emulsionla
New member
Hello,
Before I start, please note that I am a novice when it comes to cameras. I am an internet geek, that's trying to bridge the video revolution and the internet. I may be missing some key features, or have some facts wrong, and that is the reason for this post. I'm looking to make the best informed decision, because I'm getting serious about buying a camera, and I'm turning to the pros on this website for help. Please help me make this decision, by making sure I have my facts straight.
The Res Fest had guest cinematographer David Leitner (NY) come out and speak about the pros and cons of these 5 cameras...
Sony Z1 - Sony A1 - Panasonic HVX 200 - Canon XL1H - JVC GYHD100U
The Sony Z1 is a quality camera, which shoots 1080i, or 720p...Good camera, with 3 1/3 ccd chips, good lens, output is firewire only, and has a problem artifacting, but overall a good camera...Also, the lens isn't interchangeable.
The Sony A1 is the same as the Z1, but it only shoots 1080i. It has a single cmos chip, with image enhancing technology, and also has a feature (so does the Z1) where you can set 2 points on the camera zoom, and tell the camera to zoom in an x amount of seconds from one lens focal length to the other. Same problems with artifacting as the Z1.
The JVC is one camera that appears legit, but there are two problems with it. First the pros...It can record 720p, 720i for live streaming, and has a radical front heavy shoulder mounted design, with the lcd in the handle, much like the canon xl1h. The cons for it are...The lens for it is the Fujinon, which the speaker said looks like crap, but it's capable of interchangeable lenses, and there's a couple extra HD lenses that are being developed for it. The other problem with it is the fact that it's "the cowboy" of the HD world, in that they're running down their own path, and don't have the compatibility as some of the other cameras, but i'm willing to take it with a grain of salt, because if you're going to build a system, you're going to buy the camera first...
The Canon, though pricey ($9000), have some features that the other cameras don't. First off, the interchangeable lens that they feature, is a 20x HD lens, and they're producing more of a variety of lenses, so Canon is hands down the best of these 5 cameras in the comparison in the lens department. Second, it has an HD-SDI component to output 1.48 gb of data. Third, it's design is more aesthetically pleasing, and they also have the handle mounted lcd screen, which though is nice, it's too small for my tastes. It goes to tape, but the Canon people said that there are harddrives coming out for it that will allow you to record into them. Anyways, the HD-SDI output is the key feature here, because though it's not today, in the next year or so, you will see decks, editing software, and other products come out to accomodate such a large amount of data. This is true HD quality output. The only camera with this feature.
Panasonic HVX200...Nice camera. Here's the pluses, as you know, P2 technology keeps all your footage in solid state. It films in 1080i, and 720p, (along with the miniDV like the rest of the cameras listed here) have to shoot in 720p first, and then you can push this data to 1080p. When asked directly if the footage looks better if pushed to 1080p, Jan said that it's up to the individual to answer that question...she may have sidestepped the question, but like I said, I'm a novice and may have misheard. I got a feeling that it won't be legit if it is capable of 1080p, cause you first have to shoot to 720p. The camera also makes zero noise when in P2 mode. It's lens is not interchangeable, but the speaker at the seminar said it looked good. It also shoots in 12 framerates, so it is capable of some of the varicam style in camera slow mo, and fast mo...It also captures every frame, meaning that there are no keyframes like the HDV cameras, and takes away all dropouts.
As for my assessment, Sony Z1, Sony A1, and JVC are all on the backburner. The real stars were the Canon and Panasonic. The Canon is capable of more things in the future, mostly because of the HD-SDI out. This future is going to be revealed over the next year. If you have time to wait for the technology to catch up with this camera, this is the one to wait for. The Panasonic is going to be the present in it's december reveal...The P2 technology, and zero noise level are highly sought after features. This is the camera in which, if you're like me, need pretty much right away...It's going to have it's glitches, but overall, Panasonic blew away the competition, except for the Canon, which I think in the long run (2 years from now) is going to be the better camera for small HD feature length pictures.
I think this pretty much capsulates everything, please feel free to add to this.
Sorry for the long post, if you sat through the entire thing. :shocked:
Before I start, please note that I am a novice when it comes to cameras. I am an internet geek, that's trying to bridge the video revolution and the internet. I may be missing some key features, or have some facts wrong, and that is the reason for this post. I'm looking to make the best informed decision, because I'm getting serious about buying a camera, and I'm turning to the pros on this website for help. Please help me make this decision, by making sure I have my facts straight.
The Res Fest had guest cinematographer David Leitner (NY) come out and speak about the pros and cons of these 5 cameras...
Sony Z1 - Sony A1 - Panasonic HVX 200 - Canon XL1H - JVC GYHD100U
The Sony Z1 is a quality camera, which shoots 1080i, or 720p...Good camera, with 3 1/3 ccd chips, good lens, output is firewire only, and has a problem artifacting, but overall a good camera...Also, the lens isn't interchangeable.
The Sony A1 is the same as the Z1, but it only shoots 1080i. It has a single cmos chip, with image enhancing technology, and also has a feature (so does the Z1) where you can set 2 points on the camera zoom, and tell the camera to zoom in an x amount of seconds from one lens focal length to the other. Same problems with artifacting as the Z1.
The JVC is one camera that appears legit, but there are two problems with it. First the pros...It can record 720p, 720i for live streaming, and has a radical front heavy shoulder mounted design, with the lcd in the handle, much like the canon xl1h. The cons for it are...The lens for it is the Fujinon, which the speaker said looks like crap, but it's capable of interchangeable lenses, and there's a couple extra HD lenses that are being developed for it. The other problem with it is the fact that it's "the cowboy" of the HD world, in that they're running down their own path, and don't have the compatibility as some of the other cameras, but i'm willing to take it with a grain of salt, because if you're going to build a system, you're going to buy the camera first...
The Canon, though pricey ($9000), have some features that the other cameras don't. First off, the interchangeable lens that they feature, is a 20x HD lens, and they're producing more of a variety of lenses, so Canon is hands down the best of these 5 cameras in the comparison in the lens department. Second, it has an HD-SDI component to output 1.48 gb of data. Third, it's design is more aesthetically pleasing, and they also have the handle mounted lcd screen, which though is nice, it's too small for my tastes. It goes to tape, but the Canon people said that there are harddrives coming out for it that will allow you to record into them. Anyways, the HD-SDI output is the key feature here, because though it's not today, in the next year or so, you will see decks, editing software, and other products come out to accomodate such a large amount of data. This is true HD quality output. The only camera with this feature.
Panasonic HVX200...Nice camera. Here's the pluses, as you know, P2 technology keeps all your footage in solid state. It films in 1080i, and 720p, (along with the miniDV like the rest of the cameras listed here) have to shoot in 720p first, and then you can push this data to 1080p. When asked directly if the footage looks better if pushed to 1080p, Jan said that it's up to the individual to answer that question...she may have sidestepped the question, but like I said, I'm a novice and may have misheard. I got a feeling that it won't be legit if it is capable of 1080p, cause you first have to shoot to 720p. The camera also makes zero noise when in P2 mode. It's lens is not interchangeable, but the speaker at the seminar said it looked good. It also shoots in 12 framerates, so it is capable of some of the varicam style in camera slow mo, and fast mo...It also captures every frame, meaning that there are no keyframes like the HDV cameras, and takes away all dropouts.
As for my assessment, Sony Z1, Sony A1, and JVC are all on the backburner. The real stars were the Canon and Panasonic. The Canon is capable of more things in the future, mostly because of the HD-SDI out. This future is going to be revealed over the next year. If you have time to wait for the technology to catch up with this camera, this is the one to wait for. The Panasonic is going to be the present in it's december reveal...The P2 technology, and zero noise level are highly sought after features. This is the camera in which, if you're like me, need pretty much right away...It's going to have it's glitches, but overall, Panasonic blew away the competition, except for the Canon, which I think in the long run (2 years from now) is going to be the better camera for small HD feature length pictures.
I think this pretty much capsulates everything, please feel free to add to this.
Sorry for the long post, if you sat through the entire thing. :shocked:
said that it's going to be down to 600 dollars by the time the camera debuts.