Reviews of the Full Production Model?

M

mmm

Veteran
Has anyone got their order yet?? Can anyone direct me to an online review, in English?

I am working all next week and am on holiday after that, so I won't get to play with one for nearly a month. Can anyone let me, and everyone else, in on what we are missing.

In particular
- How the ProHD codec looks.
- Is the picture noisy like some people claimed of the pre-production model
- Filmic abilities for fictional drama, compared to the DVX for example
- Motion smoothing for event/ENG
- Performance on a big screen, through digital projection (or filmout if possible!)

Most European suppliers should have their first stocks now, so I hope someone can help! :)
 
Ok,
- How the ProHD codec looks.

I'll capture some footage into FCP and see.

- Is the picture noisy like some people claimed of the pre-production model

No noise that I could tell.

- Filmic abilities for fictional drama, compared to the DVX for example

That's for you to decide

- Motion smoothing for event/ENG

It's there - only in HDV mode, not standard def

- Performance on a big screen, through digital projection (or filmout if possible!)

Once footage is captured I'll look at it on our 23" (not big screen, but better than nothing.)
 
_MR_ said:
Ok,

No noise that I could tell.
Click to expand...

Can you have a play with the gain too, see how that goes... oh, and I forgot about low light performance.

Sorry to be so demanding.

Many thanks! :laugh:
 
To say that I am curious to see some grabs would be a vast understatement.

Barry, weren't you planning on getting one? If so did you already recieve your camera or do you still have to order?
 
Got our demo model today we've not ahd chance to really test it yet but at first glance it really looks the business. It's very well balanced even with the battery it's shipped with. The basic on camera and the internal menu settings very intuitive. So far so good.

The proof in the pudding though.....
 
Andy, have you done any further tests with your camera? quite keen to hear other views.
And if you haven't, I suggest you check the block for dead pixels!
 
the title of the thread is very misleading....
there should be a "?" at the end

"Reviews of the Full Production Model?"
 
You know, I gotta admit, after looking at the footage and tiff's posted on Dv info, I am really not impressed with this camera. Granted the footage that was shot was not ideal, but it really didn't "wow" me. I still think in this race, the Andromeda beats the JVC hands down, as far as image qualaty, latitude, and film look. Resolution isn't even that impressive, it is good but not great. this camera really appears no better than the previous JVC HDV cameras released. Now I am going to wait to make my final verdict after I see some more footage, but these first impressions really killed it for me. The Andromeda had a great first impression. I really think JVC dropped the ball on this camera. Too many first camera issues, poor image quality, and other drawbacks are keeping me from liking this camera. Someone prove me wrong please, I really want to like this camera.
 
I think the jury is still so far out, that they haven't even started to examine the evidence.

I'll say that certain elements of the image definitely reminded me of the HD1, and that's not a good thing. I wonder if it's using the same chip, but just using three of them? The latitude, the highlight rendition, and the noise are all reminiscent of the HD1.

No matter what though, (even if the video it produces is horrible) it will be an incredible improvement over the HD1! The HD1 was and is an unusable design. Even if the video it produces is identical, at least having actual manual control over shutter and iris, and being able to have them both manual AT THE SAME TIME, and being able to properly manual focus, would give the HD100 a significant edge over the HD1. Not liking the chromatic aberration in the lens though; that one's a bit of a disappointment.

With all that said, I look forward to trying one. I am quite inspired by Graeme's testimony about the quality of the footage he's seen. I'm none too impressed with what we've seen so far, that's for sure, but then again the first things we saw from the DVX were seagulls on the beach. I think Matt McDermitt and Patryk Rebisz and Bob Gundu and Rich Lee and Disjecta and Nancy Schreiber have all proven that the DVX is way more capable than that. And Rocketeer clearly said "hey, I'm not a pro shooter, this was on auto mode"...

I'm far more concerned about the multiple reports of dead pixels, the red noise in gain, and the other reported issues, than I am about the quality of the first shots. I'm hoping these are issues that will get sorted out before the camera hits US shores.
 
Barry is absolutely correct. You should look at that footage as worse case scenario!

1.Not shot by a pro
2.We're not even sure if the FCP codec is the correct one for bringing it on to the timeline
3.We have no idea what qt H.264 is doing to the footage in conversion

Certainly looking forward to other user reports.
 
Well, it is early days to comment too much on the quality I guess.

On the other hand: the price is fine for a native 16/9 SD camcorder, so at least for that it seems a great cam. It might be somewhat different than we've seen from other cams, but certainly not worse.

We've all been through this extensively: it IS a HDV camcorder. You can't expect more than HDV, quality-wise, and you shouldn't. I have the feeling some are dissapointed in the HD aspect, but it is a huge step-up from SD miniDV, yet it just is 19.7 Mbps: so just HDV. Remember at this pricepoint (and quality-point as well) it's perfect for it's target group: private customers won't notice, and it is well good enough for broadcast.

The only thing that could be worrying, is that there are only 3 reports, and 2 of them mention faulty pixels. Of course, I have to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I surely hope they have built in some kind of auto-repair (or better: auto-masking) function for these.... seems very important with so many pixels.

The XL1 has become an icon in it's days, but to be honest, it wasn't all that good (I've had one for years). It seemed like every owner had some sort of complaint. This one looks like there will be less complaints - although some people might always be expecting too much...

I can still see this camcorder as a winner...
 
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