HPX250: Kudos to HPX250 audio limiter

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digitalgecko

Well-known member
Had to shoot a rock-n-roll show and decided to trust the HPX250 with the sound. Took the board mix and set the gain to -40db, turned on the limiter, and set it to auto. The sound came out perfect. Very happy with the HPX250 so far.

Small gripes: the 22X lens is great but wished it was a little more toward the telephoto end and little less wide, but I guess when you really need a wide shot in a small room you'll be glad it's there. Also, I don't like the iris labeled as open in the view finder. If you know your camera is open at 1.6 then it should just say 1.6. The problem is that if you are zoomed all the way in it also says open when it's at 3.2. I'd would just rather it stayed with the numerical values. It's just more professional.

The color on the camera is amazing. They were using a lot of colored lights. I was shooting just HD normal and everything looks super saturated. I'm glad I didn't choose the Spark scene file, it might have been too much.

All in all the 250 performed admirably, I found the rocker zoom not creepy crawly slow, but slow enough for a nice long zoom into the lead singer.
 
digitalgecko said:
Had to shoot a rock-n-roll show and decided to trust the HPX250 with the sound. Took the board mix and set the gain to -40db, turned on the limiter, and set it to auto. The sound came out perfect. Very happy with the HPX250 so far.
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That's good to hear. It really does look like a good camera for the price. Although for wildlife I want as much telephoto as I can get, it irks me that so many cameras don't go wide enough for shooting in small rooms. I think the range Panasonic chose was the best compromise, for me, anyway.


I don't like the iris labeled as open in the view finder.
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Manufacturers have to make a lot of compromises in order to meet cost targets. One of the factors they have to be aware of is reducing unnecessary support incidents. To that end, they will sometimes dumb-down certain things. I don't know if it's the case in this instance, but I can see some people thinking there was a problem if they saw the iris closing as they zoomed in.
 
I've used both the HPX 170 and the AF 100; I'm considering selling my HPX 170 to get the 250. The Panasonic zoom lenses for my current cameras don't have constant iris over the zoom range, and it would be a nuissance even if I knew the number. I wish panasonic made a zoom with fixed minimum f-stop.

My workaround is this: Whenever I can, I like to set the iris before the action begins and leave it alone. I try to set it at the f-stop of the lens fully zoomed in, just before the reading goes to "open." It costs me some "speed," but there are 2 advantages. First, the lenses are a little sharper at the smaller aperture. Second, if I can set the iris at or smaller than the zoomed-in minimum number, the iris remains constant when I zoom in or out. The exposure doesn't change. The number never goes to "open."
 
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I think the reasoning is that in "open", the camera will keep the iris as wide-open as possible as one traverses the zoom range.. that is, "open" is decidedly NOT a consistent iris, it's "as wide as I can be right now." An actual number on screen indicates that the camera will hold that iris setting....
 
Except it doesn't hold the iris open. If you are near wide-open and manually set the iris to F2.0 and then zoom in, when the actual aperture size becomes limited by the lens, the viewfinder will display OPEN. As you zoom out, the camera will not hold the aperture and change back to a numeric F value display.

I would very much prefer having the F value displayed at all times and maybe indicate that this is the maximum available aperture size by showing the number reversed. This style of visual cue is used under some other circumstances, such as indicating MACRO mode.
 
Maybe I should re-phrase: open means "as open as possible"; a number means "I'm at this setting, which is your command, and I'll be here whenever I can".

I'm just guessing at the thinking here, not trying to argue. I do find the distinction between open and an fstop to be useful, but I agree that an fstop WITH an indicator that the desired fstop is being compromised by the focal length would be even better!
 
If I'm not mIstaken (and I've wanted to test this but haven't gotten to it yet) you can set the camera to "open" or to the equivalent numerical fstop at the moment, with the only difference being that open will stay at open throughout the zoom range, while the equivalent fstop will return to that fstop when zoom changes make it possible. Anyone have a cam handy to test this?
 
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