Some of my first stage testing prints on HVX200-H1-HD100 etc

PappasArts

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I would like to make a call out to those that have these cameras ( HVX200--HD100 --XLH1 ) In the next few weeks, I am going to use at a friends private lab an italian large printing system. The printer system cost like some 250,000 dollars.

I would like to have medium shots, Close up shots, and wide shots of actors or just people and scenes. However these need to be well shot and the highest caliber of quality in export frame. Focus tack sharp too....


If I select your frame for the very large test prints, I will fed-ex to you a full large duplicate print of those frames you sent me if I use them for my testing. No cost to you either.

I also would like to get the best res charts and if someone can; shots of a MacBeth color Rendition Chart ....

Please only progressive. No interlace frames.


Now to my original post; I just got back from picking up some of my first stage testing prints from the service bureau . I have not gone over them fully at all since I just got them up on one of my boards and I'm getting ready to go to dinner. I have much larger prints of these, however their machine went on the blink, so I didn't get the bigger prints and test strip prints too!

Before I put them up I gave them a quick look with the loop.

Simple the Cinealta ( this is not a surprise to me since I have used it ) Kick's the assss out of all of them. SIMPLE............

From my basic look over, and very first impressions.....

1. CineAlta f900.

2. Varicam.

3. JVC HD100. This camera performs very good. Much closer to a Varicam than it is farther away. I would get this camera, however, and this is a BIG however. The SSE issue. Nadda , never. My luck I would see it in every shot. I was the one who discovered the very faint vertical lines on the XL1 back in Jan 98. People from Canon came from the east to have me show them, because they couldn't see it themselves. Once they saw, it was obvious. I would not want to go through that with the HD100. The warm up trick, don't like that either. That takes me back to my saticon three tube camera days of the 80's. Simple JVC, you need to fix the problem 100%.

To be fair if the HVX or the H1 had this SSE issue, people would be screaming for a court yard hanging. They would fix it too, whatever it took. So JVC doesn't get an out in my book for being JVC. Just IMHO....

4. HVX200. Not as sharp as the HD100, however good. Image clean of noise. Now noise and codec artifacts are different. I see the dancing bees in the
shadows on some clips. However the HVX200 noise is not bad at all, less than the noise form the H1 ccd's. Noise comes from the ccd, artifacts come from the codec. Verdict not in on the HVX200.

5. XLH1. Can't explain this one. We felt these were not as good as they should have been. On the monitor it looked better then the print. More image noise, which you can see in the original files, especially on the Grey card. I am awaiting some new material to print from the H1.

To be fair and honest, so far my H1 prints I did on other frames to were missing the " Mojo " for still prints as John Hudson called it. Verdict not in on H1..


6. Z1U/FX1. People like to knock this one, however it has a clean image and yes it's interlace which sony dropped the ball on that IMHO, however you can pick up a FX1 for under 2,995 and have HD. That's a bargain. I have printed a lot of 8x10's and larger for testing last year, they actually look quite good for an interlace camera.

That's it for now I just wanted to share with you some of the testing.



55455508.IMG_1782.jpg

http://i.pbase.com/g3/56/629656/2/55455508.IMG_1782.jpg

Michael Pappas
Arrfilms@hotmail.com
PappasArts & Arrfilms Main site
CONTACT VIA AOL INSTANT MESSENGER
AT { PAPPASARTS2 }
XLH1 and HVX200 frame grabs and news here:
http://www.pbase.com/Arrfilms
http://www.PappasArts.com
http://www.Myspace.com/PappasArts
 
Wow!
Very cool. I wish I had my HVX, I would of liked to contribute.

Thanks for the review.

So Michael, you have been very proactive with a lot of these cameras.

Have you decided on one at this time?

I feel the same way about the JVC.

Just think, If the JVC didn't have SSE, I might be able to live with CA and its breathing knowing that If I could justify it , I could always get another lens.
I know the SSE is a lot better now.

I wish we could take the JVC resolving power and mesh it with HVX features with P2. That's what I want.

I am on the HVX200 preorder list counting the days.

Steve
 
Stevet said:
Wow!
Very cool. I wish I had my HVX, I would of liked to contribute.

Thanks for the review.

So Michael, you have been very proactive with a lot of these cameras.

Have you decided on one at this time?

I feel the same way about the JVC.

