CovenantPictures
Active member
I arrived at AbleCinetech Burbank to demo the 300, anticipating my rental package for a shoot in 2 weeks.
Right when I turned on the camera, set it to 1080p24, (Barry was right) the skew was absolutely horrible.
As I was doing that, the second unit DP from Deadliest Catch walked up next to me and said "Holy sh*t that's bad. I'd never take that out in the field."
Then one of the salesmen said that they had done further tests on the camera and the "noise is disgusting" on the camera. Perhaps they were trying to point me toward the EX3 for rental/puchase, I don't know.
So I set the 300 in CinegammaD, master ped -9, CineLike matrix, 180deg shutter, and coring 0, and hooked it up to a BT-LH1710 monitor. I AB-ed the camera with the hpx3000 and EX1, and yes the noise was fairlybad in the tones below the 20 or 30 IRE range. Perhaps it was my settings or the monitor. The EX1 looked eerily clean compared to the 300, and of course the 3000 looked beautiful. I then did kind of an unorthodox test comparing the hpx170 to the 300, by pointed them at the same scene and setting their settings identically. I anticipated the fact that the setting most likely to not correlate directly between the cams, but I just wanted to see their image AB-ed on the monitor.
One thing is certain, you definitely get resolution on this camera. The resolving power and clarity of the image was unbelievable, especially for someone like me used to horizontal subsampling DVCPRO HD. The 170 looked great, but didn't have that 'seeing through the window' look. And the 10bit codec looked great. The information in the highlighted regions of the frame had smooth gradations and seemed to blow out less than the 170. Perhaps it was just my eyes; as I said, this wasn't scientific. The two panny cameras had almost the same amount of noise. But the noise in the 300 seemed to much much less in midtones, but the same in the shadows. Both, of course, are miles above the original 200.
I decided that I will rent this camera, as I'm doing a series of interviews and the camera will not be moving too much. I desperately hope they improve the skew. It's the only thing holding me back from using this on narrative shoots.
But if you want tack sharp, this is the camera for you!:beer:
Right when I turned on the camera, set it to 1080p24, (Barry was right) the skew was absolutely horrible.
As I was doing that, the second unit DP from Deadliest Catch walked up next to me and said "Holy sh*t that's bad. I'd never take that out in the field."
Then one of the salesmen said that they had done further tests on the camera and the "noise is disgusting" on the camera. Perhaps they were trying to point me toward the EX3 for rental/puchase, I don't know.
So I set the 300 in CinegammaD, master ped -9, CineLike matrix, 180deg shutter, and coring 0, and hooked it up to a BT-LH1710 monitor. I AB-ed the camera with the hpx3000 and EX1, and yes the noise was fairlybad in the tones below the 20 or 30 IRE range. Perhaps it was my settings or the monitor. The EX1 looked eerily clean compared to the 300, and of course the 3000 looked beautiful. I then did kind of an unorthodox test comparing the hpx170 to the 300, by pointed them at the same scene and setting their settings identically. I anticipated the fact that the setting most likely to not correlate directly between the cams, but I just wanted to see their image AB-ed on the monitor.
One thing is certain, you definitely get resolution on this camera. The resolving power and clarity of the image was unbelievable, especially for someone like me used to horizontal subsampling DVCPRO HD. The 170 looked great, but didn't have that 'seeing through the window' look. And the 10bit codec looked great. The information in the highlighted regions of the frame had smooth gradations and seemed to blow out less than the 170. Perhaps it was just my eyes; as I said, this wasn't scientific. The two panny cameras had almost the same amount of noise. But the noise in the 300 seemed to much much less in midtones, but the same in the shadows. Both, of course, are miles above the original 200.
I decided that I will rent this camera, as I'm doing a series of interviews and the camera will not be moving too much. I desperately hope they improve the skew. It's the only thing holding me back from using this on narrative shoots.
But if you want tack sharp, this is the camera for you!:beer:
