P2 and Xl2 combination

R

raw911

Active member
well - i have some questions in regards to editing P2 [panny] in FCP..
i am looking into getting the new panny P2 cam to add along w/my XL2 - would luv to know any pro's and con's in regards to the P2 workflow b4 i plunk down 6 - 7 k on this equipt

and also since i will be using an XL2 as a 2nd camera woulc there be say any quality diff between the two - reason asked - cause guy was telling me that i should use 2 identical cams - which does make sense if u got that kinda $$$$$ but i cannot afford 2 P2 cams right now ...

any feed back is surely welcome

ron
 
any quality diff between the two ?
If you are shooting straight SD you can probably get them to match pretty close once you go to DVCPRO50 or DVCPRO-HD your going to notice a huge boost in image quality and rez. Very nice format, I personally have had no real issues with the P2 format I'm working on a short right now and have been using P2Genie and a laptop to offload cards and rotate them out and it has been a thing of beauty then using P2viewer or P2log for mac I can tag and log my dailies or review shots right on the set, it has been awesome help to have that kind of feedback at my fingertips. The nice thing about going HVX is that you would be investing in an HD solution that is somewhat future proof I'm personally addicted to this cam and absolutely love it. My only minor gripe is the low light performance .
 
The HVX200 and the XL2 actually have the same sized chips so the resolution will be identical in SD (the HVX200 uses pixel shifting technology for HD).

As for other things such as color and light, it isn't quite as easy. First of all, panasonic's colors just look different than Canon's. I find that they give more natural, filmic colors but that's just opinion. The bottom line though is that they're different. Another thing to consider is if you are using P2 then you'll probably be shooting DVCPro50. This means you'll get twice the color information out of the HVX200 compared to what you get from the XL2 with it's mini-DV tapes (though, this won't be the case if you use mini-DV with both).

Finally there are lighting issues to consider. I personally find the HVX200's gamma curve much more film-like. Once again, this is just opinion but the fact is that they are similar. The HVX200 also has a higher lattitude which means you'll have a greater range of light and dark values than that of the XL2.

All these issues can probably be dealt with in post but it'll be a bit of a hassle. If you really wanted to find an SD camera to mix with the HVX200, the DVX100 might be a better choice.
 
I have cut XL2 into HVX with no problem. I used instantHD to upconvert the XL2 and the results were pretty amazing. Shoot the HVX in 720P and the XL2 in 24P with 2:3:3:2 pulldown. The XL2 by nature is very sharp for SD and the HVX is a little soft for HD, they actually cut pretty close. The main difference will be the HVX will have more noise and more poppy colors while the XL2 will be more Kodachrome and cleaner. Some CC can make them match pretty close on most scenes without super fine detail...



ash =o)
 
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