Christmas and HD Cams

[Ben Prusia]

For any Sony fans, 5 new HD camcorders were announced during the CES in Las Vegas:

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_r...camcorders/high_definition/release/32355.html

Are these camcorders the 1080i variant or the actual 1080p?

 

[Caleb Lawrence]

A note on shooting 24p, you have to be careful with "strobing". 24p mimics the effect of film, and includes the drawbacks of it. If you move the camera too much, your results may be unsatisfactory. It's why when movies are filmed, careful time and consideration are put into panning and swooping shots so it's all smooth and perfect.

It may not be the best choice of jiggling handheld storm footage.

I have the Panasonic DVX100A - the king of the the first 24p cameras.

 

[James Harris]

I't looks like the HV20 seems to be the chaser's choice for an HD camera however I still have worries about rolling shutter with lightning footage. If anyone has footage of lightning (in particular a CG strike) captured from a HV20 I would be interested to see how the rolling shutter performs.

The HV30 (the HV20's replacement) has also just been announced by Canon as well as a plethora of other camcorders for 2008. Details of the HV30 here with the other new camcorders here

 

[Bill Tabor]

That said, here are the links.

I checked out your wmv footage Donald - very pretty. The camera seems to do a nice detailed job with clouds. It's still tough to tell on low light though.

Also I saw one of these in Best Buy yesterday and was checking it out. I switched between standard and 24p mode and I see what you mean about the slight stutter. You are right though not nearly as bad as progressive on a vx2000. If you move the camera fairly slow it should be ok generally.

I couldn't get the camera out of Auto mode though. Isn't there a manual mode where it won't focus unless you use the manual dial or the focus button? How do you get it into that mode?

Thanks for subbing some footage. Maybe you should post to Youtube like others.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Those solid state camcorders (new) sound interesting. They record right to 16gb memory cards. That is fast memory - much faster than tape or hard drive. Seems that would make editing and encoding much quicker, and less cumbersome for HD.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Well I received my HV20 today but have not had to much time to mess with it. I did watch the JumpStart DVD that came with it though and this unit does even have some of the features pro-cams have.

I will do some low light shooting over the weekend and post them here although I am sure due to the web file compressions the quality will lack. We will see.

The real test comes in a few months ;}

BTW B&H has them for $679 FREE SHIPPING

Mick

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

Well I received my HV20 today but have not had to much time to mess with it. I did watch the JumpStart DVD that came with it though and this unit does even have some of the features pro-cams have.

I will do some low light shooting over the weekend and post them here although I am sure due to the web file compressions the quality will lack. We will see.

The real test comes in a few months ;}

BTW B&H has them for $679 FREE SHIPPING

Mick

The price has gone down $200 in just 2 months, now I wish I would have waited longer. I took my HV20 down to the OKC bombing memorial in Nov one evening to test it out and I finally figured how to get the video from HD to DV last night so I will try and post mine as well. Even when the video has been converted down it still looks way better than my what my old Canon Elura70 could do.

 

[Bill Hark]

The price has gone down $200 in just 2 months, now I wish I would have waited longer. I took my HV20 down to the OKC bombing memorial in Nov one evening to test it out and I finally figured how to get the video from HD to DV last night so I will try and post mine as well. Even when the video has been converted down it still looks way better than my what my old Canon Elura70 could do.

I think the price has dropped because there is an HV30 that will soon come out if not already available. I don't know if any of the improvements will affect what we need as chasers.
http://www.ces-show.com/0131/canon/camcorder/hv30/

Bill Hark

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

Here is video I made of the OKC National Memorial in November one night just after I got my HV20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0mingevEMo

 

[Mickey Ptak]

I shot a quick low light shoot, which was comparable to a low light storm environment, this morning and I am VERY impressed. No I am EXTREMELY impressed. I don't think any chaser will have problems with the HV20 in a a low lit storm environment until you get to the point of having no light at all. I will try and post the 15sec clip this evening but it will be compressed and will not serve as much justice to the true quality.

For now you will have to take my word for it but you will not be disappointed in the HV20's quality. It produces a fantastic picture even on SD TVs. Matter of fact I showed some test footage to Rob Satkus and Shane Adams the other day and I was very surprised at Shane’s reaction to the quality. He does not get excited about things like that but he sure did on this one. Now he wants on himself, I was really shocked.

Must have and worth the low $700

Mick

 

[Shane Adams]

I showed some test footage to Rob Satkus and Shane Adams the other day and I was very surprised at Shane’s reaction to the quality. He does not get excited about things like that but he sure did on this one. Now he wants on himself, I was really shocked.Must have and worth the low $700

That last line sold me. I'm appreciative of "top" quality video, but IMO it's not worth a $2500 price hike from what I'm shooting now. The difference isn't that impressive to justify the cost IMO. Now, you give me a noticeable improvement in quality like the HV20 demonstrated last weekend for $700, and you bet your life I'm upgrading. It won't be this year but in 2009, and I could care less that this technology won't be state-of-the-art in 2009. I'm about what I like for the right price, not spending a fortune to have the "cutting edge" label selling point.

It's nice to finally see a top-notch format (IMO) designed for the little guy.