I've been lurking for a while, and finally found a good reason to post -
We're a decent sized production facility and rental house in the south and I've been testing a new 3 camera HVX package now for the last few days, and found out an interesting issue with the new cameras-
After learning that the camera records a true 24pn progressive frame to p2, unlike most other video or HD cameras which record a 60i image (i.e., DVX, Varicam) we thought we'd test our new cameras with magnetic and electronic ballasts to see if we could re-create the dreaded HMI flicker issue that appears in every film camera.
Seems as though when filming 720Pn to p2 using off speeds (12, 28, 20, 22, 32, 36 & 48 fps) at any shutter angle, the camera responds just like it's film cousins - Massive HMI flicker when using magnetic ballasts.
The tests we peformed in a studio environment with 3 different HVX's, an LTM 1200 par w/ magnetic ballast and a 400W joker w/ electronic ballast running 60hz house power....
The Moral: of my story: To be safe, we'll be using electronic ballasts for our HMIS when overcranking or undercranking with the HVX.
The mag ballasts were fine under any format @ 24fps, 30 & 60fps-
I have to say that I'm actually more excited about the issue than dissapointed- looks like this is the closest to a 16 or 35mm film camera as any video camera has been- it actually seems to respond like one-
We're a decent sized production facility and rental house in the south and I've been testing a new 3 camera HVX package now for the last few days, and found out an interesting issue with the new cameras-
After learning that the camera records a true 24pn progressive frame to p2, unlike most other video or HD cameras which record a 60i image (i.e., DVX, Varicam) we thought we'd test our new cameras with magnetic and electronic ballasts to see if we could re-create the dreaded HMI flicker issue that appears in every film camera.
Seems as though when filming 720Pn to p2 using off speeds (12, 28, 20, 22, 32, 36 & 48 fps) at any shutter angle, the camera responds just like it's film cousins - Massive HMI flicker when using magnetic ballasts.
The tests we peformed in a studio environment with 3 different HVX's, an LTM 1200 par w/ magnetic ballast and a 400W joker w/ electronic ballast running 60hz house power....
The Moral: of my story: To be safe, we'll be using electronic ballasts for our HMIS when overcranking or undercranking with the HVX.
The mag ballasts were fine under any format @ 24fps, 30 & 60fps-
I have to say that I'm actually more excited about the issue than dissapointed- looks like this is the closest to a 16 or 35mm film camera as any video camera has been- it actually seems to respond like one-