JVC GY-HM170 Studio and Green Screen Test

[Jeff Pulera]

Problem solved - I'm getting a GY-HM200U demo unit for next week (my employer has access to a JVC distributor).

I'll certainly do a bunch of low-light testing and will post results.

Thank you everyone for all your feedback thus far.

Jeff Pulera

[Jeff Pulera]

Preliminary low light tests in our semi-darkened office are not promising at all. Images attached. The issues I'd read about with the iris closing down as you zoom in are demonstrated in the pics. Shuts right down to a black image! Note the exposure setting at lower right. Top two images are at 0dB, lowers at 12dB gain. All shot in 1080i60 mode.

Thanks

Jeff

[Alex Humphrey]

How are people liking their HM170/200's? I don't see that JVC has released a Log file for them like they have for the LS300, though I expect I could get something close in the manual settings if the HM170/200 menu is in anyway similar to the older ProHD 100/200 HDV cameras.

I have the JVC LS300 and I think it's pretty good for me for the next couple of years in 4K for internet, (smart tv viewers and some day 4K blu ray when that becomes a reality for self burning) and pretty darn good for 2K BluRay etc. Was looking at events and my cine lenses would be cumbersome for a live event, but the price of a HM170 is about the price as 1 or 2 of cine lenses. How are people liking or not liking them?

IF I was to get a 170/200 I would drop sharpness to min or off, black stretch 2 or something and put an aggressive knee setting, and pick a color matrix similar to what my J-Log in my JVC LS300 is to make my post work fairly consistent.

Has anyone done any work that with these cameras?

Thanks for any feedback.

[Roger Van Duyn]

I bought two JVC GY-HM170 cameras late in November to replace a pair of Canons ( XH-A1S and older XH-A1) in use for several years. What a bargain since the prices dropped!

I really like the two JVC's. So far I've done a couple of depositions, a medical exam, board meetings, and even a wedding. Hadn't done one of those in a long while. Haven't had a weddings page on my site for more than two years now.

The same tricks that worked with the older Canons work with the JVC's. That is, shoot manual. Learn the camera. Low light is better than the Canons were. The Histogram is helpful so I programmed a button for it....

The only time I've needed additional lighting was dancing during the reception. A small LED light on camera worked well.

The 170's will be perfectly adequate for the jobs I do, mostly legal videography, a little corporate. I haven't even had a wedding page on my site for a couple of years now, so weddings are extremely rare now, if ever for me...

[David Stembridge]

How do these handle performance lighting? I'm considering 2 of them with a switcher.

[David Stembridge]

Originally Posted by Roger Van Duyn

I bought two JVC GY-HM170 cameras late in November to replace a pair of Canons ( XH-A1S and older XH-A1) in use for several years. What a bargain since the prices dropped!

Do you have any samples of some of the work you've done online? I am seriously considering a couple of these as well, and currently have 2 XHA1s cameras!

[Jeff Zimmerman]

Your Canon XHA1's will be just as good in low-light. Jvc need a lot of light and have a odd color profile, your Canons will have better color. The only thing that might be a benefit to you is 4K. For just a little more money checkout Canon XA30 or Sony x70. If I could go back I would have chose the Sony x70, exceptional image and low-light abilities.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Originally Posted by David Stembridge

Do you have any samples of some of the work you've done online? I am seriously considering a couple of these as well, and currently have 2 XHA1s cameras!

Hi David,

Most of my work is depositions, medical exams, and light corporate. The cameras work great for me doing those kinds of jobs. But you asked in an earlier post about stage lighting. I've only shot one project using the JVCs under those conditions, at least so far as I remember. It was a graduation for a local high school that had rather harsh stage lighting. My primary concern was avoiding over exposing the faces. One time using my dslr (for video), I got some terrible results in that auditorium. Here's the link:

YouTube (Short URL)

Now, fair warning, I used the cc editor in avid to tweak the footage, like I did in the past with the canons. Little tweaks. That's all.

I'd shot other jobs in the same auditorium in the past using the two canons. There was a negligible difference in how the two cameras handled the lighting. Of course, I shot manual with both sets of cameras. Used the zebras as best I could with canons and with jvcs.

