HPX170 Lens Wobble Improved

I'm rendering out a video right now with focus pulls at various focal lengths which some of you requested.

Pulled focus manually at Z0, Z20, Z40, Z60, Z80, and Z99
I also overlaid a cross hair graphic in FCP to have a static reference.

It should be up shortly.
 
matt s. said:
I'm with Luis. I dont own the camera still shooting with a DVX but I hope to be able to get a 170 or 150 (undecided) soon and I have been following this thread since it started.if it were me I would be SO grateful that i was even able to own the camera and i would be out shooting with it as much as i could and not sitting at my computer thinking its the end of the world especially after Jan said the problem would be taken care of and SpecComm already has a solution.

I see where the problem could arise if you had the image shift when you are focusing but seriously who would sit there and repeatedly tap the lens or lens hood while shooting?

I think that if anyone is in the position to own a $5000 camera and this is really bothering them then the $100 or so that it costs for Spec-Comm to do their fix is a minimal expense albeit an inconvenient one. There is always some unexpected costs in doing business.
Click to expand...


Nobody would tap the lens hood, are you oblivious to the other footage showing the image shifting during focusing?

Also, I scraped up every penny I could find to buy this camera as well as made some sacrafices so am I suppossed to be able to afford another $100 for a "fix". c'mon guys.



Luis,
It's all good man. I'm upset, not in a panic... yet. But it's the camera that started the concern, not dvxuser members.
 
I have updated the first post of this thread and linked some of the clips that forum members
have posted showing the image shifts at long lens. Unfortunately, the links aren't working for
some reason. I will keep trying.

Adam Wilt told me he didn't have the issue on the pre-pro camera he tested. He's going to try
to come by my place this week and take a look at my HPX170.

On Edit: Thank you for correcting my link errors, Luis. If somebody has pertinent clips that they
want me to post on Post #1 for this thread, just PM me.
 
Last edited:
Dino said:
I have updated the first post of this thread and linked some of the clips that forum members
have posted showing the image shifts at long lens. Unfortunately, the links are working for
some reason. I will keep trying.

Adam Wilt told me he didn't have the issue on the pre-pro camera he tested. He's going to try
to come by my place this week and take a look at my HPX170.
Click to expand...


Awesome! I think Adam will be the most unbiased person to look into it. The rep or reps around here will say it's a "feature", me and other guys will say it's an issue (the sky is falling) and Adam, well, he doesn't own an HPX170 and isn't a rep. :)


EDIT: The 2nd and third links aren't working because the path is incorrect. See below.

http://vimeo.coM/1873268
http://itchyhousefilms.com/films/tap.mov
 
Jay Rodriguez said:
Nobody would tap the lens hood, are you oblivious to the other footage showing the image shifting during focusing?

Also, I scraped up every penny I could find to buy this camera as well as made some sacrafices so am I suppossed to be able to afford another $100 for a "fix". c'mon guys.
Click to expand...

Jay yes i am aware of the focusing footage thats why i said it could be a problem and I'm not trying to argue with you I understand why you are upset.

From a business standpoint scraping up every penny you have and making sacrifices to buy the latest and greatest camera just doesnt seem like a wise business decision to me thats all. I was more along the thinking that the majority of purchasers of the HPX can pay off their cam with a job or two and that the $100 wouldnt be much of an expense. Sorry.

Please no beef here or with you.
 
Matt, I have no beef with anyone, just with the wobble in my camera. also, thanks for business 101. there's a calculated reason for everything regarding what and how I made my decisions. I simply couldn't get many jobs with my HDV Canon as mostly everyone wanted the HVX or better so yes, it made total sense to pick up what the customer wanted. :)

Here's the focusing clip I shot earlier. Maybe I shouldn't have posted the tapping video, I just couldn't believe it was moving that much.


http://itchyhousefilms.com/films/wobble.mov
 
Edweirdo said:
if you are thinking long term it is
Click to expand...

Bingo! At least someone understands, lol. :)

ok, enough from me, I let this consume me today. I HAVE to storyboard and shot list my new short.

Later guys, hope to hear something good from Jan soon.. Now GET OUT THERE AND SHOOT SOMETHING! :)
 
Now that i know Jay was shooting Canon HDV i can see why he made the sacrifices to go with the HPX

hehe j/k :)

to each their own
peace all no need to argue!

and Jays right go out and be productive
 
Jay Rodriguez said:
The rep or reps around here will say it's a "feature", me and other guys will say it's an issue
Click to expand...

or perhaps it is a feature that in some situations can be an issue.

