Reviews of the Full Production Model?

obviously we gotta wait and c for mo footage and compression tests. So yea no1 is givin it bad marks as of yet, ppl wanna c this cam as a winner cuz it looks like 1. Granted that this is a professional cam , not a consumer, and the footage we seen so far is all factory defaults theres a hope that the image quality can be dramatically improved when in exprienced hands.. I dunno, .. like the FX1 produces much better footage on default, with nice accurate & saturated colours and great detail, i guess even Sony's new HC1 is way better .. so theres a food 4 a thought
 
I don't know. What I've seen from the Sony's didn't impress me that much.... Some things are personal of course, but I have some experience watching video and images, and (like someone else) I CAN'T see it at all as an "little up-rezzed SD" miniDV....

The footage is nice, but take under certain circumstances (pretty unknow) and we can't see it in the original codec and stuff.... For not knowing these circumstances (and shot by an less experienced person in a hurry on a dying battery), I think the footage is fine.

It is just that I believe, that if you expect CineAlta from a € 7000 camcorder, you COULD be dissapointed, yes... but look at it in context. The sony's are different, yet certainly no better IMO, with the info we now have. Furthermore: it is video, you should see it moving on a HD monitor. And that's always something else then looking on a blown up screenshot. Especially noise is more apparent then, without doing anything slightly negative to a moving image.
 
The only thing I'm quite interested in... the still with the crane and light pole on a sundown sky: is it with or without gain (or auto-gain)?
 
mezelf27 said:
I can still see this camcorder as a winner...
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Yesterday I did some footage of bmx riders pulling tricks at a skate park. Still 720/30p but this time with 'motion smooth' on, as this seems to be the next function most people are interested in.

Did some on a Sachtler DV12 and then went off the shoulder. Also added the wide angle adapter.

The camera is a dream on the shoulder. I caught a trick sequence that went a while with no wobble cam factor at all.

Got some Rugby League action too. When we process it, it should answer whether the camera is up to sports work at 30p with motion smooth enabled.

Will put up for posting if it all cuts together well and I haven't screwed the shoot.

The form/ergonomics of the camera are fantastic, even it was just a SD DV camera that does 16:9 and SD DV 25p. It's great value.

As long as you're not dropping pixels!
 
Rocketeer said:
The form/ergonomics of the camera are fantastic, even it was just a SD DV camera that does 16:9 and SD DV 25p. It's great value.

As long as you're not dropping pixels!
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My point exactly. Lost pixels are a problem... Let's hope there will be some sort of faulty pixel correction system, as dead pixels are quite common and inevitable...
 
These pics give us an average idea of the camera's image quality. It's good enough for me, it is only possible to make a comparison with Z1 having the same pics shooted with both cams. I'll have to see it on a HD monitor to have an opinion, I won't make my decision based on still frames shooted on places and conditions I don't know, I'll have to see some video footage to say if it's good or not. My concern goes for those faulty pixels...
 
Barry_Green said:
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.
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You know...I find it really dumb why companies like JVC leave it up to WHOMEVER to first get the word out about their camera's footage. Why in the world doesn't JVC put the HD100's images out over the web first? This way they could ensure that first time buyers are truly seeing what the camera is capable of.
 
One thing I would really like to know: if the cam was on auto: would the gain be on auto also? I hope to see no noise at all in 0 dB (quite unlike the DVX, that is.... nothing worse then that!) - and that should be possible and helped due to compression-smoothing of the noise that is high-frequency in itself.
 
Glenn_Gipson said:
You know...I find it really dumb why companies like JVC leave it up to WHOMEVER to first get the word out about their camera's footage. Why in the world doesn't JVC put the HD100's images out over the web first? This way they could ensure that first time buyers are truly seeing what the camera is capable of.
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Yes you would think they would do that. But the flipside is that people then doubt the footage put out by the company is the real deal. Has it been graded? tweaked in post? put through a flame, inferno, smoke? did the DOP have a crew of 1000's and lights for Africa?
 
mezelf27 said:
One thing I would really like to know: if the cam was on auto: would the gain be on auto also? I hope to see no noise at all in 0 dB (quite unlike the DVX, that is.... nothing worse then that!) - and that should be possible and helped due to compression-smoothing of the noise that is high-frequency in itself.
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The camera was not on auto mode, when I used it. So all incorrect exposure levels are my own.

