mikkowilson
Steadi-Guru
...And I love it! 
I went to a product demo yesterday and today (couldn't stay away) at a local store in Helsinki, and had lots of time to the the HVX throuh it's paces.
Day 1: Technical quality.
Yestreday we tried the quality stuff first. Shooting inside without any lighting into a tinted dark rack case, yes there was a little bit of noise. Waah. Absoloutly fantastic picture.
Did experience a little Chromatic Abrasion though, which, rather strangly shifted from one side of the frame to the other as you zoomed in. It wasn't too bad, but it was noticiable with a bright white next to a dark area at teh sides of the frame, both blue and green.
Those both due to the 1/3" CCDs, but not really a problem. Other than that the quality is amazing. Picture looks so nice, clean, crisp, etc.. Tried it in a few different mode (my god there's a lot!) and they all came out prety darn nice, each in their own way. not ogin to go into details though as we didn't go that deep.
Day 2: Actual use.
Well today I wasn't too fussed with techincal quality, but rather more "how is it to use this thing?" And the very first coment I have is: Damn that sucka's heavy! Not quite as much as an XL1, but without the shoulder pad it does feel like it! I think a mightywundercam would be rather usefull here. No idea how the different support/grip options with Fig-Rig and Merlin will work, I plan to try those at NAB if possible.
Lets see.. P2... did it really work that well? does it make me want to never use tape again? Have I allready after just minutes with the camera fergotten what tape is like and never wat to go back? :kali:
Well, yes actually.
Just the ability to ALWAYS record was so fantastic. And reviewing clips with thumbnails is SO nice. I wish I never had to push an "edit search" button again. Just select and view. - And then jsut hit record at any time and off you go again! Talk about always ready to shoot!
I'm familer with the idea of pre-record, but had never expreienced it in a shooting environment. I turned on pre-record mode, waved in front of the camera, and then used that same hand to hit Record. And sure as hell the footage had a nice shot of me waving. Strange. That really messes with you head at first. I dare only imagine what will happen to warping once Briceman gets his hands on this.
Then there's variable framerates.
We did a couple of simple tests at the limits.
720/25pn shot at 50fps. so a half speed slowmo. Looked insanly cool. The most supprizing part was watching the footage and having to wait so long before the throwing of the book we'd used to test actually happened! but it lloked fantastic. Unless you are going up to super slowmo levels, talking bullet time scale here, I really thign ath 50fps is going to be pleanty for most anyone. The 60 to 24 slowdown in the NTSC camera probably won't look that different.
Next was the opposite, 720/25pn at 12fps. I rolled tape then did a carefull walk around along with a whip pan and then close up to a friend's face. It was handheld so shaky, but the speedup looked really cool. I can actually see more use of this than slowmotion I think in general.
The last framerate thing, though not directly part of it, was the intervalomiter - timelapse - function. We didn't have all day (literally) so only tire da mild speed up, has it shoot a frame every second - so 1fps, or a 25times speed up during playback. Pointed the camera out of the window at some clouds and het it roll a couple of mintues. and the result was one clip of very clean timelase footage! in camera! So so cool.
Generally camera use was simple. I don't have much experiecne with the DVX either, but this was as clear and easy to use as coudl be. However teh position of the corsor buttons in relation to teh screen does throw off the menu navigation a little at first.
Also, there are SO many things that this camera does, the amount of menus that you can go into if you want is incredible. So many possibileties and so much choise for te oprator. i can't imagine talking the camera properly with a realy good guidebook. And that's why we have Barry and his book. :tumbsup:
Overall I'm really impressed with this camera, and if I wasn't about to drop my life savings on a Steadicam, This camera would be at the top of my list of things to buy. In fact I'd probably just have bought one there and then. (yup, 2 in stock!)
For the camera end of things, P2 is all that it's been made out to be, once capacity goes up and price comes down a little more, tape is dead. Jarred, how are those shirts coming?
I will be going back tommorrow for a private trial run on the Steadicam Flyer, this should yeild some very interesting footage!
The bottom line: I love this camera and I want one.
