JVC GY-HMZ1U ProHD 3D Camcorder

[David M. Cole]

Anyone tried it yet? It's in stock at B&H for $1795!!!!

[Tim Dashwood]

I've had a review unit for a few weeks and it definitely has a lot of great features for the price. My favourite is the timelapse intervalometer. It has full manual control of WB, aperture, shutter and convergence and the interaxial separation is 34mm.
The cons are that there is no +48V phantom power supplied by the audio unit and ergonomically it maintains the consumer form-factor of the TD1.

I am preparing a full comparison review of the Panasonic 3DA1, Sony NX3D and JVC HMZ1 for DV Info Net.

[Craig Yanagi]

We will have it on display, along with all of our 3D offerings, at the CCW / HD World show tomorrow and Thursday, October 12th and 13th at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center, NYC.

Hope to see you all there...

- Craig

[Chad Dyle]

I have had it for about two weeks now and I'm not sure about it. I have split the images using the JVC utility, but they look a little "muddy". I've been using more prosumer cameras recently and I'm having a bit of trouble digging through menus.
I shot some footage yesterday in the early afternoon when we took the kids to a pumpkin patch. The footage looks a little grainy and I'm not sure if its something I'm doing or not. I'll be playing around with it more this week to hopefully figure things out.

-Chad Dyle

[Tim Dashwood]

Try turning the gain function off completely in the menu. I also found that in the late afternoon it would sometimes kick in unexpectedly and cause noise that wasn't visible until the footage was reviewed.

[Prech Marton]

Chad, please share some native, 3D footage with us!
I'm very interested in this camcorder.
Thank you.

[Chad Dyle]

Tim,

I think I have the camera figured out and I just purchased your plug-in. So far things have been great and Stereo3D Toolbox LE is going to be a huge time saver. One quick question regarding editing though, should I trim the clips before running them through your plug-in or afterwards? I tried doing it afterwards and things go out of sync. Are there any tutorials on this?

Thanks!

[Chad Dyle]

I still seem to be having some issues with this camera. I used it last weekend at the pumpkin patch with the kids and noticed that the video quality wasn't that sharp. I went through the menu and made sure the gain was off auto and did some more shooting this weekend. I'm still not happy with the results. I used it earlier today with some family photography and when I looked over the footage, I found that it still wasn't as sharp as it could be. We use more Prosumer cameras and DSLR's, but my 3 year old Canon HFS100 (and older cameras) are way sharper. This is a quick run through of the settings (all manual):

Scene Select: Off
Focus: Auto
Brightness Adjust: Manual
Shutter Speed: Auto
Aperture Priority: Manual (I keep it at 1.2)
White Balance: Auto
Backlight Comp: Off
Zebra: Off
Cineme: Off
Touch Focus: Off
AIS: On
Gain Up: Off
Wind Cut: Off
Grid: Off
System Select: 24P

I have uploaded one of the clips as both L/R videos and the original. If anyone has a clue as to why this is happening, I would appreciate it any ideas/thoughts.

You can grab the archive at http://www.chaddyleproductions.com/t.../3D/3DTest.zip

Thanks,

Chad Dyle
Dyle Films - Wedding/Event Videography

[Tim Dashwood]

I haven't looked at your clip yet but I can tell you that if you are relying on the auto focus while locking the aperture at F1.2 you are shortening the DoF and making it very difficult for the AF to choose the proper focus. I personally either put the camera into auto everything (shutter/aperture and focus) or manual everything. Focus is easy to set if you use the Focus Assist function. I have had great results so far in the centre of the image but I tend to keep the aperture at F4 when shooting manually. I have found that the lenses start to become soft near the left and right edges sometimes. I haven't quite figured it out yet.

[Chad Dyle]

F4 seems to be pretty dark on this camera. I'll give it another try this week. I know that it isn't going to replace any of my current wedding cameras and I'm sure within 3 years they will be better in low-light than any of the other consumer cameras we have today.
If you do get the chance to look at one of the clips, let me know if you think that is the problem. I'll work on the focus as well.

Thanks again,

Chad Dyle

[Joseph Clark]

How goes the review, Tim? I'm ready to upgrade to the HMZ1 from the JVC GS-TD1 and I'd appreciate any insights. I have the Cyclopital3D stereo base extender for my TD1, and I love it for many of the shots in my current project. The one thing I miss most with the TD1 is a 24p shooting mode.

[Prech Marton]

Yes, how goes the review, Tim?

I don't know why can be the image grainy?
It has back illuminated sensors, F1.2 lenses, etc.
I thinked, this cannot produce bad images!

Chad: i cannot download your file. Anyone else has some raw footage?
thx

[David M. Cole]

Anyone have any insight into the new Panasonic HDC-Z10000 ?

I'm using the Sony HXR-NX3D1 constantly now. It's a real work-horse, especially underwater. What the Sony leaves me wanting, however, is a wider angle lens, better low-light performance (it's VERY noisily in low light), and manual white-balance. Maybe the new Panny will, at least, improve over the Sony low-light performance and offer manual white-balance.

[Joseph Clark]

From a brief report from a friend, the Panny may not be any better than the Sony (and maybe worse) in low light. He thinks it looks great in good light, and it has a full range of manual controls. He says it spanks both the Sony and JVC consumer 3D camcorders. No surprise there.

[Bruce Schultz]

Originally Posted by Joseph Clark

From a brief report from a friend, the Panny may not be any better than the Sony (and maybe worse) in low light. He thinks it looks great in good light, and it has a full range of manual controls. He says it spanks both the Sony and JVC consumer 3D camcorders. No surprise there.

Are these anectodal subjective reports or is this backed up in any way with comparisons using resolution trumpets and other objective and definable difference methodologies?

I for one, having owned several of these devices have done some rough (not rigid) testing and have found that there is a wide variance of performance between all of these cameras depending on whether they are tested under exterior or interior, low light, high highlight etc conditions. Since I did these tests for my own knowledge base, I haven't saved any of them, but they have colored my decisions on which camera(s) to use for differing situations.

Just to be a fanboy of one or another of the Big 3 manufacturers isn't enough to qualify a camera as "better than" or "equal to" - it takes a bit more effort than just viewing footage on a monitor.

If there is some test data that can be shared that bears out this response, I for one would like to see it.