Just think, If the JVC didn't have SSE, I might be able to live with CA and its breathing knowing that If I could justify it , I could always get another lens.
I know the SSE is a lot better now.

I wish we could take the JVC resolving power and mesh it with HVX features with P2. That's what I want.

I am on the HVX200 preorder list counting the days.

Steve


We've shot for two days with the HD100 and only saw the SSE issue in an absolutely dark room where only a brass door knob was being lit.
Shot against shies, sunsets, fields of snow...no SSE.
I can say from a practical stand point (and we make our living making films and TV content) SSE is not an issue.
It would be nice if there were absolutely no instances, however practically speaking I have never shot a single scene above 3db of gain in my life.
Virtually everything is shot 0 gain (or -3 when shooting Canon)
Maybe for event stuff where the quality isn't critical and you need to allow for extreme lighting (lack of) circumstances it's a no go.
But if you light for film or TV or any professional situation or work in anything but extreme low light, then the fact that it is a remarkable 720p well built and ultimately tweakable camera with near varicam quality for $5k...well.
 
I'm in. I don't know what kind of footage I can donate, but we're trying to get both the HVX200 and the XLH1 this weekend coming (keeping our fingers crossed).

If there's any certain situation you want out of either camera, let me know; though I'm sure you can get what you need yourself. =P
 
i like the idea of a non chart test.. and would love to help but me and my hvx are double booked already this weekend. :(
 
Hey Jarred,

Exactly, I want to get away from simply shooting res charts, but actual footage of what we film. I don't mind Macbeth Color chart etc too, however real world is what's really needed.

What's awesome is your double booked Jarred, and your using the HVX200 as your tool. Good shooting bro!

I want to get Women, Men, Children etc in test frames for this. Seems odd to some, but believe it or not all subjects have different photographic reads. Older people with extreme facial skin age and the opposite where you have perfect skin all react different to how light interacts with those tactile surfaces.

Res charts are fine, and hell I was 16 in Panavision hanging with Don Earl of the 65mm film department learning about testing under critical environments and all that. Showscan spoiled my ass though. Holycrap 65mm at 60fps... I was 20 when I got to be a part of that and the HDTV tests done there in the ShowSacn labs. That has made me have a very critical eye, and I've had to learn how to temper that analytical eye at times or I would never be satisfied with anything.

However, real world testing should have been part of that 6 camera shoot. As well they should've had a DVX100 etc there... Why? Well, if we could have a frame from a SD cam to compare, most people would look how far we've come away from SD going HD on these small cams. You know, a reality check comparison, that's what a SD camera would have done at that test. GIve everyone of us some perspective on all this.....


PS: Jarred, How is the light Panel working out that you got at DVexpo? Those are so awesome, everyone should have them in their tool box.....

Jarred Land said:
i like the idea of a non chart test.. and would love to help but me and my hvx are double booked already this weekend. :(
 
Yeah, we're trying to rent them. If we can't rent from a house, we're going to rent Evin and his cam on Friday and do some tests and get the XLH1 from ... well... anywhere else as everyone seems to have THAT camera ready to go.

Wish me luck.
 
I just wanted to let you all know that we have started the first test scans of the film prints. This is more about tweaking the scan system etc. At first glance we sure see some differences here on more than one level. For one thing the H1 aliasing is there. hhmm, odd! The HVX looks good . The HD100, looking good too! The HD100 is the wildcard camera.... However this post is just a live update. Real scanning starts tomorrow....


Michael Pappas
Arrfilms@hotmail.com
PappasArts & Arrfilms Main site

CONTACT VIA AOL INSTANT MESSENGER
AT { PAPPASARTS2 }


XLH1 and HVX200 frame grabs and news here:
http://www.pbase.com/Arrfilms

http://www.PappasArts.com
http://www.Myspace.com/PappasArts
 
I wish you could to Stevet.

This is fun for me, a lot people get stressed over this stuff. One of my friends becomes a nut case in this kind of testing. Not me, I love doing testing. I find it fun especially when it gets to the scanning etc side of testing, and going over the data and actually seeing the results either on film or monitors. Now actual filmmaking, that's hardly ever fun, it's stressful as shiat to get results that remotely resemble what you had in your mind . This will be an ongoing project for a while. Lets hope we are supplied some very good frames to choose from to blow up on film...

Stevet said:
Wow!
Very cool. I wish I had my HVX, I would of liked to contribute.

Thanks for the review.

