HMC80 Questions

mikegrasso

mikegrasso

Well-known member
Hello, I have been looking at getting an HMC 40 80 or 150, and have found a lot on the 40 & 150, but there is not much out ther on the 80. I happen to like the size of the 80, and think it will suite me best. I hope there are some of you on this board that have a 80 and can share your thoughts.

Any info or comparison, likes, dislikes would be helpful. I will be making a purchase of a camera in the next week and just want to feel a little better informed.

Thanks,
Mike
 
The HMC 80 is pretty much the HMC40 in a shoulder-mount form factor and built-in XLR. Image quality and operation should be the same.
 
Mike,

It is a new model, only out a few months. As KnoxHatch said, it is the same imager and recording codec in a different box with a few more buttons instead of menu control and built in audio. It has a firewire port if it matters, so you should be able to stream video (confirm that). The HMC40 IQ is very very good with the exception of low light shooting. One thing you might want to check is the quality of the VF as the VF and flip-out on the 40 is pretty sucky (my biggest gripe).

As long as you aren't a low light shooter, this cam is probably the best bang for the buck anywhere IMHO.

Grant
 
I grew up using shoulder-mount cameras for news and documentary work in the '70s and '80s, and still think it is the most effective form factor for my kind of shooting. I don't know how anyone can make steady handheld images without a shoulder support. I purchased an HMC80 in October and am very pleased with it. Just about the only major weakness is the low-light performance. Even at that, it's no worse than the cameras I loved 20 or 30 years ago. It offers tremendous bang for the buck and is the camera I'd buy if I were fitting out a new cable studio, instructional facility or news unit today. It took me awhile to get used to the plastic construction, the very small non-interchangeable lens and the teensy batteries (compared to my Anton-Bauers), but over time, these features have actually grown on me as they all contribute to making the camera lightweight and inexpensive, without really affecting its capabilities in terms of image or sound quality or convenience of operation.

I do wish the lens went a little wider (40mm FF35 equivalent). The wide angle adapter from Panasonic works well enough, but I don't like having to hang extra glass in front of the lens and possibly degrading the image quality. If you do any work in close quarters, you will want this accessory.

There is no body-mounted LCD screen separate from the viewfinder. Rather, the viewfinder itself is a rather large (3") LCD and has a flip-up magnifier over it so it can be used either with your eye up close, or standing farther back as on a tripod. Again, this makes the camera lighter and cheaper, although I do kind of miss having both displays. On my old JVC DV5000s I could put an unobstructed image in the viewfinder and still show all the status displays (sound levels, battery, aperture, etc.) on the LCD on the side, which I liked very much. The quality of the one LCD seems fine, although being used to CRT viewfinders on ENG cameras, I do find that it's harder to use for tracking small moving objects. One peculiarity is that the big viewfinder makes the camera quite wide, and it won't fit in a lot of the cases I've accumulated over the years for my older cameras. I finally found a Porta-Brace one that would work, but the fit is still tighter than I'd like.

All in all I'm very pleased with the camera, especially for the price, and would be happy to try and answer any specific questions.
 
Wow Greg thanks for the info. I will be shooting alot of sit down interview type stuff, and have an nice lightting set up for that. Also will be shooting some b-roll as filler, also stuff I can light. I think the HMC80 will work best for me, but I also like the 40 as I can put a follow focus on it. How much space is there on the focus ring to the handle area, would I be able to get a gear in there for my Follow Focus on the 80?
 
ggrantly said:
Greg,

Do you have confidence focusing with the VF, or is it just OK?

Grant
Click to expand...

There is a magnified 1:1 view that works just fine, as well as a peaking control ("EVF DTL"), plus you can put the VF in B&W mode if that helps. Between all the aids, I've never had any trouble focusing. I generally use the one-shot auto-focus button to get me in the ballpark and then the magnified mode for a fine tweak if necessary. Outdoors if the lens is stopped down a bit, the DOF is pretty deep on this camera and I often just hit the AF button.

