HPX170 or DSLR Videography

bownut

bownut

Active member
I'm mostly a real estate videographer. I shoot video tours of houses for sale for one brokerage in my area. The agents appear on camera at the beginning at the end of the tour. I do very little stock shooting--not much you can get that people want anymore on my DVX100. I occassionally do on camera work, greenscreen, live webcasting, and live to tape. My DVX may be on the blink. I recently cleaned the heads because I had a huge dropout--FIRST EVER. So, maybe that will resolve the issue. I see a lag or jump in the LCD.

Anyway, I've wanted to upgrade to HD for some time anyway. I have some money in my business budget that I HAVE to spend before the end of the year to save on taxes. If I don't spend it, it is all considered income, and I will be required to pay employee and employer taxes on the money.

So, enough of those details. The issue is this, I have another project that is unrelated to video that I want to fund. It costs around $3K. I've been looking at the HPX170 since before it came out. I can guy a new one for $4299 (with $500 rebate) at BH until the end of the year. But that is nearly my entire budget. I just came across the Philip Bloom and using DSLR video. The cameras are much less expensive, you can change lenses, shoot in HD with multi frame rates, etc. One advantage is that I could shoot stills of the listings or lift them from my footage. I think the disadvantages, as far as I can tell, have to do with live capability, live output to my computer, and audio.

Has anyone else been thinking of the same thing?
 
bownut said:
I'm mostly a real estate videographer. I shoot video tours of houses for sale for one brokerage in my area. The agents appear on camera at the beginning at the end of the tour. I do very little stock shooting--not much you can get that people want anymore on my DVX100. I occassionally do on camera work, greenscreen, live webcasting, and live to tape. My DVX may be on the blink. I recently cleaned the heads because I had a huge dropout--FIRST EVER. So, maybe that will resolve the issue. I see a lag or jump in the LCD.

Anyway, I've wanted to upgrade to HD for some time anyway. I have some money in my business budget that I HAVE to spend before the end of the year to save on taxes. If I don't spend it, it is all considered income, and I will be required to pay employee and employer taxes on the money.

So, enough of those details. The issue is this, I have another project that is unrelated to video that I want to fund. It costs around $3K. I've been looking at the HPX170 since before it came out. I can guy a new one for $4299 (with $500 rebate) at BH until the end of the year. But that is nearly my entire budget. I just came across the Philip Bloom and using DSLR video. The cameras are much less expensive, you can change lenses, shoot in HD with multi frame rates, etc. One advantage is that I could shoot stills of the listings or lift them from my footage. I think the disadvantages, as far as I can tell, have to do with live capability, live output to my computer, and audio.

Has anyone else been thinking of the same thing?
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Honestly, by the time you outfit that 5D or 7D properly, you'll have spent as much if not more than if you got the 170. The DSLR cameras can do some amazing things for what they are, but I wouldn't be too inclined to use them in the scenarios you give here. Why not something like the HMC150? Or the JVC HM100 or whatever it's called. Inexpensive to shoot, with real video camera features.

Do you really want to do separate sound on every one of these shoots? If not, then I'd suggest staying away from the DSLRs for now.
 
Bownut, I own an hpx170 and like many of us I've been looking hard at the Canon 5D and 7D cameras. Just a quick note here about your question. The hpx170 is an excellent camera. It will offer you a known functionality based on your familiarity with the DVX100. The new DSLRs can shoot beautiful video, but they do not offer the same user-friendly functionality as video cameras such as the 170. DSLRs aren't laid out for shooting video in the way we are accustomed, getting good audio requires some extra work and there's the question of how you plan to edit the footage.

If you are on a budget you might also consider the Panasonic HMC150 or HMC40. These are less expensive than the 170, shoot to SD cards (also using the AVCHD codec) and make great images as well. I used the 150 recently as a second camera to match my 170 and it performed flawlessly, producing nearly identical images to the 170. The HMC40 is a smaller camera. I've not shot with one yet. But apparently it will produce higher quality stills. I'm sure someone will chime in here about that. There's lots of info on the site about those two cameras.

In short, I will likely buy a Canon 7D (or the like) at some point in the future but only as an additional tool for the tool box. Right now the 170 is my easiest path to shooting footage, getting it edited and getting a project done. Hope that helps.
 
For now VDSLR are like a 16 or 35mm film camera. Great image quality, but manual focus, bad/no sound ...
If you don't know how to use a film camera, you won't be able to get 100% out of a DVSLR
 
Thanks for your responses. I even researched the Scarlet, but my goodness, will it EVER come out? I've looked into the HMC150, but at $3299 it is just $1K less than the HPX170. So, why not spend the extra, you know? Except I don't really want to. Ha ha. And I can't remember why I talked myself out of the 150. I think it might've been Jan comparing the two. And, no, I don't want to do separate audio every time I need audio on a shoot. Well, thanks again, you all have given me some direction.
 
bownut said:
Thanks for your responses. I even researched the Scarlet, but my goodness, will it EVER come out? I've looked into the HMC150, but at $3299 it is just $1K less than the HPX170. So, why not spend the extra, you know?
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Because the media to shoot an hour on the HMC costs $40, while it costs ~$1350 on the HPX170.

bownut said:
Except I don't really want to. Ha ha. And I can't remember why I talked myself out of the 150. I think it might've been Jan comparing the two. And, no, I don't want to do separate audio every time I need audio on a shoot. Well, thanks again, you all have given me some direction.
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Good. Best of luck in your decision. Also remember that the lcd on the 5D/7D is nowhere CLOSE to accurate, so you'll need a way to monitor your video if you go that route. They also have no waveform monitor, focus assists, or anything else that would help you get a well focuused and well exposed shot, other than a rudimentary histogram.

I'm not saying they are bad, I enjoyed working with the 5D. But we did shoot it very much like a film camera in order to have success.
 
Personally I think they are cheap now... I going to buy one... seems like it will just add to the kit...

I've been trudging around my 300 filming alpine rivers/dams etc.. and sometimes it just would have been easier to take a DSLR...

Gotta think like film when shooting... but heck it tends to make you a better cameraman...

For real estate... DSLR is probably the best tool around right now..

Cheers
 
Lez said:
For real estate... DSLR is probably the best tool around right now..

Cheers
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If it was real-estate only, I might be inclined to agree. But as soon as you start adding in greenscreen, interviews, etc., well things get more tricky in a hurry.
 
bownut said:
Thanks for your responses. I even researched the Scarlet, but my goodness, will it EVER come out? I've looked into the HMC150, but at $3299 it is just $1K less than the HPX170. So, why not spend the extra, you know? Except I don't really want to. Ha ha. And I can't remember why I talked myself out of the 150. I think it might've been Jan comparing the two. And, no, I don't want to do separate audio every time I need audio on a shoot. Well, thanks again, you all have given me some direction.
Click to expand...
If your budget is that tight, I would strongly urge you to consider the 150 again. Real estate video is about web walkthroughs, yes? The 150 would do very well at that, and the major benefits to the 170 (P2 recording media, 4:2:2 color, greenscreening, variable frame rates, etc) don't really sound all that applicable to what you're doing. I have both and there's no question in my mind that the 170 is the overall better product, but the 150 might be the more appropriate product for you, given the budget constraints.

I wouldn't go with the HMC40 for this particular task because so much of it is shooting indoors with available lighting, and that's where the HMC40 struggles. If it was all outdoors, I'd say you'd be fine with the HMC40, but indoors with no light... the HMC150 and HPX170 are three stops faster, and that really matters, they can get equivalent brightness with 1/8 as much light!
 
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