The s200.

S

Snapper123

Well-known member
Hey guys, I was wondering if you'd have any advice for me. I'm shooting a feature length film that I plan on submitting to fairly high end film festivals and also securing a good dvd release (even Lionsgate distributes the occasional extremely low budget film - 'Mobile Home Massacre' anyone?)

Now, my film itself has a somewhat gritty and low budget beauty to it, and look-wise, any consumer camera seems to replicate a perfect image for what I'm going for. It is not a 'hand-held' movie, though, like Paranormal. But the main problem that comes in is the fact of blowing this image up to theater screen/film festival screen proportions on a digital projector. A dvd release probably would not be a problem, but since film festivals are essential in this process - even a rare indie theater distribution - theater screens are a step I'm very concerned about.

I mainly concerned about the pixelation, colors, noise, ect ect that a image shot on the S200 would have when blown up to mega proportions on a theater's digital projector. The projectors seem to be pretty powerful, but there still must be alot of stretching and blowing up involved. I'm strictly talking about the s200 btw, this camera does not have some of the problems like interlaced format, and it's image quality seems heads above any other consumer camcorder out there (cept of coarse, some of the other Vixias).

Could anyone help me with this issue and explain if it would be possible to shoot my film on this specific camera?
 
Why do you need to shoot on a consumer camera to get a consumer look? If you can get a better camera then use that, and degrade the footage however you needed to in post. Deliberately handicapping yourself will just make shooting harder than it needs to be.
 
Oh nah I didn't mean I'm exactly trying for a camcorder look, it's actually a budget/body size/simplicity thing.
 
Well, when it comes down to it you can shoot a film with anything. If this camera is all you have then by all means. It's probably not the best way to do it since you'll have to deal with all the technical limitations. Definitely get a better camera if one is available.
 
That's really what I'm wondering, what are some of the technical limitations of using this camera for filming a movie that would be blown up to big proportions, shown on digital projectors only (not converting to film)? Are there technical limitations concerning things like the camera's sensor attributes, codecs, information bits ect ect that limit the quality of an image when blown up to extremely large proportions, or would this camera be fairly above those issues you hear about?

Here's a list of specs, if that helps:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...TechSpecsTabAct&fcategoryid=177&modelid=19829
 
I'm not talking so much about image quality. I'm talking about the lack of features. Want professional audio and phantom power? You'll have to use a separate recorder for that. Want full manual control over iris, shutterspeed, gain and ND? What about a proper focus and iris ring instead of a jog wheel for everything? Really it's these things that are going to make or break you in production, and contributes enormously to how the resulting images are going to come out.
 
If the Vixia HF S200 is not an option for the big(-ish) screen, what would be the official next step up that would truly cover what I need?

I can only spend 1K, so I'm not sure if the message is that I'd be better off buying a 720P camera that has extreme manual controls or...? Are there any models around this price that truly are recommended?
 
Hey guys, after looking around a bit, and just reading some more, I feel like
the panasonic hdc-tm700k has a few points over the vixia. It seems to record in native 60p (I'm cautious about if this is true progressive and not any sort of mess) and it seems to have less priority modes, meaning more is manual. It also has a neat lens focus ring, and seems all around a good camera.

Does anyone know if the 60P thing is truly true for this camera? Also, I know of a HD brand that only outputs to 1440x1080 despite the false advertising, not sure if it's panasonic, but again, someone please tell me from experience if there's any negatives to this specific camera.
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