However, one big advantage the JVCs have is the histogram. But I don't use it on the main camera because I have an external monitor for it with it's own histograms etc. Built in.

Hope this helps.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Originally Posted by Jeff Zimmerman

Your Canon XHA1's will be just as good in low-light. Jvc need a lot of light and have a odd color profile, your Canons will have better color. The only thing that might be a benefit to you is 4K. For just a little more money checkout Canon XA30 or Sony x70. If I could go back I would have chose the Sony x70, exceptional image and low-light abilities.

Not sure what you mean about odd color profile. Maybe the jvcs are a touch flatter. But, though I checked out various user color profiles for the canons when I first got them, I just preferred to shoot flat and then tweak the color in post. Shooting flat in both, not much difference to me.

If use Auto WB, the jvc results tend to be crap. Much worse than the canon auto wb, which I practically never used anyway.

With manual white balance, in my experience colors are just as accurate from the little jvc cameras as my older canons. For both my canons and the newer jvcs, I've often just used the temperature presets. And you can set the color temps in jvc like you can in the canons, if you want to dive into the menus. But I don't have a temperature meter anyway. Just my old eyeballs that are getting older.

The only thing I might miss from the old canons is the 20x zoom if I were still doing much sports, or maybe wildlife. Also liked the wide angle adapter that I still have. Weighs several pounds and gave a great image. Haven't found anything like that for the jvcs yet.

[David Stembridge]

Originally Posted by Roger Van Duyn

I've only shot one project using the JVCs under those conditions, at least so far as I remember. It was a graduation for a local high school that had rather harsh stage lighting. My primary concern was avoiding over exposing the faces. One time using my dslr (for video), I got some terrible results in that auditorium. Here's the link...

Thanks Roger,

Do you find yourself shooting 4k and downscaling to full HD for posting online? How was that graduation shot?

Thanks again!
David

[David Stembridge]

Originally Posted by Jeff Zimmerman

Your Canon XHA1's will be just as good in low-light. Jvc need a lot of light and have a odd color profile, your Canons will have better color. The only thing that might be a benefit to you is 4K. For just a little more money checkout Canon XA30 or Sony x70. If I could go back I would have chose the Sony x70, exceptional image and low-light abilities.

The issue with the HDV cams is that firewire is rather buggy, and recordings sometimes randomly stop. Since there's no SDI or HDMI output, I need something that records internally and something to run into a switcher.

I've been looking at the canon XA- models; but only plan on using these for roughly one more season, because changing careers and moving to eastern Europe to work with an NGO. I figure 4k cameras may sell a little easier. We tried a XA25 last year via Canon CPS. My wife really liked it.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Originally Posted by David Stembridge

Thanks Roger,

Do you find yourself shooting 4k and downscaling to full HD for posting online? How was that graduation shot?

Thanks again!
David

I'm still shooting in HD. No client demand for 4K in my area, yet. Most of my work is depositions and medical exams for law firms and court reporting agencies. I'll probably be retired before they move to 4K. About half the time they want DVDs.

Will need to upgrade NLE and computer to comfortably edit 4K footage.

The commencement video was shot 1080i on AVCHD (.mts) This format works better than .mov in my workflow.

[David Stembridge]

Thanks, I have imported some 4k footage as proxy, and edited via FCPx; but haven't shot enough to really find a good flow. I have heard that shooting in 4k and downscaling to full HD looks much nicer than just shooting at full HD. Still considering all my options. Biggest thing is getting something that we will be able to resell in a little over a year.

[Alex Humphrey]

I have the JVC LS300 and shoot 4K all the time, edit in FCPX (not current version) using J-LOG and Color Finale plug in and edit in 4K delivery to 1080p 24fps BluRay and looks solid. very fast and easy using a USB3 SSD for scratch drive.. though just got a G-Technology G speed studio Raid 5 on sale at BH for $799. with 2T of footage on it still getting 520MB/s on it. So fast enough to edit 2.5K RAW off of BMCC.

oh and BH and Adorama have the 170 on sale for $995. I'm thinking of picking one up and making it a B camera for my LS300.