Matching Footage with Consumer Panny

K

KnoxHotch

Well-known member
It's not the best setup, but for my friend's wedding (gratis of course), I will have a borrowed hmc150 as my main cam and using my panasonic pv-gs500 consumer cam for a wide shot.

Final output will be SD DVD. Knowing the footage will never match perfectly, how can i minimize the glaring difference between the two cams?
I have a fair bit of experience with the gs500, and how it responds to lighting conditions and how it's "pro cinema" fake progressive mode looks, and am looking at putting the 150 on 720/30p cine-d.
 
It's hard to say... will you have any chance to experiment with the HMC150 before the wedding? That's a good idea in any event - figure out any "gotchya"s.

If you're really rushed for time I'd say set the two up side-by-side as soon as you get 'em, and then flip through the scene files on the 150 (or make your own there, it's quick - there are about a dozen parameters to twiddle with) to try to match them yourself.

But there's no common knowledge for this type of event that I'm aware of.
 
Well, luckily i have the week to play with both cameras, however, I'm not sure what specifically to look for, and haven't yet ventured into the world of scene file tweaking
 
That's an interesting idea, mixing GS500 with HMC footage. I have a GS400, may just try it for fun. I still love that cam, best small consumer DV cam ever offered to the public.
 
yeah, the 500 has the same chips inside minus the great manual controls, but when lit correctly, they sing. I tried a little test by filming my computer desk with both cams and each stock scene file on the hmc. It was kind of a useless experiment, since the light in here is not adequate for the small chipper, and the hmc footage blew it away simply because of it's bigger sensors.

meh, hopefully tomorrow I'll see what i can do with more light, but that's being optimistic that the wedding will have adequate lighting.
 
well, turns out I won't be using the hmc150 for the wedding, someone decided to rent 3 of them (so i can't borrow one)....

so i'm getting to use a hpx170 instead! (2 brand new 32gb e-series p2 cards to boot!)

not that it changes the footage issue, but i'll use the gs500 as little as possible
 
KnoxHotch said:
well, turns out I won't be using the hmc150 for the wedding, someone decided to rent 3 of them (so i can't borrow one)....

so i'm getting to use a hpx170 instead! (2 brand new 32gb e-series p2 cards to boot!)

not that it changes the footage issue, but i'll use the gs500 as little as possible
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't think you'll have much trouble matching them up in post, no more than you would a DVX100. Just keep the GS500 wide as you said, using it as a bail out shot and keep the HPX170 up closer. When you vary distances like that, it really helps to hide any glaring differences. Also, use scene file 1 on the 170 and keep the shutter speeds the same on both cameras.

Finally, I would consider using 60i on both cameras, just to keep the settings on both cameras as close as possible to each other. My thinking is that it would be better than trying to use the fake progressive mode (but as always, I could be wrong).
 
Last edited:
Well, i actually balanced the gs500 on top of the hpx and ran through shutter speeds and progressive settings, watching the motion of the LCD's (and later on my laptop). pro-cinema mode matches up with 30p perfectly.
 
The shoot went great, and although the 170 was wonderful, I wish i had avchd footage rather than P2... I Filled up 2 32gb cards at 70mins of 720/30pN each, and then some for a total of 73gb of p2 footage, not to mention the dv tape i still have to capture from the gs500.

Dealing with the mountain of 170 footage i have is not going to be fun, and I'm still finding the right workflow since vegas and p2 footage don't play nice without Raylight. I have a copy of Premiere CS4 through my school that I'll probably end up using, but it's going to be like pulling teeth compared to avchd workflow in vegas.

I'll update ya'll on the performance of the b-cam as soon as I capture it tonight.
 
Well, I have to say, the footage matches great! After some CC, the little panny matched with the big panny, except obviously on a high-def timeline. Pro-Cinema on the gs500 matches 30p, and the gamma curve would have been fine if I used scene file 1 instead of spark.

Will post footage when I get it all done, ended up transcoding to cineform and editing in vegas. Premiere has a great workflow, however, It's hard to beat vegas for ease of use.

Unfortunately, I'm in the same situation this weekend with the best man/friend's wedding, except I'll have 2 hvx's. I was looking forward to two hmc's since 60p has the same record time as 30p, however, they're so popular I have to borrow two hvx's. There goes the rest of my hard disk space...
 
great to know that you're able easily match both cams. I have two GS400's and planning to get HMC150 in the near future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top