Should I replace my HVX?

L

livelikeriley

Well-known member
Hi everyone, I haven't been on this forum much lately (and haven't been filming much personally either...but that's another story) - Today I saw the Philip Bloom footage using the 7D and it blew me away...currently I have an HVX200 with a letus extreme 35 adapter - but after seeing this footage I'm wondering if I should sell the HVX and buy a 7D...

I know, the HVX is a wonderful camera and can probably do a million more things than this camera can...but in general I only use the camera for small, personal film projects and when (if) I'm ever hired to do a professional shoot they'll usually provide their own camera...so my question is this...would that be the dumbest mistake ever? What would I really use that might be valuable to me in the tradeoff?

Sorry to sound so newb about this, but I've never considered using an SLR as my main movie camera and so the whole idea of it is foreign to me (i.e. I'm not even sure what flavor of HD codec this is...much research to do indeed, but some general guidelines would be great!)

Thanks,
Mark.
 
I'd say that you may want to ditch the Letus, but by no means sell the HVX. I end up using the HVX on so many jobs where it just isn't worth using the adapter, or having to record sound separately.

Keep the HVX as a workhorse for jobs, and the 7D for the stuff you would have ended up using the adapter for.
 
I agree here. I say keep the HVX dump the Extreme. I have the same setup and that is what makes the most sense for me. Not having the ODB around is just not going to happen for me. I still love the HVX. someone will buy the LEX and that's less you need to spend on the 7D.
 
I should clarify that I don't have the cash on hand to invest in the 7D and GOOD lenses (the ones I use with the letus are crap) without selling the HVX and letus - I'm in LOVE with the idea of being able to get the "film look" of shallow dof natively with 7D without all the nonsense of setting up adapters etc. -- I also love shooting on CF cards since I still only have one 8gb P2 because they're so expensive!

I guess I'm looking for things like ease of workflow (i.e. can I cut this stuff in FCP or Avid as easy as DVCPROHD?) and quality of the final image - that bloom footage blew me away, but it's mostly due to the cinematographer not the camera ;) -- So I'm curious how well the image itself compares to the HVX...variable frame rates etc. are nice, but I could really care less in the end...the 12 min. clip limit is annoying for interviews if I do much doc. work, but I rarely do...mostly narrative short films where no shot is ever going to last 12 mins.
 
Add one more suggestion to sell the Letus and keep the HVX.

I sold my HVX to get an 5D but I would rather have kept it if I could have afforded both. The HVX is a good all around workhorse especially when shooting miniDV. If you have paying work coming in, selling off the Letus should give you enough money or close enough for the 7D when it becomes available. Now you can do a two camera shoot that comes close to matching each other if you are careful (and add noise to the 5D footage :)). Then the paying work you pick up with your marketing skills and newly acquired video equipment should slowly help you create a good lens collection.

Good luck!
 
The one other reason to not sell your HVX is that you probably won't get too much for it now. Especially with the 170 and the 150 on the market. I sold the HVX after buying the 150 because I just like the workflow and the ergonomics of the 150. To me... I'm thinking of buying something soon but I wouldnt' sell the 150. It has it's place and its such a joy to shoot.

I think that also the Letus might not have as much appeal as I'm sure that others are unloading there's now.
 
sell sell sell. You said you don't use it that much. I am sure you would use the Canon 7D more just because of the size and ease of use.
 
Thanks for all the replies...I'm leaning towards selling just the letus and picking up the 35mm - but I just want to confirm two things before I go in and prop down a pre-order:

1) I can edit this footage easily in FCP or Avid (what codec is it?)

2) Can someone explain the 35mm sensor to me - I love the idea of native shallow DOF, but I've been reading on forum posts about lenses that a 35mm turns into a circa 50mm etc. on this camera...why?...and what does that portend for buying lenses?

Thanks!
 
The codec is H264 wrapped as QT. Avid can import this as the DNxHD flavour of your choice.
The 7D sesor is smaller than the FF sensor of the 5DII, so the field of view is smaller. A 35mm lens doesn't "turn into" anything, but the field of view is similar to that of a 56 mm on a 5DII (35 x 1.6) .
HTH,
Dave
 
You'll have to do some searching on this forum for some of those answers. Also keep in mind that the DoF that you will get with the 7D will not match what you may be used to with the Letus Extreme. It would be similar to comparing a full frame chip to an APS-C chip.
 
The question is basically this: Are you a Filmmaker? Or are you a Videographer? That's the question you must ask yourself. I had to make up in my mind what I was 2 years ago. I'm a filmmaker and getting "jobs" for videography work (while I may miss the money) is not as importaint anymore to me as getting the look I want. (no offense to those who prefer video work) So I'll be selling off some equipment soon. ;-)
 
robmneilson said:
I'd say that you may want to ditch the Letus, but by no means sell the HVX. I end up using the HVX on so many jobs where it just isn't worth using the adapter, or having to record sound separately.

Keep the HVX as a workhorse for jobs, and the 7D for the stuff you would have ended up using the adapter for.
Click to expand...

I agree, from my experience, I have found that I still use my xha1 for a lot of things that require long shoots but that I use the 5D (the 7D soon) for things I used to use an adapter for.
 
Keep it. It'll be useful in certain situations and at this point you'll not make a lot of $ from it.
With time you'll probably find your way with the 7D (or other equivalent piece of gear) and you'll not need anything else. Then the HVX can be sold.
If you have 35mm adaptors try to get rid of these ASAP.
 
Come on guys! What about the cmos chips and the rolling shutter problems associated with it that we all squawked about when panasonic released the HPX300
Seems that concern is out the window, along with good in camera audio. I suspect there will be HVX/HPX type video cameras out eventually to rival these SLR's. Otherwise the market will dry up from what you guys are saying. I would never ditch my HVX for shooting a movie with a little SLR camera but I guess I'm missing something here. lol Or is this just all about a cheaper price??
 
Thanks - has the HVX really depreciated in value that much? Mine is hardly used and I was thinking I could prob. get around $3500 for it...at least according to some eBay auctions (although I'll likely sell it here instead if I end up selling it because I HATE eBay).
 
One last question on video codecs - I've heard h.264 is not really editable in FCP (I have Avid as well, but usually end up cutting on FCP) - am I supposed to transcode this to something else...can anyone post a link to a workflow for editing h.264 codec-ed video in FCP?

Thanks again for all of the help!
 
I haven't done this myself, but when you ingest the footage into FCP, FCP is supposed to transcode it to ProRes for you. Am I right?
 
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