HPX170 and SG Blade footage

B

B.Berry

Well-known member
I was looking at this the other day, it is footage from a job I did 4 years ago for a non profit. I really like the results I got with this set up!
All the interviews were with the adapter.

HPX170

SG Blade

Razor 2

Zeiss ZF1's

Check out the link bellow.

https://vimeo.com/79019992


Broatch Berry
Screaming Dime

Venice CA
 
I miss my 170.

Your well lit and composed footage makes the 170 look great. In particular the the Betty LaMarr interview shows that a 1/3 chip cam with a fixed zoom lens can do great shallow DOF work.

I sold mine but stayed in the family with the PX270. I'm living large now with all the added features and resolution, but the 170 was such a perfect little cam.

Grant
 
Well it was the SG Blade that helped with the interviews, and static on camera stuff, everything else was just the fixed lens, the CCD and 422 color makes the footage pop!
Still a very capable combination that camera and the SG Blade, for the web anyway :)

Broatch Berry
Screaming Dime

Venice CA
 
The question has been discussed here whether the sdi output has more resolution than internal recording. I believe the consensus was that if it is better, it is a very nominal amount. Do you think otherwise?

Grant
 
I think with the clean SDI out, that you bypass the DVCPRO HD codec ( 1280X1080 ) and can record through the SDI to a cleaner recorder with a better full raster 1920X1080 codec. I still think the DVCPRO codec was good enough, but I did record on my Nanoflash, for ease of use with it's drag and drop XDCAM HD full raster 422 codec ability once in a while. The later cameras on the HPX line such as the HPX300 HPX370 HPX250 and your HPX270 have a lovely full raster 1920X1080 AVC intra 100 codec, that is rock solid.

Broatch Berry
Screaming Dime

Venice CA

screamingdime.com
 
Broatch, a couple of thoughts.

The resolution limit on the 170 isn't the codec, it is the chips themselves. The 170 is not a full raster 1080 cam, the chips could produce something less than that. The image is then upscaled via what Panny called pixel-shifting, basically a slight of hand, to get to 1080. Essentially, you might imagine the 170 actually being a 720p cam complete with trickery installed. Good trickery, but trickery none the less. That's why there has been discussion about whether the SDI output could actually deliver an improved image; there just isn't anymore to give at the sensor level. Barry Green has chimed in on this a few times, so you might want to do a search. Successive cams such as the PX250 and PX270 are full raster 1080 cams and thus much sharper. In my view, whatever shortcomings the cam had in resolution was made up for with the intra-frame codec and 422 color. It made the cam relevant for a long time for basic commercial purposes like your clip.

Regardless, your footage is excellent and for interviews, you don't want to see every blackhead anyway.

I recently sold my 170 here and miss it often, not because the 270 isn't a better cam, it is. But the 170 had a nice mojo of features + simplicity.

Best Regards,
Grant
 
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Yes I remember all that back and forth about actual resolution, I really got the 170 to accompany my HDX900 on some shoots, that camera too had it's 720p base but some crazy 1080 mojo?
I think the 422 and Panasonic color space make these cameras wonderful! I shoot with all of them still, and I added a sony F3 to the mix ( which I love ) The other thing that was fun to add onto both the HPX170 and the HDX900 was a spinning 35mm depth of field adapter, I have an SG Blade for the 170, and a Letus Ultimate with the Pro B4 lens adapter for the HDX900, they do add a lot of weight to the cameras ( more so the Letus set up ) but with Panasonics color magic these cameras produced great results. Very creamy natural film looks! I remember somewhere from the past it was said Ikegami engineers helped design and build the Panasonic cameras from the Varicam tape cameras on? Not sure how true this was.

Broatch Berry
Venice CA

screamingdime.com
 
Looks really good, I still have a HPX170 and use the crap out of it for all sorts of stuff. Been thinking about the DM recorder that was recently released to give it a little more pop.
 
I"m surprised how good this looks from Vimeo streaming from the web onto my Elite plasma tv, not bad for a old camera with a spinning 35mm adapter! I think Panasonic had great cameras back in the early days of digital.

Broatch Berry
Venice CA

screamingdime.com
 
Speaking of old Panasonic cameras, I dug up this video that I shot for a friend back the old days, it's the Panasonic SDX900 standard def 16X9 DVCPRO 50, those panny's had some mojo!

https://vimeo.com/22283391

Broatch Berry
Venice CA

screamingdime.com
 
"Been thinking about the DM recorder" do you mean BM recorder?

i'm trying to squeeze all the usable life i can from my hpx170. having to swap out P2 cards for longer-form work has always been an achilles heel of the camera. i was considering getting a black magic video assist to give me longer recording time AND i wondered if coming out SDI would improve the image compared to onboard dvcprohd...
 
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