The death knell for real?

F

fx8

New member
Hi there,

its really a great board here.

I often read that the 500 is going for end of life. Somehow I cant believe it and against all views i´m interested in buy one.

To get the right capacity impressions of this work animal i dug up the Youtubes and Vimeos. The most i found were samples in small and blurred solutions. Many guys complain about the missing highend sharpness and till now i have to agree with that.

The only one i found is the 1280x720 version of http://www.vimeo.com/9372510 and it looks really nice and clean. But if you compare with AF100 or any DSLR ... !?

Is there a chance that anybody knows a great highend shot?

Kind regards
Alex
 
Pfffft 500 has a long way to go. Its a great unit which can fit just about any shooting situation - its extremely flexible. Ask anyone that has ever used one.

The only reason I sold mine is that I wanted something smaller/lighter and the situations where I needed a full size eng style camera just dont exist for me anymore.
 
Here are some HD links to HPX500 footage I have shot. To watch in HD, you must go to vimeo and view them on there, they will only play in SD on here.


 
Noel Evans said:
Pfffft 500 has a long way to go. Its a great unit which can fit just about any shooting situation - its extremely flexible. Ask anyone that has ever used one.

The only reason I sold mine is that I wanted something smaller/lighter and the situations where I needed a full size eng style camera just dont exist for me anymore.
Click to expand...

+1. I did love my 500's, I personally just didn't have enough work to justify keeping them and my style is definitely more 5DmkII.

Hey Tomas, what ever happened to the low light film you did with the girls..... :))) That may be a good one to show him capabilities...
 
Hey Kit,

wow, you remember that shot :) well, acutally, the movie was never released, but i think i have that shot in my home HDD player, i could upload it somehwere.

Fx8, are you interested? it's a shot of two girls sitting in a bath, where the only light available was 8 or so candles around them :)
 
I've owned the HPX500 since its release and it has never failed me -- extremely versatile, low light, rugged, nice picture, etc.

You can build a solid business around this camera for a long time to come. -m
 
I still love my HPX500. I don't work on films. So, most of my clents want 16:9 SD for DVD distribution. The 500 has very low noise at lower light levels. I also have a Canon 5D II. Great for moving shots in airplane cabins with a steadicam. I also have a smaller hand-held camera for live streaming work. But the 500 is my big money maker. Having a large camera is important for the high-end clients that I shoot for. Though that may change in the future.

The 500 annd GrassValley Edius is a dream match.

JohnnyD
 
Yep, i shoot 720p if final material needed SD. Though i have to tell, i tried shooting DV, and it looks fantastic, not talking DVCPRO 50. As for HD, of course, it's not true HD camera, but if you shoot 1080 and make final project 720, it's fantastic!
 
I've been making my living as an independent filmmaker for 40 years, making mostly documentaries and commercials. I don't shoot weddings and I don't "provide production services". I currently have a 500 and a 200 (not a "200a"), and I even still like the 200 despite the badmouthing it seems to get around here these days.

The 500 is a terrific camera - albeit bad viewfinder (I upgraded to the 16x9, still not great) and a little too heavy considering it doesn't have a tape drive. But, bottom line, great pictures - and that "long in the tooth" (quote from Barry Green) DVCPRO HD codec is stable, looks more like film than any of the AVC stuff I've seen (I'm entitled to my opinion) and is a breeze to edit with.

The chips have been criticized to death since day one - but when you consider the reality that over 90% of what's being shot with these things is going to end up - at very best - on BluRay or broadcast HD, the resolution is more than adequate. I've also seen several comments that the DVCPRO HD file sizes are too big. Well, when you can get 1TB drives for under a $100 that hardly seems like an issue. Plus I really like the P2 cards, and I've invested over $5,000 in them, so moving to a non-P2 camera and getting rid of my 500 is not going to happen soon.

Being an old film guy, I like DOF too, but with the long end of a 2/3" lens at T4 or 2.8 you can get a nice selective focus without sacrificing the convenience of longer depth of field at the wide end or more stopped down.

