heard that using a mono mic on a camera that records in stereo will cut down on the sound, a downgrading of sorts.

But I must say I do dig the fact that the Sennheiser MKE400 is so tiny and weightless, which is why I bought the HMC40 as opposed to the HMC150 in the first place. In addition, the Sennheiser is a mini-shotgun and is directional, which will be perfect for interviews (by reducing excessive background noise surrounding the interviewee.)

The Rode Stereo VideoMic weighs about 10.5 ounces, while the Seinnheiser weighs just 2 ounces!!! 2 ounces!!!

What do you all think? First of all, I am curious to know about your experiences with the HMC40's internal mic. The specs are professional (48 khz, 16 bit), but I just don't like the way it sounds to my ears. Do you?

And am I being a moron here believing that a camera that captures sound in stereo would benefit from a decent mic that also captures audio in stereo? Does this matter?

Should I get a mono mic like the Sennheiser instead and keep my camera light?

Thanks everyone,

a.

 

[Cranky]

Why do you need multiple slots? With a 32gb card, you can record three hours of PH or 12 hours of HE mode in one continuous recording. Do you need more than that?

I prefer 4GB cards, just because it is so simple to dump them to single-layer DVDs. Redundancy would be a great feature too.

 

[Cranky]

cookieblue, I don't see what a problem is capturing in stereo. If you don't like it, join it into one channel in your NLE. Mono external mic is no problem, you will have only one channel, then you can make it mono in an NLE. No problem again.

 

[ravencr]

What's the model of the Seinnheiser you're talking about Cookieblue? Size is crucial for me too...

Chris