- Mikko
I went to a product demo yesterday and today (couldn't stay away) at a local store in Helsinki, and had lots of time to the the HVX throuh it's paces.
Day 1: Technical quality.
Yestreday we tried the quality stuff first. Shooting inside without any lighting into a tinted dark rack case, yes there was a little bit of noise. Waah. Absoloutly fantastic picture.
Did experience a little Chromatic Abrasion though, which, rather strangly shifted from one side of the frame to the other as you zoomed in. It wasn't too bad, but it was noticiable with a bright white next to a dark area at teh sides of the frame, both blue and green.
Those both due to the 1/3" CCDs, but not really a problem. Other than that the quality is amazing. Picture looks so nice, clean, crisp, etc.. Tried it in a few different mode (my god there's a lot!) and they all came out prety darn nice, each in their own way. not ogin to go into details though as we didn't go that deep.
Day 2: Actual use.
Well today I wasn't too fussed with techincal quality, but rather more "how is it to use this thing?" And the very first coment I have is: Damn that sucka's heavy! Not quite as much as an XL1, but without the shoulder pad it does feel like it! I think a mightywundercam would be rather usefull here. No idea how the different support/grip options with Fig-Rig and Merlin will work, I plan to try those at NAB if possible.
Lets see.. P2... did it really work that well? does it make me want to never use tape again? Have I allready after just minutes with the camera fergotten what tape is like and never wat to go back? :kali:
Well, yes actually.
Just the ability to ALWAYS record was so fantastic. And reviewing clips with thumbnails is SO nice. I wish I never had to push an "edit search" button again. Just select and view. - And then jsut hit record at any time and off you go again! Talk about always ready to shoot!
I'm familer with the idea of pre-record, but had never expreienced it in a shooting environment. I turned on pre-record mode, waved in front of the camera, and then used that same hand to hit Record. And sure as hell the footage had a nice shot of me waving. Strange. That really messes with you head at first. I dare only imagine what will happen to warping once Briceman gets his hands on this.
Then there's variable framerates.
We did a couple of simple tests at the limits.
720/25pn shot at 50fps. so a half speed slowmo. Looked insanly cool. The most supprizing part was watching the footage and having to wait so long before the throwing of the book we'd used to test actually happened! but it lloked fantastic. Unless you are going up to super slowmo levels, talking bullet time scale here, I really thign ath 50fps is going to be pleanty for most anyone. The 60 to 24 slowdown in the NTSC camera probably won't look that different.
Next was the opposite, 720/25pn at 12fps. I rolled tape then did a carefull walk around along with a whip pan and then close up to a friend's face. It was handheld so shaky, but the speedup looked really cool. I can actually see more use of this than slowmotion I think in general.
The last framerate thing, though not directly part of it, was the intervalomiter - timelapse - function. We didn't have all day (literally) so only tire da mild speed up, has it shoot a frame every second - so 1fps, or a 25times speed up during playback. Pointed the camera out of the window at some clouds and het it roll a couple of mintues. and the result was one clip of very clean timelase footage! in camera! So so cool.
Generally camera use was simple. I don't have much experiecne with the DVX either, but this was as clear and easy to use as coudl be. However teh position of the corsor buttons in relation to teh screen does throw off the menu navigation a little at first.
Also, there are SO many things that this camera does, the amount of menus that you can go into if you want is incredible. So many possibileties and so much choise for te oprator. i can't imagine talking the camera properly with a realy good guidebook. And that's why we have Barry and his book. :tumbsup:
Overall I'm really impressed with this camera, and if I wasn't about to drop my life savings on a Steadicam, This camera would be at the top of my list of things to buy. In fact I'd probably just have bought one there and then. (yup, 2 in stock!)
For the camera end of things, P2 is all that it's been made out to be, once capacity goes up and price comes down a little more, tape is dead. Jarred, how are those shirts coming?
I will be going back tommorrow for a private trial run on the Steadicam Flyer, this should yeild some very interesting footage!
The bottom line: I love this camera and I want one.
- Mikko