- GDS
 
mikegrasso said:
Wow Greg thanks for the info. I will be shooting alot of sit down interview type stuff, and have an nice lightting set up for that. Also will be shooting some b-roll as filler, also stuff I can light. I think the HMC80 will work best for me, but I also like the 40 as I can put a follow focus on it. How much space is there on the focus ring to the handle area, would I be able to get a gear in there for my Follow Focus on the 80?
Click to expand...


I only have experience with follow focus units on big film cameras, so this is speculation on my part, but ... the focus ring is quite narrow and I'm guessing the FF rig might have a hard time fitting around the handgrip and viewfinder. Since it's focus-by-wire (although pretty responsive) I'm not sure it always comes back to a repeatable position, but the HMC40 would presumably be the same in this regard.

If anybody has made it work I'd be interested to hear about it and see pictures.

- GDS
 
Ok, after a bit more research I have found that the HMC40 is the way to go for me. For the price including the XLR part, and getting a should rig, I still come out at the same cost of the 80. Also with the 40 I did find that is is better set up for a Follow Focus and if I want to use a 35mm adapter it will be more simple to put int on a 40 over the 80. Thanks to another DVXUSER I got a great deal on a nice used HMC40, now I may look for a second as the HMC40 is a great value.
 
Greg, in the HMC40, the audio meters are defeated when you attach the XLR adapter. In the HMC80, if you connect external XLR mics, can you still adjust the audio levels and see the meters?
 
I should clarified my concern. I usually shoot with a mic mixer and audio op. With most professional camcorders you can calibrate the mixer to the audio meters on the camcorder. You can't do this with the HMC40 because as soon as you connect the XLR adapter, you can't bring up the audio meters on the LCD screen.

With the HMC80, can you input tone from an external mixer or audio from an external XLR mic and be able to monitor the audio on the meters in the viewfinder?
 
I don't have the XLR adapter for my HMC40, but I've used one, and I don't know that what you're saying is correct. It's true that you can't bring up the mic level adjustment when the external XLR box is attached, because that wouldn't work -- you adjust levels on the XLR box instead. But you certainly should be able to bring up the level meters (meaning, the bouncing lines that display what volume your audio signal is at).

Page 53 of the HMC40 manual describes it. It says that the mic level is fixed and you can't bring up the option to adjust it, but that doesn't mean you can't see the levels display.
 
ullianj1 said:
Greg, in the HMC40, the audio meters are defeated when you attach the XLR adapter. In the HMC80, if you connect external XLR mics, can you still adjust the audio levels and see the meters?
Click to expand...

Yes, for sure. I didn't realize the HMC40 had that issue -- that would certainly put a crimp in my style.

- GDS
 
Greg Smith said:
Yes, for sure. I didn't realize the HMC40 had that issue -- that would certainly put a crimp in my style.
Click to expand...
I am 99.999% certain that it doesn't have that issue. I've used the XLR adapter and I would have noticed! :)

ullianj1, be sure to go into the SW&DISP menu and turn "LEVEL METER" to "ON". It will always be on whether you have the XLR adapter attached or not.
 
OK, I did what you said and got the meters to appear. But the dials on the XLR adapter don't seem to make much of a difference. I turned them all the way down and the meters still give me the same readings. I am not sure if you really can adjust the audio so as to sync it with tone coming out of the mixer. Crimps my style!
 
You definitely can adjust it. Work with it more before giving up.

Look and see if you have the limiter engaged, or the AUTO switch set to on.

It will absolutely do exactly what you want, you just have to make sure that it's set correctly.
 
I have to confirm that it works for me, just as Barry says. I record the same mono mic output onto each track at different levels (to get one "low" channel and one "high" channel, so I can cope with louder or quieter sounds at the edit stage).

If I dial the wheels up or down, the level meters will go up or down as expected. I can't recall right now if it actually shows the dB level on the OSD though, I will check next time I am shooting.
 
OK, so with Barry's suggestions I figured it out. Make sure the limiter is not engage, make sure the level meter is on, make sure the Channel Select is set correctly and make sure that you turn the Audio Level dial in the correct direction. Thanks Barry and all the other posters. Better to figure it out now than out in the field or coming back with bad audio.
 
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