Trying to match RED EPIC footage, GH2 or HPX-170?

MatthewC

MatthewC

Well-known member
Hey folks,

So I've been shooting my web-series pilot on RED EPICS. Now we have some small minor insert shots and some stunts running down an alleyway. I have a Panasonic GH2 and HPX-170. We are shooting pretty guerilla in this back alley, to match stuff we shot before. It's daytime material.

Now, for quick moving/chase shots it seems the HPX-170 will be better for handheld and quick movement. The GH2 obviously has a rolling shutter which makes it not so good for the faster pieces.
In terms of being able to cut this with my RED EPIC footage and COLOR CORRECT to match, am I better off with the GH2 or the HPX-170? I'm very curious what you folks think will be best.
 
I haven't shot on an EPIC yet but I think that there would be a bigger difference when viewing the HPX footage next to the EPICs footage. The HPX resolves around 650 lines whereas the GH2 is around 900 if I'm not mistaken. If I was in your place I would much rather cut the GH2 footage next to the EPICs footage then the HPXs footage.
 
If I recall, the 170 has 4:2:2 color space, which would be better than gh2. But as the above poster stated, the gh2 resolves more detail. Thats tough. But I think your gonna be better off with using ccd's, and 4;2;2, and do some post sharpening to try to get it to look closer to epic. As where you have both, try a little test. It may be worth it in the end.
 
On a short film I worked on my GH2 cut very seamlessly with the Epic on exterior shots. In 2010 we shot a big-budget short and flew an HPX-170 in a large heli for aerial footage. Wasn't even close to the same level of the Red One footage we cut with. The resolution looked like crap when it was intermixed with the Red.
 
Chris Adler said:
The resolution looked like crap when it was intermixed with the Red.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought as well. I've been shooting with the HPX for app. 3 years and I know that the resolution would be the biggest factor in this scenario.

As for the 4:2:2 of the HPX vs the 4:2:0 of the GH2: the HPX uses 960x560 chips and then pixel shifts to get somewhere in the ball park of HD. As far as I understand it this
pixel shifting really doesn't do much in regards of uping the original chroma resolution. So I'm guessing that the GH2 with it's 4:2:0 subsampling still has more chroma res than the HPX with it's 4:2:2. The HPX does however use a 3 chip block whereas the GH2 uses a single sensor - bayer. And a camera that uses 2 chips has more chroma res by it's design, but I guess that this doesn't matter really that much in this case.
 
We've got all three of those cameras and the GH2 will survive better than the HPX170 under most viewing situations.
 
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