HMC80 should I get it?

E

ELN614

Well-known member
I am thinking of getting the HMC80 for the DV abilities (time date stamp). I plan to use it for depositions mostly.
BUT it seems the low light issues with the 40 scares me.

I plan to shoot mostly indoor with existing lighting. Camera to subject is approximately 5-8 feet. I rarely set up a light unless the lighting is really unacceptable.

what do you say with your experience with the 40? Will I be happy with the 80?
 
If you have a light meter, you could test your setups. According to some (A fella named Barry) the HMC has a ASA around 50.

What are you using now? Maybe you can draw some comparison. Have you looked for a rental?

Grant
 
I am using the DVC30 but it is getting up there in age and stuff.
I bought a DVX100B thinking I could use it for depositions, but I was wayyy wrong.
 
ggrantly said:
If you have a light meter, you could test your setups. According to some (A fella named Barry) the HMC has a ASA around 50.

What are you using now? Maybe you can draw some comparison. Have you looked for a rental?

Grant
Click to expand...

The ASA (now know as ISO) is 50 with 0dB of gain. Here's the different ISO possibilities:

Gain = ISO
0dB = 50 ISO
6dB = 100 ISO
12db = 200 ISO (Many say this is the upper limit for gain.)
18dB = 400 ISO (Some don't like the noise at this setting.)
24dB = 800 ISO (There's way too much noise at this setting and beyond, but it does work.)
30dB = 1600 ISO

Set the light meter for the different ISO setting and use 1/30 of a second as the shutter speed.

To see the impact of the different gain settings from 0 dB to +34dB, please see the video below:


I video light wouldn't be that expensive and would help you videos a lot.


Bob Diaz
 
I don't know if the HMC80 uses the full width of the imaging chips for SD, and downscales from 2 megapixels in-camera, or simply crops the image from the imaging chips. If the camera is using the full width of the imaging chips and downscaling, you would think it could perform quite well in low-light shooting (less image noise than full HD). I'd suggest shooting in HD anyway though. I believe you can overlay time/date in HD (with either the HMC40 or HMC80). Downscaling an HD image to SD in post can give you a tack sharp image, if you do it correctly, and it's really quite easy with VirtualDub (use Lanczos resizing), especially now that you can open AVCHD files directly in VirtualDub using the Direct Show Input Driver (http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=15093&). Doing it that way gives you a heck of a lot of leeway for using denoising filters too, essentially giving you the opportunity to apply some fairly strong denoising without degrading the resolution of the downscaled image (denoise before downscaling).

From my experience using the HMC40, it does pretty well with typical office lighting. Unless you are shooting depos at a saloon or something, I think you'll be just fine.
 
I just got my HMC-80. It is a great camera, BUT shot some video at a Veterans' Day Ceremony. Used a separate mic (Sennheiser shotgun) on channel 2. Come to find out it is not like the HMC-40 with the AG-MYG30A where I can take channel 2 and output to both L&R channels. Is there any setting on the 80 that will do this? Right now I am stuck with audio only on the right channel on the video. Maybe I have to do it in post, but I can't find a way in Corel StudioPro X3 (current NLE). I am upgrading to CS5, but not there yet.

So I really like the 80 better than the 40 (have both), but I am perplexed by the audio on the 80.
 
RandyVideo said:
I just got my HMC-80. It is a great camera, ...
Click to expand...

I can't help you with the audio, I don't have an HMC80 to play with, but I do have a favor to ask of you...


The HMC80 also shoots in SD mode and I'd love to get my hands on a copy of the source file to see what it's like. IF possible, could you shoot a short 10 second clip and upload the source file, so that we could check it out.


Thanks,

Bob Diaz
 
BobDiaz said:
I can't help you with the audio, I don't have an HMC80 to play with, but I do have a favor to ask of you...


The HMC80 also shoots in SD mode and I'd love to get my hands on a copy of the source file to see what it's like. IF possible, could you shoot a short 10 second clip and upload the source file, so that we could check it out.


Thanks,

Bob Diaz
Click to expand...

Bob - I think you are asking for DV mode vs. AVCHD. I haven't shot anything in DV mode but can try. What frame rate and setting do you want? I can do 480 at 24p/30p or 480/60i. And how do I upload the clip to this forum? Newbie :-)
 
It would be interesting to see how the camera handles gain in the dv mode. For example the hv20 is completely different in hdv than it is in dv. In standard dv it is the classic fixed pattern gain that we all hate and learned to not use gain at all cost. However in hdv the gain is more organic like film grain, some say jumping pixels but I don't mind it and can be graded to interesting effect. It only becomes horrible at the highest levels when colored sparklies start to show up in the black.

In the above test reel, if you were to avoid showing the lamp heads, and crushed the blacks to bring down the sky in the grading you could get a very useable shot, within the realm of the Michael Mann look. But if dv mode reverts to the classic fixed pattern gain, which I suspect it might, it would not be very useable in low light.
 
RandyVideo said:
Bob - I think you are asking for DV mode vs. AVCHD. I haven't shot anything in DV mode but can try. What frame rate and setting do you want? I can do 480 at 24p/30p or 480/60i. And how do I upload the clip to this forum? Newbie :-)
Click to expand...

Yes, DV Mode, 480/30p would be nice.

We use VIMEO to upload video files, which is free to sign up. There's also another service, but I don't use it, so I'll ask others here to help me out with this one. There's a service that allows support for posting really big files, what is it?


... on the other hand, if you are in the LA area, I could meat you and get a copy of the file that way. :)


Bob Diaz
 
BobDiaz said:
Yes, DV Mode, 480/30p would be nice.

We use VIMEO to upload video files, which is free to sign up. There's also another service, but I don't use it, so I'll ask others here to help me out with this one. There's a service that allows support for posting really big files, what is it?


... on the other hand, if you are in the LA area, I could meat you and get a copy of the file that way. :)


Bob Diaz
Click to expand...

Bob - OK. I will see what I can get. I am a member of Vimeo so I can upload it there. Should be able to upload the file if it is not too big. I am in the La Quinta, CA (Palm Springs area). Will try and get it done in the next day or two.
 
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