So Michael, you have been very proactive with a lot of these cameras.

Have you decided on one at this time?

I feel the same way about the JVC.

Just think, If the JVC didn't have SSE, I might be able to live with CA and its breathing knowing that If I could justify it , I could always get another lens.
I know the SSE is a lot better now.

I wish we could take the JVC resolving power and mesh it with HVX features with P2. That's what I want.

I am on the HVX200 preorder list counting the days.

Steve
 
PappasArts,

Let me see if I understand what you are doing. Does this sound about right: You have collected images from many of the under $10,000 cameras and you are transferring the footage to 35mm film to see how well the transfer looks?

If that's what you are doing, I have a few questions and look forward to what you find out...

1. Does the footage come from the in camera recording format (meaning HDV from the Canon and DVCPRO HD from the HVX)?

2. Is the footage you are using from the different cameras of the same subject (meaning: each camera shot the same thing under the same lighting)?

3. What is the process like? Does the footage need to be transferred to a HD format (tape) before it can be scanned and transferred to film? Are you just doing exported stills? What file format are the stills? Did you color correct the images before or during the transfer process?

4. You mentioned that the JVC looked really good, then the HVX200, then the Canon. This is interesting as a lot of people have posted that resolution is super important when doing a film transfer. This seems to go against your findings. I wonder why?

5. How will you judge the results? Will you be looking at the film on a big movie theater size screen?

Sorry if you answered the above questions earlier. I sometimes miss things. I appreciate you doing these tests and sharing the results. Most likely the movies I shoot would be distributed in HD DVD or projected digitally at a film festival. A film transfer would only be needed if I shoot something so good that it could be distributed in the movie theatre (I'm a dreamer), so I am interested in how well these cameras do when transferred to film.

Have you decided which camera you are going to buy? I know you've been conflicted. I am very interested in which camera you pick, as I know that you are one of the few who have seen images from all of the cameras. Keep us posted on which camera you go with and THANKS for eveything.

PS
I drink green tea now (thanks to you)!!!
 
Hey, I will respond to your other questions later, however I'm running out the door. The Green Tea statement caught my eye and I had to respond to it.

Very good, I'm glad to know your doing that. You body and mind will thank you.

Did you read my little pet project ongoing research paper on life exstention here:

http://www.pbase.com/paeheadshots2/pappasart_science_devision

Is that were you got that from?



<<<PS
I drink green tea now (thanks to you)!!!>>>
 
That's where I read it. Good stuff! I've had green tea in the past, but I never prepared it right until I read your report (my steeping time was not long enough -- it is now)!!! You gave my green tea its full impact. If green tea adds years to my life (or minutes or seconds), I have you to thank!
 
Hello PappasArts,

Thanks for doing this. But, I have a few questions.

First of all, what is this SSE? Is it Should Show Emotion? :-D

Second, what is your opinion with regards to shooting a feature film for theatrical release using the HVX? Do you think the JVC looks better than the HVX?

Look forward to hearing your opinions

All the best,

Fidel.
 
PappasArts said:
3. JVC HD100. This camera performs very good. Much closer to a Varicam than it is farther away. I would get this camera, however, and this is a BIG however. The SSE issue. Nadda , never. My luck I would see it in every shot. I was the one who discovered the very faint vertical lines on the XL1 back in Jan 98. People from Canon came from the east to have me show them, because they couldn't see it themselves. Once they saw, it was obvious. I would not want to go through that with the HD100. The warm up trick, don't like that either. That takes me back to my saticon three tube camera days of the 80's. Simple JVC, you need to fix the problem 100%.

To be fair if the HVX or the H1 had this SSE issue, people would be screaming for a court yard hanging. They would fix it too, whatever it took. So JVC doesn't get an out in my book for being JVC. Just IMHO....

Michael,

You're shooting with a camera that displays split screen? Take the camera over to JVC and have them adjust the split screen out of it. It's no big deal getting a camera adjustment and is worth it for such an incredible camera.

S.Noe
 
I don't have a HD100!

stephenlnoe said:
Michael,

You're shooting with a camera that displays split screen? Take the camera over to JVC and have them adjust the split screen out of it. It's no big deal getting a camera adjustment and is worth it for such an incredible camera.

S.Noe
 
Why didn't you like the results? What will you do differently in the second test? Ignore me if you plan on answerring these questions later after all of the testing is done. Good luck.
 
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