I've some news from Italy, if you're interested in. My seller (a big one) has spoken for an hour with the european distributor by phone. In a first moment the distributor has answered that this only a feature but the seller has showed him this thread and now the distributor says that this effectively can be an issue and must be fixed ASAP, so he also has emailed to Osaka.

More reports they receive from all over the world, more quickly the should fix.

Anyway the excellent work made by spec.comm demonstrates clearly that
this is really a shock mount and the issue can be easily and quickly fixed increasing slightly the system rigidity. This can be made in several way, preserving the shocking mount design.

For this reason I think that this is not a major issue but surely it is an unpleasant nuisance. We have to live with this lens movement and we have to approach our lens carefully when telephoto until Panasonic tell us what they want to do.

Regards

gary
 
I reviewed the various footages posted in the HPX Screen Grab/Footage section... looks good! We all know every camera has its flaws. Buying first production runs of a new camera is always risky (but still exciting!). I waited about 3 or 4 months until I bought my EX1 and by then Sony had fixed the initial production problems (vignetting, lettering rubbing off, battery drain, etc.) and it is a sweet camera for my purposes. My camera was better because of the complaints by the users of the first runs, and the previous users had their cameras retro-fixed. I have little doubt Panasonic is listenening and will fix these problems because you are their core customers and as much as it might sound like 'complaining', it's actually valuable feedback.

If it were me and I liked everything else about the camera, especially the footage (and it looks good!), I'd keep the camera and keep shooting until Panasonic makes good on the mount wobble. But that's just me. Things move slow in big corporations, even if they are "on top of it". Us EX1 guys didn't have an equivalent "Jan" or "Barry" to speak directly to, so I'm guessing these issues will get resolved even faster than with Sony. Yes, sometimes I'm Mr. Obvious and say obvious things. Fish tacos. <--- I bet you didn't see that one coming though.
 
Okay - as promised here is a video showing focus pulls at various focal lenghts.

HPX170 was setup on my Bogen 516/515MVB combo and locked off.
Shots were taken of the tile on my kitchen wall, as I figured the grid pattern would be a good reference.
I also overlaid a cross hair graphic to have a static reference in the frame.

OIS is off.
Focus is being pulled normally.

I started with the shot in focus - then pulled focus to infinity and then back into focus.
Then I pulled focus to Macro, and then back into focus.
I repeated that for each of the following zoom setting:

Z00, Z20, Z40, Z60, Z80, and Z99


I have compressed both h.264 and .wmv files of each.
The first set shows the full framing shrunken down.
The second set is a 100% crop of the 1080p frame.


Full Framing Clips:
(these clips are identical - download whichever format you prefer)

http://www.pitchproductions.com/HPX/HPXlenstest-small.m4v
http://www.pitchproductions.com/HPX/HPXlenstest-small.wmv


100% Crop Clips:
 (these clips are identical, download whichever format you prefer)

http://www.pitchproductions.com/HPX/HPXlenstest-crop.m4v
http://www.pitchproductions.com/HPX/HPXlenstest-crop.wmv
​
***
By the way - the full frame clips have a typo on the title card.
I was using Bogen 515 legs, not 535.
That title was fixed in the Cropped Clips.
 
Gary Senda said:
Hey Luis, where did you touch the focus ring? Laterally or on the bottom/top?
Click to expand...

I didn't make an effort to pull focus in a specific point - I merely pulled focus the way I normally would on a shoot.

Reached near the top (but not square at the top of the lens) when pulling focus down, and reached towards the bottom of the lens when pulling focus up (but again, not square on the bottom).

I wanted to see how the camera would react with normal operation.
 
I spoke to my account executive again today.
He said that his panasonic rep was going to have some news by the end of the week, latest first of next week.

He said the rep told him that they will fix the issue. It is a known issue, and is not going to be ignored. My account executive said I could return my camera for refund, exchange for another, or just hold on and panasonic would "make it right".
 
Luis Caffesse said:
I wanted to see how the camera would react with normal operation.
Click to expand...

I've put this question because I've noticed that if you focus with your fingers always on the top or on the bottom (it is difficult, but possible) you can avoid the most of the wobble. Your clip is eloquent: the image doesn't wobble vertically. This is not the solution, obviously, but I want understand what I can make if I need rack focus when the zoom is telephoto in the meantine I wait for an announcement by panasonic

Thank you

gary
 
Does anyone have access to a remote focus controller?

That would settle this once and for all -- if there is any image shift when using the controller, then it can't possibly be due to the user's finger position or force used.
 
Below is a link to a focus pull comparison that I did between the HVX200A and the remedied HPX170.

Focus Pull

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Andrew Hoffman
 
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