and yes... I would marry it.

I had a really busy day yesterday plus I felt compelled to actually READ the instructions for this camera (with so many features and new technology) before even turning it on. Anyway, I got the chance to power it up last night just in time to shoot some lightning over downtown Fort Worth around 9 or so, and have to say the HVX and P2's were worth every penny. I had shot lightning before with my XL2 (twenty to twenty-five flashes or so) and could only see a couple of the MAJOR bolts. Last night this camera captured every single flash and it was so cool to just be able to play it back instantly without having to rewind, etc. and then just go back to shooting again.

Lightning footage?! Can you post some clips? I'd be really interested to see that...

Congrats on the camera,

Matt,

Thanks for asking. I would, BUT two things here -
1) I deleted it. (on purpose BTW)
2) I am a COMPLETE NOVICE at shooting. There's been such great footage shown by other members like Kaku, Steev, Kevin Railsback (wolves footage), Rick Darge (Long Drive to Cameraland), etc. that anything I do will just fail in comparison.

I'll continue to learn this thing as quick as I can and will happily post footage once I feel that I'm shooting stuff that others would enjoy looking at.

On another note, we've had a really nice crystal clear day here in Fort Worth since the cold front and rain moved through last night so I've been outside with the camera and just can't believe the vibrant colors this HVX records - BLUE skies, RED cars, GREEN grass. Actually, the level of color saturation of all the footage I've seen on line ever since Kaku first postd was the main reason I bought the camera. And it's exceeded my expectations. Nice job Panasonic.

I've just got so much learning to do.

One thing I don't like - Panasonic's instruction manual. Word up, Barry... how's your book coming? Did I just say "word up?" Jezz, I must be in a really good mood!

Matt, since we're just getting into March here in DFW, if this season is like all the other springs, we'll see a bunch of storms roll through here. I've got a good view of downtown Fort Worth, so I'll try my hardest to improve my shooting skills so I can take some good footage in the next T storm that I can post. The best storms are the ones that come through at dusk. They tend to have the most colors and just plain scarry lighting. Maybe I can catch one of those.

Don't feel intimidated by any of the other footage posted here. I would have loved to see the lightning footage. Doesn't matter to me if there's telephone poles in the way or if you're thumbs in the picture. I haven't had any lightning here and I would love to see how the camera handled it.

Heck, I've seen footage posted that I think blows my wolf footage away. It's incredible what some people have done with this camera already.
But this shouldn't be an enviornment where you feel that your footage has to be at a certain level before you can post it.

I want to know what settings you used for the lightning so when storms roll into my neck of the woods I'll be ready.

I learned back when I was doing wildlife still photography that no matter how good you are, there is someone above you that's even better. So, I just put my stuff out there. If you like it fine, if not that's ok too.

Thanks Kevin,

Appreciate that. I'll try to post some footage sooner than later. I guess my biggest hesitation was a fear that people would blame terrible shots on the camera and not the shooter (me). I'm very new to video and I'm still learning how to shoot and what all of the settings mean. Not just for the HVX, but just in general. I only used my first camera - an XL2 - that I got back in June of 2005 (which was sold in January) for around 10 hours or so. And now this is my first time with this camera so I just didn't want the HVX to get the blame for any of my inexperience with shooting and lack of having it set correctly for optimal footage.

That's some serious toys for a beginer. CAN I BE YOUR FRIEEEEND?

I thought I would take a few photos of the HVX LCD screen so you could see what it looks like while you transfer from the P2 Card (while it's in the HVX) directly to a Hard Disk -

http://www.thisis24p.com/nowcopying1.html
http://www.thisis24p.com/nowcopying2.html
http://www.thisis24p.com/g-drive.html

Sorry about the second one being a little blurry. I guess my Canon ELPH does not like it's new cousin and was trying to spite me.

is that HDD just a standalone drive and NOT connected to a PC?? Is teh HVX controlling all apsects of the file structure within the HDD??

Im just curious coz if this is in fact the case, then we might be saved when working long form.

15 minutes later -

Man, once I put Panasonic's manual aside and started looking at the instructions from Apple my world got a whole lot easier. For any of you new to this (just like I am now), I'd highly advise downloading that Apple white paper and following their instructions. Whoever wrote it did a great job if a novice like me can follow through.

After I transferred the files to the G-Drive Q and turned the HVX off and unplugged the fire wire from it, and then plugged the firewire from the G-Drive Q to the G5 (using the SATA connection), I started on page 10 of the Apple whitepaper with #6.

After I copied the files from the G-Drive Q to the Desktop Folder I created. I opened up FCP and continued to follow their instructions. They were right on. The only error I made was a small one. Instead of copying all the first time I just copied one file. I did a screen capture during this process so you could see. The .mov that you see in the FCP viewer is the single movie I accidentally copied first. Here's that link -

http://www.thisis24p.com/importingP2.html

By the way, I'm just doing this post for fun and to try to help those folks out there who might have the same kind of questions I did when getting started. The shot in the background happened to be on one that was a little blurred by camera movement.

is that HDD just a standalone drive and NOT connected to a PC?? Is teh HVX controlling all apsects of the file structure within the HDD??

