John Mitchell
July 21st, 2005, 11:16 PM
I have now had a chance to play with this camera (only for short time at trade show).
I'm not a pro cameraman so I can only give you my impressions as a director/editor and from the pro ENG cameras I've picked up and "used" over the years. (some of this info comes from a JVC sales rep who attended the beta shoot). So please excuse any terminology gaffes and I hope you can glean some useful info, although I would advise against buying any camera without testing it for yourself to see if it suits your purposes.
Ergonomics:
Professional shooters will like the setup of this camera with most controls exactly where you'd expect them. The lens on the front seems to be the biggest plus for this camera although the wide angle 13 x from Fujinon is going to cost more than a 140% of the camera and 16x included with kit (I don't know if that means it's superior in resolution or just priced high - I guess it's comparable to the higher end half inch lenses out there). As a shoulder mounted camera it's quite usable although because of the shorter length of this camera, the pivot point is further back and therefore the camera feels a little lens heavy (but lighter than a DigiBeta!) - the Anton BAuer battery pack option at the back would help balance this. The CRT (edit:according to specs only LCD) viewfinder is probably not quite as good as the Sony, but I had no trouble focussing quickly and easily and if I compare it to my PD100 (LCD viewfinder) it's streets ahead. I saw footage of the camera on location set up for a film style shoot on an Australian beach - and I saw a similar setup at the show with mattebox, what looked like a follow focus (not to sure of this - I've only seen the bigger wheels on 35mm cameras - this was sort of a white knob),Anton Bauer battery pack, radio mic receiver, zoom (fast slow) / rec start stop (normal stuff) on pan/tilt arm, and hd mounted on top of camera - this required a pretty decent tripod, but the settup looked well balanced. The camera was also mounted on a junior steadicam during the shoot but without the mattebox - I wasn't on the shoot so I can't comment on how that worked, and I'm unsure if any of the pics they had on display feature the steadicam stuff apart from some behind the scenes stuff of it in action. The lens has a macro although I didn't get to test it.
Low Light.
I haven't used the Sony HDV extensively but as far as low light goes I'd say they are on a par. I liked the fact that I could control the gain with a switch for 6db or 12db left hand side of body (when on shoulder) near the front of the camera (same posi as Betacam I think). It was typically indoors with a little daylight the area I tested and the camera held up OK with 0 gain, but wide open at a 60th. The one test I had on a Sony FX1 the camera seemed to automatically compensate for low light when I shut down the iris manually - I'm sure there's a way to turn this off but the Sony shop sales rep didn't know how. For me to compare properly I have to look at genuine available light footage shot at night compared to my PD100 and say a DSR300 (which I would expect to be better being a half inch cam)
Fast Action
Good news here I think - lots of shots of people running on the beach shot on a long lens at 720P30 and the images held up very well. I didn't see a single instance of judder or the codec falling over. Admittedly not a lot of camera head movement, but it looked smooth.
Picture Quality
Daylight - beach - very subjective - I'd compare it to 16mm rather than 35mm if we're looking at noise versus grain and the noise had an almost film like quality. The noise was most noticeable in the blue sky (but defintely not objectionable), but skintones and detail (like water splashes) held up very, very well (IMHO). According to the JVC rep who attended the shoot, this camera came straight of a plane to the shoot and was a beta unit. He thinks the noise floor of the camera will be even lower in the production models (not due for another 2 weeks and sold out). If I compare it to digibeta it has a much more film like quality, without the harshness and aliasing problems associated with the DCT codec (also no interlacing problems I guess). Shots of Deiter Brummer (Aussie actor) on beach in close up looked terrific, skin tone excellent. Lens quality looked v. good although I didn't see any test chart footage. Please note: although the camera was a beta unit, this was a reasonably high end production with a cast of about 15 and crew of about 40.
Night Internal boat: Well I'm not sure if they pumped in any additional light in here (were overhead lights on - not sure what kind) but it wasn't noisy. The image quality was quite nice. Where the actor's skin caught the light tended to create a hot spot on the image so there was no smooth gradation from shadow to highlight - still the image held up quite well. This effect may have been more the fault of the LCD monitor which can make these things look a lot worse. Overall the shot did look contrasty so there may be in camera ways around this. Once again I wouldn't say it was objectionable and the scene still retained it's film like quality.