I might get an AF100, I might not. But basically DOF's a marketing ploy (similar to Panasonic's 2007 assertion that P2 cards are a long term investment that will be useable in all their future pro cameras) - marketing is all about creating a need in order to sell a product - it's been happening to kids at Christmas for over half a century.

It's the Emperor's new clothes all over again.
 
Forgot to add... The 500 killer will not (I don't think) be the AF 100 - it will be the HPX 3100. That is in all probability going to be my next major purchase... It is in the same ballpark but has many improvements.
 
Mac said:
Forgot to add... The 500 killer will not (I don't think) be the AF 100 - it will be the HPX 3100. That is in all probability going to be my next major purchase... It is in the same ballpark but has many improvements.
Click to expand...

Well for size and functionality, it is similar to any large ENG camera. On paper, that thing looks awesome. But have they shipped yet? Because there is very little buzz about it so it seems.
 
I know, I'm surprised because it was supposed to ship in October - I fear the AF100 mania may have jumped in the way.. As I understand it, it's lighter and lower profile than the 500 - only shoots 1080 though, and I've kinda grown fond of 720... The release "street"price was announced at 20 grand (sans lens of course), so it's up there but not bad...
 
The 3100 is finally up on the Panasonic website. It really looks like a sweet camera:

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webap...83653&catGroupId=34401&surfModel=AJ-HPX3100GJ

Not sure if it's gonna be a 500 killer, but it's certainly a 3000 killer. I'd love to trade my 500 in for one, but it won't come close to paying for a 3100. I want 1920 x 1080 full raster chips! Heck, I'm considering selling my 500 for a 370, a Canon XF300 or a Sony EX1R/3. I want high resolution.
 
They must be thinking about an HPX600 as they need to compete with the 350 and 500 from sony as both have been approved for use by the BBC!
 
Yep just to add the same as really! I mean at what point is its image 'obsolete' to viewers lol. Its about one of thee most affordable if not the most ENG 2/3 shoulder cams shooting on HD and a decent codec to boot.

The more you shoot, the more you realise just how unimportant and 'fadish' new technology is - so get what you like, what produces the image you actually like and have fun!
 
You are exactly right... as I said, it's really all about marketing. The "resolution quest" is for what? DVD? BluRay? Broadcast? Baby's birthday?.. I don't get it. I've got the best 60" TV I could find, and the stuff I've shot with the 500 at 720/24pn looks fantastic. In fact, shows that I (and others) shot letterbox ten years ago with a Sony DSR300 and download in HD from NetFlix look pretty damn good too. Some techonphiles may quibble, but the image is more than good enough to support the the story, which is, after all, the point.

I realize that nature and wildlife filmmakers have stringent guidelines from the cables - some very arbitrary guidelines as a matter of fact - but those film producers are a small percentage of the population.

In my case I like to use light diffusion (ie 1/4 ProMist or 1/4 SoftFX) to take the edge off what I think is already too sharp an image... "resolution" for resolution's sake can be distracting.
 
Yep I know, the hype is hilarious, in fact I suggest you all watch the movie Suicide Circle - not only is it more innovative and original than 99% of the indie emulative stuff we see on the scene! (see most dvx fests muhahaha ;) but its also all about hype and especially 'fads.'

Well marketing is all about SELLING fads. If they can convince you to bust your balls to buy the latest thang based on some irrelevant fact (such as the zombie feature making $500 budgeted indie worrying about a silver grade from Discovery HD) or having more mega pixels than what a cat's eyeball can see in a supermarket full of tuna... yes a cat. Then of course they will.

1080 is an HD standard that along with 720 lookds great in peoples televisions, and so still can SD! It actually CAN and it always could!!! Of course we'll be told we need 4k televisions with 3d viewings and probably electronic bum toys but lets face it... the more you shoot - the more you can smell that BS on the toy!

I mean thats putting it nicely!
 
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