Once again, the standard pre-sets on this camera give you a very muted colour palette.

The camera does have noise at 0db. You should have seen the pre-production model!

The shot of the crane at night, tif is at 0db.

The camera does have an auto feature 'FAS' full auto switch. Auto iris, gain and shutter speed, these all change continously at the whim of the camera.

Have had another look at what I shot over the weekend, 720/30p with motion smooth on. Set shutter speed to 1/30. Best way to describe it, is like watching a slow lcd trying to display sports. There is a ghosting/delay effect that is quite noticeable. If you have a number of moving objects within the frame it all turns to custard. This will be shown in the Rugby League material.

Bumping up the shutter speed may improve it.

I apologise that we seem to be the only ones posting any info on the camera. I am just as eager as anyone to see an alternative opinion. :)
 
Well, I can't get the quicktime-files running decently, so I have to go on the stills. And they leave me with mixed feelings. There is some noise indeed, but I know also that that might not be noticable at all when it is a frame in a moving picture. Resolution seems fine. Not too obvious signs of compression that's pushing the envelope....

Files in m2t would be excellent... (sorry to be so demanding, I'm very, very curious)
 
Hey Rocketeer, I can give you a second opinion! Just pack up that HD100 and ship it to Fiercely Independent Films, Inc...

Okay, so I didn't really expect it to work... ;)
 
Rocketeer said:
Yes you would think they would do that. But the flipside is that people then doubt the footage put out by the company is the real deal. Has it been graded? tweaked in post? put through a flame, inferno, smoke? did the DOP have a crew of 1000's and lights for Africa?
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But that's the whole sale point: how far can it go when properly used?

Nobody is expecting great results from someone just shooting in auto-mode and little else.
 
I agree that JVC (and everyone else) is(are) being crazy!

They should have .m2v files on their homepage NOW showing how good the camera can be. A few behind the scenes photos would also be good to demonstrate the set up used.
 
I thought it would be rather simple. Sony do it well. They enlist a well known or respected DOP and get them to go to bat for their product.

Provide sample footage with details of the shoot and edit.

Follow it up with someone dedicated to answering online posts at the major forums, like Jan from Panasonic.

How hard can it be?
"Hi I'm a sales engineer for JVC and would be more than happy to answer any questions on the GY-HD100"

If Panasonic were smart they would be flying Barry G to Amsterdam all expenses paid.
It would be a drop in the bucket in there marketing budget for the HVX200 and would provide a 100 fold reward, compared to a print campaign.

Why stop there? give him a test day on the camera.
 
Why should they? He's (Barry Greene) probably sold more cameras for them than they'll ever be able to direct market already.

This is not the only forum, have you checked DVinfo? or one of the others like COW for HD info? Plus this is the absolute first release that I know of. The HD100 has not hit the north American shore yet. You're right though, JVC should put out an example of their best scenario with the HD100 and not leave it to chance.

The Z1U camera is no slouch. I see it in action a lot and the footage is really nice, really. I edit it on an Edition timeline occasionally and it really does a good job and a much better job than most give it credit for (recently).

There are a lot of things that make the JVC HD100 (101) offering attractive and I'm waiting for one here at a local dealer so I can make my own assessment. Nevertheless, I appreciate any RAW footage you could provide and to me it doesn't need to be stellar. RAW footage in the actual M2T files that are captured into your capture folder in FCP (ie non processed from the timeline into any other codec).

Thanks, and you didn't answer whether you were going to send the camera back for another HD101.
 
Hey Rocketeer, forward that message over to Jan, willya?

... free trip to Amsterdam... HVX for a day... yeah, that'd be cool! :)
 
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