Features: One excellent feature is the ability to save gamma curves and setups on to an SD card. You get access to not only separate R, G and B but to R,G and B phase (according to JVC rep - bit beyond me, but I'm sure some here will know exactly what that means). It also looked well matched to the Sony (they shot some behind the scenes and cut it all together in Pinnacle LE and seemed to intercut quite nicely with the real action although not on tripod) - note: it had top be rendered first as they are different codecs/frame sizes. Component Out: There seems to be confusion here even amongst the JVC reps at the show: according to the specs it can output everything up to 1080i (which is upscaled from 720P), and I still can't work out the product sheet which claims it'll output all this over HDMI as well but may be referring to the accompanying tape unit (although the table seems to belong to the camera?). It will output the HDV stream to the new Firestore but the one I saw at the show was mounted to the top of the camera rather than than the back, but this may change with the production model.
Pitfalls: This camera only takes the miniDV tape size which I think was shortsighted of JVC, so without a Firestore or similar you're limited to 63minutes before tape changes - although the camera would have been marginally longer with a larger tape shell it actually would have fit better on the shoulder and tape has it's advantages for storage. For wedding and event shooters (not me), I think it would have been a better option. It's also true that JVC don't have a great reputation for field reliability though I'm not sure that holds up with a camera in this price range.
Possible pitfall: Compared to the CRT used to display the video, the HD-LCD they had on display (not the same unit as mentioned previously) was ragged indeed with lots of macro blocking. I'm not a fan of LCD or Plasma screens as I see this on every screen (including upscaled DVD and HD broadcasts). But there may be a case for the inherent noise in the codec clashing with the processing of the LCD screen. I would like to see the images shot on my HD projector (HS-50) as I think it's a much cleaner image.
Conclusion: As an ENG or Indie filmmaking option this camera fits the bill quite nicely, with a very nice lens included as standard. It is priced very competitively and I think the concerns of sports shooters weren't born out by the footage I saw. I had a look at the production dummy of the DVx200A but I wonder who it's aimed at - although the Leica lens is nice, it doesn't have the same feel or features of the Fujinon. I guess with a micro35, some Prime lenses and the output to P2 card it may suit indie's, especially if the P2 cards get bigger in capacity as predicted. The camera reportedly will also shoot DVCPro25 and 50 as well as HD and on the P2 cards will supposedly shoot at variable frame rates (very nice). Still I come back to the limited lens and the clumsiness of focus and viewing options with adapters. Right now the Sonys and the JVC are the obvious choices and I think a lot of cameramen will go for the JVC just for the lens. Obviously there are other feature differences including codec, frame size recorded etc, manual switches (more on the JVC), but I suspect it is the lens that will sell most users on this camera.
I'm not a pro cameraman so I can only give you my impressions as a director/editor and from the pro ENG cameras I've picked up and "used" over the years. (some of this info comes from a JVC sales rep who attended the beta shoot). So please excuse any terminology gaffes and I hope you can glean some useful info, although I would advise against buying any camera without testing it for yourself to see if it suits your purposes.
Ergonomics:
Professional shooters will like the setup of this camera with most controls exactly where you'd expect them. The lens on the front seems to be the biggest plus for this camera although the wide angle 13 x from Fujinon is going to cost more than a 140% of the camera and 16x included with kit (I don't know if that means it's superior in resolution or just priced high - I guess it's comparable to the higher end half inch lenses out there). As a shoulder mounted camera it's quite usable although because of the shorter length of this camera, the pivot point is further back and therefore the camera feels a little lens heavy (but lighter than a DigiBeta!) - the Anton BAuer battery pack option at the back would help balance this. The CRT (edit:according to specs only LCD) viewfinder is probably not quite as good as the Sony, but I had no trouble focussing quickly and easily and if I compare it to my PD100 (LCD viewfinder) it's streets ahead. I saw footage of the camera on location set up for a film style shoot on an Australian beach - and I saw a similar setup at the show with mattebox, what looked like a follow focus (not to sure of this - I've only seen the bigger wheels on 35mm cameras - this was sort of a white knob),Anton Bauer battery pack, radio mic receiver, zoom (fast slow) / rec start stop (normal stuff) on pan/tilt arm, and hd mounted on top of camera - this required a pretty decent tripod, but the settup looked well balanced. The camera was also mounted on a junior steadicam during the shoot but without the mattebox - I wasn't on the shoot so I can't comment on how that worked, and I'm unsure if any of the pics they had on display feature the steadicam stuff apart from some behind the scenes stuff of it in action. The lens has a macro although I didn't get to test it.
Low Light.