Im just curious coz if this is in fact the case, then we might be saved when working long form.Peter,

Good question. Yes, the HDD was just a standalone drive and NOT connected to the Mac. I ran the FireWire straight from the HVX to the G-Drive Q. The only other thing that was plugged in at the time was the G-Drive Q to the wall outlet for power. And yes, the HVX was controlling the HDD.

After I finished transferring the footage I simply:
1) Turned the HVX off (as instructed in PANASONIC's manual on pg. 84, step #8)
2) Unplugged the FireWire from the HVX.
3) Turned the G-Drive Q off.
4) Plugged the SATA cable into the back of the G-Drive Q from the G5
5) Turned the G-Drive on and it appeared on my desktop just as it looks in the picture on page 10 of the Apple whitepaper.

Anyone can correct the term "transferring," that I used above or any other term I don't use correctly without hurting my feelings. I'd like for us all to be on the same page with the correct HVX/Apple terms here.

So yes. You could just have the HDD with you on a shoot.

Anyone else feel free to ask any questions as well. Thanks.

Well, all the footage imported seamlessly into FCP and I could not be happier with how easy it is to work, edit and export on my G5. There were no unpleasant surprises, no crashes, no error messages, no workarounds. It was all good.

Here's just a simple still of the Kimbell Art Museum -

http://www.thisis24p.com/kimbell.html

It was taken in 720/24pn mode, which is probably what I will be doing the majority of my shooting in.
I resized it to 640 x 360 and used photoshop saving it "for the web" as a PNG-24. Ahh, and no color correcting was done or anything like that.

Thats exactly what i wanted to hear.. Basically now, all i wait for is the 16gb P2 cards and i can shoot half an hour alotments on each card and transfer the footage from each card in between scenes as i move from place to place...

Now i look to the dozen or so HDD's im gonna need and a decent windows based NLE which can handle DVCPRoHD100... hmmmmmmmmmm

Nice blue sky! That's what I've been seeing pretty repeatably when someone isn't shooting too high of a contrasted scene, and the sky shots are looking gorgeous.

Congrats on finally getting the camera. Doesn't the waiting seem long ago now? :)

Thanks Steev, and yes I've completely forgot about the waiting now. Another thing that is nice to have out of the way was my being able to go shoot some stuff this afternoon, come back to the home office, and do the simple steps I detailed above and have footage. I'd been reading how easy it was in this forum, but now that I've actually gone through the entire workflow, there's no longer any wondering. So now I can just get back to concentrating on learning what all these features do and how to compose nice shots with correct settings and proper lighting. I'll rest well tonight! Especially since the HVX did all of what I shot with "out of the box" settings.

Regarding the lightning shots, one of the features the HVX has is a programmable record-ahead buffer. For subjects like lightning that must be an awesome feature: shoot nothing until lightning strikes, then hit "record"!

This buffer is probably one of the biggest features which other cameras of this class don't have. Sure beats rolling lots of blank tape trying to capture an unpredictable event.

Dean,

Thanks. Yes, great thinking. I'm sure I'll try that out next time and will probably use it before then as well. I remember reading several of your post before the HVX was available and can really see how something like that would be especially useful for you as well. It's funny that you mentioned it, because just the other day (before I even got the camera) I was thinking that that was not a feature I had been seeing to many mention or comment on lately.

On another note for anyone following this from above:
One other detail that may help any of you avoid an unpleasant surprise when connecting the G-Drive Q (or any other drive with a SATA connection) to your G5. You will need:
1) 2-port Serial ATA PCI Card (to insert into the back of the G5)
2) SATA 2m Cable

When I ordered this drive from Guy at DVeStore, he knew right off the top of his head that I would need this stuff and told me. I sure would have hated to not have had that stuff yesterday and been unpleasantly surprised when I went to hook the G-Drive Q to the back of the G5 and not have found the place to plug it in!

Sorry for continuing a little off topic, but if I understand you correctly you are connecting the G-Drive directly to the HVX to transfer the data from your P2 and the camera controls the drive? If so does the camera format the drive?

Hello Chuck,

Not off topic at all. Yes, the P2's were in the HVX. The HVX was connected directly to the G-Drive Q, and the G-Drive Q HDD was not connected to anything else (except the power supply from the wall outlet).

On formatting - Yes, If I understand the instructions correctly on page 84, step #5 (summarized here) -

Only when the hard disk is not formatted:
Select Format HDD.
Then select YES.
Formatting now starts.

Then #6 with -
When formatting is complete select Copy to HDD

and so on.

It worked for me, and I was pretty happy about it. Although I REALLY want a 17" PowerBook, I will probably not purchase or use a laptop (for now) if shooting away from my home studio and will probably just carry two of these 250GB G-Drive Q's with me.