HMC40 Upgrade from DVX100A

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djkoz

Well-known member
I currently own the DVX100A and have been very satisfied with it. However, I am thinking about upgrading to a descent hi-def camera and I have been considering the HMC40. Is this the right move?

My intended purposes include documentaries and movies for both the web and, hopefully, television. Television requirements can be stringent, will the HMC40 be up to the task?

My price range is approximately $2,000. Should I try to stretch that and consider a different camera?

Thanks,

Dan
 
The HMC40 is an excellent HD camcorder, really amazing at its price point. Just be aware that the difference between your DVX, and an HMC40, in terms of sensitivity, is huge. The HMC40 is nowhere near as sensitive as a DVX. To get a taste of what it's like, put the DVX on ND 1/8, and it'll still be a little more sensitive than the HMC40.

If you can work with that, then the HMC40 is just incredible at its price point. If you want XLRs you'd have to get the optional XLR module, and then you'd have a camcorder that produces images as sharp as an HPX370 or EX1, for about $2,000. It's very small, light, and portable. It uses a touch-screen which is handy in some ways, and a bit annoying in other ways, but considering the small size of the body and the limited real estate for buttons & switches it seems like a pretty decent compromise.

The learning curve will be pretty short too, as the HMC40 uses all the same scene file settings as the DVX100A (plus the DRS setting).

Everyone I know who has one, just loves it. And while I make a big deal out of the sensitivity issue, I've seen several users here report that "it's not that big a deal" to them. So you'll have to see for yourself; if you can work with the relatively low sensitivity (about ISO 50) then it's a great camcorder and there's no professional camcorder anywhere near its price and capabilities.
 
I've been using the HMC40 since January for event shooting and misc. corporate promos. Because of the company I work for's budget, it really was the only option at the time and it's still the same now. Nothing in the 2k price range comes close (except for HDslrs but we can have that conversation another time)

I just bought an hmc40 for freelance work too and B&H sent me Barry's excellent "The HMC Book" for free - I'd highly suggest you pick it up too!

Btw, Barry, it was a nice surprise to see you guys are located in Wilmington, NC. I'm going to be getting married not to far from there :)

Now back on topic, again the sensitivity is an issue, so you'll want to make sure your scenes are properly lit - In poor light it's nowhere near as forgiving as the top of the line Standard Def offerings (which is why they're still so expensive) but that really is my only complaint considering the price point. Something sure to impress your clients is the timelapse (interval) feature.

As far as television standards, you'd have to check. I'll be using my HMC40 as a B or C camera in the near future on an Alaska documentary, but I'm not sure if the networks are still judgmental when it comes to different flavors of HD. I know there was a certain % of HDV footage that they'd accept, and above that % you had to have a good reason for it. Can anyone else chime in on this?

Besides that, you just have to make sure your editing rig can handle AVCHD - I've been using Final Cut Pro and transcoding to Pro Res with good results. File sizes are huge, but the log and transfer workflow has been fine.
 
Thank you. I appreciate these comments. However, it does raise another question.

I use Vegas Pro 8 for editing. Will this software automatically handle the AVCHD format of this Panasonic camera?

Thanks,

Dan
 
Yes, but it's a hell of a lot easier to edit it if you transcode to a less-compressed format (ex: Cineform). I use Vegas Platinum 9 on 2gHz laptop w/3GB of RAM and an external TB drive, and working on non-transcoded AVCHD files absolutely murders my computer.
 
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Good time for me to chime in here. :)

I had a DVX100a, and 'traded up' to the HMC40. While the images were excellent when there was plenty of light, it's not the camera I would want to use for anything remotely low-light or scenes where I want to create mood with lots of dark shadowy areas. I'm thinking it might not be the best camera for documentary work, depending on what kind of stuff you're shooting. I found I really missed my DVX100a......a lot.

As for editing, the problem CMcMahon has may be related to the graphics capability of his laptop. I've edited the raw AVCHD files from the HMC40 on a laptop running Vegas 8, and it certainly wasn't smooth playback -- but it was usable. I do most of my editing on an off-the-shelf HP Media Center m7160n desktop (single-core, 2.8GHz Pentium D processor) with 3GB of RAM, running WinXP, with my video files on an external (7200rpm) USB hard drive. I use Vegas 8 on that computer as well, and while playback isn't totally smooth, it's much better than the laptop. And if I pre-render the section I'm working on using a template like NTSC DV Widescreen, then the playback is much better. So it's certainly not a terrible thing to edit the AVCHD footage on Vegas 8.

You can transcode the footage, of course, and use those transcoded files as proxy files, to be replaced later by the original footage once the editing is done. But transcoding takes a LONG LONG LONG time. At least it always did for me. I finally decided to just work on the original footage by pre-rendering the sections as I work on them. So far, so good.

If you want to shoot movies, you're probably going to want something with better low-light capability than the HMC40. Same if your documentaries are using a lot of indoor, available light footage. Personally, I'd stick to shooting 16:9 squeeze with the DVX100a until some better low-cost options come along in the HD cameras. But that's just me.
 
One other thing I liked about the DVX100a was the size and weight. It feels like a good, solid piece of gear. The HMC40 may be just as solid, but it just feels too light and a little too small to suit me. Then again, I'm not a 'run-and-gun' shooter, so take that for what it's worth.
 
Thank you. I appreciate the feedback.

What camera would you recommend if I had to go a step or so above the HMC40 in order to get HD with better low light response?

Dan
 
I went from the DVX100 to the HMC40. I just spent some quality time with her, 3 weeks on the road - run and gun / storm chasing and there were some things that I loved and hated about the camera but at your price point you're not going to get anything better. I have the 7D too and it has it's pros and cons. My 2c:

The low light thing is an issue if you can't control the light but you can turn up the gain and there are also some plugins out there that can remove noise. Not having a real lens with a real focus ring was a biggie for me too, the bloody thing kept on going out of focus mainly my fault because of my hand rubbing against it or the cine saddle. You're not gonna get a real focus ring on any camera for under 5k and I found a work around for the issue.

The buttons on this thing are really fiddly too, and you don't get as many as you do with the HMC150.

Oh and the eyepiece display, I swear my old GS250 DV camera has a better display on it and the LCD is not much better. Japanese public TV were using some little sony HDV cameras and their flip out displays appear to be a lot better.

Having said all that give her good light and you'll get fantastic resolution (better than the HMC150) and play around with the scene files and the color will look great.
 
One more thing to remember, the HMC40 only allows 2 scene files and no way to load other files via SDHC card like you can with the HMC150.
 
Can you possibly stretch your budget for the HMC150? It really is an amazing cam for the price, and fits whay you will be doing quite nicely.
 
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