What camera would be a good mate for the HD100?

[Bill Edmunds]

My only issue with the JVC HD100 is that, unless you buy a second HD100, there really isn't anything out there to match with it. It's 720p, while the Z1U is 1080i.
I use Final Cut and if you mix 720p and 1080i in the same timeline, you have to render everything from at least one of the cams. The forthcoming Panasonic is 720p, but only on a P2 card -- which is useless to me anyways.

Any solutions? I'd love a second cam that's 720p and the size of a Z1U.

[Robert Shuster]

I've had that though myself and I keep coming back to my JVC JY-HD10U. While not 24p, I believe I could use Graham Nattress' or AfterEffects/RevisionFX/Twixter frame rate converter to do the pull down. Or that's what I hope. In an upcoming feature, I intend to use a couple of HD100's and a HD10 for the underwater portion as I already have the enclosure(s). I don't think a HD100 enclosure is in current existance. The new Panasonic 200 might be a good choice but like the HD100, I won't know until I try them.

[Steve Gibby]

The solution for my company is to buy two HD100's and use them as a camera A/Camera B, two camera crew. The A camera will have every accessory possible, but the B camera will be more lightly accessorized. Obviously a lot more expense, but then again, a perfect match. If you only have the funds to buy one, it's inexpensive to rent a second HD100 on an "as needed" basis, when you have project budgets that justify the rental expense. When those projects bring you enough funds to buy the second HD100, do it. The cameras have setup cards that will allow you to exactly match the setup in both cameras. If you edit in FCP 5, you can edit 720p30 natively, but you must use the Lumiere plugin to edit 720p24 HDV - an oversight by Apple in FCP 5 that should be corrected soon. I don't know what you shoot, but if it is two-camera events, FCP 5 provides for on the fly cutting between multiple cameras, and if your cameras are set up to match perfectly, the posting process is greatly simplified.

I also own a Z1, and given the need to match HD100 and Z1 footage, perhaps the easiest way would be to shoot the HD100 in 720p30 with motion smoothing filter applied to minimize judder, output the 720p30 from the HD100 as 1080i via Firewire to FCP, do color correction matching of the HD100 1080i and Z1 1080i, and post your piece in 1080i, rather than 720p. Since nobody has been able to follow that workflow yet, we don't know how feasable it is and how the end product would look. On paper it should work ... on the monitor remains to be seen.

[Barry Green]

output the 720p30 from the HD100 as 1080i via Firewire to FCP

I'm 99% sure that wouldn't work. I believe only 720p comes out the firewire of the HD100, and that 1080i is available only on the analog outputs. Do you know otherwise?

[Steve Gibby]

I don't believe JVC has confirmed that one way or another on 1080i output, only that the camera will do in-camera conversion from 720p to 1080i. JVC has an good track record of manufacturing small conversion boxes for broadcast applications - Goodyear blimp/Monday Night Football, etc. They didn't have to re-invent the wheel to place the conversion technology into the HD100. It makes no sense to have in-camera conversion from 720p to 1080i, and have it only available from the analog outputs. Perhaps you're right, but it sure would give increased utility to the camera to have it output via Firewire. On the other thread from Tim Young, about testing the HD100 in London today, I just included a request to test the camera for it's 1080i output capabilities.

[Steve Gibby]

In checking further, through the new JVC HD100 brochure, and via an online search, it seems Barry is right on no output of 1080i via Firewire on the HD100. Bummer! As I read the brochure, 1080i can be converted in-camera from all frame rates that the camera records to tape, and output via analog component and HDMI. So the workaround for posting combined Z1 and HD100 footage together would be to take the HD100's analog component 1080i output through a Deck Link, AJA, or Miranda box into your NLE, color correct and match the Z1 1080i and HD100 1080i, and then edit. A positive factor is that 720p converts to 1080i nicely, as opposed to 1080i conversion to 720p. In some NLE's it should be easy to convert HDV 1080i to DVCProHD 1080i or HDCAM 1080i for easier editing and compositing. HDCAM 1080i mastering would make good sense for HDTV airing on certain channels (HDNet, CBS, etc.).

[Thomas Smet]

As much as I personally don't like the SONY HD cameras they did create a good option for this sort of thing of having one nice camera and then a second cheaper camera. They are really trying to cement 1080i as "The" HD format.

I have been putting a huge amount of thought into this problem as well since I have been planning on either getting a HD100 or HVX200. Sometimes I think I might get both but then using the HVX200 for a long 2 camera shoot might be a little bit tougher. Having both of these cameras however would kind of give me more options in terms of quality production.

One suggestion I came up with would be to buy a HD100 and continue to do DV for event type of work. This means you could use your current DV camera or get a cheaper 3 chip DV camera. It would be better to have a DV camera that could do a native 16x9 of course. This option gives you a nice new shoulder mount camera with the option of shooting HD for bigger projects.

Another option would be to buy the SONY HC1, deinterlace or shoot in CF30 if it has it and just scale and edit the footage in a 720p project with the 720p footage from your HD100. I do not know how well this would work out until I can actually compare footage from the two cameras. Deinterlacing would give you the same 30p look and other than a few tiny aliasing artifacts would kind of look like 720p footage. In terms of color, detail, sharpness, grain and whatever else who knows at this point how it would look. I woulld think however that using an older 1 chip JVC Hd camera wouldn't really look much better.

You could also just buy one camera for now and hope Canon or JV will come out with a cheaper consumer HDV camera to match the HC1 from SONY.


At least in the past we never had to worry about formats and methods of recording and editing. DV was DV. Now we have HDV 720p, HDV 1080i, and HD on P2 cards using DVCpro HD codecs. It has now become very difficult to shoot once again because everybody will be using a different format. As a production company we will have to have equipment to handle all 3 formats. Even though the SONY and JVC decks can play the opposite formats unless you have an uncompressed HD system you will not be able to do anything with it.

If you plan on using 24p well then you really only have 2 options for true 24p HD without having to convert and interpolate. The HD100 and the HVX200. The only other option for 24p would be to get a DVX100a or Canon XL2 and mix that footage with the HD footage. The second camera might be softer but would have the same framerate and be easier to edit. Of course by the time you get one of those you might as well just spend a few more bucks and get two HD100's