Mini-Documentary in Africa = HMC150?

eustace

eustace

Well-known member
There's a pretty good possibility I'll be going to Ghana and Togo in a few months to shoot a short documentary on a couple orphanages there.

I love my dvx, but I figure if I'm going to Africa, now's the time to move up to HD.

I'd much rather go with the HPX: variable frame-rates, 4:2:2, better 1080 handling, P2 workflow, etc.

But most of that won't matter until I get back from Africa and am working on other projects in the U.S., right?


So... the question: Would it be stupid to try making the P2 workflow work in places where I might be away from electricity (for laptop/hard drives) for periods of time?

My thought is that taking a big bag full of cheap SD cards would be a pretty sweet advantage for filming in Africa, but I really would much prefer the HPX.

Any thoughts/recounts of experiences would be much appreciated!
 
P2 is overrated and is a dying breed. it will not last

mini SD cards are the present and the future, unless of course something cheaper and even easier comes out soon
 
wouldn't a generator or a solar panel make more sense, you will still need some electricity for the camera batteries, so you will need electricity every day or two, and laptops don't take that much electricity, they are build to be very efficient.

a few cards (not a bag full of them), few batteries, and a laptop, a hard drive, and a generator would make more sense.or if both the camera and the laptop could be powered by a car charger, get the necessary adapters.
 
Yeah, I am actually planning on getting a little portable solar panel that charges batteries - pretty cool little gadget I found from a UK company.

I should be able to get to electricity every couple days; I just want to have as few bulky items with me as possible and as few items that need electricity. Also, I know there are laptops out there with long battery lives, but my MacBook Pro usually starts running out of juice in less than two hours.

Are there any standalone hard drives out there that don't need to be accessed by a computer to ingest files?
 
if you just copy files, the batteries should last much longer, especially with the new ones.

there are some portable devises that work with the cards, but i don't think there that useful, carrying a few extra 32GB cards seems like a better idea. but the point is if you will find electricity for your camera batteries every few days, then you can also dump all the cards to one or two hardrives for backup, and have the cards to shoot again instead of buying too many cards that you won't need, and it will give you a chance to view the footage and make sure everything you wanted is there before you leave.
 
Oliax said:
P2 is overrated and is a dying breed. it will not last
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I have to call Barbara Streisand on that. There are literally hundreds of television stations going to or on the P2 workflow, plus all the independent filmmakers and production companies who use it. That is a lot of P2 cards. DVCProHD going away? Maybe, in favor of AVC-Intra... but that won't happen anytime soon. There is way too much money invested by too many companies, and it is a proven technology, for it to be going away anytime soon.

That said... eustace, ask yourself if the extra features of the HPX are really worth the extra money. Do you really need variable framerates beyond 24, 30, and 60fps for shoot in Africa? I don't know, it's your production... but will you honestly see yourself using 35fps for some sort of slowmo out there?

Is 4:2:2 and I-frame really that big a deal for this project? What would you gain from it, because everything I've read and seen so far is that the HPX and HMC are almost indistinguishable when intercut... and then only when you really take the time to look at it. The differences between 1920x1080 4:2:0 AVCCam and 1280x1080 4:2:2 DVCProHD are going to be marginal at best out of these two cameras... unless you plan on doing heavy post work. Is P2 media really worth it? It's not cheap, and for the cost of getting an HPX with a couple of cards, you could buy a second HMC... or a bunch of accessories for the first.

Of course, if you plan on using it for a bunch of projects when you get back, that should also figure in to it. Not point in buying an HMC, when you will need the 4:2:2 and I-frame. But if all you're thinking about is this Africa production... if it were me, I would go with the HMC and use the money saved on a bunch of 8gig SDHC cards and some add ons or a 35mm adapter or something.
 
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the response. Yeah, I agree the benefits of the HPX aren't going to matter much for me while I'm in Africa; I'm just thinking that if I'm going to finally make the jump to HD and throw some money down, I don't want something that I'm not going to be completely happy with when I get back for other projects.

Variable frame rates and especially 4:2:2 are going to be important to me for other (non-documentary) projects.

BUT... that said, the HMC really does seem like the best bet for me short-term, so my thought thus far is that I should probably go with the HMC for now - for Africa.
When I get back I can consider selling it and getting an HPX or even holding out a little for a Scarlet.
 
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