I haven't used the Sony HDV extensively but as far as low light goes I'd say they are on a par. I liked the fact that I could control the gain with a switch for 6db or 12db left hand side of body (when on shoulder) near the front of the camera (same posi as Betacam I think). It was typically indoors with a little daylight the area I tested and the camera held up OK with 0 gain, but wide open at a 60th. The one test I had on a Sony FX1 the camera seemed to automatically compensate for low light when I shut down the iris manually - I'm sure there's a way to turn this off but the Sony shop sales rep didn't know how. For me to compare properly I have to look at genuine available light footage shot at night compared to my PD100 and say a DSR300 (which I would expect to be better being a half inch cam)
Fast Action
Good news here I think - lots of shots of people running on the beach shot on a long lens at 720P30 and the images held up very well. I didn't see a single instance of judder or the codec falling over. Admittedly not a lot of camera head movement, but it looked smooth.
Picture Quality
Daylight - beach - very subjective - I'd compare it to 16mm rather than 35mm if we're looking at noise versus grain and the noise had an almost film like quality. The noise was most noticeable in the blue sky (but defintely not objectionable), but skintones and detail (like water splashes) held up very, very well (IMHO). According to the JVC rep who attended the shoot, this camera came straight of a plane to the shoot and was a beta unit. He thinks the noise floor of the camera will be even lower in the production models (not due for another 2 weeks and sold out). If I compare it to digibeta it has a much more film like quality, without the harshness and aliasing problems associated with the DCT codec (also no interlacing problems I guess). Shots of Deiter Brummer (Aussie actor) on beach in close up looked terrific, skin tone excellent. Lens quality looked v. good although I didn't see any test chart footage. Please note: although the camera was a beta unit, this was a reasonably high end production with a cast of about 15 and crew of about 40.
Night Internal boat: Well I'm not sure if they pumped in any additional light in here (were overhead lights on - not sure what kind) but it wasn't noisy. The image quality was quite nice. Where the actor's skin caught the light tended to create a hot spot on the image so there was no smooth gradation from shadow to highlight - still the image held up quite well. This effect may have been more the fault of the LCD monitor which can make these things look a lot worse. Overall the shot did look contrasty so there may be in camera ways around this. Once again I wouldn't say it was objectionable and the scene still retained it's film like quality.
Features: One excellent feature is the ability to save gamma curves and setups on to an SD card. You get access to not only separate R, G and B but to R,G and B phase (according to JVC rep - bit beyond me, but I'm sure some here will know exactly what that means). It also looked well matched to the Sony (they shot some behind the scenes and cut it all together in Pinnacle LE and seemed to intercut quite nicely with the real action although not on tripod) - note: it had top be rendered first as they are different codecs/frame sizes. Component Out: There seems to be confusion here even amongst the JVC reps at the show: according to the specs it can output everything up to 1080i (which is upscaled from 720P), and I still can't work out the product sheet which claims it'll output all this over HDMI as well but may be referring to the accompanying tape unit (although the table seems to belong to the camera?). It will output the HDV stream to the new Firestore but the one I saw at the show was mounted to the top of the camera rather than than the back, but this may change with the production model.
Pitfalls: This camera only takes the miniDV tape size which I think was shortsighted of JVC, so without a Firestore or similar you're limited to 63minutes before tape changes - although the camera would have been marginally longer with a larger tape shell it actually would have fit better on the shoulder and tape has it's advantages for storage. For wedding and event shooters (not me), I think it would have been a better option. It's also true that JVC don't have a great reputation for field reliability though I'm not sure that holds up with a camera in this price range.
Possible pitfall: Compared to the CRT used to display the video, the HD-LCD they had on display (not the same unit as mentioned previously) was ragged indeed with lots of macro blocking. I'm not a fan of LCD or Plasma screens as I see this on every screen (including upscaled DVD and HD broadcasts). But there may be a case for the inherent noise in the codec clashing with the processing of the LCD screen. I would like to see the images shot on my HD projector (HS-50) as I think it's a much cleaner image.
Conclusion: As an ENG or Indie filmmaking option this camera fits the bill quite nicely, with a very nice lens included as standard. It is priced very competitively and I think the concerns of sports shooters weren't born out by the footage I saw. I had a look at the production dummy of the DVx200A but I wonder who it's aimed at - although the Leica lens is nice, it doesn't have the same feel or features of the Fujinon. I guess with a micro35, some Prime lenses and the output to P2 card it may suit indie's, especially if the P2 cards get bigger in capacity as predicted. The camera reportedly will also shoot DVCPro25 and 50 as well as HD and on the P2 cards will supposedly shoot at variable frame rates (very nice). Still I come back to the limited lens and the clumsiness of focus and viewing options with adapters. Right now the Sonys and the JVC are the obvious choices and I think a lot of cameramen will go for the JVC just for the lens. Obviously there are other feature differences including codec, frame size recorded etc, manual switches (more on the JVC), but I suspect it is the lens that will sell most users on this camera.