HMC40 - First Look

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






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
Click to expand...

You can record rendundantly to sxs and SD cards with the HM700 (keep overwriting the same sxs card as a safety-net if you want to). I've been eyeing it as a good upgrade from an HMC.
 
I'd like to ask those using the HMC40 what they think of the EVF. I'm looking hard at the 40 and am hoping to improve on my current Sony SR11 EVF. I've read several comments indicating the 40 EVF was so bad as to be unuseable, is this true?

Kind Regards,
Dan
 
KnoxHotch said:
You can record rendundantly to sxs and SD cards with the HM700 (keep overwriting the same sxs card as a safety-net if you want to). I've been eyeing it as a good upgrade from an HMC.
Click to expand...

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to selecting a video camera. It's more of what features are important to the user. As I recall, the HM700 is around the $7,000 price range depending on what lens you select for the camera. At that price one starts to see the Sony EX-1's price close to the HM700's price.

Now we are back to what's important to each person, 1/3" vs. 1/2", removable lens vs. fixed lens, ...


Bob Diaz
 
I'd like to see 1" CCD's in a shoulder mount camera recording AVC-I onto Class 10 SDHC cards, complete with HD zoom lens, and batteries for under $5000.

Doesn't mean it will happen. :D
 
How to widen to 24mm...?

How to widen to 24mm...?

Hey all,

For the HMC40, Panasonic offers a wide angle conversion lens that only goes up to about 28mm (0.7x zoom). I'm aiming for 24mm (0.6x zoom).

Does anyone here have experience mounting a lens that was meant for a much bigger camera onto a much smaller one (like the HMC40) by using some kind of adapter?

I'm afraid that it won't work or that, in the end, the bigger lens won't yield a 24mm picture.

Would be grateful if anyone can share any experience you've had.

Thank you.

c.
 
I've got the panasonic wide angle coming tomorrow, so hopefully I'll put it to use later this week during some interviews.

Chris
 
Some little things worth saying...

(1) After downloading all sorts of video from different sources taken by the HMC40 and video I shot at DV Expo, I can safely say that given enough light, the camera can take some great looking video. I say this because it's important to remember this before I get to point #2.

(2) I find it interesting that with the 150, 170, and 200, Panasonic makes a big deal about the 14 Bit A/D and 19 bit DSP within the camera, BUT with the HMC40, no comment about the A/D or the signal processing. This could be a case of marketing decided that the type of market for the HMC40 didn't care... OR... the camera uses less than 14 bits for the A/D. The engineer within me wonders if Panasonic used a 12 bit A/D and maybe a 16 bit DSP. This would help lower the cost of the components... on the other hand, using the same stuff provides a discount to getting all the same components. Not a big deal because no matter what the specification, the camera still takes great video... BUT I always wonder about things like this. :smile:


(3) I learned that my 20" iMAC is using 6 bits for each color on the LCD. No surprise that the noise level looks worse on the iMAC, than on my HDTV. A noise of +1 bit in step size (on 8 bits) would be invisible, because you can't see a change in brightness of 1/256 (+0.4%) of a step. However, if the noise crosses the 6 bit boundary, you can see a change of 1/64 (+1.6%) in the brightness. The bottom line is to use an HDTV to judge the video quality.


Bob Diaz
 
Here's some testimonial videos I put up on Youtube from my Glamis, CA dune trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyc89IN82pE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-aUlOnS7T4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkzfX98VHFc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZULzwt_ZHso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJukeFxu5w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPvrXO5Degg

All of this whipped together as one video for the SEMA show that just ended...all rough cuts, very little editing done to make them look more professional. I'm very impressed with the camera, and I've found that my matthews tripod when shooting today is a huge help. I'm shooting out in UT today and the next two days, and using the tripod makes all the difference in the world for quality shots. I played it through component out as 1080i, even though I shot it in 720/60p, and it looked outstanding on the television today. Unbelievable actually. The exposure was spot on, colors at +1 chroma look great. So far, I'm very pleased with the camera.

Chris
 
Chris, those videos are awesome, i downloaded the HD mp4 files from YouTube and the YouTube transcode at 2000kbps, 1280 x 720 is fabulous, i can only imagine what the originals are like.

Can you tell me what audio set up you're using, looks like wireless Lavs.

Cheers Rambo
 
Hey Rambo,

I've tried to download other people's videos off YouTube, but I've never figured out how to do it. Do you mind telling me how you do that?

Are you saying that YouTube coverts my 6mbps file to only 2mbps and that's what plays on Youtube? If so, I could save a ton of harddrive space if I outputted it at 2 instead of 6, but I was worried about quality loss.

For these videos I used my audio technica wireless lav for the interview and the rode videomic with dead cat when shooting the action.

Chris
 
Thanks for the audio reply. yes your Youtube videos are transcoded to 2000kbps, but you have to up them at 6 to give the transcoders better quality to work with.

If you are using Firefox there is an extension or plugin that when your on a Youtube web page shows a option to download the video as FLV, HQ or HD, just click on the one you want.

There are numerous other ways to do it also just Google "download Youtube video".

You're obviously loving the HMC40, what a fantastic cam for $1999.

This what GSpot says about the Youtube transcode

youtubemr.jpg
 
Interesting info. I'm going to try uploading at different settings to see if there's any different results. I'll have to find that plugin to download the videos for sure. Thanks a bunch for the info.

Chris
 
ravencr said:
Interesting info. I'm going to try uploading at different settings to see if there's any different results. I'll have to find that plugin to download the videos for sure. Thanks a bunch for the info.

Chris
Click to expand...


I found it for you https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10137
You need to be using fireFox browser for it to work, but there are others.

I would think 4Mbps might be the minimum before the codec struggles with the high motion. I use 3 - 4Mbps for 640 x 360 as a minimum.

Cheers R
 
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